From hidden carbs to bak chor mee with konjac noodles: real lessons from a sensor on the arm, a hawker centre and a lot of curiosity.
In 2022, I sat across from my endocrinologist and heard two things I'll never forget. The first was that I had Type 2 Diabetes, diagnosed at the same time as my breast cancer. The second was that reversing my diabetes was highly unlikely.
I decided to try anyway. And one of the most important tools I used was a small sensor on the back of my arm: a continuous glucose monitor, or CGM.
Within a year, I had lost 16kg and reversed my diabetes. Since then, I've guided many others through their own CGM journeys here in Singapore. These are the lessons that come up again and again, for me and for the people I work with.
This is the lesson that surprises people the most. You can be doing everything "right" (eating clean, exercising, avoiding obvious junk) and still have foods in your day that send your glucose on a rollercoaster.
Common culprits include foods with a healthy halo: fruit juices and smoothies, granola and sweetened yoghurts, "wholemeal" breads, oat drinks, and dried fruit. None of these are "bad", but for some people they behave much more like sugar than expected.
When Rosalind came to me in 2024, she felt frustrated and defeated. She had gained 7kg during COVID and, despite eating clean and exercising, nothing worked. Even her doctor couldn't find an issue.
Her CGM showed us what was happening: hidden carbs were quietly spiking her blood sugar. Once she learnt simple, effective ways to manage them, the weight started to come off, all 7kg and more. In her words, she got her "energy, balance, and confidence back."
Most of us think about food only in terms of what we eat. A CGM teaches you to think about how.
Eating vegetables and protein first, and saving the rice, noodles or bread for last, is one of the simplest changes I teach. It's backed by research, too: in one study, eating carbohydrates last lowered post-meal glucose by about 29% at 30 minutes and 37% at 60 minutes compared with eating them first.1
When you're diagnosed with diabetes, it's easy to fear that you'll never enjoy food again. Living in Singapore, food is culture, family and comfort. Cutting it all out was never going to be sustainable.
What a CGM gives you instead is information to make smart swaps, so you can keep the dishes you love and adjust the parts that affect you most.
Two years ago, Geraldine was facing an HbA1c of 10. Through food sequencing, exercise and wearing a CGM, she learnt exactly how to manage her levels. She's lost 17kg and is now off all her medications for diabetes, blood pressure and cholesterol.
And she still enjoys her favourite bak chor mee, now with konjac noodles. At 66, she says she feels "vibrant and in full command of my habits."
Other swaps worth experimenting with: kopi or teh siew dai or kosong, brown rice or half rice at the economic rice stall, soup noodles instead of dry noodles with sweet sauce, and adding an egg or extra vegetables to almost anything.
If there's one habit I wish everyone would pick up, it's a short walk after meals. When your muscles are moving, they use glucose from your blood, which helps soften the rise after eating. Research shows light walking breaks reduce post-meal glucose and insulin, and work better than simply standing.2
You don't need a gym. A walk around the block after lunch, a loop of the void deck after dinner, or taking the stairs at the MRT all count.
Many people are surprised to see their glucose rise on days when they haven't eaten much at all. That's because sleep and stress affect your blood sugar too.
Even one short night can make your body more insulin resistant the next day. In one study, a single night of about 4 hours' sleep reduced insulin sensitivity by around 20% in healthy adults.3 Stress hormones like cortisol can push glucose up as well.
This is why, alongside changing how I ate and adding strength training and cardio, I made mindfulness, breathing exercises, time in nature and quality sleep a priority in my own recovery.
A CGM doesn't just show you what you ate. It shows you how you're living.
Two people can eat the same plate of chicken rice and have very different responses. A large study that tracked 800 people with CGMs found that glucose responses to identical meals varied widely from person to person.4
That's why I'm careful about one-size-fits-all food rules. A CGM helps you stop guessing and start learning what works for you.
Perhaps the most important lesson isn't about glucose at all. So many people I meet carry years of guilt about food and their weight. A CGM changes the conversation from "I was bad today" to "Interesting, what happened there?"
That shift, from judgement to curiosity, is what makes change stick.
Wearing a CGM didn't fix my health on its own. What it did was give me clarity, and with clarity came confidence to make changes, one meal and one habit at a time.
If you've been doing "everything right" and still feel stuck, or you simply want to understand your body better, a CGM might be the most eye-opening two weeks of your year.
As I like to say: no diagnosis is final. We all have the power to reclaim our health.
I'm May, a breast cancer survivor who reversed my Type 2 Diabetes with the help of a CGM. I now coach people in Singapore to understand their blood sugar and build habits that last.
Work with meJoin a CGM workshopThis article is for education only and is not medical advice. Please speak with your doctor before making major changes to your diet, exercise or medication, especially if you have a pre-existing medical condition.
