Hi Rebecca
Welcome to the forum. You have certainly come to the right place for reassurance, help and support. I am still a newbie myself, having been diagnosed in May this year and fully understand like everyone else on this forum what a shock it can be when diagnosed - especially if you have other health problems as well - its a lot to cope with.
However, with the help and advice given here I have managed to get my blood sugars under control and lose over 2 stone in the process. My numbers are usually between 4.8 and 6.2, although I have occasionaly gone into the 7's - but this is rare. My goal was to keep then well under the 7 mark.
What I did learn very quickly was that I needed to change my diet (I have cut out all starchy carbs i.e potatoes, bread, pasta and rice) - I appreciate that everyone is different and my diet may not suit others - you have to find out what works for you - some people can tolerate more carbs than others. I, for one can't have cereal without my bg going skywards and I can't eat muesli or All-Bran.
And the way to do this is to test, test and test and keep a food diary of everything you eat.
The NICE guidelines are:
Fasting (waking)......between 4 - 7 mmol/l
2 hrs after meals .... no more than 8.5 mmol/l
I would suggest that you also test one hour after eating to see if you have 'spiked'. If you can get the above numbers even lower then so much the better. There are loads of threads on here regarding diet - have a read and see what you think.
If I get the munchies, I have all sorts of things - celery with cream cheese, boiled egg, ham or chicken, slice of frittata, parmesan crisps, macadamia nuts etc.
I, too have a sweet tooth and used to love chocolate - can't trust myself to buy a bar as I would eat it all in one go but I am finding other things I can eat. I have just posted a recipe for a chocolate mousse using unsweetened cocoa and mascapone cheese which is absolutely delicious and this satisfies my chocolate cravings - not that I really have cravings anymore since low-carbing - which is great - I also rarely get hungry.
I eat loads of vegetables or salads with everymeal but I have to limit myself with fruit. I can eat apples and pears without too much increase in my bg but apricots and plums send me way over the 7 mark. Most people can tolerate berries, and although I eat these they do send my bg levels up slightly higher than I would like - so I limit them.
As I said, this is what works for me but it may not work for you and the only way to do this is to test and monitor your bg levels. Your blood sugar monitor will tell you what the best 'diabetes diet' is for your body.
I have learnt all this from the people on this forum and am glad that I found it so quickly after being diagnosed - in three months I have halved my HbA1c from 12.5 to 6 and I couldn't have done that without the help I found here and I can't tell you how much better I feel.
Good luck
Rita