Sugar Surfing 101: Riding a drop
Sugar Surfing™ is the art of 1) visual pattern recognition, 2) assigning significance to what is visualized, 3) choosing an action to take (or not take), then 4) following up carefully and at times frequently. Here is another basic lesson in Sugar Surfing I ask you to study carefully.
The image below highlights all the basic patterns seen on a blood glucose trendline. I’ve color-coded them to help each stand out. First, notice the light orange “drop” on the left. It’s a slowing falling BG trend which began at a steady BG trend around 160 mg/dl (8.9 mmol/L). It’s a slow drop of around 90 mg/dl (5 mmol/L) over a 3-hour period. Slow drops or rises often happens at work when I get busy moving about the office or stressed for whatever reason. In this instance, the drop was not fast enough to trigger a falling BG alert alarm. Yet I was aware of it since I glance every hour or two, more so as I approach a meal time. I also make a habit of glancing at the trend line between patient encounters in my clinic.
Since this BG trend was falling gradually, I chose to do a little experiment of sorts. Normally, I eat a small meal at lunch. In this case some Greek yogurt with a total of 8 grams carbs (20 grams protein). Since I wasn’t falling fast and was not going to do anything strenuous over noon, I just chose to break the BG drop with a small carb meal and see what happened. I will also add that this food is on my “top ten” list of foods I can eat. That means I have a good idea of how this meal will behave regarding blood sugar changes. This is another core Sugar Surfing principle: know how your favorite meals or foods affect your blood sugar. It’s not just the amount of carbs. Think holistically. The fat and protein, plus other factors, will contribute to the overall blood sugar effect of a given meal or food.