[user=444]laurahill87[/user] wrote: I have been trying to do the cycle diet for about a year off and on and feel like overall I eat healthy. I have a few questions though because I am trying to start trying to follow the diet plan more consciously. For the past 2 months I have had terrible back aches, cramps, water weight gain, and low blood sugar about 2 weeks before my period. Which lately my cycle tends to be about 40-45 days long. A typical day of eating of mine includes the following.. ( I have Celiac Disease)
Hi Laura, Good job for posting on the board, I hope it wasn't too difficult to do. I see you figured it out without a problem. I'm going to answer your questions in blue next to your food listing and move it into the blog section for more privacy in case you want to continue listing your foods and reactions with blood sugar and/or have more questions. 
Breakfast- Rice Chex, Soy Milk, Blueberries, Flax meal, weak coffee- Multi-vitamin - The rice chex is very high on the glycemic index alone, adding unsweetened soy milk, blueberries and flax will help bring the GI levels down a bit, but you will have a better insulin response if you 1) choose a GF rice bran cereal, or whole grain GF cereal not as processed as rice chex. You're better to leave the Rice Chex in the follicular phase and go to omelets and verified GF oatmeal in the luteal phase- if you don't have a problem with oats. 2) Go for the unsweetened soy milk, you can add your own non-sugar type sweetener like stevia or agave.
Snack- whole natural almonds, I would add a few carrots with the almonds. for more vitamin A, C and fiber.
Lunch- something like Pacific low sodium soup,(add mixed vegetables to the soup) flax and veggie chips (what brand of veggie chips are these? some are not as healthy depending on how they're baked or fried and the oils they use, many use the same partially hydrogenated soy oil as potato chips)hummus , carrots. One dove dark chocolate. Or something like an omelet with spinach and a piece of brown rice gluten free toast. One piece of dark chocolate if fine, I'd maybe move the omelet with spinach to breakfast.
Snack- apple- yo-plus yogurt -this is good, just make sure there's not a lot of sugar in the yogurt....switch to plain and add your own non-sugar sweetener and fruit.
Dinner- Fish or chicken, risotto or rice (make sure this is brown rice- white rice and risotto are again fairly high on the glycemic index depending on how long you cook them) and vegetable or fish tacos with corn tortillas, black beans, fat free sour cream.
Do you have any recommendations?
About the flax and fish oil supplements is it okay to eat the flax meal instead? No, not really, you need a good combination. Many celiacs are short on the enzyme that converts ALA in flax to EPA the essencial fatty acid the brain needs, so it's best to add a fish oil capsule with dinner or food so you don't belch up plain fish oil. yuk.
Is it too much to take a calcium supplement and get 3-4 servings of calcium? Yes and no, it depends on how much is in the calcium source food. It needs to be a good source like your yogurt, a full cup of fortified soy milk. Most yogurts are a little short of the 300mg per serving so read the label. Also you want D3 instead of D2. From what you've written here it only looks like you're getting about 600mg so an additional calcium supplement of 400-600mg a day would be good. But be sure you're getting additional vitamin D3 as well.
Is one bite size dark chocolate a day okay? It doesn’t have high fructose corn syrup Yes, not a problem.
Other than the snacks every 3-4 hours is there anything else you would recommend to help control low blood sugar? It tends to be worse right when I am about to start my period. Yes, it seems higher estrogen levels increases insulin action and yes, you can watch the GI levels of all the foods you're eating and stay with more of the low to mid range. I have a handy link somewhere around here to a couple of food lists. I'll find it for you. Of course you'll need to avoid the gluten containing foods..
You might want to move a bit of your hummus to the times when you start to feel low blood sugar. Be sure and include more high nutritional vegetables like broccoli, cabbage, kale, spinach, zucchini. And more nutritionally packed GF grains like quinoa, amaranth, and sorghum. These are all excellent sources in many B vitamins too.
