Jen Robe Writes

Pregnancy is expensive.  There is no way around that. Even when you try to be thrifty, there are a lot of things that you need to spend money on.  Add Gestational Diabetes and it just adds even more costs into your budget.  Today I'm writing about what I do to keep our budget in check even with the additional costs and the new diet.   For the most part there are a lot of fixed costs that you can not change with gestational diabetes.  You cannot control the cost of the appointments or the medical supplies that you need.  It does help to shop around at various pharmacies and see if your supplies are cheaper at some places than others.  The easiest cost to control is going to be your food.   A lot of recommendations for controlling your blood glucose levels involve eating specialty foods.  Something that helps save a lot of money is to remember that you are the only one who needs to follow a special diet.  If your household members continue to eat the cheaper bread, while you consume

This is a favorite recipe at my house.  It is fairly easy and makes quite a few portions.  Its also a kitchen sink recipe so you can adjust it to fit your tastes or what you have on hand. It has become a comfort meal, ideal to have when wanting something warm and comforting, without all the carbs.   With some easy modifications, it can be vegetarian or vegan. Just replace the beef with beans and maybe add some nutritional yeast for a cheesy flavor at the end.  Ingredients 1 lb ground beef 1 head of cabbage 1 Onion 2-3 carrots Any veggies you want to use up 1 can crushed tomato 1 tablespoon paprika 1 tablespoon cumin 1 tablespoon turmeric Optional Cheese for serving Rice or quinoa to serve To begin with chop a head of cabbage or half a head of cabbage depending on the size.  If you want to serve with rice or quinoa, go ahead and start it cooking.  Next using a stockpot brown your ground beef.  While that is cooking chop an onion and your carrots and any other veggies you have on hand.  

Hiking is an important part of my lifestyle.  I love the chance to be outside and exploring and see nature in all its glory.  It is especially important right now during the Covid 19 pandemic. Our local government has just lowered restrictions so we are allowed to go for hikes.  But hiking with gestational diabetes seemed a little intimidating to me at first.  Here is a guide for what you need for a safe hike with gestational diabetes.  The most important thing during pregnancy is to have your doctor’s approval before you do any exercise while pregnant.  After you have your doctor’s approval, the next step is to choose your hike.  Either by googling "hikes near me", or going to some old favorites, make sure you know what type of terrain you are going to, how long the hike is, and how long it will probably take you.  Make sure the hike is something you would have been able to do pre-pregnancy.  This is not the time to push yourself to brand new limits.  The next step is to gat

A huge part of our lives revolves around food.  If you are anything like me figuring out what to have for dinner each night can be difficult.  And that is without any additional complications.  So to help those with Gestational Diabetes hopefully find some easy go-to meals I'm going to give you my favorite meals and snacks.   Breakfast Meals: Open-faced sandwich, bread, cheese, bacon, and egg.   Greek yogurt with granola and frozen fruit scrambled eggs or an omelet with a side of toast for carbs Lunch  Salad with chicken, lettuce, walnuts, carrots, sesame seeds, avocado, either grapes or tomatoes and a salad dressing.  I normally just use whatever combination I have on hand.   Grilled cheese sandwich.  I add some meat and any lettuce or tomatoes that I have on hand.   Open-faced peanut butter and banana sandwich Tuna Salad Snack Plate - serving of crackers, cheese, carrots, 1 banana or apple, and peanut butter Dinner Leftovers For Dinner I like to cook big batches of meals that I c

One of the most difficult things with Gestational Diabetes is eating. Or rather picking what to eat and when.  It can seem overwhelming at first, but luckily it is not as bad as it first seems. The first thing you need to know is that the main factor in what food to eat is the carbohydrate content.  Each person should be given a carb goal for each snack and meal by your team.  For me this was 30-45 carbs for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner and 15-30 for each carb snack. There can also be no carb snacks, where you have food that does not spike your blood sugar levels at all and can be considered for that purpose to have zero carbs.  To be able to properly calculate the carb content, you need to know how to read nutrition labels. American nutrition labels have the per-serving amount at the top of the label.  If you look down the list, the number next to carbohydrates is how many carbs are in each serving.  Australia labels are a bit more complicated.  I have a picture and an explanation bel

One of my biggest fears with Gestational Diabetes was that I would have to change my entire lifestyle.  That my life would now revolve around this new diagnosis.  And in some ways it does, but in other ways, I make the diagnosis go around my life.  It helps that I lead a somewhat fit and rather healthy eating lifestyle before.  That’s not the case for everyone, but small changes can make a huge difference no matter your lifestyle before.  For me one of the most important tools I have is my smartphone.  I’m sure most people can agree.  It makes managing GD so much easier.  Tips for using your smartphone for GD Management.  Set a timer, I have a 2 hour on my phone that lives at the top of the timer list.  As soon as I sit down to eat, I hit start on my timer.  This way as long as I can hear my phone, I don’t need to worry about the 2 hour time for testing.  My phone will remind me when to test again.  I also recommend setting up tracking on your phone so you can track your numbers easily

Gestational Diabetes.  Something I did not expect would ever apply to me.  I was at a healthy weight before pregnancy, did not gain excess weight during pregnancy and yet at 27 weeks after taking the glucose tolerance test I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes.  It was hard for me to accept at first.  I felt like I had been doing everything right to have a healthy pregnancy, and yet I still had these health issues. From joining online groups, I'm not the only one who took it hard initially.  And the research isn't very reassuring either.  It seemed like every article I found was focused on the complications or talked about how much lifestyle and diet needs to change.  I want to share the things I did when I was diagnosed that helped me to cope mentally.  The next posts will be about the dietary changes and lifestyle I've adopted.   It's tough to come to terms with mentally. I kept telling myself. "This isn't a life sentence. It is a temporary inconvenience,