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.
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.
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