In order to keep fit, I was also eating healthfully. Soon, people were asking me about my nutrition, too. Before I knew it, I was spending endless hours writing meal plans to help others transform their lives. Seeing the fruits of their success reminded me of something that I learned at my assisted-living facility—the menu is always number one! It’s always easier to follow a healthy meal plan if the menus include variety and taste. The fruits of those years of labor are now here in your hands, the Ultimate Diabetes Meal Planner.
Diabetes ABCs (and Ds)
The content of this manual is based on what worked for me in getting my diabetes under control, but I also think it’s important to keep in mind the Diabetes ABCs.
A is for A1C. This test measures your average blood glucose levels over the previous three months. You should have an A1C test regularly.
B is for Blood Pressure. Diabetes and high blood pressure (hypertension) often go hand in hand. High blood pressure can lead to kidney damage, heart attacks, and stroke.
C is for Cholesterol. There are two kinds of cholesterol you’ll want to watch: LDL (or bad) cholesterol and HDL (or good) cholesterol. LDL cholesterol can build up and clog your blood vessels, leading to heart attacks and stroke. HDL cholesterol can remove other cholesterol from your blood vessels.
It is important to keep these care goals in mind and to speak with your health care providers about where to set your goals. However, my own experiences taught me that many diabetes self-care problems revolved around the plate. By eating healthfully and exercising regularly, I began bringing health into my life. You can, too! It was my goal of following a nutritious diet and getting regular exercise that changed my diabetes story into a life-abetes success journey.
That’s why I like to add another letter to these ABCs: D for Diet. The Ultimate Diabetes Meal Planner should give you most of the information and guidance you need to bring healthful meals into the lives of you and your loved ones.
Even better, if you’ve picked up this book, you’re already on your way there. Remember these ABCs, and know that by following the D for Diet, you can begin to make all of those other building blocks of strong diabetes self-care fall into place. It’ll take work and a lot of time, but you have a long life in front of you to enjoy.
Living life-abetes,
Jaynie Higgins, A.C./C.P.T.
Being diagnosed with diabetes does not mean your life is over or even that your entire life will be radically different. The diagnosis is a wake-up call that from now on you may need to make some lifestyle changes, such as eating healthy foods and being physically active. You may need to watch what you eat, how much you eat, and when you eat. And really, all of us need to do that.
This book has been designed to make eating much simpler for people with diabetes. The menus are designed so that everyone in your family eats the same meal. Each meal has different calorie levels, but the menus are the same, so the only difference for people at the table is how much food they’re getting, depending on their daily calorie allowance.
There are thousands and thousands of food choices and an equal number of diet books promising quick fixes and making questionable claims about the miraculous power of following their diets…this book isn’t one of them. This book is all about helping you make the right choices in the foods that you eat and is based solely on the established principles of healthy nutrition.
Despite all the books on diets, we remain a society that is undernourished and overweight. Obviously, the quick fixes and unrealistic promises are not working, so let’s get back to the tried-and-true basics. This book is not about trying to follow a “diet” of only grapefruit or cabbage or some other food or food group while excluding all of the other food groups. It is unrealistic to think people could follow such a diet for a lifetime and still enjoy themselves. We need all the varieties of the food groups to live well, and we should enjoy eating.
One of the main themes of this book is that “live foods” (grains, fruits, and vegetables) are very good for you. All of the scientific research shows us that plant-based foods and whole grains should be the foundation of a healthy diet. The great thing is that all three of these are low in calories and dense in nutrients. They pack a wallop nutritionally without adding a lot of calories or fat.
There are two ways in which you can approach using the Ultimate Diabetes Meal Planner. After following the menu plans, you can simply start over again or you can strike out on your own because you may feel more comfortable making your own healthy food choices. You will likely begin to recognize what a healthy serving size is and how it fits into a sensible meal plan. And, if you feel that you need more work, you can easily go back and reference the meal plans in this book.
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
The Ultimate Diabetes Meal Planner has been designed to take the heavy lifting of meal planning out of your hands and to give you some help in bringing a healthy meal plan to your lifestyle. For that purpose, there are 16 weeks of meal plans.
Step 1: Meet with Your Health Care Team
Before you begin anything that will affect your diabetes self-care routine, you should meet with your health care providers and tell them that you are planning on using the meal plans contained in this book. Ask them how many calories you should be eating daily and whether this is a good approach for you to take. Your health care team should include a registered dietitian (or RD); if not, now is the time to ask your primary care physician or diabetes educator for a referral to a dietitian with experience in diabetes. An RD is an expert in nutrition who can help you create a healthy and safe meal plan.
Find out if it will be safe for you to begin following the healthy meal plans included in this book and if there are any specific foods or activities that you should avoid. For example, some people with diabetes will have to eat more snacks than others and people with high blood pressure may need to reduce their sodium intake. If these apply to you, you can still use the meal plans contained in the Ultimate Diabetes Meal Planner, but you’ll need to use a little more care in choosing your recipes. Some people can’t drink milk or eat dairy products; if this applies to you, you may have to use soy products or something else. For those with special dietary needs, the expertise of an RD will be very helpful.
Step 2: Choose a Calorie Level
During the meeting with your health care team, you should ask how many calories you should be eating per day. The meal plans in the Ultimate Diabetes Meal Planner fall into four daily calorie levels: 1,500, 1,800, 2,000, and 2,200 calories per day. Find out which of these levels will work best for your health needs.
The meal plans in this book have been developed with a keen eye toward carbohydrate intake and also use the exchange list/food choices system, so if your dietitian or educator suggests that you use these methods of meal planning, you can still use the Ultimate Diabetes Meal Planner. You’ll find complete nutrition and exchange list information for each individual serving of a recipe on that recipe’s page. In some cases, you may have to adjust the daily meal plans; however, in most cases, you’ll find that the plans in this book will meet the needs of most people with diabetes.
Planning Snacks
You will notice that each daily meal plan comes with a number of snacks, labeled A and B. For most people, the A snack will be eaten during the middle of the day and the B snack will be eaten before bedtime. You’ll also see that the 1,500-calorie plan doesn’t include snacks, whereas the 2,200-calorie plan consists of the biggest snacks. It is important that you discuss with your health care team how many snacks you should be having every day and when you