Avoiding Gestational Diabetes and Calories – Mind Your…Sugar?

I am back from my lovely vacation on the exotic islands of Turks and Caicos, and back to reality. The beauty of traveling to a desolate island? Lots of fresh foods – seafood. Literally plucked out of the ocean and plopped right on your plate. The sea, sand and sun really are natural exfoliators of your life – all your stress, worries and concerns go right out to sea with the Trade Winds. No worries of calories, changing diapers, or …..gestational diabetes?

Then you fly in and it’s back to NYC. Try sitting on the tarmack for an hour,  no cabs at JFK for over an hour, watching the international arrivals get into fights with the gyspy cab drivers, and then praying for your life as your Jackie Chan look alike cab driver bobs and weaves outta traffic like he’s staring in next bad Chris Tucker movie.

So it’s back to TRYING to be healthy again. As large and advanced as NYC is – it’s not always as easy as you think around here. My latest attempt?

Cutting sugar.

 

I was watching the fireworks with, count them – 3 preggos last night. And it reminded me how much you cannot eat when you are carrying around that precious cargo – so why do we resort back to eating all the bad stuff once we’re not? I also learned about Gestational Diabetes – trust me PREGNANT PEOPLE OF THE WORLD – you do NOT want to get this – so MIND YOUR SUGAR!

What happens when you get ‘preggo’ diabetes? HA! You can’t EAT ANYTHING. And I am not sure what could be more worse that telling a pregnant woman with cravings that she can’t eat that blueberry muffin or even have an apple! But that’s what happens – you can’t have ANY sugars. So think eggs, and lots of dry crackers and water.

I used to think that being healthy meant cutting calories and fat. Now I realize it’s more about cutting out chemicals and GMOs (genetically modified organisms), and – sugar and salt. Say what? The things you eat aren’t even food anymore????? Say what??! Yeah, here in NYC they aren’t exactly pulling fish right out of the ocean for you. In fact, if they were spearing fresh fish out of the East River – I think I’d pass.

What can you eat anymore? They put added sugar in everything – everything! Yogurt, practically any drink but water, it occurs naturally in fruits….. SOSSSS! So how do you avoid it without adding chemicals like Splenda? What is Splenda anyways? (I know, I used to be an avid Splenda user too – until I realized I’m literally sprinkling chemicals all over my morning coffee. Awesome).

So being surrounded by all these healthy eaters – whether by choice or not, I thought – if I am so concerned not to give Maximo too much sugar, why am I not concerned to do the same for myself?? And so it starts – the great sugar battle. HOW THE F AM I GOING TO CUT OUT SUGAR?

So I have come to two options.

1. Use natural sweetners, like Stevia. These are nature’s natural sweetners other than pure sugar. They are NATURAL – not created in some factory somewhere. Call me a crunchy granola hippie, but when they are banning GMOs and fake sweetners in tons of countries outside of the US – you start to wonder just how ‘safe’ they can be.

TIP: (Carry a few around with you in that diaper bag for Starbucks stops. Unfortunately they and many other coffee shops and restaurants don’t carry these options yet). STEP UP YOUR GAME STARBUCKS.

 

2. Drink and eat foods with natural sweetners – or fruit juice (just make sure it’s REAL fruit juice).

There are tons of juice drinks out there that are ‘all natural’ but they still have over 21g of sugar ‘occurring naturally from fruit in a tiny little juice box that’s smaller than Jager Bombs I used to chug down. (talk about SUGAR. lol). So why limit yourself?

Personally, I LOVE LOVE LOVE La Croix sparkling water. They come flavored with ONLY natural fruit juice so there is ZERO SUGAR, ZERO FAT, ZERO SALT. Yep – it’s actually GOOD for you – they are even made here in the USA so they aren’t upping your carbon foot print just to ship in some sparkling water from Italy and call it ‘luxurious.’ Um…. water is water – and why wouldn’t we just drink our own when we can anyways??

AND THESE ARE PERFECT FOR PREGGOS – because they don’t have sugar – you can drink them all day AND you can even have them in the hospital when you’re starving and they will only give you ice chips. SCORE! I wish I knew that about a year ago!!! haha.

They also come in tons of different flavors like Lime, Orange, Peach-Pear and MY FAVORITE – COCONUT. Seriously, just take it and tell me you want to drink anything else. I was passing them out last night at the fireworks party to all the preggos – I think they’re all offically hooked as well.

Now the fun stuff.

1. La Croix has already done all the hard work for you (big shout out), and offers TONS of fun recipes and ideas on their social media. Think Lime La Croix and some of that Turks and Caicos Bambarra Rum I just brought home. Yum Yum Yum. Zero sugars. Zero BAD STUFF. Well, except the hangover if you get a little rum happy.

2. You can find it anywhere – like Targets and ——- Yes, COSTCO!!!! (my favorite organic wholesaler, you!) So I can literally walk down to the Costco here in Astoria and grab a multi-pack for a descent price. And I have no excuses to be guzzling all that sugar.

P.S. – if you know me, or you’re preggo and have the ‘diabeetus’, I have some awesome coupons, so I’ll send you one to go and try it for yourself 🙂

 

So my friends, and PREGGO friends, I am already feeling healthy today!

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.