Welcome to the forum
@PegRoberts
Sorry to hear about your diagnosis, but it sounds like you are off to a great start, and congratulations on the weight loss!
Diabetes can be a frustratingly individual condition, and people can react to the same menu in very different ways, so really it’s a matter of experimenting and trying to find a way if eating that suits you.
There are a number of different meal plans here which cover a whole range of approaches including Mediterranean, calorie controlled and low carb, which might give you some ideas
Eating nutritious, healthy and downright delicious food is that bit easier with our meal planners. We've created multiple different weekly meal plans to suit all types and tastes. They're nutritionally balanced, are calorie and carb counted, and can help if you want to lose weight. They also...
www.diabetes.org.uk
Many members here find that moderating their carb intake is a very powerful diabetes management strategy, as
@Inka says, anything below 130g of carbs a day is generally considered to be low carb, but several members aim for lower down to 40-80g a day and say they don't feel deprived of hungry. One of the secrets appears to be to rebalance the menu with more protein and good fats (that have no effect on blood glucose levels) which increase satiety and keep you feeling full.
If you need to self fund your BG meter, the most affordable meters members here have found are the
SD Gluco Navii or the
Spirit Tee2 - which both have test strips at around £8 for 50
You can use a blood glucose meter, taking a reading before and again 2hrs after eating, to see what the differences are, to help identify any particular sources of carbohydrates that seem to be spiking your BG levels (initially in a way the numbers themselves matter less than the differences between them). Ideally you would want to see a rise of no more than 2-3mmol/L at the 2hr mark.
Once you can see how you respond to different meals you can begin experimenting with reducing portion sizes of the carbs where you see bigger rises. You might find that you are particularly sensitive to carbohydrate from one source (eg bread), but have more liberty with others (eg oats or basmati rice) - It’s all very individual! You might even find that just having things at a different time of day makes a difference - with breakfast time being the trickiest. Over weeks and months of experimentation you can gradually tweak and tailor your menu to find one that suits your tastebuds, your waistline, your budget
and your BG levels - and a way of eating that is flexible enough to be sustainable long-term.
🙂
If you are interested in this approach you may find
test-review-adjust by Alan S a helpful framework.
