Counting Carbs - For My Mom

My mother met with a dietician and diabetes educator yesterday. Since her open-heart surgery, her diabetes and her sugar levels have changed; thus, she now needs to take insulin with every meal to counteract the sugar levels. The interesting part of the trip is something near and dear to all of us crazy, active people - counting carbs. Her carb counting will differ greatly from ours though -- she needs to count them to adjust her insulin injections. I can tell you, a 71-year old diabetic doesn't get excited about having to look up carbs in a book and write them down. I tried to settle her a little and advise that eventually, she'll memorize them and she can easily "guess" at many of the things she eats since her menus are fairly simple (meat and potatoes, maybe some spaghetti every now and then). Poor thing, she never, never thought about food like this before -- she didn't even know that meat has no carbs. As easy as it is for us, that's how hard it is for her. Puts a new perspective on "counting carbs."