Low blood sugar

[LeonaS]

I was on day 6, but while I was at work I almost passed out because of low blood sugar, so my manager had me drink some soda. I'm not a diabetic, but it does run in my family and I have trouble with low blood sugar often. Usually I would drink some kind of juice when my blood sugar is low, however, per doctor orders, The only fruits I can have are banana and melons. My Manager told me I need to be eating more food to keep my protein up. I'm not really sure what to do. Per doctor orders, I can't have any oils (they make me sick anyway), so everything I eat is either baked or boiled. I was starting to feel better on whole30, but I am having a hard time getting filling meals in. I work 10 hours a day from 6am-4pm with only ONE 20 min break allowed and no fridge to keep food in, so it has to be something that can be kept in my bag for a few hours.  I tend to only get 2 meals because of these hours and end up snacking before bed because I'm Soo hungry. Not really sure what to do. 

 

I don't make a lot of money, and tend to eat the same meal several times a week to save money. 

These are my normal day meals for me

Sometime between 8-10am

Banana, 2TBS almond butter, 1cup chicken salad (chicken, whole30 mayo 1/2TBS, mustard 1/2TBS, pink salt, pickle, and tomato) served on bed of lettuce

OR

1 Zucchini, 4oz mushrooms, 1 chicken breast 

 

Sometime between 5-7pm

Chicken breast, green beans, (OR Zucchini, or asparagus,) and mushrooms.

 

I snack on pistachios and bananas with almond butter

 

[ShannonM816]

We would really recommend eating three meals a day, and making them match the meal template. (You can download the meal template here:   https://whole30.com/pdf-downloads/) This probably should include a meal before work, within an hour of waking up for the day, and then try to space your meals out every 4-5 hours after that. When you get the meal size and timing worked out, it should help you avoid blood sugar highs and lows.

When you do something like chicken salad, or if you ever make soup, if you make it in big batches it can be hard to tell how much protein you're getting in each serving. Be sure you're getting enough chicken that if you piled up just the chicken, it would be at least as big as the palm of your hand. If you're not sure, try to add some extra -- maybe a hard boiled egg.

Be sure that each of your meals includes some fat. This may be harder to do if you can't have oils, but if mayo works for you, that's a good option. Avocado or olives are also good. 

Your meals will probably be more filling if you include some starchy vegetables.  Potatoes and sweet potatoes are the most popular options, but beets, carrots, turnips, parsnips, rutabagas, pumpkin and other winter squashes like butternut or acorn squash, or plantains would also work. Stick to about a fist-sized serving at a time, most people do well with a serving a day, but you can have more if you need it.

If you do need to eat between meals, try to have a mini meal with protein, vegetables, and fat, or at least two of the three. Avoid having fruit on its own, it's more likely to mess with your blood sugar levels.  If any of the issues you have had in the past are stomach/digestive stuff, keep in mind that many people find nuts and nut butters can cause problems in that area, so you may want to look for other fat sources that work for you and kind of rotate through them so you're not having a lot of nuts every day.