Diabetes and or Insulin Regulation

My main reason for joining the Trimdown club is not necessarily losing weight though that will be an important maintenance goal. I have struggled with type 2 diabetes over the last eight years or so and learned enough to know how much I don’t know. My initial and still a priority issue is high morning blood sugar. What has beat on me since day one is the fact that medication does not correct anything but I’m led to believe the medication protects me over time such that I need to continue using it/them. I started at and maintained for years a 125-135 number range in the mornings. I refined my diet and changed my existing exercise program over those years. I started at about 245 and now bounce around between 192-198. I exercise 3-5 days a week depending on the ups and downs of life and work. I hate my job and it creates inordinate stress but I can’t replace it so I try to make the best of it.
Recently, I had a mini crisis. About a month or six weeks ago, my numbers in the morning suddenly jumped to 150, 170, 180 or even 190 which seemed regardless of actual events. I panicked somewhat and grabbed a diabetes reversal program which basically cut carbohydrate per day intake to max 20 at level one. I basically ate boiled eggs, salad with oil and vinegar, red kidney beans, black beans and items high in protein with very low carbohydrates. I stopped my Victoza for a week and the stopped my Metformin as they seemed to make no difference. I was able to get my morning numbers down, first to 120s, then as low (once) as 99. Amazing I thought and I moved to level two which allows max 60 carbohydrates. About the third day I was seeing 155. In desperation (to some degree), I re-added the Metformin and Victoza and kept eating higher protein and lower carbohydrates. During this process, I was taking blood sugar readings 2 hours after each meal and found during the day with these restricted foods numbers like 110-115 and even in some cases as low as 79.
I had radically changed my diet over the years but now focused became more focused on exactly what I ate. I found that my bedtime numbers were high which led to high morning numbers though I sometimes experience the ‘dawn phenomena’ where a liver dump of glucose drives the numbers higher than when I went to bed. Four or five years ago I would actually see better morning numbers if I had a bedtime or late evening snack. This seems to have changed irrevocably as any bedtime snack after 8pm seems to generate higher morning numbers. Right now I eat what I believe are healthy choices all day, watch my numbers and try to eat no later than 8pm. I eat different kinds of nuts as snacks and use vinegar based foods when possible such as oil and vinegar, dill pickles (no sugar), and I read every single label on foods. I eat primarily organic food and very limited whole grain products when I absolutely need to have it. I also keep some 60% or 70% semi-sweet chocolate chips and I’ll eat 2 or 4 pieces once or twice a week or when I have one of those “horrible hungry” days. I have an appointment Monday with my endocrinologist and will bring her up to date since seeing her about four months ago. My company will no longer allow me to take Victoza (which I preferred over Byetta) and my choice is likely to be Byetta once again. I remain on the Metformin and take (4) 500mg tablet after dinner. My company will also no longer allow Crestor (which has my cholesterol as good as it ever needs to be) and have had to change to Atorvastatin, which multiple doctors say is inferior to Crestor. Companies don’t really care about employees, only how much money is to be made and how little benefit they can give employees. I take 1 tablet of Lipitor per day that got added when I had knee surgery at 50 (I am 59 today) due to what they decided was undesirable blood pressure 130/80 but they wanted 110/60). I take 4 grams of fish oil, 2 grams cinnamon, natural foods daily vitamin, and B complex each day. I have experimented with holistic recommendations such as herbs that are hypoglycemic agents that stimulate insulin production (Banaba leaves, bitter melon, fenugreek, Gymnema), insulin sensitizers (Banaba leaves, cinnamon, Chromium, ginseng, prickly cactus), and those which affect carbohydrate metabolism (Blond Psyllium, Fenugreek, Prickly Pear). The point of the herbs is to pick a pair where one is hopefully in two of the groups above and the other in a third group. These seemed to make no real difference. Some of these I still take.
I have long thought my main issue to be insulin resistance or insulin sensitivity and that brings me to my hopes for the Trimdown club. I am hoping that balancing healthy foods in the correct ratios will help balance my insulin numbers. My ultimate goal is to remove medications. My primary fear based reason to keep the medications is supposedly that (especially touted for Victoza) usage protects the remaining beta cells in the pancreas. We all know that (most) doctors and institutions want us on maintenance medications (money!) and treat symptoms rather than the underlying cause. I have considered moving to insulin but have some idea of the pitfalls (weight and constant balancing) but would not want to do so until (which they probably could now if they wanted) a device is created that automatically adjusts dosage to current blood sugar levels. If they can go to the moon, they can certainly do this, but I don’t think they want to stop booming sales of medications.
Sorry for the diatribe, but these fact are inextricably linked to my daily perspective and efforts to bring myself to equilibrium.