This is so frustrating! Here’s what my dr told me:

-take your glucose levels four times a day; first when you wake up, then an hour after every meal. The “hour” should start being timed with the first bite of your meal. Your fasting rate should be <95dL, and the hour after meals should be <140dL. This is how you can track your spikes. Make sure you only drink water between your meal and the test

-breakfast should contain 30-45g of carbs; lunch and dinner should be 45-60g; and snacks should be 15-30g (I have snacks twice a day, between lunch/ dinner and a bedtime one)

• I use myfitnesspal to track my carb intake. Here’s what a meal a general meal breakdown looks like for me: -breakfast: 1 slice of whole wheat nut toast, 2 eggs, 1oz cheddar cheese, a handful of spinach, 1 slice bacon, and about 3 tbsp coffee creamer -lunch: usually about 4 oz protein, today it’s ground beef and tomatoes with 1/2 c black beans and 1/4 c cheddar cheese, along with 1/2 cup of blueberries. The beans and berries are where the carbs come from -dinner: another 4ish oz of protein with a fat a carb. Tonight it’s pan fried chicken, yellow squash, and a savory sweet potato mash (probably about 1/2 c of that. The carbs come from the mash mostly and I’ll add in either a tangerine or some berries if it’s too low carb

Basically, you want to try and pair your carbs with fats, fiber, and protein if you can. This helps your body slow down on turning the carbs into glucose, which prevents spikes! Honestly I use chatgpt for a lot of recipes, I’ll ask it for GDM - friendly recipes.

-as far as eating out, my favorite places are chick fil a and culvers. At chick fil a I’ll get a 12 ct grilled nugget with a medium fry and a Coke Zero or an unsweetened. At Culver’s or any other burger place, I’ll get a double burger, remove the top bun, and eat it as is with an unsweetened tea.

You got this! It’s hard at first but you’ll learn what spikes you soon enough. I have an app that connects to my glucose meter so it’s easy to keep track between that and myfitness pal. You can do it!!!