Dyez,
Sorry I didn't greet you sooner but we get a little quiet on weekends when the weather is nice. Welcome to HealingWell. Hope you feel right at home.
Right now your body is going through an adjustment period with new meds, stress, doing too much and everything else that is going on... I'm surprised it was
only 176 this morning. To answer your question, Yes, stress, pain, exertion, and all that will affect your numbers. Most of us here have found that one of the best ways to learn about
how your body reacts to the different facets of the disease is to start a journal or diary for yourself. You want to keep track of the fasting morning blood sugar, 2 hrs. after meals and one pre-meal count. Along with this you want to note foods eaten, amounts and times, along with meds and exercise. Obviously you can't do all of this at once...
If you want to see how a carb based food affects your blood glucose include a serving of it in a meal that has no other carbs. An example would be meat, green beans, salad with dressing, and a small
baked potato with butter. (no bread, milk or carrots) The only carb is the potato. Be sure to include the butter or some other fat like 5 or 6 olives on your salad. Then test two hours after. Write down the result and pretty soon you will have a running list of what you should eat and what you should avoid. For myself, I seldom have cereal and milk. I usually pick a fruit and a fat for my evening snack. (Banana and crunchy peanut butter... Mmmmm!)
Fat slows the stomach emptying time and makes kind of a timed-release out of the banana. Helps me with my dawn phenomenon numbers. Fats also help us absorb fat soluble vitamins, keep our skin and hair healthy, help with regularity and make us feel satisfied. The best fats are monosaturated like nuts, nut butters, avocadoes, olives and olive oil. Butter and meat fats like bacon may be used for flavoring, so not much is needed.
I don't want to write a book here so I guess I'll just tell you to read back in the posts and you will find how others are learning to adapt their lifestyles and food plans to tame the Diabetic Dragons that inhabit our lives. We are all still learning and like to share so we can support each other. Take care.