Chocolate Milk & Cocoa Happiness

The other night, I wanted some hot cocoa.

But spending money on some single cup at a coffee shop or finding some of those hot cocoa singles didn't seem appealing. So, the choice was made to grab some of the yummy Hershey's chocolate syrup from the local grocery store. (Read: Wal-Mart, as we try to conserve money as much as possible.)

On the store shelf, we saw various options - regular, lite, calcium added, sugar free. As well as the Wal-Mart brand of Sugar Free. There were also crazy flavors like Strawberry and Dark Chocolate and all kinds of others, but my focus was on simple non-fancy chocolate syrup.

Being a carb-counting diabetic, my eyes went from the yummy pictures on the front of the squeeze bottles to the backsides where the nutrional information was listed.

Those carb counts were as follows, for a 2 tablespoon serving:

Regular: 24g
Strawberry/Dark Choc: 23g
With Calcium: 23g
Lite: 11g
Sugar Free: 5g
Generic Brand SF: 4g

Determined to have a combination of the lowest carb count possible as well as that hallmark Hershey's goodness and a photo-worthy product, I opted for the 5g Sugar Free choice.


Woo Hoo! :))



Went home and made the milk, adding a couple little store-bought treats into the mix and adding to my pump bolus.

Only later did I actually remember the original mission was for hot chocolate, so I made a plan to eventually convert my chocolately beverage into that steaming format.

In both forms, the message was clear: AWESOMENESS does come in cocoa and chocolate syrupy forms.

And That. Is. All.

Wait.. no, actually it's not all. There's more, after reading Karen's recent post over at Bitter-sweet. Just because I happened to go with the Sugar Free option this round, doesn't mean I must. I've actually sided with regular versions more than once and bolused accordingly. That just wasn't my choice this time. And it made no difference in my opinion, and fit the mood perfectly!

Though, a word of warning: With each cup of Chocolate Milk or Cocoa Happiness, you may or may not experience what I'm now dubbing the "Cocoa Effect."


Renata from The Diabetic Duo actually left a comment earlier, that combined with a pretty bad Low last night and made me want to add this little tidbit (with the always-important disclaimer that I am not a medical professional nor do I play one in the blogosphere): "Do you find when you are having a 'full carb' cup of cocoa that you need to bolus for less than the actual amount of carbs? Just wondering. (He) will go low if I bolus him for the 24 grams that is in a pouch of cocoa...so, I have learned to count it as 15g..."



Converted my :( into a :)) - YAY!

I've never been a big cocoa or chocolate milk drinker and haven't had much exposure to this, but it could be the case for my recent Low that is otherwise unexplained. It didn't help that the wonderous Larry the Loaner CGM at my waist choose that 2:30 a.m. time period to go into CAL ERROR mode (probably because of the rapidly falling BG at the time). I owe my wife an incredible apology that can't begin to be expressed in blog-words, but needless to say this particular Low left us both feeling very grumpy. Just like that guy over there on the huge mug.

So, that's something to keep in mind. It may or may not matter, but always good to be aware just in case.

But other than that, I wish a Happy End of the Week to everyone! Hope it's a Friday filled with Chocolate Milk Happiness for everyone.