Hi Nicola and welcome from me too
Those BG readings of high teens must be making you feel pretty rough and making life a struggle. I know I often feel like I have lead weights on my arms and legs when I hit 9s and 10s. When did you take those readings? Were they first thing in the morning or after food perhaps?
I wonder if it might be helpful to look at one meal at a time and perhaps start with breakfast, especially as that is a meal that the rest of your family could sort themselves, so you just have yourself to feed. Most of us are also more insulin resistant in the morning which means that for us diabetics, our BG levels will go higher and be slower to come down if we eat a lot of carbs then, so finding a low carb breakfast which you enjoy and fits whatever time constraints you have (I imagine considerable with a job and family) will probably have a more significant impact than any other meal. And of course most of us have the same (or similar) breakfast every morning, so a relatively easy fix.
What do you currently have for breakfast?
Many of us have whole milk Natural Greek yoghurt with a few berries (rasps, blackberries, summer berry mix, sour cherries, blueberries as these are the lowest car fruits) mixed seeds and chopped nuts. I usually add a dusting of cinnamon. Eggs are another popular choice and so versatile.
I usually have a cup of coffee with real double cream with my breakfast. The whole milk yoghurt and cream are often lower carb than other alternatives and the fat slows down the digestion of food and therefore keeps you from feeling like you need to snack between meals and it provides slow release energy. It also tastes good so you don't feel deprived and that is important with a life long dietary change.
There are also options to batch bake low carb breakfast muffins at the weekend so that you can just grab one and go.
The other option which might be easier for you in some respects is to do a meal replacement shakes type diet and follow the Newcastle Diet or Fast 800 Very Low Calorie short term weight loss program to see if that will push your diabetes into remission. There are certainly people on the forum who have had success with that although the key thing with that is to keep the weight off after you finish.
I personally prefer the low carb higher fat option as it is enjoyable and I can see me eating like this now for the rest of my life with no great difficulty. I was a sugar addict and carb monster pre diagnosis and I know that I could very easily go back to that if I don't restrict my carbs. Oddly I don't find it difficult to restrict them. The days when I have problems are the days when I had a slice of bread/toast or a biscuit and then the cravings start. If I avoid them, I don't miss them and I am not even tempted by other people eating them.
As regards your 20,000 steps I appreciate that that is well over the recommended level but clocking up steps and actually doing prolonged exercise (walking, running, cycling or swimming etc) are very different. Getting into a routine of specific daily exercise and a rhythm of movement and breathing will really help. Walking should be brisk enough to make you breath more deeply and get a little sweaty and ideally 20 mins or more. That is when you start to burn the glucose in your blood.
Anyway, I hope that gives you some ideas to get started.
I know
@adrian1der and myself both feel that our diabetes diagnosis was the kick up the backside we needed to lose weight and become fitter and eat healthier, so in many respects it has actually improved our health rather than diminished it.
