Hi Murph,
I have 8 days left on the Newcastle diet & counting down, like you I am type 2, 5ft 6 1/2 but slightly older 49 & diagnosed in January this year, although probably type 2 for at least 18 months before that.
When diagnosed I was 12st 10 but was 13st 9 last summer,I struggled to take weight off when first diagtnosed due to hectic work schedule & finding time to exercise & eat properly, hence one of the reasons I went for this diet. I have been using optifast but not on prescription I have been purchasing directly from my local chemist. So far my weight has dropped to 10st 11, but has slowed in the last week, I was on 3 metformin before the diet started but down to 1 500mg tablet per day now. Prior to starting the diet my bg ranged between 6.2 & 9 with occasional highes of 11 to 13, within 2 week my bg had fallen under 6 & now ranges between 4 & 5.2 first thing in the morning & 2 hours after a meal.
Food wise I try to mix it up with vegetables as much as possible, I cook chinese stir fries plenty of bean sprouts, peppers, courgette, mushroom, onions, pachoi, chilli & ginger, curry using home made sri lankan curry mix(but plenty of options),ginger & chilli, cauliflower, onion, tomato, okra, fine beans, carrot, courgette etc or salad often with some griddled vegetable & balsamic vinegar dressing.
Exercise wise I have felt fine on the diet it was only the first few days I felt a bit run down & achy, I try to exercise most days with a mile swim or an hour in the gym, doing a mixture of cardio & weights, the exercise certainly helps.
My consultant wanted me to stay on one metformin as he believed it would help with weight loss, but but hope to come off that & my finofibrate for cholestral when I go back to see him at the end of October, I will try to get a glucose tolerence test done in September to confirm all is back to normal but at present it seems very promoising.
The first 3 or 4 days are the worst, but barbecues & meals out can be hard work & really test your resolve, but so far I have stuck to the diet rigidly.
Good luck
Mark