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Chinese food

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bakebeans

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
I’ve been invited to Chinese restaurant tomorrow for a family meal and I’m a little worried about going. It will be the first meal out I’ve had since being diagnosed a month ago. My numbers have been alright this week the highest I’ve had is 7.8 after a meal and I’ve weighted myself and I’ve lost a stone in weight but I don’t want to undo all my hard work.

The restaurant is lovely and you go up and pick what you want to eat there’s plenty of steamed veg and they also have a salad bar so I’m thinking as long as I steer clear of the rice, noodles and sugary sauces maybe Ill be ok?
 
The beauty of chinese is that you can pick and choose. So, if you avoid the obviously starchy stuff, and if it is a decent chinese there will not be any hidden carbs because they do not generally thicken sauces with starch, you should be able to get together something nice quite easily. Enjoy.
 
Docb said:
The beauty of chinese is that you can pick and choose. So, if you avoid the obviously starchy stuff, and if it is a decent chinese there will not be any hidden carbs because they do not generally thicken sauces with starch, you should be able to get together something nice quite easily. Enjoy.
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Thank you for replying. I’m just going to stick to the steamed veg and fresh cooked meats so fingers crossed all should be good
 
I used to get duck with water chestnuts and bamboo shoots from the local Chinese take away - but then the people retired and the new ones added loads of onions to everything, but that was a nice dish
 
bakebeans said:
Thank you for replying. I’m just going to stick to the steamed veg and fresh cooked meats so fingers crossed all should be good
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That’s the way to do it @bakebeans , I’m Chinese & was in the restaurant business for many years, retired now, & we DO NOT eat most of the stuff on menus at home everyday & eaten in the wrong ratio: little of dish to lots of boiled rice! 😱🙄
 
Ive thought about it and think maybe it’s best if I give it a miss. I checked my sugar at 4 o clock and it was 4.2. I wanted to do some exercise but felt exhausted so ate a pear (trying to lose weight so don’t want anything to heavy) and exercised for about 30 mins then 2 hours later was at 6.4 so I’m feeling rubbish I don’t think I’ll ever get my head around how all of this works. I’ve convinced myself I’m going to end up doing more harm than good and I’m letting my daughter down and that’s the worst part of it.
 
Stick to your plan of avoiding the obvious carb heavy stuff noodles, rice, batter and sweet sauces and you'll have a lovely meal out @bakebeans 🙂 Diabetes shouldn't stop you enjoying eating out and your levels look good. You won't undo your hard work in one evening, pick what looks right to you and enjoy 🙂
 
Exercise can put your blood sugars up OR down in the short term depending on intensity & type of exercise but, in the longer term it brings your blood sugars down & makes your metabolism more efficient. By short term I mean straight afterwards & the next couple of hours. And longer term I mean the next day or, for some, the day after that!

I found that confusing to start with too as at first my BS went down so, I snacked before exercise & my BS rose straight after exercise. Then, I exercised without snacking & my BS dropped & I needed to snack anyway to avoid a hypo. In the end I snacked before exercise & didn’t worry about the slight rise as the next day my BS would be lower & I actually had to lower my insulin doses for the day after exercising!

Then, after a while of exercising, my BS went up after exercise & I stopped snacking but, the next day my BS would still be lower all day needing less insulin.

If you test before & after exercise you’ll have a clearer picture of what it does to your BS & test the day after as well because the affects of exercise are longer lasting than you think!

Go have the meal & you might be pleasantly surprised by not as high BS as you fear after your exercise!
 
I think to start with exercise brings blood sugars down & then as you inevitably become a bit fitter the intensity is increased putting your body under a bit of stress so, they go up but, that stress is short lasting & it continues to go down after that as your body is temporarily less insulin resistant. I did some googling & that’s how I think it works? 🙄
 
Thank you for your reply I’ve still not decided on what to do tonight but I think I will probably give it a miss and stay home maybe next time I’ll feel more confident and give it a go. Thank you for taking the time to google it’s all so confusing
 
Ah @bakebeans don’t miss out, you’ll be fine if you just stick to meat and veg and stay away from sticky sauces. Even if you have a rise after the meal it’s not the end of your good control.

I am type 2 too and at the moment I’m going through a period of higher blood sugars, so they can be 8’s before eating - my last HbA1C was classed as fair control (I’ll know more when I go for the review next week but I called to see as I knew it wouldn’t be as good) so one higher BG after a family meal really won’t stop your results in the long term. 🙂
 
@bakebeans - When I was diagnosed, I was just about to go off sailing for several months. My OH looked at me and said,......... "What the heck does this mean?"

Well, if I'm totally honest, I wasn't sure myself at that point, but that trip was something I had been promising myself for ages, and the thought of it had got me through some tough times, unscathed, so I was going!

OK, it meant I needed to do a lot of learning fast, but sailing is a very sociable passtime. At anchor, folks always invite for drinks. People talk to each other in bars, and there's always a tall story to be told. I didn't want to miss out on any of that, and I certainly wasn't going to spoil a special time for my OH either, so we made a pact. The pact we made was that I would never used my diabetes as an excuse not to attend a social function, or do sociable things.

Of course, I made some bloopers in my time, but I also had some great fun.

In all of that, three and a half months into our 9 month trip, I flew home for my diabetes review, to see how I was doing. I had reduced my A1c at diagnosis of 73 to 37, and since have always been lower.

I really would encourage you to treat diabetes as an unwelcomed passenger. A passenger you need to heed and look after, but please don't allow it to be the pivotal thing in your life.
 
Thank you all so much for all of your support and advice. I did end up going out this evening and am happy to report that I’ve just tested 2 hours after and got 6.2. I’m in a bit of shock as I did give in and have a little bit of afters which tasted amazing so I was expecting big numbers when I got home.


This place is amazing, when your feeling unsure and down there is always someone on there to help point you in the right direction
 
bakebeans said:
Thank you all so much for all of your support and advice. I did end up going out this evening and am happy to report that I’ve just tested 2 hours after and got 6.2. I’m in a bit of shock as I did give in and have a little bit of afters which tasted amazing so I was expecting big numbers when I got home.


This place is amazing, when your feeling unsure and down there is always someone on there to help point you in the right direction
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So glad you went and enjoyed it, I hope that’s helped and given you some confidence in eating out x
 
Good for you for stepping out there and going for it @bakebeans 🙂

I learned early on in my T1 years, that there was a big difference between what I generally aimed to eat most of the time, and the stuff I chose to eat occasionally and accepted that BGs might be a bit chaotic afterwards. Like you I’ve had some pleasant surprises too - but as long as we don’t rely on that always happening there is no reason why we can’t have a little of what we fancy every now and then 😛
 
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