Eating out.....

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HelenP

HelenP

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Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Hi, still only in my 2nd week of all this, and wonder if someone can help with a 'lunch date' dilemma.

I have two lunches out this weekend (mother's 80th birthday!), one of them I had to order my meal weeks ago, so now have no control over that, other than to be sensible when whatever it was that I ordered arrives.

The other one is at a Brewer's Fayre restaurant, which does stuff like pub style meals, grills, fish, steak etc. and I was wondering what would be the best type of meal to go for; I can't eat steak, so should I go for something chickeny with no sauce maybe? (also, I don't want to alert my mum that anything's up, and I usually have a large appetite 😱. )

And will I be able to have a teensy bit of ice cream for pud?

Thanks.

xx
 
I was just thinking about this myself as im going for an italian at the moment and ive just started going very low-carb! I think im going to have to fork out for some chicken and it's more expensive than getting pasta or pizza, grr :D Luckily I love chicken.

I would just suggest that you have whatever you feel like, in moderation :D
 
HelenP said:
Hi, still only in my 2nd week of all this, and wonder if someone can help with a 'lunch date' dilemma.

I have two lunches out this weekend (mother's 80th birthday!), one of them I had to order my meal weeks ago, so now have no control over that, other than to be sensible when whatever it was that I ordered arrives.

The other one is at a Brewer's Fayre restaurant, which does stuff like pub style meals, grills, fish, steak etc. and I was wondering what would be the best type of meal to go for; I can't eat steak, so should I go for something chickeny with no sauce maybe? (also, I don't want to alert my mum that anything's up, and I usually have a large appetite 😱. )

And will I be able to have a teensy bit of ice cream for pud?

Thanks.

xx
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Id go for chicken or fish if you dont eat steak , avoid sauces if at all possible ( full of sugar carbs) fill up on vegetables etc and only have a small amount of potatoes. As a treat a small bowl of icecream is fine as a dessert as the meal will slow down how fast the sugar hits your system. 🙂 no one need know any different 😉
 
id say fish myself but that personal i love it mmm, anyway hope you have nice time x
 
Eating out

Hi Helen, good question. Like most things with diabetes, it depends on how you react and what medications you are on (you don't say). You certainly should enjoy yourself on special occasions like this. I usually scour the menu for the lowest carb stuff I can find. Personally I find that places like the chain restaurants will do Lasagne al Forno which doesn't seem to affect my sugars too much (I'm type 2 and insulin). Or have the fish and chips and don't eat the batter (just say your trying to cut down on the fat it's cooked in!). Treat your diabetes seriously but don't let it run your life.

Telll us what you had and did it affect you.
 
Hi Helen
Brewers Fayre menu is online at http://www.brewersfayre.co.uk/food/
Of the Starters, Lamb & Mutton Kebabs or Seasonal Soup of the Day (can leave the bread) look the best options - lowest fat & lowest carbohydrates. Many main meals include potatoes - mostly fried, which are high fat, or mashed, which are high GI (high glycaemic index, so absorbed quickly). Of the Puddings, Fresh Fruit Salad or Strwaberry Sundae look the best bets. Menus don't help with portion sizes, though.
But, it's a treat meal, so don't worry too much. Eat well and have fun.
 
Hope your mum's 80th bday goes well.

Some pubs do a lot of big munchy salads, I love em, but I guess it may not fit in with what you like, I'm sure they'll have a good enough choice, maybe read a few more threads on here to give you some more ideas about meals / diet.

good luck/enjoy
 
Thank you everyone, I appreciate you all taking the time to help.

xx
 
I alwasy find eating out a minefield. I try to go for low carb options with salad and plenty of vegetables. If there is fresh fruit salad for dessert I go for that or fruit and ice cream.

Relax and enjoy the meals out and no one will be any wiser. You then resume whatever eating plan you're on for the rest of the week.
 
hi Helen was just wondering how you got on the weekend you had the 2 dues? was they any issues when you ate out? xx
 
I hope you enjoyed your meals out, let us know how you got on.
 
Aww, bless you for remembering!

Friday - Brewer's Fare; I ordered a plain meal, just oven cooked chicken, chips, salad and coleslaw, barbecue sauce on the side. As every part of it was horrible, lol (really greasy chicken, 'kept warm' chips, limp salad, vinegary barbecue sauce!) I didn't really eat much of it, but I did have ice cream for dessert! My bs was 10.1 two days before (I'm still trying to get it down from 18.6 at diagnosis 3 weeks ago), and my friend was kind enough to test it for me that evening and it was 8.9, so I was well pleased with that.

Saturday - meal at posh hotel that I'd pre-ordered weeks ago; luckily it was a spicy tomato soup and a roll for starter, chicken with some kind of mustardy sauce, which I'd asked to be served seperately anyway, new potatoes and vegetables. Dessert was a yummy lemon tart.

My friend tested me yesterday (I don't have a tester machine myself, so she does it once a week for me) and I was 5.7, so overall my two meals out don't appear to have done any damage!!

Sorry to have 'gone on', but thanks for asking.

xx
 
Glad you got through the meals, the second one sounds much nicer.

Just a sugestion, it might help if you got a meter, then you can keep track of things yourself. If you can't get one from the nurse you can sometimes get one from one of the many companies, or lots of pharmacies sell them. If you get free prescriptions, then you can gts the test strips on prescription too. Even f you have to pay for the prescriptions, it is still cheaper than buying them. Good luck.
 
Caroline said:
Glad you got through the meals, the second one sounds much nicer.

Just a sugestion, it might help if you got a meter, then you can keep track of things yourself. If you can't get one from the nurse you can sometimes get one from one of the many companies, or lots of pharmacies sell them. If you get free prescriptions, then you can gts the test strips on prescription too. Even f you have to pay for the prescriptions, it is still cheaper than buying them. Good luck.
Click to expand...

Caroline makes a good point Helen. Testing on a meter is only a 'snapshot' of what your blood levels are like at that particular moment, so it's important to be able to test at specific times to get a true picture of what your levels are, for example, on waking, before meals and an hour or two hours after meals - you don't have to do these tests every time! The waking one is a good one to take, as this shows your 'fasting' levels, when they are not influenced by the food you have eaten.
 
I wouldn't normally suggest urine strips, but at times they can be useful. They're like a mini HbA1c in that they give an indication of what your BG has been like over a period of time. With the urine strips this would be over something like 2-4 hours. You can even get them at the pharmacy without a prescription for less than the price of a prescription.

Ask for some Diabur 5000.

Note though, that they are not as accurate as blood testing as different people have different renal thresholds (levels at which sugar leaks into the urine). I have a very low threshold, so that even if my bg is normal, I still get high amounts of gluose shown in urine tests. They should still give you an idea anyway until you can get a meter and strips.
 
Thanks for the hints and tips on testing etc.

I do hope to get a testing machine when I EVENTUALLY get to see the DSN at my GP centre - a service which is not available during August, which if you're diagnosed at the end of July, as I was, means it's a case of "You've got diabetes. Here's some tablets now bu**er off and deal with it on your own for 5 weeks" !! ( Bitter - moi?? 😉 ).

I'm DEFinitely gonna get myself a testing kit, whether it's a freebie or not, cos I really want to know how various foods affect my levels.

Thanks again.

xx
 
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