Glucose monitor 1

My first Stelo continuous glucose monitor lasted a full 15 days, with only a few glitches in the sensor as it was nearing the end of its life. I was so happy it lasted so long because I put it on my upper arm and I accidentally bumped it or got my shirt sleeve caught on it a few times, and it stayed put. For the most part, I forgot it was there, but I checked my numbers often and am documenting my trends. I was pleased to find out how high my blood sugars stayed in general, but as predicted, when I ate my low carb foods, there was little to no spike in blood sugar, and when I ate burgers and fries, I saw my numbers skyrocket and not come back down for hours. I intentionally ate both good and bad foods to see how big of a spike either caused. One surprise was my favorite salad I get frequently, a smoked salmon salad with peas (one of the highest carb veggies), boiled egg and lettuce and I always get ranch dressing. The smoked salmon is from a local place and is high quality, and I thought it was one of the cleanest things I could eat out, but it caused a bigger spike than I expected, like more than 20 points. Typically, a 30 point spike or more is considered a significant spike, so in the 20's is definitely a moderate spike. For my next sensor, which I haven't put on yet, I will try that same salad both without peas but with ranch, and with peas but without ranch, to see which one is causing the spike. This is such a helpful tool, I just wish they weren't so expensive! My bacon cheeseburger salad that I get at another local place faired much better, barely moving the numbers at all. I eat that salad with mayo instead of dressing, so I'm guessing the ranch dressing is culprit on the salmon salad. I was surprised to see that the heavy cream and the 4 different sugar-free sweeteners I tried had little to no effect on my blood sugar, as did cheese, summer sausage, hot dogs and even cottage cheese, despite the lactose. Probably the most curious was the huge difference between the types of workouts. I did HIIT cardio, abs-heavy pilates, and cardio. Overall, strength training keeps your metabolism burning way longer than cardio, and I was well aware than strenuous workouts will cause glucose spikes, but I was surprised at how long after finishing both the pilates and the HIIT (think weight training at a high intensity/pace so it becomes a weight training AND cardio session all in one) kept my numbers elevated throughout the day. On the contrary, my lowest numbers through the whole two weeks were after simple movements, cardio- walking the dog, even in extreme cold, or house cleaning, just basically moving around. That brought my numbers into the 80's. I only really did one dedicated fast, the first day I put the sensor on, it was a 24 hour fast, and my numbers were pretty consistently under 100, which is ideal (under 80 is phenomenal, I didn't see those numbers very frequently). I will do more fasting with my next sensor to see what different lengths do to my glucose. The other thing I am planning is going a day without sweetener in my water, to really get a better idea of if those sweeteners are effecting my glucose. I mentioned that they don't show a spike when I drink them, but since I always have sweeteners in my water, even from the start of my day, I don't have a way to tell if my glucose would be consistently lower without adding these to begin with. Since its a really ingrained habit, I really want to be certain its not interfering with my progress. And, since I stopped drinking cream in my coffee I am down to one cup in the morning, but I will test without any coffee to see if the extra caffeine is having an effect. I am in "Christmas mode" now, where I am not stressing out about trying to be keto. There have been years when I really did well sticking to my guns, those were years where I killed myself cooking multiple keto-friendly recipes with mixed results, and while I know I could have had more restraint this weekend, I have not felt this joyful around Christmas in so years and I am celebrating. I even intentionally put on Christmas music while I was cooking last weekend, I think my family thought I had finally lost my mind! So anyway, there was egg nog and chips with handmade guacamole, and pizza. There will be more on Christmas Day and then I will reflect on the year, weigh in and take measurements and get ready to set goals for next year. While I really wish I hadn't regained some of the weight I lost, I can only look ahead to what is possible and then dive in!