Eight days below eight
Eight mmol/l (144 mg/dl) is a healthy cut-off point for your blood sugar after meals if you inject insulin. I shoot for seven mmol/l (126 mg/dl) in my below seven experiments, but I am aware that it’s a strict target. Also, I’m not always successful. The NICE guidelines for post-meal readings go all the way up to nine mmol/l (162 mg/dl), which is more realistic if you’re not following a low-carb diet. It’s very difficult to match the profile curve of injected insulin with the release of glucose from the carbohydrates in food. The fewer you eat, the easier it gets.
After testing the bear on numerous occasions when he’s eaten high carb meals or drunk beer at a rapid pace, I’ve concluded that even non-diabetics spike their blood sugar sometimes. Still, staying below eight is like a sporting event for me. I’m in the imaginary diabetic Olympics. The goal is to remain below eight for as many days as possible in a row. While it might sound easy, it’s not due to the unpredictability of the 711 million factors that affect blood sugar. It doesn’t even have to have anything to do with food. You might sleep in and wake up high as a result of the dawn phenomenon. A sudden spike might occur due to stress or for no apparent reason. Running for the bus or going for a jog in the park can also do the trick.
This time I managed a whole eight days below eight. I did it by following a diet that many people would consider insane – I ate the same meals every day. For breakfast, I had a two-egg omelette with fifty grams of cheese. For dinner, I had chicken salad. I only eat two meals a day, partly because it makes insulin dosing easier and partly because fasting is good for you. Even though you won’t get the same results, as insulin absorption and the carbohydrate content of your vegetables will vary, you’ll get the ballpark figures right. I’m convinced that keeping consistent insulin doses day-to-day is key to good diabetes management.
So what got me in the end? It was a 100g bag of peanuts. While I dosed insulin for the carbs, I skipped dosing for the protein, thinking I’d get away with it as I went jogging a couple of hours earlier. I didn’t. My blood sugar hit 8.7 mmol/l (157 mg/dl), and the winning streak ended. That’s type 1 diabetes for you. But then you get back on the horse and start again. After all, there’s not much choice in the matter. I’m already on day three in my next session of the diabetic Olympics.