Lessons learned from CGM

I (61F) have had pre-diabetes for 3.5 years. I made lots of dietary changes, lost weight, increased exercise even though I was already doing a lot of it, did Glucose Goddess's hacks, etc. My A1C started at 6.0 and now stays, stubbornly, at 5.7/5.8 consistently. My fasting glucose is consistently in the low 80s. My doctor is okay with these numbers at my age. However, I wanted to see if something I'm doing is bad and maybe I had an easy change or two to make. I used a Stelo OTC CGM. I did not do finger-prick checks for the numbers, just to get trends. The Stelo came as a 2-pack so I'll do it again when I have another calm 2 week period. Here's what I learned: * My weekday breakfast of greek yogurt, berries and homemade grain-free granola (nuts&seeds), glass of 2% milk and tea does not spike me. * Drinking the 2% milk with breakfast and dinner does not cause a spike at all. That is my typical drink and I was worried the lactose in the milk was a problem. * My Saturday breakfast of steel cut oats must be "dressed". When I had it with toasted walnuts and a dollop of yogurt it didn't spike at all. When I had it plain, my numbers started at 90, spiked to 152 at 45 minutes, down to 98 at 1hr and 85 at 2hr. A fast rise and fast recovery. * My Sunday breakfast of homemade buttermilk waffles or pancakes made with King Arthur Keto Wheat flour does not spike me. I put butter and homemade sugar-free blueberry jam on that. * Similarly homemade pizza with KA Keto Wheat pizza dough did not spike me. Hurray for Keto Wheat flour. * My morning 16oz black tea with 4g honey and half&half does not cause any spike. Hurray for morning beverages. * Butternut squash spikes me. I made it with dinner in two different ways and it was pretty consistent that it would rise to nearly 140. * Beans can spike me too. Recipes with 2 cans of beans were worse. * The ACV hack worked wonders for me, every time I tried it. Identical meals (with butternut) and drinking ACV before the meal did not spike at all. * Exercise within the hour worked great to drop from a spike. But the numbers increased again as soon as I stopped. So 10-15 minutes of cardio after dinner was great but not really enough to offset a rise. * I only had 3 readings above the 140 range boundary on the Stelo app for PD. The highest was the steel cut oats at 152. I will be making more use of ACV before any questionable meals. Tonight I roasted a different kind of winter squash and used it before eating that. I will be making sure to keep moving after meals. I will pay attention and maybe reduce beans in recipes.