In July 2025 I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
Treatment included
- Medication
- wearing a continuous blood glucose monitor. You measure 2hr after each meal via a app on phone after tapping the sensor on your arm. If you are low or high it gives off an alarm. For me it was a game changer. It showed me what foods are high for my body. If the alarm went off if i was too low on the sensor it’s recommended to check readings via the old way using a finger prick the old way with glucose monitor.
- Go on the keto diet. (*it can also help with cancer)
- Savoury breakfast with Protein
- Vinegar before eating carbs
- Have vegetables as a entree
- Exercise 10 minutes after eating
- Clothe the carbs don’t eat them naked example pasta/rice/bread eat with a protein, a healthy fat with fibre then eat the carbs instead of just having pasta/rice/bread on its own
- protein at each meal includes breakfast.
- Eggs are a quick fix meal. Having some boiled and stored in tupperware in fridge was a lifesaver.
- Preparing salads for a few days ahead were also a great help.
- Cooking meals and freezing some for when you don’t want to cook. It is a 2 minute reheat in the microwave and meals are ready.
- Turn out kitchen light after dinner (like a restaurant closes up at night). Your body needs a few hours food free to sleep well.
- My bgl were dropping too low so a follow-up appointment with Dietician was recommended. Sometimes the sensors give a low reading so its best to do a fingerprick to check it.
- Understanding the order you eat your food is a key part to success to manage glucose levels. The order to eat is now 1/non starchy vegetables first 2/ Protein with healthy fat eg avocado then 3/carbs last.
- Swapping foods were also a key factor for me.
- Swapping out sweet potato and replacing it with pumpkin.
- Swapping out rice and use cauliflower “rice”.
- Swap mash potato with cauli mash.
- Swap pasta with spiralized zucchini or carrot.
- Swap blueberries with strawberries.
- Not eating bread, pasta, or rice and potatoes also made a huge difference for me personally.
- The Dietician gave me information sheets with food items showing the high foods vs low foods. I stuck to the low.
- Not all Greek Yogurt were good. Some are just sugar bombs.
- Not all wraps/Tortilla were acceptable.
- Don’t fall for low gi / keto on packets. It’s a marketing tool to get people to buy the item. Some raised bgl significantly.
- <30g carbs per serve on nutritional information is ideal.
- Maximum 60g carb / day and 150g protein / day
- Sodium <1500mg /day was recommended by my cardiologist.
- 1.5ltrs water per day was recommended years ago by my kidneyspecialist. He said if you go over 2ltrs day it can damage kidneys.
- Eating breakfast later eg 10am onwards, lunch around 1-2pm and dinner 6pm. Fasting for 16hrs between last meal at night to breakfast.
- Getting more sleep at night. Resetting my night routine.
- Foods that put my glucose up included any processed snacks like smiths chips, Sauces such as balsamic and BBQ and Tomato Sauce. Dijon and Mint Sauce or Vinegarette were ok. Fried food eg Seafood basket/fish and chips, Schnitzel and some takeaway eg KFC, Sushi, Chinese also put it up but I was able to find other meals that didn’t put it up. See https://cookwithbarb.blog/home-delivery-meals/
- Get grilled fish or chicken instead of fried at takeaway/restaurants. Ask for double vegetables and sauce/dressing on the side. Ask for lemon wedge instead of rich sugar sweet sauces.
- Keep snacks to a minimum if at all. I would have 90% chocolate or seaweed snack/Nori or harvest snap peas or cobbs gluten-free popcorn. Not all popcorn was the same. I recently found diet Jelly was also suitable.
- Out was solo soft drink and juices but sparkling mineral water was ok.
- I wasn’t able to do any exercise during this time. It all happened by diet alone. It was however recommended a 10 minute walk after each meal would also help.
- See my appliances that help with food prep for 1.
These are my own personal results. You need to do what works best for you.
This week also marked 2yrs cancer free.
Cook with Barb 