I have lots of cheese every day, so I’m hoping the cheese advice is wrong
Just wanted to say that I had a similar HBA1c of 89 and went with an exercise and eating “healthily” plan and ... 3 months later it was 76. The most bizarre thing of all? My diabetic nurse was thrilled I was “heading in the right direction”. I was devastated and knew it wasn’t thrilling so then changed my diet to a low carb high fat diet like many others on this forum (I’d had the advantage of being taught how to eat to my meter in the US 10 years earlier, which is outlined in the info that
@daisy1 will post) and 3 months after my number was 48. On no meds throughout. There are lots of success stories posted somewhere in this forum of people who’ve had number drops a lot lower than mine, so take a look around and ask as many questions as you like. It’s an odd learning curve, navigating a lot of contradictory advice.
But yes - I had symptoms like yours too. Was really tired, slightly off balance, getting up at least once a night to go to the bathroom, had blurry eyes and more scarily, areas of seeing nothing in the dark. That was the one that got me panicked, as I’d put the others down to other things but I couldn’t explain that one. I have no symptoms now
And oddly feel better now having less sleep than I did before!
I am lucky that my GP is really supportive of me choosing to go diet-only control and of low carb being a route to take and of me having a meter and testing blood glucose levels (as long as I self-fund) - but it did all come from me - he didn’t recommend it, and the diabetes nurse before him... her entire advice was to eat more healthily and exercise more. Her version of that was wholemeal bread, non-sugary cereals, whole-wheat pasta. All of those have a terrible effect on my blood sugars.
In the end, a lot it is about what foods work or don’t work for you. And a lot of that is trial and error testing with a meter. Good luck and it’s a really good thing that you are looking for options to help tackle your HBA1c numbers.