Continuous Glucose Monitoring

I discovered that a bunch of things I thought were reasonably healthy actually caused huge glycemic spikes -- e.g., white bread in the morning, croissants, dried mangos, excessive amount of fruits, etc.

I also discovered the importance of what you eat for your first meal in the day (either breakfast or lunch), or how to better order what you eat (fibers, fat and protein first, carbs last), light movement after eating reduces 20+ mg/dl, and more.

At this point I don't even need to wear a CGM every day; I can tell my glucose level just by thinking of what I ate earlier.

I still wear one when I'm traveling for work, as I know I'll have less control over food and calorie intake (airplane meals, restaurants, team lunches, etc).

ps: if you're interested in learning more even without using a CGM, strongly recommend "Glucose Revolution" [1].

[1] Glucose Revolution: The Life-Changing Power of Balancing Your Blood Sugar - https://www.amazon.com/Glucose-Revolution-Life-Changing-Powe...

> white bread in the morning, croissants, dried mangos, excessive amount of fruits, etc.

white bread is basically 100% carbs (converts to sugar). croissants aren’t much better _and_ have unhealthy fat (butter). Dried mangoes pack the sugar of the fruit without much of the fiber and water (speeds up the processing of the sugar).

Healthy breakfast would be like 2 eggs with small slice of toast on the side. Or a small omelette with cheese and mushrooms and spinach. Or perhaps steel cut oats, with thin sliced banana.

Basically - real food that also not loaded with carbs and sugars. Carbs are OK if you actually need them (workouts, etc). Office workers don’t need lots of carbs.

Granted, “healthy” is a spectrum…some people would consider it a win to not smoke, drink soda, etc.

And you’re 100% right about eating fiber first. It greatly slows down sugar absorption/processing! And reduces the sugar spike. That’s an advanced tip most don’t know about.

Ha, indeed :)

I admit I was completely oblivious to what carbs, proteins, fibers, and fat do to your metabolism.

I thought controlling weight was enough. I was in the healthy BMI range, and had stopped eating added sugar a decade ago, so in my mind I was a role-model for eating "healthy". Whatever I was doing, it must be working, right?

Then my annual check-up pointed that I was entering pre-diabetic terrain...

That's what prompted me to go on a journey and discovering that it's not (just) about the weight -- what you eat matters. You need to understand what fiber/ protein/ fat/ carbs do to your metabolism, the role of insulin in controlling your blood sugar levels, that sugars are sugars, irrespective if they come in a slice of chocolate cake or a dried mango (ofc aside from fibers/vitamins), etc.

Understanding more about glycemic spikes also helped me understand about sugar crash, cravings, the sequencing of food, effect of moving after eating, and more.

I know this is all pretty obvious in hindsight, but it was a blindspot for me. It's incredible that it's not part of basic education for kids (at least it wasn't for me).