If I could go back to the beginning and do it all over again, I would:
1: Immediately eliminate very high-carb meals. Big portions of pizza, rice, bread, potatoes etc. Don't wait for the BG test results - these changes are a no-brainer for someone with a T2 diagnosis. Good, immediate common-sense changes are zero pizza, cauliflower rice instead of rice (can be got in single portion frozen bags from the likes of Tesco, soaks up sauce from curry, stir-fry etc. so tastes like the sauce), a decent lower-carb bread product if you can find one (I currently eat this product -
Link), and if eating potatoes make it a couple of baby ones. Also, no feasting on fruit, and obviously eliminate big doses of sugar.
2: Do the BG testing before and after meals as described by others above and adjust carbs down from there as necessary. If I could go back in time I would have actually gotten a CGM for this purpose as there is a free trial of the Libre 2 (Plus) in many countries, and taken screenshots of the graphs for later reference. The reason for this is that the 2 hour test, while very useful and cheap, is something of a blunt instrument compared to a CGM. For me, some meals actually cause a BG peak after the 2 hour mark, others spike high and fast but drop back down well before the 2 hour mark, and yet others cause a long period of elevation. The 2 hour test can sometimes be deceptive. Here's a particularly unusual example of one such meal - the pitta bread probably wasn't as good an idea as the result of the 2 hour test would make it appear. That said - the 2 hour test is usually a good indicator.
3: If overweight, as I was, plan for weight loss and get it done. This long video interview with Prof Roy Taylor describes the liver fat problem that might be present and what weight loss can do in the ideal circumstance, particularly if achieved soon after diagnosis -
Link A low carb diet will very often lead to weight loss, though don't take too long about it.
I did get the weight-loss done, dropped 28Kg after diagnosis (between October and May), and the results have been amazing. My HbA1c dropped from 89 mmol/mol in October to 39 mmol/mol in January to 32 mmol/mol in June. The first drop was mostly weight loss and some meds, the second drop was due to more weight loss while still on the meds and reducing carb intake. Neither the effects of those meds or the amount of carbs I was eating could account for that drop - weight loss was by far the biggest factor. What I didn't do though was analyse the effects of the carbs I was eating right from the beginning. I mostly focussed on calories, not carbs, for the first few months and that was probably a bad idea. I may have done myself some harm that I could have avoided. I never went extremely low on carbs as I didn't need to, though I absolutely should have moderated my carb intake further and sooner.
