pregnancy meal plan

Six Easy Steps to Create Your Plate

It's simple and effective for both managing diabetes and losing weight. Creating your plate let's you still choose the foods you want, but changes the portion sizes so you are getting larger portions of non-starchy vegetables and a smaller portion of starchy foods. When you are ready, you can try new foods within each food category.

Try these six simple steps to get started:

Using your dinner plate, put a line down the middle of the plate.

1. Then on one side, cut it again so you will have 3 sections on your plate.
2. Fill the largest section with non-starchy vegetables such as:
   1. spinach, carrots, lettuce, greens, cabbage, bok choy
   2. green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes,
   3. vegetable juice, salsa, onion, cucumber, beets, okra,
   4. mushrooms, peppers, turnip
3. Now in one of the small sections, put starchy foods such as:
   1. whole grain breads, such as whole wheat or rye
   2. whole grain, high-fiber cereal
   3. cooked cereal such as oatmeal, grits, hominy, or cream of wheat
   4. rice, pasta, dal, tortillas
   5. cooked beans and peas, such as pinto beans or black-eyed peas
   6. potatoes, green peas, corn, lima beans, sweet potatoes, winter squash
   7. low-fat crackers and snack chips, pretzels, and fat-free popcorn
4. And then on the other small section, put your meat or meat substitutes such as:
   1. chicken or turkey without the skin
   2. fish such as tuna, salmon, cod, or catfish
   3. other seafood such as shrimp, clams, oysters, crab, or mussels
   4. lean cuts of beef and pork such as sirloin or pork loin
   5. tofu, eggs, low-fat cheese
5. Add an 8 oz glass of non-fat or low-fat milk. If you don’t drink milk, you can add another small serving of carb such as a 6 oz. container of light yogurt or a small roll.
   1. And a piece of fruit or a 1/2 cup fruit salad and you have your meal planned. Examples are fresh, frozen, or canned in juice or frozen in light syrup or freshfruit.

Breakfast

Your plate will look different at breakfast but the idea is the same. If you use a plate or bowl for breakfast, keep your portions small. Use half your plate for starchy foods. You can ad fruit in the small part and a meat or meat substitute in the other.

Gestational Diabetes Meal Plan for Pregnant Women

Here’s a possible gestational diabetes meal plan for a single day.

Breakfast:

• One egg
• One slice whole wheat bread or a quarter of a bagel
• Half cup of canned or fresh fruit
• Skim milk.

Snacks:

(mid-morning / mid-afternoon)
• One slice of whole-wheat bread
• Tbsp of peanut butter
• Quarter cup of fruit
• Skim milk 

Lunch:

• Half of a bagel
• Half a cup of canned or fresh fruit
• Skim milk
• Two small cookies

Dinner:

• 6 oz. baked chicken
• 1 cup rice
• Half cup diced tomato
• Half cut lightly fried zucchini
• Skim milk

Most women cope reasonably well with the disease by using a gestational diabetes meal plan, but others are prescribed drugs and even insulin. Many women’s comments reflect more anxiety about possible problems than the problems themselves. Some women, when prescribed drugs or insulin, report the “feel as though [they] have failed” even though they’ve followed through on dietary treatments.

Although many variations in treatment are common, a gestational diabetes meal plan will produce good outcomes for most women.

Here is what a diabetic diet menu plan should look like:

For breakfast you can have:

1 or 2 slices of whole wheat bread (toasted), or an English muffin
1 egg or 1/4 cup of low-fat cottage cheese
half a cup of oatmeal
half a cup of skim milk, tea, coffee or water
half a banana or 1 small orange
1 spoon of margarine

The lunch meal should contain more calories and can consist of:

1 cup of vegetable soup
1 sandwich made of 2 slices of whole wheat bread, 1 ounce of turkey and 1 ounce of low-fat cheese/ chicken /fish / turkey (meat should not be fried)
Vegetables, green salad, or fruits
Coffee, tea or water

Diabetic diet meal plan chart by the American Diabetes Association

For dinner:

boiled chicken breast
2/3 cup brown rice or 1/2 cup boiled carrots
Tossed salad with low-fat dressing
fruits

You also need to have two snacks a day (so, in the end, you will sum up five meals):

1 cup of low fat milk or light yogurt
½ cup of cheese or 1 small fruit
2 cups of popcorn with no fats or chocolate pudding artificially sweetened

Useful Tips and Facts About a Diabetic Diet Meal Plan

You should have 2 or three hours between meals.
Take five meals a day at the same hours.
Be careful about the quantity of every food you eat and about the number of calories you ingest.
Adapt the diabetic diet meal plan to your personal needs, according to your doctor’s instructions. You may need a 1800 calorie diabetic diet meal plan or a 1200 calorie diabetic diet meal plan, based on your weight and the type of diabetes you have.
A healthy diet should include non-starchy vegetables, fruits, dairy, meat, heart-healthy oils and grain.

Tips for Managing Your Gestational Diabetes Meal Plan

"Your best meal choices are a balance of lean protein, carbohydrates, and a small amount of fat. We recommend that about 50 percent of your total calories come from carbohydrates," says Kelly O'Connor, RD, CDE, a registered dietitian and certified diabetes educator at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore. You should try to limit your calories from fats to fewer than 30 percent of your total daily calories from your gestational diabetes meal plan. Examples of healthy between-meal snacks would be a small amount of carbohydrate with some lean protein, such as crackers with low-fat cheese, low-fat cottage cheese with half a cup of fruit, or a slice of whole-grain bread with some peanut butter.

"The American Dietetic Association's exchange lists are a good reference for serving sizes, carbohydrate counts, protein counts, and fat grams," adds McDonald.

Other tips include:

• Stick to your schedule. "Skipping meals or snacks can cause blood sugar to drop," warns McDonald. When your blood sugar drops too low, you may feel light-headed or weak. If you go out to eat, maintain your same schedule and call ahead so you don't get stuck waiting for a table when you should be eating.
• Eat smaller. "It is better to eat smaller, more frequent meals instead of larger, infrequent meals so that your insulin response is not overwhelmed," advises McDonald.
• Mix up your food sources. "Carbohydrates should not be eaten alone because they can cause a quick spike in blood sugar that is often followed by a crash," McDonald says. "The absorption of carbohydrates can be slowed down by eating them with protein."
• Avoid carbohydrate surges. McDonald advises avoiding sauces, fruit juices, and sweetened drinks that can give you a carbohydrate rush. "One rule we usually use is that during gestational diabetes a woman should have only a very small amount of fruit or fruit juice in the morning. These are quite concentrated sources of carbohydrates and research has indicated that they are best metabolized later in the day," adds O'Connor.
• Check up on yourself. Checking your blood sugars before a meal and then again one to two hours after a meal can help you tell if you have taken in too many carbohydrates, says O'Connor. "This gives you some feedback and can help you adjust your portions better."

If you have gestational diabetes, when you eat is also important. "I often use the example of a wood stove," says O'Connor. "If you want to have nice, steady heat throughout the day, you would put in a few logs every hour. You don't want the fire to go out or to have huge flames. The same holds true for your blood sugars. You want to put in the same amount of carbohydrate fuel every few hours. This also helps a pregnant woman feel less fatigued during the day."