Eating out

[Kitty W]

Hi,

We're going away soon for our first break / holiday since my partner's T2 diagnosis.

At home we're doing pretty well with keeping his blood sugars where they need to be (apart from sightly elevated morning readings - it was 7.7 today after 7.0 yesterday and the day before. But I don't think that's too bad especially from where we started and as we're only on week 5 post diagnosis).

We're lucky that we've got a little self contained cottage with a kitchen so we'll be cooking more than we planned and probably taking packed lunches out with us during the day instead of using café's and pubs etc.

I'm hoping we'll be able to eat out maybe once or twice. It'll be strange having to be so mindful when ordering but this is our new normal now. Has anyone got any helpful tips for us especially as we're still finding our feet with all this.

Many thanks,

K

 

[Felinia]

My go-to meals out are omelettes, salads, stir fries. I just plan in advance by looking up the menu online, and make sure I have enough cals and carbs to cover. You can always ask for vegetables or a salad instead, and ask them to hold back the potatoes, bread, rice, naan, puppadoms. Recent meals: Tandoori chicken with salad, and a mushroom bhaji; Chinese stir fry veggies with cashew nuts, or a chicken/prawn chop suey (or both and share). Baked lemon sole or omelette with salad; A roast but I ask for extra veggies instead of potatoes and no Yorkshire pudding.
Best wishes

 

[Sally71]

Enjoy your holiday! Don’t worry if his numbers are not so good for a few days, as long as you get back on track when you get home it won’t do any long term damage.
But as far as eating out goes, try salads, steak and veg but either ask for no potatoes or don’t eat them/just eat a small amount, things like that. It depends where you are eating, some places are really accommodating and will happily remove the potatoes or replace them with a side salad or extra veg if you ask, others will not!

 

[rebrascora]

I would start the day with a cooked breakfast every morning. That is low carb and a treat, so it feels like you are on holiday and sometimes means that you can skip lunch or just have a small snack pr salad. Then eat out in the evenings and just eat a small portion of the carbs on the plate or ask for carbs to be replaced. I always have a big dollop of coleslaw with my salads as that is low carb and filling. Probably best to avoid pizza and pasta dishes but steak and salad is good maybe with just a small portion of chips. New potatoes are also a better option than most other carb rich foods. If you have been out walking through the day his body will cope better with a few carbs in the evening so if he hasn't had many carbs during the day, he can afford to enjoy a few more in the evening. So I think my advice would be go steady with carbs in the morning and lunchtime and then be sensible but not overly strict in the evening. A cheese board, profiteroles, ice cream or creme brulee are some of the better dessert choices, but probably best not to have one of the sweet ones every night.

Hope you both have a great time.

 

[Kitty W]

Fab advice, thanks all 🙂

I love the idea of a good cooked breakfast every day, that never even crossed my mind but it will be a nice treat and really set us both up for the day. I'll let you know how we get on. Even if we do end up cooking more than we normally would it doesn't matter as we are just both so ready for a break and change of scenery.

K

 

[What the..?]

As others have said it is actually relatively easy eating out once you've got into the habit of what is best and not so good to eat regarding carbs. I had lunch out recently with my husband, and I just chose a goats cheese salad for starter, and for the main I had pork with a creamy mushroom sauce (not out of a packet, it was lovely), which came with fries and salad, but swapped my fries for my husband's mound of salad 'garnish' which they had piled on. He was delighted to offload as he likes a bit of salad, but not in industrial quantities, and I was very happy too. I will admit to having about four fries though, just so I didn't feel I'd missed out completely. I skipped pudding as I don't really have a sweet tooth, but you can usually find something that's not too problematic, and there's always the shared dessert with two spoons trick to just satisfy a sweet urge. Hope you have a lovely time away.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Enjoy your holiday! Don’t worry if his numbers are not so good for a few days, as long as you get back on track when you get home it won’t do any long term damage.

Couldn’t agree more!

Do allow yourselves a little more freedom when you are away @Kitty W - while there are some choices that will be better, and some which will be more troublesome, the enjoyment of your holiday and your time together is really important.

No need to have a ‘sack cloth and ashes’ holiday, fraught with stress and self-deprivation. Don’t go mad (getting really wobbly BGs is frustrating in itself and makes you feel grim) but a few treats and an ice cream here and there once a year isn’t going to cause any long-term damage.

 

[Kitty W]

Thank you for the brilliant advice 🙂

 

[Barfly]

I'm afraid we eat out far more than we really should. We live in a grandad/granny flat with only a couple of leccie rings and one of those fancy microwaves that are also a cooker/grill. I used to do lots of barbies back in Aussie as the lovely Jane doesn't care much for cooking, but it is a bit harder here with the UK weather.

Eating out my evening meals usually are either a big fillet steak and chips (big ones best with skins on) (when I'm feeling good), a mixed grill (the Premier Inns do a great mixed grill for about £15), freshly caught Sea Bass at the Captain's Club Christchurch (£20) is really yummy dish as are their cheese souffles(£8) for a lunchtime snack. I try to go for mini new potatoes, the chefs always smother them in butter so they taste pretty good.
A good lunchtime snack is a cheese and ham or cheese and mushroom omelette. Believe it or not Greggs chicken cheese and bacon toasties and cheese and ham toasties when I'm out on my bike do not affect my BG levels too much, and they are cheap as chips.

We find good hotels and restaurants are not that dearer than some supposedly up-market boutique pubs in the final analysis, and it's so much nicer to have proper cloth napkins and tablecloths and better surroundings rather than paper napkins and wooden tables sticky with sanitizer (better than the stale beer pre-covid I suppose).
As a Greggs and occasional 'spooners customer I am no snob, it is just nice to be treated in a fine restaurant at least once or twice a week.
Hope you have a great time,
Cheers Tony

 

[Kitty W]

Just a quick update after our break away.

We managed really well for the most part. Had a cooked breakfast every day which set us up well for the day. We also had a treat every day, either a small slice of cake or something similar. We did lots of walking and mainly ate or own food in our holiday cottage. I was worried that cooking while away would feel like a chore, but actually it was fine. BG levels were in target for the majority of the holiday apart from one afternoon when my OH had a spike. So we went on another walk and soon got the levels back down.

One curious thing happened. Every evening his levels were the lowest we've seen so far (low 5's and one 4.9). Our holiday cottage had a wood burner and every evening we'd light it and the cottage got lovely and toasty. We are putting the low levels down to the heat. It will be interesting to see if we're right about that now we are back home and our house is more of a 'normal' temperature.