HI Cara,
I too have seen diabetes up close and personal. Lou is absolutely correct it is nothing to mess around with. I'd like to share a little anecdote with you. I have seen two people who had very very unpleasant end of life experiences due to complications of diabetes. I will spare you the details, but it was bad. These people were my wife's sister and her husband.
My wife was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in Sept of '15. I would have to ask her for specifics, but her A1c was was about 9.4 and her glucose was running somewhere around 230-240. Her last check up in April her A1c was 4.8, her glucose was in the mid '80's. She hasn't been on medication for nearly 3 years. LIfestyle changes made the difference in her case. In my wife's case she was nearly twice as old as you, and she had ( at the time ) 4 siblings, 2 with type 2 diabetes. My wife was also more over wieght than you , and she said she lost about 50 lbs, though had anyone asked me I would have guessed she was about 20-25 lbs over, but she's tall, statuesque and carried it well.
What we did at first, and the reason I say we is that we worked as a team. I had the time and inclination to do research, am the primary cook at our house, and also ate the same as she did, partly to make it easier on her, and partly because I'm too lazy to make separate meals. She was started on oral meds and told to follow a low carb type diet. We both lost weight on the diet, but I'm almost dead certain it was due to calorie restriction. We were not following a vegan diet, but we had greatly reduce animal product consumption and fat intake. If it had been me I would have been checking my blood sugars at most meals to see what effect that had , but at the time she was having enough to get through with 3 time a day testing and getting used to the meds. We included many more vegetables as part of our meals, and much less meat and carbs. Interestingly though, she would test her sugars when I would try substituting whole wheat flour for part or all of a recipe and found that she reacted well to 50/50 white whole wheat, or actual real whole grains, etc.
To make a long story short she now is vegetarian, but she did try a period of stricly eating vegan. I eat a vegan diet, for other health reasons.
It may take you awhile to bring things under control and to adjust your diet, but after awhile it just becomes what one eats. Increasing your daily activity, will help too. In my wife's case sometimes she can , other times she can't but she has painful arthritis and can't take analgesics.
In my wife's case she did have remission. She was able to get off the meds because we kept records of her blood sugar readings, blood pressure, times when she'd go hypoglcemic , etc. The more data you have not only aids in conversation with your doctor, but you can spot trends and find out how you actually are responding.
I wish I could tell you it was a 100% guarantee that you could go into remission, but that may not be the case. Of the two of my wife's surviving siblings, one has type 2 and it's controlled, but nowhere near the results my wife has had, but she eats omni, lots of refined and processed foods and simply wasn't interested in trying to see if it would help in her situation. The other sister , has always been physically active and trim, she never had it, though she has other ailments and she's 10 years older than my wife as well.
If you want details, I'm happy to share, but after all it's just one person's story--but I can vouch for this one.
Wish you all the best.
AND:
Shyvas thank you for the link to the UK Diabetes orginazation. I'm impressed that the idea of remission is even mentioned. I haven't looked at the American version in sometime, but I know that wasn't mentioned.
