cheat nights
 

Hi guys! I wanted to discuss the subject of cheat nights. I follow a pretty strict Mediterranean diet all week but I like to go off it for dinner once a week and eat what I want. My blood sugars during the week are great! I do MDI's with Lantus and Novalog and I'm a pretty intense exerciser. I'm having trouble adjusting my MDI's to my cheat nights and I'll wake up with blood sugars in the 400's. I know the reasoning. I've tried adjusting my Lantus to compensate. What else could I try? I enjoy my pizza and ice cream. :) I'll stop if I have to, it's just a depressing thought.

Are you counting carbs and taking a bolus injection for the carbs?

Oh yes. My blood sugar is usually ok before I go to bed. It's just always really bad when I get up in the mornings. The carbs sit in my system for a long time as does the fat. Aside from waking up every hour to take a bolus I don't know what else I could do. I probably just need to cut out these days except for the holidays.

There are a couple of things that you could try:

1. Try walking at least 30 minutes after eating and before bed.
2. Try eating only half of the pizza or ice cream that you normally eat.

You shouldn't have to completely give up on the pizza and ice cream. Having diabetes to me, means knowing what to eat and how to control what I eat. You will just have to experiment to find out what works for you. Good luck with your "cheat night".

Good ideas thank you.

If you happen to be on an insulin pump, there is an option to do a dual-wave bolus which is designed precisely for this reason. It administers the bolus slowly over a longer (set) period of time.

Thank you for that. Actually I switched back to MDI because I was having a lot of problems with my infusion sets despite trying several different ones. I'm told I have too much muscle and what fat I do have for infusion sets is scared.

This is a late reply, but I was advised about pizza as I find it is my absolute enemy! Like you, my BS would be fine before bed, wake up really really high in the morning. I was told to calculate the carbs, work out how much insulin you need to give and split it in 2. Give the first half 30mins after eating, and the 2nd half 2hours later. That way you should be "covered" and the insulin will be in your system for as long as the carbs are. The tricky bit is remembering to take the 2nd half!