How To Manage Your Gestational Diabetes || What My Provider Didn't Tell Me

As your resident mom that has had Gestational Diabetes for 3 pregnancies thus far, I want to share my practical tips and trick that worked for me to help manage my blood sugars through the third trimester. 

These are actual practical things you can do that none of my providers were able to help me with, not because they didn't care, but because it's really hard to know what works to control GDM with diet and exercise if you have never actually been through it. 

So, to start... I get it... managing GDM is down-right draining, time consuming and gets old so dang fast. My heart truly goes out to type 1 diabetics, because every time I have GDM I'm reminder how much it consumes everyday of your life.  

Also as a side note, these worked for me, but they may not for you! The important thing is to not get frustrated and overwhelmed, just do your best! It should also be noted that this is NOT official medical advice, but rather what I have found to work for me. Always consult with a professional, (I am NOT a professional just sharing what I do!)

With that in mind, here are my quick tricks and tips. 

1. The best snack for in-between meals to help manage my blood sugars was Trail mix. This works really well for me because it takes me zero preparation and is always readily available, so no matter how busy my day/week is, it is really easy to have bags of trail mix on hand. Trail mix has the perfect blend of protein and sugar that helps me to maintain my sugar without going too high or too low. And, if lunch or dinner is delayed for some reason (toddlers, park days, naps, travel etc...), I will just have a small handful to tide me over to prevent my sugar level from spiking. The mental tax of always having to have between meal snacks can be a lot to manage and having a go to protein snack that needs zero refrigeration/preparation is a huge help for me.
2. Don't actually fast through the entire night. If your morning numbers are elevated above the 90-95 threshold your provider recommends (I personally use 95), you can try a small protein snack during the middle of the night to help reduce your morning sugar level. Most pregnant moms naturally are waking up multiple times during the night to pee in the middle of the night, so I use this as an opportunity to have a handful of trail-mix and a glass of water during the middle of the night to help maintain my blood sugar. Fasting through the entire night isn't actually necessary, and it is "legal" to eat during the middle of the night to help minimize the sugar spikes that come in the morning. I literally didn't know this until my third pregnancy, so this was a big game changer for me. 
3. Go for a quick 10-15 minute walk right after any meal that has slightly more carbs and sugars than normal. A quick walk right after meals really helps to keep your post meal fasting numbers at night. 
4. Eat your high protein portion of the meal first and follow it up with the carbs. For example... If you have a meal of steak, carrots and potatoes, eat a few bites of steak before eating any potatoes. Having some protein in your stomach before the easy to digest carbs helps lower the sugar spike you have. This "hack" has been such a huge help for me with meals. If you are having a meal without an easy protein starter, having a handful of nuts (or other high protein sub) is a great way to get your stomach started on something that takes longer to digest. 
5. Remove all calorie filled beverages (milks, juices, pops etc...) and drink water! You might be able to get away with a small, and I mean very small, sugar filled beverage occasionally, but this is one of the easiest ways you can reduce sugar spikes. Calorie filled beverages like juice and pop is literally the easiest way to land yourself in the insulin injection party, so do your best to just avoid this all together. The first two weeks are the hardest, but after that it gets easy. If you're really struggling, I recommend replacing the sugar drinks with flavored carbonated waters to help reduce the cravings. 
6. Drink a glass of water first thing after waking up. Note that if you have elevated morning sugar levels, you can drink a full glass of water right after you wake up, wait 5-10mins, then test your blood sugar. Water helps to reduce sugar levels. 
7. If you're planning on having a snack after a meal, eat your small snack right after dinner or lunch. Don't wait 10 mins, make sure to eat it right after the meal because it's best to eat your snack right away to help reduce the sugar spike from the dessert. Having a full glass of water with your dessert helps as well. 
8. Sour dough bread > all other bread. I have noticed that for meals that I eat bread, sour dough bread has the lowest sugar spike out of all the other lighter, fluffier breads. And if you're a nerd like me, read this for more detail on why sour dough bread is better for moms with GDM than other breads. 
9. When in doubt, less carbs and more protein. This might seem obvious, but it is the easiest way to approach a meal. It seems nearly impossible to track every single carb you have for each meal, so if your sugars are high, make sure to have less carbs the next time. However, I don't recommend going straight protein, because I did this for one meal during my third pregnancy and ended up with a sugar crash. This was not fun, I suddenly felt like I was sweating and about to faint, then I check my sugar levels and sure enough I was under 65 and realized that I ate "too healthy" for that meal. All that is to say that usually most of us struggle with limiting carb intake, but it is still important to make sure you at least have a little and don't go cold turkey.

Hope my few tips and tricks help, and if you've had GDM and have anymore tips and tricks, please write them in the comment section below! Sharing is caring, as the best tips I have received are from my fellow GDM mom friends and my sister with type 1 diabetes! 

XXX Jessie