⚪Thoughts on Obsessing Over a Biosensor named Lingo
Recipe: Cocoa-Banana-Peanut Butter Smoothie 🥜
Hey 7410 Style Family,
A friend of ours told us about wearing an over-the-counter continuous glucose monitor (CGM) years ago. He’s a long-distance runner, and he changed his diet to better accommodate his lifestyle based on his glucose monitor. My husband looked into them, but we weren’t comfortable sticking a biosensor into our arms at the time. Then, my mom’s doctor prescribed a wearable CGM for my mom because she deals with Type 2 diabetes. Her experience opened her eyes to the huge impact food, meal size, and exercise have on her glucose levels.
So, my husband thought it would be a great birthday present for his 60th birthday. I got the Abbott Lingo, an over-the-counter wearable CGM for non-diabetics, for his birthday, and we found it to be truly an eye-opening little device. We thought it was so useful that he ended up buying them for our son and me.
Now, I admit to getting a little…okay, a lot…obsessive about monitoring my glucose, like a little crazy, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
So, a CGM is thought to be fairly reliable in providing data about your glucose levels. It uses interstitial fluid, that’s fluid just under your skin, rather than taking readings from your blood. The bonus is that you don’t need to do frequent fingerstick tests (sounds painful and tedious). Instead, you get a continuous reading on your smartphone that is about 8%-10% accurate, a relatively high level of accuracy.
Never Heard of Interstitial Fluid?
Interstitial fluid fills the spaces between cells in your tissues. This mixture is forced out of your blood plasma by the pressure created when your heart contracts. I definitely did not remember that from Biology class. Though, it has been a minute since I’ve been in Biology class. 🤣 Anyway, this fluid is made of water, amino acids, sugars, fatty acids, hormones, salts and other compounds. It helps to transport nutrients, remove waste and regulate things like temperature, pH and electrolyte balance within your body’s tissues.
CGMs are not perfect, of course. There can be a time lag of about 5-10 minutes before interstitial fluid readings catch up to what’s happening in your blood. The fingerstick is more accurate if you needed immediate results about what is happening in your blood, but we’ve found our Lingo sensors to often respond quicker than 5 minutes. Then, there are differences in body chemistry between all of us. I may be dehydrated with lower skin temperature which can affect CGM readings. Placement on the back of your arm may also affect readings, so it’s important to check in with your doctor if you have concerns, especially when the numbers go above 140 mg/dL or below 70 mg/DL and stay there for long periods, say an hour.
Abbott advertises their Build option with 28 days of wearing the Lingo as a way to develop a deeper knowledge about your metabolism and change your habits to improve overall health and wellness, manage weight, sleep better and improve mood. The three of us were more interested in a short-term session to learn how our bodies respond to food, exercise and sleep. So far, we’ve all worn our CGMs for at least 11 days (they are estimated to last about 14 days), and it’s been totally eye-opening. I’ll go over more lessons learned and techniques for better glucose control over the coming weeks, but I wanted to start with three today.
Obsession with Measurements
The first one Is that I’m totally obsessed with health. I didn’t start out that way with this CGM. I think my husband started out obsessed then passed it to me, you know, like the flu. 😉
Anyway, I was relaxed when I started, but then after three days of pretty steep glucose spikes including over 140 mg/DL, I started to pay more attention to what I was eating. My breakfast used to be huge with about ½ cup of beans and ½ cup of oats. On top of that was flaxseed meal, a cup of blueberries, and an apple. That breakfast caused my glucose levels to spike quickly above 140 mg/dL then crash back down.
The normal range for healthy adults Is approximately 70 mg/DL to 140 mg/DL. As you can imagine, I made some changes to my diet and exercise, especially not eating huge amounts of food all at once. I also started measuring 14 grams of peanuts, walnuts or almonds, counting blueberries, watching my glucose levels every waking minute. Alright, not every minute, but it felt like it. And anytime I saw my levels rising above 130 mg/DL, I’d do at least 20 bodyweight squats. Effective, but not healthy.
Learning to Trust Our Bodies
The second one is from my husband. He has found that by wearing the CGM, he’s more attuned to what is happening in his body. In other words, he better understands the signals that his body is sending him and trusts those signals, instead of just pushing through. You know the saying: Buck it up, buttercup. 😯 Well, we’re convinced now to trust our bodies. Notice I didn’t say to trust our minds. You know the drill, an upcoming newsletter.
A great example is when his glucose levels drop to very low levels. He feels it in his body sometimes with lightheadedness or dizziness. He used to just push through it. Now, he takes a break and gets a snack or modifies the exercise. He’s even changed the number of snacks he eats and has a small bowl of quinoa-lentil salad just before bedtime to better maintain a steady glucose level while he sleeps. We’ll explore his hypoglycemia (low glucose levels) in an upcoming newsletter. And yes, he talked to his doctor about it on Monday.
We’re All Different
The last one is that everyone’s body is different, which means our glucose levels all respond differently to food, exercise, sleep, medicine, and stress. Between my husband, our son, and me, we have individual genetic makeups which can impact how the body processes carbohydrates and manages glucose levels. Our gut microbiomes are all different so that impacts how the same foods are digested and how glucose is absorbed into the blood stream. Even adding fats to a meal might reduce a glucose spike in one person while increasing in another. My husband and I have older bodies than our son, and that can impact how our bodies respond to insulin, too.
Really, I could go on and on about these differences. The message I’d like you to come away with this week is that a wearable CGM can help you make better food choices and encourage you to make better lifestyle choices, like eating a tangerine instead of chocolate or exercising after dinner instead of sitting on the couch. It may not be so great if you become too obsessed with measurements like me, but I’m sure you’ll find a happy middle place between obsession and denial, and get living a healthy lifestyle.
Without a doubt, a CGM is a very useful tool to help you detect issues with your glucose levels, whether too high or too low, because so much of your health is tied to your glucose response.
Wishing you the best,
Rhonda
P.S. You can catch up on past newsletters at the 7410 Expanded website.
👩🍳In the Kitchen: Cocoa-Banana-Peanut Butter Smoothie 🥜
This recipe tastes like a creamy chocolate shake to us. It makes enough for my husband and me at about two 8 ounce glasses. We’ve gotten used to less sugar, so you may need to add a little maple syrup to sweeten it. Otherwise on a hot summer day, it’s the perfect late afternoon treat. And strangely enough, the peanut butter helps to control our glucose levels all the way through dinner.
Ingredients
• Banana • 1 cup unsweetened almond milk • ¼ cup peanut butter (organic to skip the preservatives and other chemicals) • 2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder • 8 ounces ice cubes
Instructions
• Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth (You may have to scrape down the sides).