Brenda Blogs About . . .: GD Diet Update

Now that I’ve been on the gestational diabetes meal plan for almost a month, I figured I would give you an update on how it’s going and give you a little more specifics on what all it entails. I’ve been surprised to learn that a lot of people think the GD diet is low-carb or non-carb. It’s absolutely not that. In fact, a big part of the meal plan is ensuring that I eat some carb, some protein and some fat in each sitting. As I’ve said previously, the diet is really not that bad. Other than breakfast, it’s kind of the way I like to eat anyway.

Here are the specifics given to me by my doctor (I’m sure other doctors do it differently, so if your doctor says something different, follow those directions:

1. Breakfast: 2 starch, 2 protein, 1 fat (no milk, no fruit)

a. Favorite breakfast so far: breakfast burrito

i. 1 whole wheat tortilla

ii. 1 egg

iii. 1 oz cheese

iv. Salsa

v. Sometimes I’ll add spinach or chopped bell pepper too

2. Snack #1: 1 starch, 1 protein, 1 fat, 1 milk

a. Favorite morning snack: Balance Bar & a glass of milk

3. Lunch: 2 starch, 3 protein, 1 vegetable (or more), 1 fruit, 1 milk, 1 fat

a. Favorite lunch: Mediterranean chicken wrap:

i. 1 whole wheat tortilla

ii. 3 oz grilled chicken

iii. 1 tbsp hummus

iv. Spinach, lettuce, cucumbers tomatoes

v. Glass of milk or 6 oz yogurt

vi. 1 cup strawberries

4. Snack #2: 1 starch, 1 protein, 1 fat, 1 fruit

a. Favorite afternoon snack: 1 oz goat cheese, 1 serving Triscuits, 1 apple

5. Dinner: 2 starch, 4 protein, 1 vegetable (or more), 1 fat, 1 milk (optional)

a. Favorite dinner:

i. 4 oz grilled chicken

ii. 1 cup veggies (zucchini, kale or broccoli, usually)

iii. 2/3 cup rice

iv. 1 tsp butter

6. Bedtime snack: 1 protein, 1 starch, 1 fat, 1 milk

a. Favorite bedtime snack: ¼ cup cottage cheese, with 1 piece of buttered toast & a glass of milk.

One of the hardest parts of the meal plan is taking the extra 10-15 minutes each morning to pack my lunch plus two snacks. I really should start packing my lunch before bed time, but I just can’t quite seem to ever make myself gather up the energy at the end of the night. I am very glad that I already owned a food scale so that I can always measure out exactly how many ounces of each type of food I’m supposed to be eating. The one big downside to this meal plan is that it is definitely more expensive than my typical diet due to all the extra protein (i.e. meat) that I have to purchase. One way I’ve always been able to keep household grocery costs down all these years is by cooking vegetarian meals at least half the time. While I’m sure that a vegetarian could figure out how to make this meal plan work for them, based on the paperwork they gave me, it seems I would end up eating an awful lot of tofu. I like tofu and all, but I don’t think I could handle that much of it! Oh well, only about a month and half left to go!

Here are some pictures of typical meals I've been eating.