Joseph Joseph Triscale...carb counting when out and about

Hi, all, after doing a DAFNE course last year, I had a sudden burst of enthusiasm for carb counting, and was finding that for those occasions when Carbs & Cals didn't cut it when eating out, I wanted a pair of portable scales.

Got these, Joseph Joseph Triscales, fold up very small. Been really handy for weighing rice in Thai restaurants, naan in Indians etc. etc. Although I was maybe taking it too far when I scooped the puff pastry top off a steak pie and weighed it.

Did a search but couldn't see any previous posts about them, so thought I'd mention them.

Some photos:

therower said:

Old age/ experience have resulted in me being a very good guesstimater.

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Yes, I'm the same, been at it for almost 30 years, so apart from some initial training on "exchanges" I wasn't told much, and this was pre-internet days, so wasn't so easy to look into it.

When they asked what my ratios were at the start of DAFNE, I told them I didn't actually know what they were talking about!

Until the course, I'd never actually thought about it in terms of ratios, although did always do a broad "eyeball" assessment of carbs, and knew from trial and error in the early years that this size meal takes this much insulin.

That sort of experience, gut-feel, instinct, call it what you will, we build up over decades counts for a lot: at the end of the course, it turned out my eyeball assessments where pretty damned close to my newly calculated ratios!

I still do carb counting to keep my DSN happy, but will often say, hmm, ratios say this, but experience tells me put or take another unit or two on this.

Last hba1c was 36, 5.4, mainly thanks to libre, but it's always been cutting around that level for three decades now, so there's nothing wrong with winging it!

DavidGrahamJones said:

Nah! Not really. I asked for bathroom scales on holiday once. I couldn't weigh what I was eating so I wanted to keep a check on the damage I was doing. Seems I needn't have worried, for some reason my weight will always go down on holiday. I haven't worked out how to be permanently on holiday yet.

In the meantime, the little scales are brilliant.

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Had to do a double take when I went for lunch a few weeks back at the sandwich shop next to my office.

Run by a Mediterranean couple, I often end up as an accidental low carber with some broccoli soup, or a salad plate, but they do some nice hot dishes as well, change daily, and on this occasion, the goulash looked good.

So, it gets served up, and then I realise there's way more potatoes in it than I thought.

Sure, I'm T1, so even though I do tend to avoid potatoes which are way, way unpredictable, I can basically cheat/treat with a bolus.

But then, the double take kicks in: I had a serious dilemma about whether to use Carbs & Cals boiled potato section to guesstimate the carbs, or hook the potato bits out on to a paper plate and weigh them and then put them back in!

I suppose I could have just not eaten them, but, hell, I'm Scottish and I'd paid for them, so there's a point of principle involved....

Ended up just going for the C&C guestimate, worked out ok, but with my new found enthusiasm for carb counting, I'm going to have to bear in mind that, lovely though these scales are, deconstructing meals in public is going to look a bit strange!