Time away

I have been curious lately as to how I would do if I were kitchen-less. Meaning, could I control my blood sugars as well if I were to be out and about, not able to take my food with me, not able to cook everything on my own, etc. It is a little harder to control blood sugars when you are not the one cookin'.

So, off we go. Every meal this weekend was out somewhere. The only thing I "brought" to the party was my own yogurt for night snacks, a bag of beef jerky for snacks and several bottles of diet drinks.

I figured rather quickly that the order of the day was... custom order. So, instead of the hamburger on a kaiser bun that came on the menu, I got just the patty with some cheese added. NO BREAD. And, instead of chips, I got a 1/2 order of sweet potato fries (sweet potatoes are better than regular potatoes, but still, you need to watch your intake). I have found that most places think if you ask for a smaller portion, they think you are expecting the food cheaper. When I tell them to bring me half an order of fries, I've learned to clarify that I do not expect to pay less for them. They are more than happy to comply after that.

Also, I had fajitas, and just did not eat the tortilla wraps that came with them. Kebabs, but only ate a small amount of the rice that they came with and asked for baba ganoush (eggplant dip) instead of potatoes. A sirloin with steamed veggies instead of fries. Nowhere did they have problems with my special requests. As a matter of fact, several places realized I was trying to avoid carbs and even offered some other choices that were not on the menu (I got a GREAT greek salad with feta as a side at K-town Kebabs in the West Town Mall in Knoxville).

The hardest part of eating out is not asking for substitutions or figuring out what to eat... it's the freebies!!!!  Would you like a basket of bread? Chips and salsa? A sopapilla with honey, perhaps? Free ice cream with your meal!  Those are the ones that are just killin' me!! I have learned to just tell the server ahead of time that I don't want the extras. Bless them, some of them are so entrenched in people hounding them for the rolls (Logans, anyone?) that they try to bring them anyway, but stop themselves or laugh at themselves when they realize what they have done.

With a weekend of eating out, I was terrified that I'd lose sense of portion control or miss my snack times and have my blood sugars yo-yoing. Or, gain some of my weight back. But, I am happy to report that my highest sugar all weekend was 133, which is totally acceptable. And, I actually lost a pound!!!  Of course, we also hit the pool 2 nights so we were able to get some exercise in! So, that didn't hurt!

So, I guess what I am saying is that at least my travel is something that diabetes did NOT take away from me. I packed my glucometer and glucophage and hit the open trails. Or, the malls at least!!