Diabetes Review

I am a type 2 diabetic, and live alone. My main problem is that due to a very bad back ,with knees now also causing me difficulty exercising, this adds to the efforts to keep my diabetes in check.
So I find swimming very good, as it is a form of exercise I can do. The great thing is that not only does swimming help me to keep mobile, and in less pain, the actual time spent getting there , swimming, and getting home removes opportunities to eat, and you also feel good about yourself. So if there is something that he really enjoys, that could be a way to turn his attention to which he can enjoy. It is very important that he is honest about everything with the nurse because otherwise they can think that medication is not working. He could ask for help in any ideas that he could try , which he hasn't thought of. Also in my view I think you keep to the rules if you are happy and busy doing things so you don't spend your time constantly thinking of food. A vicious circle the more you think about it the harder it is zWto eat well.. Then you could look to see which time of day is the worst. I found that having a small square of 70% dark chocolate, was better than doing without, as I used to eat more , perhaps bread or a biscuits, now that one little bit of chocolate satisfying that urge. Now I can do without that for quite a while. So it sounds a bit mad but whilst he does of course, need to follow what the nurse tells him, to think about what he could enjoy doing, so that he will be much more likely to keep doing it if it is a pleasure. Wishing you both all the best

DH was in this position and on four different medications and in desperation the practice nurse referred him to see a consultant. She put him onto a Libre machine to try and educate or shock him into realising what was going on every time he ate or drank. Because as far as was concerned he was following-ish a diet suitable for diabetics.
We decided to really look at his diet and see if anything he was eating or drinking was sabotaging his efforts. The Libre machine was sounding alarms when his blood sugars were too low usually in the early hours of the mornings as well when too high. It's highly educational once you realise what triggers a high reading or if you leave too long a gap between meals.
He's a big coffee drinker and never takes sugar but does like coffeemate. When we read the ingredients list, we realised that coffeemate is virtually pure glucose!! We switched to a sugar free version of coffeemate and from one blood test to another his sugar levels had dropped dramatically.
We also made a point of switching to a sugar free version of everything possible. He does like his chocolate so we compromised and bought small bars of dark, high cocoa chocolate from Lidl. I still buy in crisps but in small amounts - when they are gone they stay gone. It's very hard to completely stick to a diet and the nurses and consultants know this, which is why small amounts of what you like are quite reasonable. He doesn't do breakfast but does try to eat three meals a day and he goes for as much good stuff as he can and snacks on hard boiled eggs, good fruits, or a handful of nuts and tinned fish.
The hardest thing is giving up the carbs so don't!! Have bread for example but switch to a healthier wholewheat or similar version. You need to reduce the craving for sweet stuff which is not as easy as people think. But once you reduce the urge for sweet stuff it becomes much easier. No-one is saying you can't have it but you need to adjust your mindset and taste buds.
He is off the Libre machine and has dropped one of the medications. The consultant couldn't believe that coffeemate was one of the triggers and actually looked it up on the internet during DH's consultation. She was impressed at the massive improvement and although not perfect has referred DH back to the GP for ongoing treatments but with the proviso that they can dispense GLP1 and insulin if needed further down the line.
Don't forget that the blood test is a snapshot of the past few months - so any improvement will take a while to show. So make the changes and see how that helps. There was a chart thing available online which shows at a glance the good, the bad and the ugly of food types whic was a real help.