Right side of my face trembles some time. I went to a chiropractor and it has increased. I had MRI and CTscan. There is no problem. Has anybody experience it any time? And do you know any cure?

Maybe you should all (at the office) agree to choose a healthier snack/reward for the kids? I'm sure they don't need all that candy either. Stickers might be a better option?? Just a thought.

Puneri...I drink whole milk for trembling. 3 cups every day. It works for me.

I know the temptation, trust me. Except I'm not working right now (I'm a teacher) but I have it at home! Candy and snacks everywhere!

I do what some other posters have said and just drink water when I'm tempted, but that doesn't always get rid of the craving for some CHOCOLATE. This is why I love, love love Fiber One bars. They taste pretty awesome and they have nowhere near the calories of actual chocolate bars. I usually eat them if I have a long wait in between meals or something of that nature (as they're really awesome at filling me up) but sometimes I just get that chocolate craving.

Hunger and blood sugar issues aren't really two different issues, they're interconnected ones.

When you said that eating carrots make you "feel like junk" but also said that a candy bar keeps you "full for about 3-4+ hours, surprisingly, with no crash, " and also that you were self-medicating your IR with cheeseburgers and candybars, to keep away symptoms like cold sweats and dizziness, I recognized that cycle from my own past. You don't yet understand the best way to keep IR in check. You're following a cycle that seems to work, only because you haven't yet found what works better.

Carrots won't make you ill, if you're eating enough (or if you pair the carrots with some protein or fat). What's happening is that there's sugar in the carrots, but not enough sugar or calories to "fix" the low-blood sugar and ravenous hunger you're experiencing by the time you're eating them.

The candy bars have more calories, fat and sugar (and maybe even a little protein, if they include nuts or peanut butter) it's a "better" fix than just a few carrots, but there are way better fixes.

I used to do this all the time. My idea of clean eating was to starve myself, eating so few calories that my blood sugar would drop quickly. I'd experience all sorts of horrible symptoms - severe headaches, irritibility to the point of irrational anger, even rage, cold sweats, light headedness, severe blinding headaches, nauseau, dizziness, vertigo, even in a few cases actually fainting because of the low-blood sugar and hunger.

Eating sugar instantly made me feel better, but unless I also ate some fat or d protein, I would crash later. In your case, candy is preventing an obvious crash only because of the calories and fat that are coming with the sugar. If you chose a small piece of hard candy instead of chocolate, it's likely you'd feel better for a few minutes, but then would crash and feel even worse than after eating carrots.

You have to find ways to keep your energy and blood sugar up, so that you don't need to self-medicate to prevent or treat the low-blood sugar, extreme hunger from crash dieting.

By waiting too long to eat, you're needing to treat low-blood sugar when it occurs (and the candybar or cheeseburger feels like an instant cure), but you need to prevent the blood sugar drop so that you don't need to treat it.

I know you want to eat the best you can, but avoiding carrots to eat candy is like passing up a nightly glass or two of wine in favor of heroine.

Carrots aren't a better choice than candy IF you wait until you starving and your blood sugar has plummeted to the point that you're experiencing all the ugly symptoms. However, unless you have a carrot allergy, I would suspect that carrots will not make you feel ill if you're eating enough calories, carbs, fat, and protein to prevent the blood sugar crashes that you have been experiencing from carrots (probably because you're waiting too long to eat - waiting until you're weak and wobbly and feel like you "need" a huge carb/fat fix like chocolate or burgers).

It's very likely that you're not eating enough, and that the hunger and blood-sugar drops are making you so fiercely hunger that a little bit of sugar (and nothing else) from the carrots feels worse than candy - but if you react to hunger before it gets unmanageable, you won't find that to be true.


I know you don't have medical insurance, but you really need to see a doctor, and ideally a diabetes and insulin resistance diet educator or dietitian. I'd recommend that you contact your local health department, planned parenthood, charity clinic, walk-in clinics, department on aging and disability resources, WIC (even if you're not eligible for some of these services, the people who work at these places be aware of resources), local hospital social services, or start calling doctors to see if they will do payment plans or cash discounts (many will give a huge discount for paying in cash, so you could save for the appointment).

Metformin did wonders in stabilizing my blood sugar. My doctor said that it might help me lose weight, and it may have a little bit. The biggest difference was in preventing the blood sugar nose-dives that made me feel like I had to self-medicate with fatty, high-carb foods. You still have to be careful of food choices, but it helps prevent the drastic highs and lows.


It's a very cheap drug (it's on Sam's Club's, Walmart's, Target's and many other pharmacy's discount list - usually only $4 per month). If you live near a Sam's Club, you don't need to be a Sam's Club member to use the pharmacy. If you live near a Walmart, Target, K-Mart, Shopco... stop in and ask for a copy of their discount list (sometimes called the $4 list because most of the drugs on it are $4, even though there are also $6 and $9 drugs on the lists too). Take the discount list (or lists) in to your doctor appointment (consider a walk-in clinic if you have to).



Hang in there, the key with blood sugar issues is preventing them - and you prevent them by responding to your hunger with the best choices before it becomes rabid hunger (and best doesn't necessarily mean lowest in calories or carbs and it doesn't necessarily what makes you feel better quickest if you have waited to long and are experiencing rabid hunger). I find small, frequent micro-meals helpful (ideally with protein and a little fat with each). Some people find low-carb, high fat meals helpful. Other people find a Zone or South Beach style diet helpful.

Good luck. I know this may seem overwhelming at first, but take it one step at a time, and I really recommend looking for ways to get that doctor's appointment (and don't assume you can't before checking it out. There may be assistance programs in your area that you're not aware of. Sometimes they can be tricky to find, which is why I gave you several suggestions for finding them - because sometimes even the people who should know about the programs don't know about all of them, so finding them can be a matter of persistence).

My blood sugar descriptions are highly unscientific. I don't have a physician and I don't know the state of my blood sugar at all. :\

All I know is that I've fainted twice, and when I was heavier I'd get clammy, sweaty, dizzy, and this sensation of "pop rocks" in my brain if I didn't eat enough or if I ate aspartame, fruit, carrots, etc...it made dieting hard at my highest weight, because I'd nearly collapse if I ate some raspberries alone. It took time to learn what I could eat with what and when.

Luckily those symptoms are 90% gone. Aspartame is still horrible for me and I avoid it at all costs.

I definitely don't make grains a priority. I eat tons of vegetables and protein but I haven't quite figured out how to get grains in aside from cereal and still lose weight.

It's not really my place to suggest, I work for the adult side of the program and I don't have much say regarding the juveniles. Ya, candy is a weird reward for teenagers.

They're very good, I was eating them at the start of my diet but tapered off.

I do understand. Couldn't have lost the 93 lbs if I didn't, because when I didn't understand, I didn't lose weight.

Let me be clear: the candy bar thing was NOT self-medicating the blood sugar (I definitely used to!), it wasn't filling a craving for chocolate (I handle those much more intelligently than Kit Kats), it was boredom/stress eating compounded by not packing enough calories in my work lunch bag. I was only mildly hungry, not ravenous, and a cheese stick would have been enough, if I'd packed it. Now the problem was, I took my brain out of the game, so to speak, and had the audacity to think a candy bar was something I could eat. Really stupid thinking. I did it 3 times in a course of two weeks, and it was my first relapse to unhealthy food in 18 months. Haven't done it since I posted this thread, and I feel confident now I've given myself enough of reality check I won't be doing it again.

I struggle to find the right foods sometimes, mostly struggle to keep my menus practical, but that's just how it goes with a long term change in eating. I know a decent amount about foods and their impact on the body. The 18 months were spent pouring over information regarding diet/exercise, because I was and am dedicated to getting the monkey off my back. I wanted to know exactly what would make me feel better and lose weight, and what wouldn't. I have learned so much, I plan to continue my education to include a certificate in nutrition when I become a licensed counselor.

I eat 6-8 times per day. Protein out the wazoo, my hair grows ridiculously fast, though it falls out for reasons I cannot exactly pin down (could be PCOS, the pill, the weight loss, stress, something else). I eat 1500-1800 calories per day.

My problems are:
I eat more after work than during because I get overwhelmed packing what looks like a flatbed truck of food for work.
I eat too many calories some days. The 1800 is too much.
I don't exercise as regularly as I should.

Those are my downfalls, and I know them well and focus on them. Otherwise, I'm doing ok.


I receive pap tests from my health department and know of the options available. The problem with finding a doctor who lets me pay cash with no insurance is, I don't have cash to pay, or I'd buy insurance. Right now, I'm a grad student, and it is what it is. Not in a financial place to receive medical attention.

Like I said, I don't have blood sugar issues nearly as bad as I did then, luckily. The symptoms are pretty much entirely gone. I must have really misrepresented myself in this thread :dizzy:

As long as I eat regularly, I'm fine. The weight loss saved my life, I swear. When I took Metformin, it really made my blood sugar low on a consistent basis. My doctor at the time admitted it wasn't her best decision to prescribe it to me, as high blood sugar wasn't my issue to begin with.

I appreciate the support and the time you took to lay that information out. I'm glad to have learned it already, and to be on the "other side" so to speak. I'm still learning, I'm still experimenting, I think blood work and profession intervention would really help me to formulate an even better diet, but until I land a good job that recognizes my need for medical help, it's out of the question.