GD Diet - How To Survive

A few times I have wished I had blogged more about what I ate while on the Gestational Diabetes diet. So, instead of just answering Anns directly via email, I thought I'd post my suggestions here. Who knows, maybe people will benefit from the knowledge and will not find themselves stuck at home at midnight crying over what to eat like I did...

If you remember, I looked and looked for ideas online, and didn't really find anything, so I posted a few times about it, and I got some great suggestions (thank you guys!!!) That got me through a few more days of eating and then I went to a GREAT nutritionist here in Atlanta - Rachel Brandeis, MS, RD.

Rachel is a nationally recognized registered dietician. She is extremely good at meal planning for her clients - she takes into account your own food preferences and custom creates meal ideas on the fly. She is amazing and well worth her hourly rate!!! I don't know if she does her work via phone or not, but if you are in the Southeast and need nutritional counseling I would certainly recommend her.

Below is a list of things my nutritionist recommended mixed with the things I came up with on my own. Remember, this list is suitable for my taste buds and time to cook (aka none), so it isn't an exhaustive list, but should give you a start on ideas.

Note I used the following brand-specific products:
- Nature's Own 100% Whole Wheat bread for all my sandwiches
- Eggo whole wheat waffels (there are 3 flavors to choose from, all good)
- Skippy "Natural" peanut butter because it is lowest in sugar, you could get it from a whole foods store and get even less sugar
- Zesta whole wheat crackers
- CarbSmart ice cream bars
- Thomas whole wheat english muffins or mini-bagels
- Weight Watcher's Yogurt - I liked the flavor and consistency better than some of the others and it seemed to be the lowest in carbs.
- Nilla Wafers - they are the best tasting in my opinion and trust me taste counts for a LOT on this GD diet.


Breakfast:

- whole wheat english muffin w/ cheese or peanut butter and small amt fresh or frozen fruit on side.

- whole wheat english muffin w/ canadian bacon and eggs

- Yogurt w/ chopped nuts (or could use low fat plain or vanilla yogurt)

- 2 Eggo whole wheat waffles w/ peanut butter and flaked coconut (better than it sounds)

- whole wheat english muffin w/ marinara sauce and mozzerella w/ turkey pepperoni

- Fresh fruit w/ bag of toasted almonds

- Weight Watcher's whole wheat tortilla w/ cheese and luncheon meat - microwave meat well! Side of fresh fruit

- Quaker low sugar instant oatmeal w/ serving of nuts mixed in.

- Grilled cheese sandwich (mix it up w/ the kinds of cheese you use)

- Whole wheat bread, Bacon, egg - sandwhich (use pre-cooked bacon to speed up)

Lunch / Dinner:

For dinners I would only cook 2 or 3 times per week. I would make 1 meal and

either serve leftovers next night or freeze them and serve next week.

- Homemade Chili (will be glad to share the recipe)- 1 bowl w/ Zesta whole wheat crackers

- Homemade pizza (will be glad to share the recipe, everyone loves it) - keep it to 2 small slices

- Stirfry (buy frozen pre-mixed veggies) w/ soy sauce, peanut, or thai sauce - throw in some pre-cooked chicken or beaf to add protien.

- Most casseroles are fine, just watch the portion size!!! Double or add veggies to get vegetables in for the day.

- Any pasta dish will work (spagehtti, alfredo, etc), just keep the serving size to 1 cup. Add steamed/micro'ed vegies to ALL pasta sauces - frozen broccoli is the BEST for doing this quickly.

- South Beach Diet meal kits are PERFECT for the GD diet and include jello for dessert!

Dinner Out:

Most of your ethnic foods are still OK to eat (except maybe Italian). You will need to skip appetizers and dessert though, which is hard.

- Indian - Chicken Tikka Masala (go light on the sauce) or Tandoori Chicken are great, just skip the naan and cut down to 1/4 to 1/3 cup rice. (skipping the naan is hard to do, but worth it to have great food!!!) Add a veggie side dish that isn't made using a cream sauce (aloo gobi is a goo choice).

- Chinese - Beef w/ veggies or chicken w/ veggies dishes are great, just get white rice, not fried, and cut the amt rice to 1/3 cup.

- Thai - most of their dishes are served seperate from the rice and are high in veggies. Keep the rice to 1/4 to 1/3 cup. Massman curry, garlic chicken or Lettuce wraps are great for this diet. Skip the coconut soup, or make it your meal.

- American - I LOVED going out for a steak as a treat - I'd simply choose a smaller, better cut of meat and non-starch veggies with a SMALL baked potato.

- Meal on the go - Zone Perfect bars, protien bars


Snacks:

- 1 serving Nilla wafers w/ peanut butter and cream cheese

- 1 serving Nilla wafers w/ Weight Watcher's yogurt

- 1 serving Nilla wafers w/ fresh fruit and peanut butter

- 1/2 whole wheat bagel w/ mozzarella, marinara, turkey pepperoni

- triscuts w/ melted cheese and luncheon meat or salsa (just put the toppings on the triscut and mirco until melted, extremely quick)

- 1 small Weight Watcher's tortilla with cheese and luncheon meat

- hummus / feta cheese / raw veggies

- 1 small Weight Watcher's tortilla, hummus, spinach, feta cheese

- Soup (make sure it has enough protein) and crackers

- Soup and grilled cheese

- 1/2 PB&J - heavy on the peanut butter and try to use sugar free jelly if you can stand it (I can't, so I went light on the jelly)

- 2 graham crackers with peanut butter and cream cheese (try the flavored cream cheese mmmmmm)

- grilled cheese sandwich on whole wheat

- 1/2 tuna salad sandwich on whole wheat or crackers (only 1/2 because I make it with sweet pickles which are high in sugar)

- egg salad sandwich on whole wheat

- Sugarfree Jello w/ Light CoolWhip - this is almost a totally free snack, you could have it almost anytime you want. Add a frozen or fresh fruit and a serving of nuts or coconut to count it as a snack.


Convenience Store snack:

- sleeve of nuts w/ fruit or 4oz 100% juice drink

- Lance peanut butter and crackers

- 1/2 serving of Dark chocolate w/ serving of nuts