Yes, I Can Eat That

I eat all the time.  That’s not much of an exaggeration…most days I eat 3 meals plus somewhere between 3 and 5 snacks.  Eating is an all day activity!  When I’m out with friends they often cut themselves off right as they start to ask “are you hungry,” because my answer 99% of the time is “I could eat.”  That has nothing to do with having Type 1, it’s just how I’ve been for probably 20 years.  And so when I was thinking about topics to write about, I thought about food.  I’ve talked about the day to day experience of living with Type 1 diabetes, and about how it feels to go through highs and lows.  I didn’t plan these posts out to follow a deliberate path, but food is a relevant part of the discussion after what I’ve written about so far.  Food with T1 is a subject that gets a lot of discussion, both in the T1 community and in my own life with anyone who sees me eat.  To understand how food fits into my life with Type 1, it helps to know a little of my history with food before diabetes. 

Nearly 10 years ago I realized I wasn’t happy with my weight.  Up until that point my diet for a typical day included animal crackers out of a vending machine for breakfast, fast food or the cafeteria for lunch and often pizza for dinner.  It wasn’t that I didn’t cook; it’s that it didn’t happen much.  Nearly everything I ate was carbohydrate with a side of carbohydrate, and it wasn’t working well for me.  Right before my 35^th birthday a friend reminded me that I’d had some success with a low carb diet when we were in grad school, so I decided my birthday was the kickoff date for my lifestyle change.

Through the next 12 months I cooked nearly all my meals, I was hardcore about what I ate, and typically the only carbs in my diet were the few found in eggs, shredded cheese and dried seasonings.  It worked, I lost over 20 pounds and I kept it off.  Success!  I lost weight and gained energy, and realized that I’d found a lifestyle that worked for me.  I call it a lifestyle and not a diet because it wasn’t a temporary plan I was following to drop a couple of pounds.  I lost my cravings for pizza, French fries and my favorite work day snacks of Fritos and Cheetos.  From then on I continued cooking most of my meals and keeping them extremely low in carbs.  I’d go off the rails on vacation or isolated occasions, but the rest of the time I stayed generally on plan because I liked both what I was eating and how I felt.

Fast forward to 2014, and I was still typically eating 3 home cooked meals a day.  I’d put some of my weight back on.  And then I started losing weight.  I lost weight no matter what I ate.  I could share a pint of ice cream with a friend and lose 3 pounds overnight.  I got back to my goal weight!  Unfortunately I got back there because of the T1, which I didn’t know until I was diagnosed with diabetes.  As soon as I was diagnosed, I knew I needed to go back to what I knew and believed about food and what would be healthy for me:  eating low carb and high fat.

The truth about food with T1 is that I can eat whatever I want.  I’m no different from a non-D person in that sense.  One of the best explanations I’ve seen was from someone on the Beyond Type 1 app.  A friend saw what this person was about to eat and asked “won’t you need insulin if you eat that?”  The well done and completely accurate answer they gave was “yes, and so will you.  The difference is that your body still makes it, I have to inject it because mine can’t.”  I can have pizza and fries and ice cream and margaritas, but I need to put a lot of thought and planning into them.  Since getting that right, and really truly right isn’t that easy, I choose to leave the carbs out most of the time.  And though my weight isn’t where I’d like it to be right now, it stays lower than it would be if I was eating all those fun foods.

That’s not to say I don’t indulge, it’s just that I apply a “needle worthy” filter to my choices.  I haven’t had chicken tenders since my diagnosis.  Is that a life-altering food loss?  Not even close, but because I’ve decided not to eat them I miss them.  My dad makes amazing French toast.  I haven’t had that since my diagnosis either, but I’ve already let my parents know I’d love to have it one morning when I’m in town for Thanksgiving this year.  It’s 100% needle worthy and I’ll put up with whatever follows.

This is a personal choice.  A lot of people with T1 don’t eat low carb and that works for them.  A lot of others have made the same choice I have.  My endocrinologist tells me that if he had T1, he’d follow a low carb diet.  I nod and smile when he talks, but the reality is it’s not easy and it’s definitely not for everyone.  Look at the appetizer menu at any restaurant you go to and think about what you’d eat if bread and potatoes weren’t options.  Buffalo wings here I come!  I’m lucky that I’m not typically interested in bread, pasta or rice.  Temptation still wins out sometimes, and sometimes the decision is made in advance that I will or won’t give in.  Is eating this way boring?  I guess it can be; I have several staple meals that I make all the time because I enjoy them.  I have others that I make less often because they’re more labor intensive.  2 in particular are deep dish pizza and chicken enchiladas, which I have pictures of down below.  They sound impossible with low carbs, don’t they?  The pizza has a crust made from chicken and mozzarella cheese, and it’s incredible (I take no credit for this work of genius, the recipe is here).  The enchiladas are made with low carb tortillas I order online…add chicken slow cooked in salsa and a whole lot of cheese and they’re fantastic (I make these my own way, but they’re based on this recipe).

There’s a page on Facebook that I read written by a mom with a young T1 son.  This summer for the first time she discovered the idea of feeding him a low carb diet and switched her whole family’s way of eating.  She’s been thrilled with the results…the same improved energy that I discovered when I first started this almost 10 years ago, and the greater stability in his blood sugar.  Can I have Ben & Jerry’s as a T1?  Sure, I’ve got a stockpile of insulin in my fridge and can handle anything.  But I haven’t touched the ice cream in my freezer since I was diagnosed.  Most days it just isn’t worth it to me.  Instead I’ve developed a slightly disturbing sugar free Jell-o habit and have a strawberry Jell-o most nights as a sweet fix.  When I’m really feeling adventurous I’ll go for the sugar free chocolate pudding and take the 10 carb hit with the needle that comes alongside.  If nothing else, my taste in snacks will be perfect when I’m ready for the retirement home.  That’s  good news, because 30 or 40 years from now I suspect my answer will still tend to be “I could eat!”