If you are diabetic, they will not diagnose you as such until your blood sugar is over 140 or A1C (blood test that measures blood sugar average for last 3 months) is over 6.0. 

If you are borderline (BS over 110-140; A1C 5.5-6.0) change your eating, exercise and emotional habits. I was borderline from 1977-2003.  It is possible to keep it down without meds.

Diabetic: blood sugar should be 110 or lower before you eat and not go over 120 two hours after you eat and your A1C should be under 7.0. 

If you are not diabetic, your blood sugar should be between 80 to 100.  Your A1C should be under 6.0. 

3.  If you are craving noodles or gravy, use the new whole wheat noodles.  White noodles will make your blood sugar shoot up about 100 or more points. 

4.  If you are craving gravy, I found that the pan drippings from the meat satisfies the gravy craving most of the time.  I have used cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup and found that even beef or chicken bullion (has MSG in all bullion) will satisfy the craving.

5.  If you are craving something so bad that you are going to dream you ate it all night, for heavens sake eat it.  That dream will raise your blood sugar 100 to 150 points and you won't even get to eat the food you were craving. 

IE: I wanted a piece of pie so bad I could taste it but did not give in to the craving.  My blood sugar level was 110 when I went to bed.  I dreamed I ate every kind of pie and pastry you can think of all night.  When I got up, my blood sugar level was 250.  That was a bummer! Had I only eaten a small piece of pie, it would have gone up to 140.

6.  Our biggest problem is friends and family who want to love us to death by pushing things that we are not supposed to eat at us.  They say things like, "You have to taste this."  If it's something we have never tasted, we won't know what we are missing if we don't eat it. I guess they think we will taste it and spit it out.  Boy that'll be the day! 

I want to scream, "If you love me, why are you trying to kill me?"  Maybe if we actually say it enough they will remember.  Then again the Bible says to "Flee from temptation."  Next time you see me running (OK limping) away from a house, know I am doing just that.

6.  Brown sugar (unrefined sugar - not white sugar with syrup added), honey (from the hive - not water with flavoring & artificial sugar) and real maple syrup (from the tree - not artificial flavored with sugar and water added) are approved by the American Diabetes Association so long as they are used in moderation.

7.  Your worst enemy is high fructose corn syrup that is found in almost everything from sodas to yogurt and bread.  Read the labels.  If we ban products with this in them, the food industry will stop using it.  Regular white sugar is less dangerous. 

8.  Noodles, pasta and bleached flour will raise your blood sugar too high. 

9.  Never say never to any food (unless you've never tasted it) because that will make you crave it all the time.  Do eat it sparingly so you will not be overwhelmed with cravings.

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Everyone is different.  Test every time you eat something new and keep a log so you will know what you can and can't eat.  It pays to count the cost.  Also remember if you have an infection or virus you numbers will be higher than normal.  Not a good time to eat a no-no.  Stress will also send your numbers soaring.  Your body reads pain as stress.

Some insurance companies will only pay for you to test once a day unless you use insulin and others will allow you to test 2 to 4 times a day if you do or don't use insulin.

Remember pain can be a good thing because it keeps us from doing something that will cause us harm.  If you have to have pain, why not turn it into a good thing.

IE: My right knee is in pain all the time because I have no cartilage left in it.  If I take enough pain meds to kill the pain, I would do things that would damage the bone and would not be able to have knee surgery one day.  I just take enough to make it tolerable.

Most diabetics have peripheral nerve damage in their hands and feet by the time they are diagnosed.  This is painful (feels like you're walking on cactus); but it reminds us not to let our blood sugar levels get too high or the neuropathy will get worse and our hands and feet will go numb.  If that happens, we will no longer know when we step on something sharp and injure ourselves.  Since we don't know the wound is there it can turn into gangrene.  My feet are not numb but I don't feel cold and could get frost bite real easy.  Frost bite is as bad as gangrene.

Diabetic friendly recipes are highlighted in yellow on the contents page of this book. 

Weekly blood sugar Record form