Don’t skip breakfast. Start your day off with a good breakfast. Eating breakfast every day will help you have energy as well as steady blood sugar levels.
Eat small meals at regular times. It is helpful to eat 3 small meals plus 3 snacks spread out through the day. People tend to eat larger portions when they are overly hungry, so eating regularly will help you keep your portions in check.
Keep calorie intake the same. Regulating the amount of calories you eat on a day-to-day basis has an impact on the regularity of your blood sugar levels. Try to eat roughly the same amount of calories every day, rather than overeating one day or at one meal, and then skimping on the next.
Listen to your body. It takes a little time for your brain to get the message that you’ve had enough to eat, so stop eating when you feel 80% full. Wait 20 minutes. If you’re still hungry, you can choose to have a little more.
Keep portion sizes under control
Making sure you do not eat too many calories is important in any healthy diet, but it is especially important for diabetics. Controlling your portion sizes is key to controlling calories:
Divide your plate into 3 parts: ½, ¼, ¼. Fill half of your plate with non-starchy veggies (greens, broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, peppers, carrots, turnips, etc.). Split the other half of your plate into two equal parts, filling one with protein and the other with a starchy carbohydrate (rice, potatoes, pasta, whole-grain bread).
Aim for a protein serving of around 3 oz., which is about the size of a deck of cards for meat. Animal protein is more calorie dense, so it is important to really pay attention to how much you are eating.
Keep servings of starchy carbs to ½ cup. One serving of starchy carbohydrate is ½ cup cooked rice or pasta, which is about the size of half of a baseball.
Start your meals with veggies, which will help fill you up and give you lots of nutrients.
Save half of restaurant meals for later. When out at a restaurant, ask the server to put half the meal on your plate and pack the other half to go.
Read labels on foods, so you can understand how many servings and portions are in items.
My recipe for the day is Broken Wheat Upma . This has been a regular dish at home when we run out of dosa batter or bored of eating idlis and dosas
Ingredients:
- Broken wheat - 2 cups
- Onion - 1 cut into thin slices
- Green chillies - 3 slit into thin slices
- Salt to taste
- Water - 3 cups
- Tempering - oil, mustard seeds, urad dal, curry leaves
- Coconut scrappings - 2 tsps ( Purely optional )
Method:
- In a heavy bottom kadai heat a little oil
- When the oil is hot add the mustard seeds followed by urad dal and curry leaves
- Add the sliced green chillies followed by onions
- Saute till onions are translucent
- Add the water and salt to this mixture
- Let the water boil well
- Slowly add the broken wheat to the boiling mixture stirring continuosly to avoid lumps
- Now make the flame small and keep stirring till all the water gets evaporated and the broken wheat is cooked well
- You can add coconut scrappings to this upma after it has cooled well
Check out my fellow runners for their creations.
- Diabetes Diet/Management: Kamalika, Smitha, Suma
- Kid Friendly Recipes: Anusha, Cool Lassi(e)
- Seven Days of Soup: Priya Suresh
- Seven Days of Indian Bread: Jayasree, Pavani
- Seven Days of Cakes: Priya Vasu
- Seven Days of Preserves: Gayathri Kumar, Vaishali
- 30 Minutes Meals: Priya Mahadevan, Srivalli