Restaurants = My New Fun Game!!!

[matingara]

Restaurant eating when on a low carb diet is a challenge and I am enjoying it immensely!

so far, i have managed very well and have yet to either:

- cause a BG spike (Winning the Game) or
- not be able to order anything on the menu (Losing the Game).

Though I have had some close calls!

I am a pre-sales technical IT Architect by trade. so i do eat lunch out at work a couple of times a week. plus there are the usual family restaurant outings etc. here are some of my "Restaurant Moments" from last week.

Tuesday: we do a big sales pres in the AM. finishes about 1PM. one dude suggests a brilliant noodle shop he loves for lunch. my spirit sinks. THAT could be quite a challenge! fortunately another guy suggests a classy Italian bistro. There are two suitable items on the menu. Rare Beef Salad or chicken caesar (with fresh home-made anchovies!). i go with the caesar and eat only 1 of the croutons! I win!

Wednesday: the lads want to go to the $10 special joint. uh oh. i read all of the $10 specials. every one of them is a carbohydrate festival! foccacia, pasta, risotto etc. fortunately, there is a $15 special section as well. in there there is a grilled chicken salad with all sorts of yummy vegies (capsicums etc). I win again! but this was the ONLY choice i could go for on the whole menu. so a close call.

Yesterday: Sunday lunch a a classy local joint in the Dandenongs. There was nothing on the menu or the special board that was remotely low carb. uh oh. do i lose and go hungry? well there is a burger. i could have that and not eat the bun? there is also a yummy sounding lamb on an open pita. i could do that and just skip the pita? Then one last look at the menu and i discover the "Grazing Plate"!!! this promises olives, dips, smoked salmon, salami, squid, haloumi, roasted peppers and mushrooms, ham! i win again. this was delicious and low carb and very satisfying!

i am really enjoying this game! i dread what i will do if i end up in a noodle joint someday!

any one else have anything similar to share?

:)

-- Joel.

[Evermont]

Being vegetarian for so many years - and living in the midst of 'civilization' as it were, I'm an old pro at this game. Since I'm still in my first year as T2, I'm still working out the new playing field, but really it's not that different.

It's fairly common that I find myself at a place that only serves one or two dishes that suit me at all. Then there's always the special request which can be quite a cr@p shoot sometimes.

Sometimes a work function will drag me to a place that I know ain't my style like Long Horn's Steak House for example. They kinda pride themselves on not offering any "rabbit food". Even the salads are carcass laden.

Last time this happened I trumped all my coworkers by ordering the hot fudge brownie sundae for my main course. Oh man, they were all ranting about how they should have done that instead of whatever dead thing they had been inspired to order.

Now as a T2 I have to re-think even that option. Hmm... tricky. Water and cole-slaw?

[art]

you can usually find something on a menu.
I've only been at this for a year so I tend to experiment with food.
The worst case for me is, I dig out a needle and correct and remember not to eat that again.

Other than the obvious I'm pretty much eating quite well.

But I do miss Sweet and Sour Pork.

Art

[BrianSCohen]

I've learned to be quite agile in restaurants. Often, if you kindly tell your waitress that you have D, they will often work to make you a custom meal if needed. I routinely shop the menu, looking for any mention of meat and vegetable elements in random dishes. Almost always, a restaurant will let you substitute a carb side with a vegetable side. More of a challenge is a restaurant which is narrow and specialized, such as a pho shop or a pasta place. Even in these places you can be creative. Ask for no noodles and in their place ask for veggies. I love blanched spinach or brocolli with sauce and meatballs. The thing that is most difficult is finding stealth carbs, sugar in sauces, that even the chef is not aware of. You will just have to deal with this.

No for me the real challenge is going to a business meeting at a sequestered location where they will "provide" breakfast. When you get there, you have bagels, danish and donuts. Now what do you do? For me, I tend to have a backup snack. It is even worse for me as I also avoid fruit.

[Mich]

I'm a tuna fan. Prefer the real thing, grilled, but in a pinch, a great fast meal can be had at Subway (!) Sandwiches.

They sell a little salad and will put any of their meats on it with low-fat (good) Italian dressing. I have 'em put a couple of scoops of tuna (50 cents more I think) on it with extra olives and peppercinis. You can also order avocado or an extra dressing for a nominal fee. It's the perfect quick, relatively cheap healthy lunch for me and it's available everywhere!

Beats driving through you-know-where.;) Mich

[Kim_in_TN]

I'm sort of "enjoying" it as well now! I love seeing things left untouched on my plate! It's wonderful to finish a meal, feel satisfied, not overstuffed and know that it was guilt-free!!!

Oh, and sometimes you can just order a side salad or a couple of side items and no entree. ;)

[ShottleBop]

I have grown adept at (1) ordering the fish tacos without rice and simply not eating the tortillas (discovered the hard way that eatin the tortillas could take my blood sugar up 50 points in an hour), (2) ordering a carne asada salad in a fried flour tortilla bowl and not eating the bowl, (3) ordering fajitas (grilled chicken/shrimp/beef and veggies) and not eating the tortillas), and (4) ordering a burger and not eating the bun. At one catered dinner meeting I attended where I had ordered the veggie plate (you don't know until it's served what you'll get), I cut the ravioli open and ate the fillings.

We went to Outback the other night, where I ordered a filet mignon "Griller" plate. I gave the grilled pineapple to my son. The grilled veggies had a sugared glaze I had not expected (and would ask them not to do next time), but I ate them anyways, and four forkfuls of the whole grain and wild rice. No spike.

Favorite restaurants are ones that serve breakfast all day: I can order an omelette.

[Penny]

Today, I ate at Applebees with my red hat group. I had one of their smaller proportion meals...7 oz sirloin steak, a side salad with ranch dressing and steamed veggies. The meal came with mashed potatoes, but I asked to substitute the salad. (They make really nice salads) One of the ladies had a birthday and brought cupcakes, and I ate one. Two hours later, my BS was 122! I was very pleased, felt like I had won the game.
:)

[Scrabblechick]

Would you believe Cracker Barrel? They do actually have a low-carb menu and their salads are great. And Shottle, I agree! When you can get breakfast, you can always do low-carb. (More points for CB. They have whole wheat toast and sugar-free fruit spread, with breakfast all day).

Quizno's also does a good salad, as does Zaxby's, if you stick with the blackened chicken and omit the onion rings. Wendy's also has a good Caesar side salad, and with the croutons in a separate package, you can ask for it without.

I try to go places that offer veggies as sides, and as was also mentioned, you can almost always get a side salad. Oil and vinegar dressing is my preferred choice, since I know exactly what's in it.

You can do it, but it does take some ingenuity.

[slipperyelm]

I ordered a very carby meal at a tavern today. It was hummus with pita bread. The hummus was topped with ground Calamata olives and roasted red peppers. I asked to substitute fresh red pepper pieces for the pita but they said they did not have any fresh peppers---which made me wonder how they could have roasted peppers. :confused:

Well, I usually do pretty well with hummus. It is pretty low on the glycemic index. I thought I could just ignore the pita, but I should have told them just not to bring it. I ate half more than half the pita and all the large serving of hummus.

My BG was not good. Lunch was six hours ago and BG is 126. (Didn't test until now.)

Pita is not my friend. And hummus should only be a friendly acquaintance!

[matingara]

Today, I ate at Applebees with my red hat group.

i didn't know you were into Linux!!!

:)

[Penny]

i didn't know you were into Linux!!!

:)

Be right back, I need to google Linux.

[Penny]

I like penquins, do they wear red hats?

[matingara]

I like penquins, do they wear red hats?

that was an "in" joke. Red Hat Linux - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Hat_Linux)

:D :D :D

-- Joel.

[Penny]

that was an "in" joke. Red Hat Linux - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Hat_Linux)

:D :D :D

-- Joel.

The girls (the youngest is 58) will get a laugh from this anyway. :D

[judi t]

Caught up with a couple of friends for lunch recently at a restaurant of my friend's choosing. My BG shot up and rang the bell even as I scanned the non-negotiable lunch menu. My friends were getting all excited over a mushroom risotto that they swore was to die for. How was I going to calculate the carbs in that? (And I didn't want to die for a risotto anyway.) The only thing that I thought I'd have any hope of estimating, believe it or not - the menu was so arcane - was beer battered fish, with chips of course. I was trying to engage in the conversation whilst simultaneously counting out chips and guestimating the carbs in two pieces of battered fish. I guessed about sixty grams of carb, entered it in the pump, then tried to put it out of mind and enjoy myself.

My friends were oblivious. Even though they know I have diabetes, they have no idea what a struggle it can be to work out how much to eat.

Well, I lost that particular game and three hours late my BG had shot up to around the 18 level. I did a correction bolus, had a couple of glasses of water then cycled the 7 k back home without doing a temporary basal. When I arrived home, the exercise had brought my BG back to normal.

[cyberus]

Crazy thing about restaurants is that short of a 10 seat hole-in-the-wall type place .. there is no reason a restaurant shouldn't be able to give someone a "ball park" figure from their computer ... heck even the little joint I was at until 6 months ago I could (and did) pull up the base recipe in the order/inventory program and generate a profile. Now I could never say the numbers were exact, but someone with food issues could at least make an informed decision.

[matingara]

Crazy thing about restaurants is that short of a 10 seat hole-in-the-wall type place .. there is no reason a restaurant shouldn't be able to give someone a "ball park" figure from their computer ... heck even the little joint I was at until 6 months ago I could (and did) pull up the base recipe in the order/inventory program and generate a profile. Now I could never say the numbers were exact, but someone with food issues could at least make an informed decision.

i find that most of the time i am sticking to salads and steak and salad or thai beef salad. (and things along that sort of line).

fortunately, i adore salads.

BUT the big difference is that i am eating my steaks totally "guilt free" now that i know the truth about fat.

:)

-- Joel.

[Noturningback]

More of a challenge is a restaurant which is narrow and specialized, such as a pho shop or a pasta place. Even in these places you can be creative. Ask for no noodles and in their place ask for veggies... .

Brian,

What did you do with the pho soup? Were they willing to replace the noodles?

My brother-in-law is coming from Sweden Monday and he mentioned wanting pho. Can't get pho in Sweden - that we know of and he is in Stockholm.

~Danielle

[cyberus]

Brian,

What did you do with the pho soup? Were they willing to replace the noodles?

My brother-in-law is coming from Sweden Monday and he mentioned wanting pho. Can't get pho in Sweden - that we know of and he is in Stockholm.

~Danielle

I just had Pho night before last, there is a asian food place in the gas station nearby and when I stopped for gas they asked where I had been, they hadn't seen me.
We talked about what I was doing (low carb) and said it eliminated most of what they sell (sniff no more General Tsao chicken), but when I asked if they could leave out the noodles and maybe toss in extra bean sprouts they didn't have a problem .. actually they put in some extra sprouts and some julienne napa cabbage and it was wonderful.

However, I'm looking at the Konjac Shirataki noodles as a long term replacement for my take out Pho in the future, still looking for trustworthy reviews.

[BrianSCohen]

Danielle,

Cyberus has a good idea with the Shirataki noodles, but I bet most Pho shops don't have them around. What they do have around is veggies and a good alternatives for noodles is cabbage. They can slice up cabbage into thin slices and it works out great. The biggest difficulty is communicating if english is not the first language of choice in the shop.

Good luck

[ShottleBop]

Went with my family to a Turkish restaurant this past weekend. Ordered a ground beef kabob-and-salad plate. One of my daughters ordered, and shared, a beef pie (kind of like spanakopita); I had a small piece with the pastry, but when I had seconds, I scraped the filling out and left the pasty. Didn't eat the dolmas (stuffed with rice), and ate spoonfuls of hummus, or dipped pickled turnips into it, rather than eat the pita bread.