Gestational Diabetes

Today my doctor called me and said that I have gestational diabetes. He has put me on a diabetic diet and an exercise regimen of walking at least 4 times a week for at least 20 minutes at a time.

I don't feel too overwhelmed because last summer, before I found out I was pregnant, I lost 27 pounds in 3 months by exercising, counting calories, and eating healthy. When I found out I was pregnant I decided not to be as strict with myself and stopped measuring out my food. I have a good idea of how many calories is in what since I was doing that daily.

So now I'm back to measuring my food, counting calories (my Dr. told me to eat 2,000 calories a day) and this time around counting carbs. Carbs are not evil for diabetics, but they do have to be monitored. I think I can have 15 carbs for snacks and about 50 carbs for each meal. From what I understand so far, a lot of it has to do with portion control. Not too much is off limits (well eating a piece of chocolate cake probably is!), it's just monitoring how much of whatever it is that I can eat at one time. Since I'm just starting off, it might take me a little while to get it right. I'll be taking my blood sugar to see what works for me and what doesn't since everyone is different.

I hope this is just a pregnant thing and not something that I will have for life. In the meantime I am going to look at this as a blessing and see it as a motivator to live the healthy life that I want to live anyway. God is in control and I am thanking Him through this. I'm so glad to have a supportive friend through this as well. She is so very encouraging and knows so much about diabetes having gone through/going through it herself. I'm going to the hospital tomorrow to pick up some info on gestational diabetes and hopefully it will be informative enough for me to know what I need to do since my Dr. wasn't much help. Also, I have another glucose test next Wednesday or Thursday to see how my body does just being on this diet and walking four times a week. If my blood sugar is still high I will have to start giving myself insulin shots everyday. I hope I can monitor it with my diet. We'll just see how this goes!