Reading the posts regarding good and bad foods and realised I am doing virtually everything wrong brown bread, brown rice, skimmed milk, porridge every morning, I eat 1600 calories per day maximum but can not shift a pound in weight, I need to do more research on foods to eat for sure, so glad I joined the group.
Don't focus on your weight, look at your HbA1c. However I see your are T2 on insulin, and have had several cancer ops. Not sure if the later will affect your diabetes or not, I see it affects your ability to do sport.
If you can walk or cycle, both are excellent gentle forms of exercise and getting some every day helps. No need for 10,000 steps per day, do what you can and hopefully it will gradually increase. I've read that the 'sweet spot' is 7,000 steps per day, that the benefits tail off after that.
As you are on insulin, you might be able to get a Libre from your doctor. If not, you should be getting test strips for your meter. To find out what meals are the problem, take your BG before & 2 hours later. I can't remember the figure, but there shouldn't be a big spike.
The low-hanging fruit: Hopefully you are not putting sugar in tea / coffee, are not drinking full-fat soft drinks, are not drinking lots of fruit juice and are not eating sweets, puddings, etc.
However, cut back on the carbs! Pasta, bread, rice, potatoes, cous cous etc. However that can be easier said than done, and not everyone needs a really radical change. Low carb rather than Keto works fine for many people. That's where the testing comes in (or CGM e.g. Libre), to determine just how much you have to throttle carbs back.
Also beer is rarely a low-carb drink - it is after all made from fermented grains. Dry wines & spirits are low-carb, but gin needs tonic and I can taste the sweetener in most of the reduced calorie drinks. However whisky only needs a drop of tap water...
But I now only drink when eating in company, which doesn't happen very often.
Good advice elsewhere, IMHO, was to cook your own meals from basic ingredients. If you read the nutrition on most pre-packed food carbs feather quite highly.
There are some good substitutes, and this isn't an exhaustive list:
Cauliflower rice. I chop a bit of cauliflower rather than buy it as it's 1/3 or so of the cost.
Edamame & mung bean tagliatelle - expensive but very nice
Spiralised vegetables. So far I've tried courgette, plan trying mooli (if I can get it) and white turnip.
Swede (orange inside) instead of potato
Konjac noodles & rice. I have some waiting to be tried, some folks really don't like them. There seems to be two versions, one with more protein in.
