wrote:

If you could give me some tips on maintaining good health and eating

habits it would be great.

With my first pg I kept my levels under really strict tight control,
and my baby was actually a little small at first and had some troubles
with her blood sugar and temperature at first, so with the next pg we
purposely upped what blood sugar levels I was shooting for (95 for
fasting and 130 after meals instead of 90 for fasting and 120 after
meals in the first pg) and the baby was a better weight and more
robust.

In my first pg I also tried to keep my level of carbs I ate lower, but
in the second pg I ate more carbs. It's easier for me in a way because
I always get to shoot insulin to cover carbs I eat, while if you are
trying to do it by diet alone you have to be more restrictive of what
you eat. If they put you on a diet, and you are still hungry, you can
eat as much additional protein and fat as you want without raising your
blood sugar values, and alot of veggies have very few carbs too, like
salad mix with ranch or blue cheese dressing will not raise your blood
sugar unless there is lots of carrots in the salad mix. You just have
to watch the carbs. I have also found that some food with alot of fat
in them like nuts, don't seem to raise my blood sugar even though there
are carbs in them. In general, eating some protein with your carbs
helps them to get digested slower, and thus keeps them from raising
your blood sugar as much.

Also, walking right after meals for 15 minutes will really suck down
the blood sugar levels. Walking could be a real godsend for you in
trying to control blood sugars without insulin.

Keep in mind, though, that gestational diabetes is NOT
the same as true diabetes. There is precious little evidence
that insulin is warranted in gestational diabetes, while it
is clearly indicated in some true diabetic situations. In fact,
the evidence is so weak that in Enkins et al.'s _Guide to
Effective Care in Pregnancy and Childbirth_ (based on reviews
by the Cochrane Collaboration, one of the most respected evidence-
based medicine organizations in the world), they say that the
use of inuslin for gestational diabetes with so little supporting
evidence would be considered *unethical* in any other area of
medicine. Another finding by the Cochrane Collaboration is
that there is little evidence to support the value of very
tight dietary control over less rigid control in improving
outcomes with gestational diabetes. (When you get right down
to it, there is precious little evidence that any treatment
improves the major outcome variables significantly, which
is yet another difference between gestational diabetes
and true diabetes.)
I'm not saying one shouldn't follow reasonable
dietary guidelines, but you make a very good point that
if the diet is resulting in too much calorie deprivation,
that is not a good thing for the baby. Exercise is also
a great thing by anyone's standards, and will certainly
improve blood sugar levels. But someone with gestational
diabetes should think long and hard before agreeing to
insulin use, and some doctors are very quick to suggest
it.

Best wishes,
Ericka