With the long healthcare waits, I knew there had to be a way of improving my situation in the meantime. My step mum – who used to be a clinical practice nurse – and I tried to piece together the information from the symptoms and patterns. From that we worked out that I was experiencing postpandrial hypoglycemia.
I spent hours trawling the internet for information – perhaps like you are doing now! I knew I had to make sense of this craziness. I kissed goodbye to my chocolate, wine, coffee, G&Ts and refine carbs.
I studied the Low Glycemic Index for foods I could eat which wouldn’t cause a blood sugar spike but instead released it slowly into my system. I was amazed at how many of my best food friends had been the dirty culprits. I began eating every two hours on the clock. I changed my whole way of eating and my day began to revolve around food in a way it had never done before.
By the end of the first day, I was sick of eating. I wondered whether this was my life now – eating every two hours in some kind of forced feeding reactive hypoglycemia hell. Well I’m telling you now as I write this that thankfully it was not! But at the time I remember eating a slice of wholemeal toast and peanut butter before I went to bed, chewing on it like it was sawdust I was so sick of eating!
And then there were the nights. The nights when I just couldn’t get to sleep, and would then have terrible symptoms so then would have to eat again. So many nights when I would be eating until 2am then finally get to sleep. I didn’t know if this was the right thing to do at the time but it’s what I felt I should do. With hindsight this was probably only making things worse!
But hey, that’s what happens when you’re on a mission to beat that reactive hypoglycemia sugar crash.
Thank goodness for the Low Glycemic Index is all I can say. But here’s a spoiler: there’s something even better than following the Low Glycemic Index for beating the reactive hypoglycemia blood sugar crash, which I will share later on.
Reactive Hypoglycemia and Me 