Hello mez and welcome
It is very irritating when some people assume you caused T2 by your own actions. Even if you are over weight at diagnosis modern theories say the reality is the reverse of what is commonly thought in that it is the undetected early stages of the disease itself that causes many people to gain weight because their insulin resistance rises, which causes more insulin to be produced, which causes them to gain weight, which causes further rises in insulin resistance etc. etc. Behind the scenes those peoples diets and amounts of exercise could be no worse than a healthy eating and active non diabetic.
As to useful advise. The key for most members who have successfully controlled T2 on this forum is to recognise that carbohydrates are what causes large rises in blood levels. So most of us cut out sugar and very importantly have cut down drastically on starchy carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes, cereals and other flour based products. I was diagnosed just 6 months ago and following this advise cut my hBA1c from 11.3% to 5.3% in just 3 months. My levels now run the same as a healthy non diabetic so between around 4 and 5.5 for the vast majority of the time. At diagnosis they were in the 20's. Cutting all the starch out of my diet and replacing with extra meat, cheese, fish, eggs and vegetables has also completely normalised my cholesterol levels and my blood pressure. Like yourself I just take Metformin but do so for the protection it gives against heart disease rather than as a means of controlling blood levels.
Equally of importance is to test your own levels, so get a meter and strips. How else will you know what you are eating is keeping you safe? The NICE guidelines state you need to keep under 8ish two hours after eating any meal. This is a lot stricter than many people are told by their GP's and nurses who just don't seem to believe most people can control their levels. 8 (or actually 7.8) is there for a reason. It's the level that a great deal of research shows if you regularly exceed you DO start to run real risks of complications.
If you are like many UK patients you probably don't realise the standard information given out by NHS dieticians, GP's and DSN's is actually 30 years out of date compared to the advise you would get in other countries. So the "cut starchy carbs" advice is actually the reverse of what most people are told. If you were say Swedish or even American the cut carbohydrates back is standard advice given to T2's. To get my hBA1c of 5.3% I have given up ALL starchy carbs except 1 round of wholemeal bread a day. With my meter I can see things such as eating more than two level tablespoons of rice or the equivalent amount of pasta spikes my levels into double digits. Two forum members have in the last couple of days reported hBA1c's in the high 4% range and they do a similar regime as myself. Over the years this forum has existed hundreds of T2's have done the same thing and got those kinds of results. It may sound a pretty restrictive diet but in reality it's not once you find out the alternatives and I eat loads of nice healthy things and feel far better for it.
Good Luck and take care
