Notices

hypoglycemia: experience with maintenance?

Old 03-30-2015, 06:11 AM
  # 1 (permalink)  
Member
Thread Starter
 
leviathan's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: illinois
Posts: 907
hypoglycemia: experience with maintenance?

i recently read "under the influence". it put me on a path of researching hypoglycemia. turns out i have almost all of the symptoms. also turns out that my habits are pretty shabby.

i eat well (especially when spouse cooks)-good quality food most nights. but, i do SEVERAL things wrong according to my research. i wake up and binge coffee while often skipping breakfast. my coffee consumption throughout the day is probably nearing 10 or 11 cups. lunch is often put off until i MUST HAVE IT, followed by a crash that has me contemplating bed.

since i dropped the booze (13+ months) i have allowed myself to acquire a candy/sweets binging habit. this especially has me craving at bedtime. i will go to bed and read while inhaling whatever candy i get my hands on. like a junkie, i will go into the cabinets and find my wife's baking chocolate and crush it if i havent secured a proper source.

the suspected issues im having are textbook: extreme energy fluctuations, moodiness, decreased frustration tolerance, lightheadedness, anxiety, etc...

although i went ahead with the mindset that i should eat whatever i wanted while quitting drinking gallons of beer and vodka, i suspect it is time for my sugar party to stop. i think the data is in, but am hesitant to make the changes (OMG. SURPRISE, RIGHT?).

i was hoping someone in the forum may have had experience with hypoglycemic maintenance/ sugar reduction. did it help? did you apply it gradually? what about this damn coffee? any good resources?
leviathan is offline  
Old 03-30-2015, 07:02 AM
  # 2 (permalink)  
Do your best
 
Soberwolf's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2014
Posts: 67,047
I havnt but what has your Dr said ?
Soberwolf is offline  
Old 03-30-2015, 07:22 AM
  # 3 (permalink)  
Forum Leader
 
ScottFromWI's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Wisconsin, USA
Posts: 16,945
I'd suggest seeing a doctor as well if you feel your died is causing physical symptoms/issues. I ended up having to cut caffeine almost completely out as it caused me way too much anxiety. Assuming you are drinking regular coffee, 10-11 cups a day is a massive amount of caffeine.
ScottFromWI is offline  
Old 03-30-2015, 02:05 PM
  # 4 (permalink)  
Member
 
heartcore's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: New Orleans, LA
Posts: 985
Leviathan -

I have no wisdom, as I'm right in the same spot myself. I am sitting in my office right now and in front of me is a sticky note that says "Start No Sugar - 3/23/15"...Um, so, I guess I'll throw that away...

It is very similar to the period that preceded sobriety for me. I'm good in the morning, and then - just like you - late at night I'm curled up watching a movie or reading a book and DECIMATING a pile o' candy. I have never eaten candy in my whole life. I've always been a "savory" type girl.

So, I'm going to have to just do it. We certainly have the tools and resources, just reapplying all we've learned in other quits to this one.

I will suggest that maybe the caffeine and sugar are two separate quits. You will have both physical and psychological responses to each one; my coffee consumption is no where near yours, and if I don't drink it I have a throbbing metallic head-ache that makes it hard to even turn my head to the side to look over my shoulder!

I also suspect that we'll have to go total abstinence on these. Tapering has never worked for me on anything - just my pirate nature. I realize that sugar masquerades inside catsups and sauces, and I don't have the energy or incentive to go that far, but I can certainly just decide to quit candy and obvious sweets...

I'm sure that this is impacting my energy levels, and I would like to drop ten pounds so that I can walk around feeling gorgeous all the time (I feel gorgeous once in a while now, but only when the light is just right...LOL). The sugar replaced the alcohol immediately, so since quitting drinking I've lost.....tah-dah....a total of two pounds! This is absolutely ridiculous as I stopped imbibing thousands of extra calories, and started walking my dog one to two hours every day... it has to be the sugar replacement which is preventing weight loss...(duh!)
heartcore is offline  
Old 03-30-2015, 06:55 PM
  # 5 (permalink)  
Member
 
Della1968's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2014
Location: Fingerlakes,NY
Posts: 4,536
I have it and I eat several small meals a day on a regular schedule. I lean pretty heavily on protein. Nuts, Greek yogurt and eggs for snacks. No white things like flour, sugar and rice. Rarely candy or dessert because if I do I feel hungover after. I can drink 3 cups of coffee but anymore than that and I am off the wall. A lot of former and active alcoholics have this problem.
Della1968 is offline  
Old 03-30-2015, 07:18 PM
  # 6 (permalink)  
Member
 
Jdvivre's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
Posts: 49
I've also found these problems so thanks for asking. Actually, I'd changed my eating habits drastically and maintained for a while but once I cut my amount of fruit I ended up binging on terrible sugary things, candy, chocolate etc. My sponsor said explained that alcohol is a sugar and our livers are so used to metabolising it, craving candy and carbs is really normal for a while.

So I've decided to be a lot more forgiving with my fruit, nuts n berries intake (even overeating those things can't be as harmful as candy or booze, right?) and try to eat complex carbs more often - oats, brown rice etc (as opposed to trying to cut them out altogether) to stave off cravings.

I'm also trying to get down to two cups of coffee a day but if I make it three I wont beat myself up. The caffiene really does mess with anxiety though.
Jdvivre is offline  
Old 04-01-2015, 07:11 AM
  # 7 (permalink)  
Member
 
Join Date: May 2013
Location: Johannesburg
Posts: 203
Hi, I too am hypoglycaemic and the only way I have found to keep it controlled is to eat fairly high amounts of fats and protein and keep carbs to a minumum. No sugar, no white flour, moderate amount of fruit. It took about a week to see the benefit - I need less sleep and energy levels are stable. I haven't tried to reduce my caffeine intake (+/- 8 cups a day).
Chromium and glutamine helped a lot with cravings in the first 2 weeks.
seahorse661 is offline  
Old 04-01-2015, 07:25 AM
  # 8 (permalink)  
zjw
Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Posts: 5,229
Originally Posted by seahorse661 View Post
Hi, I too am hypoglycaemic and the only way I have found to keep it controlled is to eat fairly high amounts of fats and protein and keep carbs to a minumum. No sugar, no white flour, moderate amount of fruit. It took about a week to see the benefit - I need less sleep and energy levels are stable. I haven't tried to reduce my caffeine intake (+/- 8 cups a day).
Chromium and glutamine helped a lot with cravings in the first 2 weeks.
I like this approach. I've done it that way and it worked out In my case I needed more carbs to keep my energy levels up so in reading further I've read you can fuel with carbs rather then fats and have the same outcome.

I eat very high carbohydrate. I eat lean protein sparingly and I get all my carbs from fruits and veggies. No white flours or sugars etc.. I'll get my protein from greens and beans and these days a little bit of lean meat even. I wont fry it i'll grill it etc..

Chromium is a good one that is good at keeping your sugar in balance and its found in high amounts in broccoli if you dont want to supplement. Eating broccoli helps.

more and more I've read over the years the reality is if you eat your fruits and veggies in high amounts you'll be just fine!
zjw is offline  

Currently Active Users Viewing this Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are Off




All times are GMT -7. The time now is 03:34 PM.