Thanksgiving & Carb Counting

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving visiting with friends and family and feasting on those wonderful dishes we all look forward to every year.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. There’s no muss, no fuss when it comes to Thanksgiving. It is just all about eating good food and being with your loved ones.

Although, I do truly love Thanksgiving, it can also be a wolf wrapped in sheep’s clothing for those of us with diabetes.

When you get together a smorgasbord of various treats and goodies made from your loved ones, who the hell knows what the carb count is on some of these things. For example, what does grandma put in her secret stuffing recipe; how much sugar does your aunt sprinkle into her famous cranberry sauce; and don’t even get me started on the desserts.

It can be a little overwhelming to say the least. The best thing to do is have a strategy prepared for the day. I’ve read that some write down everything they ate at Thanksgiving with the estimated carb count to make sure they didn’t miss anything (as scary as this sounds, I might try it next year), others just “guesstimate” and hope for the best, and some have an “accountabilibuddy” to help them along the way. This year, I just stared at my plate for an abnormally long time while I calculated the numbers in my head and praying I was at least in the ballpark.

My goal was to just keep my numbers lower than last year, and I guess you could say I accomplished that goal. When the feasting was all over, and I nervously pricked my finger to see what my blood sugar would be, I was surprised to find a 67 blinking red at me.

When I saw this, two things popped in my head, “well that’s interesting,” and “crap, now I have to eat something.”

I guess that’s the life of a diabetic. We can plan and improvise for what’s to come with the holidays, but sometimes we just get it wrong. The only thing we can do is treat, move forward, and know there is always tomorrow to start fresh.