Actually, it was in March 2004, 12 years ago now, which was when I was diagnosed. I simply counted carbs at every meal, ate what I liked (mostly good stuff, kept of the junk) within the limits of the carb count, monitored my blood sugar 2-4 times a day, kept a food diary, drew nice graphs of my blood sugar (no computer to draw them for me in those days), lost a couple of stone, walked every day - not far - 15-30 minutes.
I used to reckon on 160-230g carb per day, and morning BGs were usually around 6, and HbA1c between 5.1 and 6.0 - for 6 years. I thought it was a breeze. GP told me that I had the best numbers on the practice records for Type II Diet & Exercise Only. I also took Aspen Glucosync, which contains Vanadium and Cinnamon, which I think does help to tip the balance towards lower BG in the early stages - it's about £23 pounds for a pot (you can Google it if you are interested).
But during years 1-6 it was creeping up from 5.1-6.0, and then it went up one number each year after that, until in year 10 HbA1c was 10+. Exercise regime buckled a bit end of year 6 after having a mini-stroke at age not-quite-56 (don't let that frazzle you though - I also have Atrial Fibrillation, and that was before my Ablation procedure to sort that out, so it was not anything to do with the well-controlled-at-that-time diabetes that caused the stroke).
But my doctor also said, Very well done, but don't kid yourself - Once a diabetic always a diabetic.
Try this book if you are interested in what fuelled my fire when I started out:
The First Year: Type 2 Diabetes: A Patient-Expert Guide for the Newly Diagnosed: The First Year - An Essential Guide for the Newly Diagnosed Paperback – 26 Feb 2004 by Gretchen Becker (you can get it on Amazon)
Gretchen Becker talks about genetic predisposition. I have a friend who is about 25 stone. She is not hypothyroid, she is not Type II diabetic, she is as healthy as can be (bar her high-as-the-sky BMI) - she just eats a lot. She has NOT got the genetic predisposition for Type II. Either you have or you have not! So I hope our Easy Cure friend will go on being 'cured', and I too would like to hear all about it in a year's time, in 5 years' time, in 10 years' time.
At time of going to press I still say, Dead Beta Cells are Dead Beta Cells.