Hi Jen,
Sorry you had such a bad experience at the gym. I don't dare go. I bought myself a second hand exercise bike for £20 recently and I'm on that most evenings. I can't manage long, but I'm building it up slowly, just to do something and get my heart rate up a bit. Also the advice you have seen here about Low carb higher fat is great. I swear finding this forum with all the wonderful help and advice has saved my life! And helped me lose weight. It seems so wrong sometimes, eating cheese and cream and butter, but it does work, it is also so easy once you get the hang of it. I bought Collins gem carb guide, its a small book which tells you how many carbs are in loads of different foods. Also it would be helpful to get yourself a BG meter, it's shocking to see how high some foods send you and then helps you to not have them again. Equally you may find you can have something you thought you couldn't. I bought mine off Amazon its a SD Codefree, whilst you may find companies giving these away, the strips cost a fortune, whereas on the SD codefree they are the cheapest for strips. You could always ask your doctor or nurse for a meter but not many give them to type 2's.
Good luck in your journey. You've done yourself a huge favour in finding this site.