7 Ways to Feel More Comfortable With Carb Counting!

Hey guys! For the first couple of months after I was diagnosed with T1D, I was very precise with how I counted my carbs. I was always using measuring cups, measuring exactly to the line, and measuring absolutely everything in sight. But now, six months later, I feel comfortable with grabbing a fist-full of cereal, no measuring required. 

What changed? Why was I so obsessed with making every single measurement exactly perfect, and then I just... wasn't anymore? Perhaps I had a slight case of OCD. Maybe I gave up on being a measuring cup geek. But my best guess is that just got more comfortable with dosing, carb counting, and feeling safe with my eating decisions as I got more practice with it. 

Today's post is 7 Ways to Feel More Comfortable With Carb Counting, so that you can live your life a little more care-free. 

1. Make a Carb Count Book 

During the first few months of living with T1D, I was always freaking out because I had lost the label with the nutrition facts on it for certain foods that I wanted to eat. I then realized that because I like a certain array of foods, they are the ones that I eat most often. NEWS FLASH!!!! If I wrote down the carb counts to the foods that I always ate, then I wouldn't be constantly searching for labels.

My advice to you is to make a list of your favourite foods, and write down the carb counts for them. Get a lined-paper notebook with dividers from Dollarama, and label the dividers 'Breakfast', 'Lunch', 'Dinner', 'Snacks', and 'Desserts'. Then, fill up the pages with your favourite foods and their carb counts. The next time you find yourself looking through the recycling for a label that you threw out too soon, you can have the pleasure of knowing that you have a carb count book for that.

2. Save Restaurants' Nutrition Pamphlets

Do you ever find yourself at the food court in the mall, ordering a Wild Blueberry Muffin at Tim Hortons, then sitting down at a table and realizing that you don't have the carb count for it? (Guess who this happened to once? Answer: ME!!!) A simple way to avoid this is to ask for the nutrition pamphlets at restaurants that you go to often, and save them in the back pocket of your Carb Count Book. When you're waiting in the long line at Starbucks, you can spend that otherwise wasted time checking the carb count for your coffee. 

3. Save the Nutrition Information on Boxes

For those dreaded moments when the wifi is out and you need to google the carb count on the box of de-frosted chicken nuggets, imagine already having the nutrition facts cut out and ready to be put to use in the front pocket of your Carb Count Book. I bet you know what I'm going to say next, but I'll say it anyway just to make sure. If you're about to recycle a box with valuable nutrition facts still on it, then stop before it's too late! Grab those handy-dandy scissors out of the kitchen drawer and cut those facts right off that sucker! Stick it in the front pocket of your Carb Count Book for the next time you need it.

4. Keep Track of Your Food in Your Logbook

Are you constantly carefully dosing for food but always going high afterwards? Some foods have different effects on different people's blood sugars. Regardless of the carb count, some foods just send you high. Take me as an example. Whenever I have cereal, which is 30 grams of carb, I tend to ride a little high. But when I have hamburgers and a bun, with a similar number of carbs, usually my next blood check is still within range. Why? Because cereal makes me high! There are certain foods that do it to everyone, and you need to be prepared.

One thing that helps me with this issue when dosing is to know which foods send me high. You can obtain this knowledge by keeping track of what you eat in your logbook. Write down the food you're having, your dose, and your blood sugar number to have handy at the next meal. Don't have a logbook? No problem! When you go to Dollarama to pick up that Carb Count Book, pick up another notebook with lined pages as well. Split each page into a graph for the next week with spaces to record your information.

The next time you find yourself unexplainably high, look back in your logbook and see what was the culprit. That way next time you have a high-sending food, you can be prepared.


5. Going to a party? Bring your own dessert!

Is your best friend turning 16? Is your dad's college roommate getting married? Did your third cousin just graduate from university? Parties are really fun, especially with the dancing, chatting, opening of gifts, and the dessert. But if the dessert doesn't have a carb count, then maybe it's not so fun. When I go to parties, I avoid going insanely high because of a 200 carb piece of cake by bringing my own dessert. Sometimes the hosts try to count the carbs for me, but I just feel more safe with my own dessert, complete with concrete nutrition facts. And you can do the same!


6. Going to a party? Eat their dessert worry-free!

Number 5 is usually the path I take when it comes to parties, but if you don't want to seem like a picky guest, then there is an alternative route to take. You can ask for the recipe to the dessert prior to the party, and calculate the carbs from it. It sounds difficult, but it's rather easy. Go through the recipe and find the carb count for each ingredient.

Write down the numbers on a sheet of paper, vertically on top of each other. Once you've gone through the whole recipe, add the individual carb counts to get the total count for the whole dessert. Lets say the whole cake is 749 carbs. When you get to the party, check to see how many equally-sized slices they got out of the cake. Lets say it's 24 slices. Then you divide the whole recipes carb count by the number of slices that were cut. or 749 divided by 24. That equals 31.2083333. Round to the nearest whole number, and BAM! A carb count is born. 

However, if the dessert also has icing,  then the carb count for the dessert doesn't cover the icing. It's especially hard to calculate the icing's carb count because you never know exactly how much icing was put on each slice. And icing is pretty carb-filled, so not dosing for it could send you very high. You can estimate a little, or do an extra .5 dose for it, but it's very hard to be sure. This is another reason why I usually bring my own dessert.


7. Check the Label Before Buying 

Picture this: It's Sunday afternoon. You are about to bite into a scrumptious slice of apple pie that you just bought yesterday when you remember that you have to dose for it. "No problem," you think to yourself. You skip inside, reach for the box with the nutrition facts on it, look at the label, and gasp. Never did you ever think when you were buying that pie that one sliver would be 57 carbs! But, there is a way to prevent this from happening. When you are out shopping for groceries, look at the carb counts before buying your items. Maybe there's a brand that has half as many carbs but tastes just as good! Trust me, nothing feels worse than the being disappointed about a food that you were really looking forward to having.



I hope that these tips and tricks will help you feel more comfortable with carb counting and adjusting to this new way of life. Please comment down below if any of these tips helped you and how they did!

Thank you for reading this post of That Stupid Pancreas!

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Today's question of the day is...

What is the highest carb dessert that you've ever made or heard of? Comment down below, and the craziest one will be featured in my next post!