The Glucose Tolerance Test (GTT) involved a blood draw, followed by drinking a high glucose (I chose the lime flavor, it wasn’t completely awful) then waiting an hour for another blood draw. I was shocked to find out I had just failed the 1-hour and was immediately booked for a 3-hour GTT. When I failed the second one (again by a small margin), I was resolved (after initial shock and dismay) to understand why someone with few risk factors (low BMI, active lifestyle, no family history) would develop diabetes during pregnancy.
In case it is helpful, I am sharing below yet another spreadsheet I created to monitor and track my diet and exercise from week 27 of pregnancy (when I was diagnosed with GDD) through week 40 + 3 (when baby boy arrived!). Though baby was measuring “large” throughout, he turned out to be a perfect 7 lbs 12.7 oz, just 6 oz heavier than the average birth weight for male babies, according to the WHO.
As you can see from the table above, I only had a handful of “in the red” glucose values, and usually after a carby meal. Some triggers included:
- Lentils (lentil soup w/o enough protein would cause a spike)
- Oatmeal (goodbye to a bowl of oatmeal in the mornings, had to mix in greek yogurt and less fruit)
- Fruit in general (if I wanted an apple, had to pair with almond butter to keep the carb:protein ratio low)
The silver lining of having gestational diabetes was 1) learning to pay attention to what I eat and realizing I could control my sugars by maintaining a low carb:protein ratio with each meal and 2) forcing myself to be very healthy by walking after each meal (in addition to long hikes over the weekends) which likely aided me in a speedy delivery!
Even if I “pass” my GTT with the next one, I will be sure to maintain a healthy diet, and continue exercising throughout my pregnancy as above. Hope the food journal helps and reach out if you’d like access to the template for managing your own food/exercise through pregnancy. Cheers!