Okies I am newly diagnosed about one week ago. a1c was 7.2 with average of 156. They want me to try diet and exercise for three months.
Howdy and :welcome: to the forum. It's a great place for friendly info, and we are pretty blunt about the straight facts here. Hopefully you'll learn a lot and have a good time here!
So far I have been attempting to eat less carbs. I've eaten salad (boring), veggie based soups (boring), and anything I can find with low carb if at all possible.
Low-Carb is certainly the way to go, especially for us Type II diabetics as we usually have insulin-resistance issues not often found in Type I's. So for us, the lower-carb the better.
I have started walking and lifting light weights several days this week.
Good job! Walking is one of the best exercises for anyone that can do it comfortably. Weight training also helps - but if you do want to tone up and add a little muscle
(which not only helps you look good, but really helps your metabolism) make sure to eat enough protein and fat in your diet. They're both critical for repairing / building muscle.
The lowest I have seen my blood sugar all week was 114. Mostly it seems to like to be around 150 even when I haven't eaten anything for hours and hours and have exercised.
Does it take awhile to get all the sugar and insulin levels down or something? What in the universe does it take to get my sugar to go any lower? Magic?
Congrats on the 114 ... nice number for a change

It will likely only get better!
Yes, it DOES take the body a little while to adjust and naturally lower it's BG
(blood glucose) levels , but with a proper low-carb diet, regular exercise and weight loss, it does happen. It's slow, but when you compare your 90 day numbers to your numbers at diagnosis, it's pretty dramatic!
The link shanny posted is GREAT. It's the definitive solution for lowering your BG naturally - but it does focus mostly on diet. As a type II, exercise is also very helpful for burning excess glucose.
Although the body can 'burn fat', it's 'preferred' source of energy is from glucose - so if you have glucose or glycogen
(that is stored in the muscles and liver) your body will use those first, so walking and weight training are a great way to lower those (glucose and glycogen) levels.
Several of us are also adopting a LCHF diet (low-carb, high-fat) which is proven much better for both weight loss and control of both blood glucose and insulin levels than many other diets - although we're all different, so YMMV
(your mileage may vary). A good source for LCHF is the website for
Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt (MD) who is one of many doctors now showing the facts about the LCHF diet. Check his website out when you can.