Eating Out

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Mynxie

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Type 2
Please can I ask for your advice?


I’m a newly diagnosed type 2 and in the time since I’ve found out I’ve been on a very strict low carb diet - always less than 30gm a day. I’ve lost about a stone in the six weeks and although my bmi is now well into the healthy range Id like to lose at least another half stone to put me back to where I was in my 20’s. All well and good, my HB1Ca was 50 - I’m not due to be tested again until the beginning of May but I test myself before and after every meal and have never gone above 7 for the past 4 weeks

It’s a very significant birthday for my husband next week and he really wants to go to a restaurant that we’ve been to before- there’s a set menu, no choices. Would I be ok to just have one meal without counting the carbs do you think? I’ve checked and they cannot accommodate my LCHF request. It would be a one off, the only other time I’ve broken the diet was to have one rich tea biscuit one afternoon but that’s it! He really wants to go to this particularly restaurant, it means a lot to him.
 
Mynxie said:
Please can I ask for your advice?


I’m a newly diagnosed type 2 and in the time since I’ve found out I’ve been on a very strict low carb diet - always less than 30gm a day. I’ve lost about a stone in the six weeks and although my bmi is now well into the healthy range Id like to lose at least another half stone to put me back to where I was in my 20’s. All well and good, my HB1Ca was 50 - I’m not due to be tested again until the beginning of May but I test myself before and after every meal and have never gone above 7 for the past 4 weeks

It’s a very significant birthday for my husband next week and he really wants to go to a restaurant that we’ve been to before- there’s a set menu, no choices. Would I be ok to just have one meal without counting the carbs do you think? I’ve checked and they cannot accommodate my LCHF request. It would be a one off, the only other time I’ve broken the diet was to have one rich tea biscuit one afternoon but that’s it! He really wants to go to this particularly restaurant, it means a lot to him.
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If you suddenly eat a very high carb meal after being so low carb for sometime it may be a bit of a shock to your body and push up your glucose level, that may make you feel unwell in the short term.
Do you know what the menu would be in advance. You could always leave anything very high carb or just eat a small amount of it, It could be the pudding which might do the damage.
In the overall scheme of things it will not make much difference to your HbA1C for example.
 
Well done on all the changes you have made @Mynxie, the weight you have lost, and on your determination to continue.

My experience of diabetes management is certainly that it is the overall picture that matters more than occasional events - whether planned like a celebration, or unintended like a virus or illness.

I would say that you should go any enjoy the celebratory meal with your husband. You might try not to eat all the portions presented to you, but mostly I would concentrate on enjoying yourself!
 
Hi @Mynxie, hopefully you've found the information helpful! I have also attached a link from our website about eating in restaurants -https://bit.ly/3t4K9oB. Have a great celebration well deserved 🙂.
 
Jacqueline DUK said:
Hi @Mynxie, hopefully you've found the information helpful! I have also attached a link from our website about eating in restaurants -https://bit.ly/3t4K9oB. Have a great celebration well deserved 🙂.
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Hi Jacqueline, I can't get that link to work on my android 11 tablet.
 
Thank you all for your replies. I’m just going to go for it and enjoy a little mini break from Diabetes but will be back on board again with a couple of hours!

Its one of those menus with lots of little ’taster’ courses so if I get a sudden attack of guilt I can just skip anything that seems too bad.

Its not something I intend to make a habit of but it seems to me that just one meal isn’t that big a deal and that very occasionally it’s not a bad thing to relax just a little bit. I admit that I have become rather obsessive about my diet.
 
Mynxie said:
Thank you all for your replies. I’m just going to go for it and enjoy a little mini break from Diabetes but will be back on board again with a couple of hours!

Its one of those menus with lots of little ’taster’ courses so if I get a sudden attack of guilt I can just skip anything that seems too bad.

Its not something I intend to make a habit of but it seems to me that just one meal isn’t that big a deal and that very occasionally it’s not a bad thing to relax just a little bit. I admit that I have become rather obsessive about my diet.
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That sounds like a sensible approach and you never know it may not be nearly as bad a you fear.
 
Well I had my meal at lunchtime today as planned, and although I drew the line at two desserts I did eat everything else that was offered apart from (most of) the bread.

I tested just before the meal (5.1) and have just done so again two hours after I finished (7.0). So I guess no harm has been done on this occasion though I won’t be doing it every day.
 
Sounds like you managed it brilliantly. Well done!
 
No it doesn’t but as its only been a couple on months since my diagnosis this is what I struggle to understand. Why, if I had no spike and seemingly coped so well with it can’t I eat like this all the time? I won’t, but it’s difficult to comprehend as a newbie
 
Mynxie said:
No it doesn’t but as its only been a couple on months since my diagnosis this is what I struggle to understand. Why, if I had no spike and seemingly coped so well with it can’t I eat like this all the time? I won’t, but it’s difficult to comprehend as a newbie
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Because diabetes means your body has a reduced ability to process certain types of foods, it may be able to manage it occasionally but not at every meal. There’s probably a personal tolerance level somewhere between never and at every meal, for how often you can eat certain things with good blood sugar levels
 
Mynxie said:
No it doesn’t but as its only been a couple on months since my diagnosis this is what I struggle to understand. Why, if I had no spike and seemingly coped so well with it can’t I eat like this all the time? I won’t, but it’s difficult to comprehend as a newbie
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Mynxie said:
No it doesn’t but as its only been a couple on months since my diagnosis this is what I struggle to understand. Why, if I had no spike and seemingly coped so well with it can’t I eat like this all the time? I won’t, but it’s difficult to comprehend as a newbie
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The problem often if that then becomes the norm, it is very easy for what you are having to creep up and suddenly you have having more than your body can tolerate and lo and behold your HbA1C is up. I call it the slippery slope.
 
Lucyr said:
Because diabetes means your body has a reduced ability to process certain types of foods, it may be able to manage it occasionally but not at every meal. There’s probably a personal tolerance level somewhere between never and at every meal, for how often you can eat certain things with good blood sugar levels
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Thank you, that makes perfect sense.
 
Leadinglights said:
The problem often if that then becomes the norm, it is very easy for what you are having to creep up and suddenly you have having more than your body can tolerate and lo and behold your HbA1C is up. I call it the slippery slope.
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Yes, I can see how that could happen! I’m back on track now so not intending to let all my hard wok go to pot
 
Research suggests that there’s a tolerance level for our pancreas to operate at all effectively.
The suggestion is that it’s related to both the visceral fat surrounding the organ and how it copes with the mechanics of dealing with the glucose etc.
Once we’ve crossed that threshold the pancreas sort of gives up because it just can’t cope.
With even small changes we can give the pancreas a glimmer of hope if you like. We show it that it’s not as bad as it once was. So it responds by trying a bit harder than it did.
What that means is that on odd occasions we can eat high carb foods and the body can cope - because it’s not doing it every day and has pulled back from the point of no return.
If we eat ill advised foodstuffs or way too much of a good thing even then we’ll increase the strain on the pancreas and increase store of visceral fats. If we do that enough to reach our own threshold then the pancreas will give up again and back to square one.

That’s my layman’s explanation of why we can sometimes eat clearly the wrong thing but have no discernible spike but shouldn’t do it every day.
 
It’s just so confusing isn’t it? Well it is to me Although I do understand what you are saying, thank you for the explanation

I think stress must play a big part too - I tested myself yesterday when I was in the midst of a panic attack and got the highest reading I’ve even seen - 9.9 yet I’d eaten nothing different from food thats always been ok for me in the past (no carbs)
 
Absolutely stress is a factor. But if you are stressed and your BG is running high then you can modify your food choices to help mitigate that. With practice.
I’ll increase the fat consumed for example, and consciously up my fluid intake at the same time. Together I’ve found that this can lower my levels and keep them in check rather than running wild. Sometimes. Other times it’s of zero impact.
 
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