Erin Callahan
Writing at Low GI Lifestyle
About
February 2025, my A1C came back at 6.1. I found out sitting at my desk in the HR department of a Seattle-area software company. I work in corporate wellness. I design the programs. The screening that flagged my blood sugar was one I had personally added to our benefits package three years earlier. I have thought about this fact many, many times.
I want to say I overhauled my diet immediately. I did not. There was a deadline. Then another one. My follow-up numbers were exactly the same, and that was the end of the grace period I had been quietly granting myself.
The glycemic index app came first -- I downloaded it on the drive home from the follow-up appointment, sitting in a Trader Joe's parking lot because I needed to buy groceries and didn't know what to buy anymore. I spent twenty minutes in the cereal aisle. I started logging every meal against my CGM readings and realized quickly that "healthy whole grain" is doing a lot of unearned work on a lot of packaging. Sushi was one of the bigger surprises: cauliflower rice sushi doesn't spike me the way regular rolls do, and the gap between the two is larger than any chart I'd read predicted. Almond-flour muffins are not the answer -- I tried eight varieties, including the Bob's Red Mill-based ones, the ones with applesauce, the ones with Greek yogurt, and I say this having genuinely wanted them to work: none of them are worth making. The Explore Cuisine lentil pasta from Costco does work. My husband eats it without complaint. That is my real-world test and I stand by it.
My mother's potato gratin at Christmas still spikes me. December 26, 2025: the CGM note exists. I make the exception every year. I'm not going to pretend I won't.
I'm not a nutritionist or a dietitian. No credential behind my name. What I have is sixteen months of meal-tracking data, a CGM log with notes my husband finds mildly alarming, and a writing style he describes as "you're going to say it was fine and then explain why it wasn't quite fine." That is an accurate description.
Posts by Erin Callahan
- How to Make Low Glycemic Oatmeal with Steel Cut Oats
- The Kidney Drain Theory: My Honest Take on GlucoBerry After Months of Low-GI Living
- How to Prepare Dried Beans for a Lower Glycemic Response
- How to Use Apple Cider Vinegar to Lower Post-Meal Glucose
- How to Use the Cold Potato Method for Resistant Starch
- Manage Sugar Cravings with Sugar Defender and Low-GI Foods
- Beyond the Rice Cake: The Low-GI Snacks That Finally Stopped My Mid-Afternoon Crashes
- How to Test Your Blood Sugar After Meals With a Glucometer
- How to Start Walking After Meals to Lower Glucose Spikes
- How to Use GlucoBerry to Support Healthy Insulin Levels
- How to Use a Spiralizer for Low Glycemic Pasta Alternatives at Home
- The Kitchen Lab Tutorial: How to Calculate Glycemic Load for Your Favorite Recipes
- Why I Added GlucoBerry to My Low-GI Kitchen Lab Routine
- The Commuter's Tutorial: Staying Low-GI on the I-5
- A Step-by-Step Guide to Identifying Hidden Sugars in Your Pantry
- Surviving the Suburban Seattle BBQ Season: A Low-GI Tutorial
- How I Beat the 3 PM Slump Without Sugary Snacks
- Why Your 'Healthy' Smoothie is Spiking Your Glucose
- Managing the Dawn Phenomenon: My Seattle Morning Routine
- 5 Ways to Hack Your Morning Coffee for Stable Blood Sugar
- How to Bake Low-Glycemic Bread That Doesn't Taste Like Cardboard
- The HR Manager’s Guide to Low-GI Corporate Lunches
- The Great Grain Swap: 90 Days of Cauliflower Rice and My Seattle Kitchen Lab
- When Low-GI Isn't Enough: My 60-Day Experiment with Gluco6 in the Seattle Suburbs
- The Stained Cheat Sheet: How I Finally Mastered Glycemic Index Without a PhD
- My Sunday Survival Guide: How I Prep a Week of Low-GI Meals Without Losing My Mind
- Sugar Defender Review: Can This Supplement Actually Help a Low-GI Newbie Like Me?
- My Prediabetes Wake-Up Call: How I Rebuilt My Relationship with Food (and What’s Actually on My Plate Now)
Disclosure
This site includes affiliate links. If you buy through one, I earn a commission at no extra cost to you. I only mention products that fit into my actual low-GI routine -- if something didn't work for me, or tasted like the inside of a cardboard box, I say so in the article. No financial relationship with any healthcare provider, medical clinic, or supplement manufacturer beyond standard retail affiliate commissions.