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Holiday food

DeejayR

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,389
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
A five-day holiday in the next county has brought home to me how difficult it can be to get enough of the right stuff to eat in the big wide catering world.
It was the first non-self-catering hol we have had since I started LCHF, and although hotels & restaurants were generally willing to adapt their menus, when the universal carb staple of chips, rice, pasta and bread was removed, the choice of extra veg to compensate was pretty small (broccoli and cauli ok, and maybe 2 "new" potatoes; carrots, parsnips & peas not ok).
I'm not very brave so I didn't ask for butter to put on the veg, but I did ask for and usually got cream for the coffee.
Subtract also puddings, cakes, sweets and biscuits, breakfast cereals, most fruit, milk and most yoghurt, and the table was looking rather frugal. The one redeeming meal was always the breakfast fry-up of eggs, tomato, mushrooms and bacon. Except for one excellent kipper with herby butter in a posh country house hotel. Omelettes weren't on any of the menus we saw, disappointingly.
Hats off to Morrisons (or the one we went to anyway) which had a big d-i-y salad bar with not only green stuff but also grated cheese, boiled eggs and bacon bits, making an adequate lunch for less than 3 quid.
We did take emergency rations – fruit, biscuits and wine for Mrs DeeJay and nuts, Babybels, cherry tomatoes and cooked Black Farmer's Daughter pork chipolatas for me.
Admittedly we had quite a lot of exercise, walking on beaches and one 20-mile cycle ride, but I lost 3kg and reduced my BMI to 20 so I've got some work to do.
I didn't take my meter but afaik the only off-limits food I had was a half portion of some sort of bubble and squeak served with smoked haddock and a duck egg, and a whole apple I ate one night with nuts and a morsel of chocolate when we stayed in to watch a movie.
I'm really quite glad to be home and in control again.
 
Hi, I found the same when went to Portugal at beginning of October, never thought id b glad to run into lidl & stock up!! I felt like a real fuss pot whenever I asked for salad to replace chips etc!
 
I just do the best I can, fish, salads, veg, fruit.
And I can simply eat a bit less for a while.

I don't intend to let diabetes ruin my life by complications, but I not going to let it ruin my life by keeping me trapped in my own house either.
 
Just having returned from a few days in Lisbon, I will admit to sampling a Custard Tart or two (or three
).....and a little too much bread on occasion.

I won't be wasting any energy on negative thoughts.
 
For my first two years of LCHF I was eating conventional food. Husband hadn't developed NCGS either so we ate out, mostly in country pubs but also in places like Wetherspoon's, Cafe Rouge and Beefeater.

I have never had a refusal to substitute for extra veg or salad. If a product is bought in, wait staff will go look at the product or bring it over if unsure about the carb count. I have been told sometimes that a dish is made as a whole so the sauce or whatever can't be separated from it.

After getting bad food poisoning and ending up on IV and insulin, in an isolation room for eight days, I kinda went off eating out.

When we go on vacation next year, we're looking at renting a cottage and finding organic farms, farmers' markets and having deliveries from Abel & Cole or Ocado if necessary. Husband would love to be cooking up a storm and wandering around farms.
 
I found the Prezzo chain of restaurants to be good if you are in UK. They have some nice chicken fillet dishes where they happily substitute a salad for chips (its listed on the menu as such). I've also had their burgers with salad instead of chips and just left the bread or just had a small bit of it. Rest of family enjoy it as they can have pizza or pasta dishes.
In London I had a lovely meal in the St James hotel Bistro - not a cheap option but it was a special occasion. They had a dish of duck breast with asparagus and figs and lots of lovely salad. Low carb and delicious. There do seem to be more low carb options out there now - even the Harvester had cauli rice or some such as a side dish!
 
To be honest. Touring with a metal band round Europe wasn't much better.

Most of the venues looking after us ordered in pizza.. Make a "deal with the devil" & that's what you get..
 

I've just come back from 2 weeks in Florida - try finding something low carb on the menu out there. Blood sugars all over the place, and still are. Hoping they will settle down again once I get back into the normal routine. (The cheesecake was nice though - well it was a holiday and I needed time off from diabetes also.)
 
urbanracer said:
I've just come back from 2 weeks in Florida - try finding something low carb on the menu out there.
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Luckily we were self-catering there this year so I stocked up at Publix. Gave up at one seafood eaterie and scoffed all the battered prawns though.
 
My default setting when we eat out nowadays is steak and salad.
Or chicken caesar hold the croutons.
Mixed grill style dishes, and with a good dose of protein, i can usually stay under 8mmol/l at 2 hours with a few chips. But only a few.

I love veg, and salad just doesnt do it for me... So that can be a problem.

When we stayed for a week in a hotel last year i ended up on Full English, every morning (got sick of that!) minus all the usual carby suspects.
Nothing for lunch
Then the roast meat option with the two veg that ticked the LC option.
I think on the last night i had apple pie, smothered in half a gallon of cream, which slowed the spike to bearable levels.

I didn't really enjoy watching Mr B eat everything in sight, plus pud. And custard.

Next hol, we are back to the self catering option.
 
We last visited Florida a couple of years before my T2D diagnosis. Longhorn steak and salad is fantastic for LCHF dinners, old-fashioned diners (bacon, eggs) for brunch. Key lime pie, however, is not!
 
DeejayR said:
Luckily we were self-catering there this year so I stocked up at Publix. Gave up at one seafood eaterie and scoffed all the battered prawns though.
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Larissima said:
We last visited Florida a couple of years before my T2D diagnosis. Longhorn steak and salad is fantastic for LCHF dinners, old-fashioned diners (bacon, eggs) for brunch. Key lime pie, however, is not!
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, although I eat fish, I dislike most seafood so I found that limiting in Florida where a significant number of restaurants seem to specialise in crustacean dishes. And we didn't really think about a steakhouse as we were often looking for something 'different'.
I did eat salad a couple of times and omelette but when travelling around, healthy options weren't always readily available.
 
urbanracer said:
when travelling around, healthy options weren't always readily available.
Click to expand...
Ay, there's the rub. Florida, home of the grouper sandwich and filet mignon.
Actually the two best meals I had were a bucket (yes) of crab slathered in butter and on the last morning at a roadside diner a spinach omelette. Perfect!
 
Oh, and alligator tail that we tried in the Everglades! Not really seafood, I suppose, but tasted rather fishy. It was breadcrumbed, though, so another reason not to eat it again...
 
Larissima said:
Oh, and alligator tail that we tried in the Everglades! Not really seafood, I suppose, but tasted rather fishy. It was breadcrumbed, though, so another reason not to eat it again...
Click to expand...
Not still attached to the alligator, I trust.
 
We lived in Florida from 1997 to 2002, and during that time my weight increased by over 50 llbs.
 
Another reason I'm glad I have a dog - all our holidays are self catering affairs so she can come with us
 
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