JEFFERSON\WAUKESHA WAPF CHAPTER

_Because of my hypoglycemia, I need to be careful about what I eat, especially breakfast.
Years ago breakfast was usually cereal (either hot or cold) with sugar topping it or pancakes with syrup or jelly. Within an hour or so, I would be shaky and crabby. I then would eat another sugary high carb item. This was my cycle of eating all day, every day.
Once I started to change how I eat, breakfast became a healthier starting point. For a while I was frying chicken breasts with veggies, but that was a bit expensive & time consuming.
I then fell into a routine of eggs & a glass of milk.  Most often I would fry 2 eggs and have a large glass of milk. Eggs can be fun though. Omelets are easy to make and you can add veggies and cheeses and meats getting a great balance of protein and complex carbohydrates. The same can be said of scrambled eggs. One of my favorite ways to make scrambled eggs is to fry up some spinach, add the eggs and at the end, mix in  some feta cheese. Yum.
Most recently I’ve discovered Raw Eggnog. I’ve always been a fan of that nasty stuff that comes from the stores in cartons, but I no longer drink it as the ingredients  leave much to be desired. 
This is the ingredient listing for Kemps Holly Nog egg nog flavored low fat milk: Lowfat Milk, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Corn Syrup, Egg Yolks, Sugar, Natural And Artificial Flavors, Spices, Salt, Guar Gum, Carrageenan, Potassium Phoshate, Turmeric And Annatto Colors), Vitamin A Palmitate And Vitamin D3. That’s a lot of sugar/corn syrup and seriously, what are those flavors and spices?!?!
I do now make my own, much simpler, healthier version:
In a blender add:
2 c. raw milk
1 Tbsp raw honey
2 raw eggs
Ground nutmeg to taste.
I really enjoyed this version but along the way, I’ve started to add cinnamon which helps my blood sugar and about 2 tsp of nutritional yeast as I felt I needed more vitamin B12 in my diet. This seemed like a great place to add it. I like how it tastes in there too! We did try it with stevia, but it just wasn’t a rich enough flavor.
This has been my breakfast for the last month or so. My blood sugar stays on an even keel and I am satisfied until lunch.

I'm hypoglycemic. I always have been, but didn't understand how to control it until I was in my late 30's.
My symptoms were usually shakiness, crabiness, lightheadedness, sweating and being really hungry.
The way I would "control" it would be to pop a cookie in my mouth. All better! Shakes were gone & I had energy to get moving again. The problem is that this happened every day, sometimes multiple times.
About 8 years ago, I decided to try a low carb diet to loose weight. I had about 3 days of sugar withdrawal, my legs ached horribly from the sugar leaving my system. I was very, VERY crabby! But I got through it. While this was going on, I also researched hypoglycemia and how it affected me. I learned that when I ate simple carbs, my pancreas would send out large amounts of insulin to deal with the sugar in my system. My blood sugar would then drop very quickly, causing the shakes, sweats and other issues.
While on the low carb diet, I never had this happen. Because I wasn't eating lots of sugar & starches, my blood sugar stayed at an even level.
I only stayed low carb for about 2 years and have never gone back to eating the amounts of sugar that I was, but if I'm not careful it does come back. If I overindulge, I often wake up in the middle of the night sweating and I can't get back to sleep.
One "trick" I've learned is to eat some cheese and drink some milk before bedtime. The protein & fats help me maintain an even blood sugar throughout the night.
I also limit the sweet & starchy foods I eat through the day. Since my low carb days, I've tried to stay away from breads and pastries. Candy is rare too. We just recently stopped buying ice cream. I've been working on eliminating these items for the rest of the family too - but more about that another day.
In my next post I will share how my diet looks today.