I thought I had it figured out, but CGM proved me wrong
In an effort to really dig into the details of my health this year I decided to try using a continuous glucose monitor or CGM and recruited my nutrition guinea pig (aka husband) to try it with me. Historically, these have been used primarily by people with diabetes to monitor blood sugar and control and adjust insulin levels. But they are now widely available as an OTC option for anyone who is interested in understanding how foods and food combinations affect their bodies.
Aaron and I decided to try out the brand Lingo. It took 5 minutes and $50 each to order the two week option. The sensors arrived within a week and we got started on a Tuesday. Well, I got started on a Tuesday. Aaron’s sensor malfunctioned so he ended up getting a replacement and starting a few days later.
The placement of the sensor was my biggest worry. I’m usually pretty good with needles, but I was a little concerned about having one stuck in my arm for two weeks straight. To my relief, there was no pain during the application and once it was attached to the back of my upper arm, I didn’t feel it at all. If you’ve ever done acupuncture, it is comparable to a shorter version of that size needle. It almost looks like a strand of hair it’s so small. After the application I downloaded the app, connected the sensor and the app via blue tooth and waited an hour for them to pair.
The next two weeks were really interesting. The app allows you to input your meals and encourages you to experiment with how different foods affect your blood sugar. I tried out all kinds of combinations with some surprising outcomes.
One thing I know about humans and nutrition is that one person’s medicine can be another person’s poison. We are all bioindividual. So instead of saying this food is healthy and that food is not, I always encourage people to tune in to how they feel after eating specific foods or following different patterns of eating. Based on that information we can then evaluate all of the variables and work on developing a plan that makes each person feel their best. It’s a lot of trial and error. And that’s one of the reasons I am so excited about the availability of this technology. The way in which our blood sugar responds to a food or combo of foods tells us a lot about the amount of inflammation our body is experiencing and how readily or not that food can assimilate into our system.
In my private practice I teach people how to balance blood sugar every single day. I’m kind of obsessed with it and talk about it a lot because it’s one of the most important aspects of our health. So I thought I was doing a good job managing my own blood sugar by doing the things I know are important for blood sugar control. These include:
Ensuring that I eat protein, fiber and fat at every meal or snack (98% home cooked meals)
Exercising 4-6x per week (8-12K steps, weight training, pilates, yoga)
Getting at least 110g of protein per day (this is optimal for my body size, Aaron is closer to 150g)
7-8 hours of sleep every night
Lots of sunlight every day
Managing stress levels
Aaron and I prioritize all of these things every week. He weight lifts more frequently and harder than I do and eats more because he’s a larger human, but we both have a pretty good routine in place.
Despite “doing everything right,” we both experienced blood sugar spikes. Here were the main triggers.
Rice:
White rice was my biggest adversary. This was not all all surprising, but the amount that I could eat without spiking blood sugar was. I usually only eat about 3/4 of a cup of white rice, usually with Asian cuisine. There is always a protein and always tons of veggies. But even a few bites of white rice spiked my blood sugar.
Rice cakes also gave me a big spike. I had been eating the slim, square TJs rice cakes with peanut butter and raspberries for a snack. Eating that gave me the biggest spike I experienced the entire two weeks. Even more so than eating a piece of birthday cake. It was kind of wild (and also sad because it was a yummy snack).
GF Pasta (that was partly rice-based) also spiked my blood sugar super high.
Eating too much at once:
Regardless of what we were eating, if we ate too much our blood sugar spiked. Also not that surprising. But it really made us slow down and tune into fullness cues, even when we wanted to keep going because the meal was so delicious.
Sitting after meals:
Holy cow. This was so eye opening. Seeing my numbers go up after sitting down had me getting off my butt and running up and down our basement stairs or walking the dog a lot of nights after dinner. Even if my blood sugar spiked after a meal, it came down really quickly if I moved for about 5-10 minutes afterwards. Aaron started walking down then up the 13 stories of his work building to keep his numbers in check after lunch. It feels great to have that tool in our toolbox to keep our numbers stable.
Sleep disruptions:
I sleep like a baby, but Aaron had been waking up periodically throughout the night. When he looked at his CGM data he realized his wake-ups coincided with drops in blood sugar. He tried eating a protein snack before bed (yogurt with berries) as that can sometimes help with drops during the night. Unfortunately, he didn’t notice much of a difference, so we’re still trying to figure out that puzzle. But it’s not really affecting his daytime energy, so not an emergency.
Happy outcomes:
Generally we don’t have to change too much.
Our daily protein smoothie keeps our BG stable, which is great because it’s delicious.
We both feel better after adjusting rice (but also other simple carb) portions. Also we still eat rice and will never give it up. We just make sure to eat protein first, lots of veggies, smaller portions of rice, and move a lot afterwards.
I’ve been getting in a lot more steps since consistently implementing the movement after meals practice.
Sweets and alcohol didn’t have as much of a negative effect as we expected. As long as we had small portions and ate or drank with protein heavy food, our blood glucose stayed within range (this is not permission to go gorge on sweets and alcohol ;).
We’ve both been able to tune into fullness cues better and stop when we feel satisfied vs. eating more because of the taste. I like to keep in mind that “I am not the trash can” (IYKYK) and don’t need to eat my kids leftovers or those last 3 bites just because they are there. That’s what Pyrex containers are for.
If you have questions about using a CGM and want help navigating the process, I’m always happy to help!