Too much insulin. Not enough carbs!

For those who don't know, keep in mind that the more carbs a type 1 diabetic eats, the more insulin they will have to take to maintain a normal blood sugar.


I believe every person deserves a day they shouldn't worry about what goes in their mouth and diabetics are no exception! Over the last year, I have really cut back on the junk I put in my mouth. I use to be the cupcake queen! Little Debbie was my b*tch (LOL). Though I've cut back on junk food, I do have a day every couple months that I splurge and I just don't really care about what I eat. Well, today was one of those days!


For lunch, I had THREE slices of pizza. Pizza makes my blood sugar sky rocket so I should of only eaten one slice. Maybe two. But I was starving so I had to eat three slices.


There's usually 30 g of carbs in one slice of pizza so I should of had a total of 90 g of carbs. Since, my blood sugar spikes when I eat pizza, I added an extra 10 g of carbs.


A few hours later I was craving a frozen mocha from Panera bread. Before I drank it, I checked my blood sugar. When I checked, my blood sugar was 70. A little low but not bad at all considering I ate a lot for lunch!




Usually, frozen mochas leave my blood sugar higher than it should be so I thought that I better Google how many grams of carbs it has in it. I was shocked when I found that a medium frozen mocha has 94g of carbs in it! That's a ton more than I had expected! It's no wonder my blood sugar is always high after I drink one! I wasn't counting for enough carbs (I wasn't getting enough insulin)!


I let my mom have a few sips of my tasty drink and I don't think I realized just how much she really drank. Less than 2 hours later after I gave myself insulin, my blood sugar was 45!

I had just left the grocery store when I started to feel funny. Of course I didn't notice the symptoms when I was sitting in the parking lot of the grocery store. I had to be driving! I pulled over to the side of the road as soon as I found a safe place. I had a few glucose tablets and I managed to find some old gummy bears in my purse so the problem was easily solved!




9 times out of ten when I have a day I eat a lot of carbs, my blood sugar ends up high but today the complete opposite happened. I had too much insulin and not enough carbs! Sometimes it's hard to judge how many carbs you've actually eaten.

I love pizza but my blood sugar does not!

Anyone who has diabetes knows that pasta, pizza, bread, etc. will make your blood sugar skyrocket! When I was learning how to count carbs I was taught that a slice of pizza is about 30g of carbs. That's not completely wrong but it's not exactly right either. A small slice of pizza is probably 30g of carbs. If you go out to a restaurant and order a slice of pizza it's usually a large slice! So most likely when you order a slice of pizza it's going to be about 40-50g of carbs.

 For a while I would count 30g of carbs for a slice of Dominos pizza because their slices aren't that big. I knew for a fact I was counting those carbs correctly but my blood sugar would still spike even after I gave myself the proper amount of insulin. So, what I started doing when I eat foods that are high in carbs and starch is I add extra insulin or I count carbs higher than they actually are so I get more insulin.

This brings me to the next problem... when you eat pizza, pasta, etc. you are most likely going to use A LOT of insulin. Maybe it's just me. Maybe other diabetics react differently to these foods. I had 2 large slices of pizza for dinner. I counted each slice as 40g of carbs so all together that's 80g of carbs. Now, my carb to insulin ratio is 1 unit of insulin to every 6g of carbs. I ended up giving myself 13 units. That seems like a lot to me.

 On top of that I had a glass of milk (pizza and milk do not go together but I'm on this medicine that I have to mix with my drink and it's pretty disgusting) so by the time I took my shot I had to take 17 units of insulin.

Now every diabetic is different. One diabetic's blood sugar may not spike as high as mine does when they eat pizza. Some diabetics are on insulin pumps which makes controlling blood sugars easier. But for me pizza does not like me at all! I took a ton of insulin and I'm pretty sure my blood sugar is still going to be high in an hour or so. I can almost bet money on it. The obvious thing to do would be to stop eating pizza. Yeah that makes sense but I'm allowed to cheat every now and then right? :)