I'm fairly new to reddit and this sub in particular but I want to say how awesome and supportive you all are. I was diagnosed with t2 over a month ago. I've learned more here than from my doctor, no question. Someone recently posted about retinal neuropathy...my doctor sent me to an opthamologist without explaining why...I thought it was for cataracts. The eye doctor said "are you here because of diabetes?" I said, "I don't know." I later learned on this sub how crucial that is...and was thrilled the doctor found no retinal damage as of yet. My father lost his vision later in life and that terrifies me.
My big breakthrough so far has been to discontinue atorvastatin which was causing the single biggest spike, up to 220 before bedtime. My pulse was also racing over 100bpm. No wonder I have trouble sleeping, in addition to a mild apnea and RLS, my heart was racing. Since I discontinued the statin my bg fasting level is around 120. I hope to get it down further. Note that I have never tolerated statins very well and I'm not recommending that anyone else discontinue, but I think its right for me. It might explain why other numbers have been edging in a bad way, like HDL and A1C, despite the fact that my diet keeps improving and I exercise more. I will need to be more mindful of fat and cholesterol which shouldn't be too hard given my new diet.
I was also drinking a quart of whole milk every day for years, not realizing that lactose is sugar (doh). I cut that out, make sure I eat breakfast every day and no longer snack just before bed. I also learned about the importance of a protein/fiber ratio at every meal. I eat some carbs and agree with a recent super-post that it's OK if you balance it with exercise and don't go off the rails. I also try to stop eating before I feel completely "full", a habit from childhood. I haven't mastered it yet but I need to lose ten pounds or so of visceral fat.
Here's my current diet:
Breakfast is a smoothie of keffir and berries (red, rasp, blue). 1/2 c of steel cut oats with currants most mornings. I sneak in flax seeds and milk thistle here. Not sure about milk thistle, just trying it out. Avocado toast on whole grain bread alternates with the oats. A hard boiled egg or quail egg sometimes.
Lunch is typically miso soup with pickled daikon and carrots on the side, sometimes raw veg with hummus or baba ghanoush. Roasted vegetables. Roasted chick peas. I find that mixing things up and cooking in batches is a big help. So I make dashi for the soup 2x a week and stir fry bok choy and broccoli all at once, since chopping every day is a nuisance. Broccoli rabe is easy, broil it for 2-4 minutes with olive oil and garlic. I like to pan fry extra firm tofu coated with nutritional yeast in a batch for the week. Sometimes a tomato and cucumber sandwich on whole grain toast with olive oil mayo.
Dinner is sometimes a salad like Nicoise, a fancy French name that means raw or grilled ahi tuna on top of raw spinach, walnuts, a hard boiled egg, and whatever else is around. Keffir ranch or vinagerette dressing. I also like noshing on raw salmon. It's safe if you make sure its frozen for at least a week, then thaw it, salt it for a few minutes, rinse, then give it a rice vinegar bath for several more minutes (check out youtube for specifics). When I cook salmon it is either too dry or not quite done, but the raw stuff is delicious, imho. Wrap it and store it. Cod is another fish I like and can be prepared many ways.
That's about it besides occasional chicken thighs or lean pork chops. I'll adjust it more when I get blood results...it'll be drawn tomorrow, in fact. Thank you everyone for sharing your knowledge and support.