My doctor put me on a diabetic exchange program, where you fill in bubbles per food type. This is my recommended daily intake:
Very Lean Meat: 0 0 0 0
Lean Meat: 0 0 0
Milk: 0 0
Starch: 0 0 0 0 0 0
Fruit: 0 0
Vegetable: 0 0 0 0
Fat: 0 0 0 0 0 0
Water: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
The total intake for this should be about 1500 calories. Each 0 represents a bubble that is one serving. So for example, if you have half of a large banana, that's one bubble of fruit.
My problem is, I can't seem to get up to 1500 calories without overflowing my bubbles, or eating when I'm not hungry. Since I'm eating low-calorie, low-fat foods, I also nearly always end up with NO fat bubbles filled at all. Frequently my meat is also rather low.
I'm drinking much of the water required, and I usually fill up the fruits, vegetables and milk. I typically fill up all the starches also, and I sometimes go over on those by a bubble or two. I usually can fill in my meat bubbles, or at least half of them each day.
Is anyone else doing this diabetic exchange thing? How can I eat 6 bubbles of fat when I'm not supposed to eat too much meat or starch? On the only day that I got over 1200 calories, I ate 2 english muffins and that boosted my starches by 4 bubbles, making it way over my limit!
Nearly every day I am getting a calorie range of 900 to 1200, and I know this is not healthy. I am taking multivitamins and eating plenty of vegetables and fruits, but still. How can I add fats without just eating a spoonful of butter? :P Should I worry? Whenever I ask my doctor about it, she just says to stick with it, or she'll give me some kind of stupid list of recipes of things there is NO way I would ever prepare.
I need fast and easy stuff because I dislike cooking (sorry, lame but true), so I stick with microwave dinners, which are low-fat, low-calorie.. meaning no fat bubbles. I'm going crazy here!