Hi and welcome from me too.
Sorry to hear you are struggling to maintain changes to your lifestyle. I don't think I am quite the rosy example of success that Mike has described above but I am finding that low carb, higher fat helps a lot together with exercise.
I was a sugar addict pre-diagnosis and big comfort eater. I could easily consume a whole multipack of snickers in an afternoon without pausing for breath and even after the last one, i was capable of eating more if I had more. There was no "off switch" once I started. I will say that my diet otherwise waould be considerd quite healthy in that I always ate wholemeal bread and plenty of vegetables and fruit, but the comfort eating was sugar/chocolate based.
Firstly I think it is important to acknowledge that I could easily slide back to that situation, just like a recovering alcoholic. I am conscious of that risk almost every day and that helps me to regularly assess my diet and adjust if I feel I am sliding. For me, finding low carb higher fat treats helped a lot and I ensure that I have plenty available. Many of these things might be considered unhealthy by NHS standards but they are far healthier than the alternative that I risk sliding into without them..... plus I do not accept the "fat is bad for our health" mantra that we have been bombarded with all of our lives. I know I am far fitter and healthier for ditching the carbs and eating more fat and there have been a number of very significant health issues/conditions which have improved as a result of cutting carbs and eating more natural fat. One being that my acute and chronic migraine problem stopped overnight after 20+ years and my joints are much less painful and my gut/bowel health is significantly improved, plus my skin is much better.
Interestingly, I used the shame of causing myself to get diabetes to motivate me. Some people think it is very wrong that we should feel shame but I know that my abuse of sugar has been a factor and I am ashamed of that and the only thing I can do about that now is to do better from now on. Others find the fear of complications helps them. You have a lovely family which could well be your strongest motivator to keep yourself healthy.
Can I ask what dietary changes you make to improve your levels and is it because you find it unsustainable that you fall off the wagon. Is there a way to make it more sustainable so that it is easier to stick at it? Learning how to go low carb takes time and planning and picking up tips and ideas from others. This is where this forum has been an enormous help to me. Getting ideas to try and finding new things that I enjoy that I never would have considered before. It was also important to ditch my feelings of guilt about eating more fat and after a lifetime of hearing that fat is bad..... that was really difficult. I felt really bad that I was going against the advice of my nurse who had stressed the importance of a low fat, low sugar, low salt, no alcohol diet. It felt like there was no joy in food and that is unhelpful. I did follow an extremely strict low carb, low fat diet for about 8 weeks and it wasn't enjoyable or sustainable, but once I introduced fat back into my diet, that changed and I started to enjoy food again. My morning coffee with real double cream is my daily luxury. I always said I would never drink coffee without sugar (despite drinking tea without sugar for the last 10 years) but the cream (cream has less carbs than milk) makes my coffee far more enjoyable and sustaining than the sugar ever did. The fat from the cream provides slow release energy which doesn't spike your BG levels and make you crave more, like sugar does. I eat lots of lovely cheeses and to a large extent, cheese has become my new chocolate. Again, the fat and protein in the cheese are sustaining. My lunch is often half an apple with a big chunk of cheese. If I have biscuits or bread they seem to be like putting a foot on the slippery slope and I just want more carbs and it is much more difficult to control my carb intake once I eat these foods but I can manage half an apple with my cheese and not feel like I need more. I always have pots of oiives with feta in my fridge and my guilty pleasures are pork scratchings (perfect mix of protein and fat with no carbs) and salami that I slice thinly and microwave for a minute or so sandwiched between kitchen paper to make meaty salami crisps. I eat fatty meat like lamb chops or belly pork with lots of veggies. I cook my cabbage with a knob of butter. I have broccoli with sour cream and chive dip from the chilled counter (not the Doritos stuff in a jar) I have mashed cauliflower instead of potato with a big dollop of full fat cream cheese and wholegrain mustard and sprinkled with grated hard cheese. I have a great recipe for cauliflower and halloumi curry which I either eat on it's own with a spoon or I might use Konjac rice which is pretty well carb free and mainly fibre and water so really good for gut health. I make great big dishes of ratatouille at this time of year and sometimes I will just have it on it's own or with meat or halloumi cheese baked on top. These are just a few of the many foods/meals I eat and may not be to your tastes but finding things that are will be key to success.
I would also say that exercise for me is a massive part of the equation. Maybe you could rope the children into going out for a walk or bicycle ride after your evening meal instead of sitting down in front of the TV or whatever. Make it fun and create a treasure hunt route where you have to spot some thing blue and something triangular and find and collect 5 different leaves and pass 4 houses with the door number 4.... or play "I spy" as you go. Just silly, fun stuff that the children will enjoy and that will help to keep you motivated to go out and do it. Exercise after meals particularly can be really beneficial in helping to reduce BG levels and if you can make it a family "habit" it will stand you all in good stead. There is a genetic aspect to diabetes, so any good habits that you can instill in the children may reap rewards for them in later life too.
Anyway, if you can give us an idea of the sort of things you generally eat for breakfast, lunch and evening meal, we could perhaps help you to find alternatives which would be enjoyable whilst still remaining low carb and therefore help you maintain better diabetes management.
As mentioned, the other main option, is the Newcastle diet which is a short term very low calorie (800cals a day) 8-12 week course to lose weight rapidly. The key thing is that you need to maintain the weight loss and for me as a yoyo dieter over the years I know this would not be helpful for me, whereas the low carb approach actually works because I am learning more and more food meal ideas as I go on and it keeps me focused.
All that said, I have Type 1 diabetes and so I have insulin. Sometimes just having to think about calculating and injecting insulin before I eat something can be a deterrent and particularly when it comes to really sweet stuff like chocolate bars, so that also helps to keep me focused and away from the slippery slope. I am no angel though and I have a little slip every now and again, but I know that I have to pull myself back onto the wagon ASAP and I make sure to never buy stuff that I can't trust myself with....ie. multipacks of snickers or Cadbury's cream eggs. 🙄. I do however find it amazingly easy to say no when people are sharing around sweets or biscuits in front of me now and it mostly doesn't bother/tempt me anymore which is quite a revelation!
Wishing you lots of luck and if you need any specific food ideas.... like low carb breakfast options or whatever, shout up. For me, eating more fat was the game changer for making it sustainable and enjoyable and I would like to say that my cholesterol levels have come down since diagnosis 4.5 years ago despite eating a lot more saturated fat than I ever did before and I am not the only person to find this.
