The following Questions are taken From: DiabeticConnect.com – Jan 20th 2015 – Diabetes and Carb Counting – #DCDE Twitter Chat that took place. I’ve added my own answers to the Questions as well (outside of what I tweeted at the time of the chat itself).
Q1 – What does a carbohydrate budget mean to you?
It means the range of carbs that I’m allowed to eat during the day itself that are divided between my meals and snacks that I have during the course of the day.
Q2 – How do you count your carbohydrates at home — accuracy vs. estimating?
I have a set of measuring cups that my mom got when she was first told she was Diabetic oh so many years ago – I use those, plus the digital food scale that I picked up for myself a few years ago, when I started really getting into controlling my glucose levels (more like when I started paying more attention to my glucose levels). As to how accurate it really is, well since I don’t measure the food that I don’t eat its mostly a close guess as to what it really and truly is when all is said and dun.
Q3 – What callings do you face when carbohydrate counting at restaurants?
Not much of an issue since I don’t tend to eat out as much as I once did. But when I do I don’t really pay much attention to the carb counts in what I am eating. Mostly because I have a set amount that I’m willing to eat when we do choose to go out and since its 100% plant based and Gluten Free I know already what some of the numbers are going to be from looking it up before hand and because of previous experience eating X Y or Z food. On the off chance that its a place we’re trying out for the first time I tend to stick to foods that I know in general and again are veggie based and gluten free.
Q4 – What method do you use to count carbohydrates accurately?
As stated in Q2 I use measuring cups and spoons plus a digital scale – but its only accurate if I actually eat all that is on my plate (which I don’t often do) and its only good if we’re not doing a family serving setting, which means food is put onto a central plate and you take what you won’t from that plate to eat (I know how much in on the central plate and have a basic idea of how much I’m putting on my plate but its not as accurate as actually measuring everything that goes onto my plate and subtracting everything from it that isn’t eaten.
Q5 – What online tools or apps do you use to calculate/manage your carbohydrate intake?
I’ve been a member of the site called SparkPeople going on 9 years now, and its become my primary location for tracking my food and keeping track of the carbs I put into my body. I’ve signed up for other sites that offer similar deals such as MyFitnessPal and just wasn’t able to get into their tracking system as much as I’ve gotten into using Spark’s.
The main SparkPeople App was one of the first applications that I actually downloaded to my phone as soon as I got a smart phone so that I could track everything using my phone instead of having to write it down on a paper and logging it when I got home. I later also downloaded other apps that they have on offer, including other fitness applications such as FitBit that connect into SP for tracking outside of the food option.
Q6 – What dietary goals or strategies would like to implement in 2015?
I am sticking to what I know for the most part and family eating has become a large part of dinner in my family only thing I measure out is the rice that I put into my bowl (and yes that I do subtract if I don’t eat all that I measure out).
One goal I do have in general is to not get glutened, but like a lot of things it happens and you just have to deal with it after the fact because worrying about it only causing issues in enjoying the food and at least I know my reaction and what it does to me (increased glucose readings until it clears my system in general).