I think it's a bit harsh that the OP thinks of "naming and shaming" the garden centre chain, or that they should be "ashamed" for thier menu choices. They are entitled to include on thier menu whetever they choose (and no doubt what they know from experience sells well). If you were not happy with the choices on offer, your easiest option would have been to simply leave and eat elsewhere rather than to complain about the price of thier carrots and mini cheeses.
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Lunch out with my friend
- Thread starter sdgray22
- Start Date
didie
Well-Known Member
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- 729
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- Scotland
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- People who think they are always right and ram their opinions down your throat. No-one knows everything. Those who shout loudest are usually the ones who actually know the least.
I've just got home after a long train journey and Costa Coffee and the Pumpkin Cafe Shop at York station had no salad-based food at all which was extremely disappointing. Luckily I'd taken fruit with me and munched that on the train. I didn't get anything else to eat until I got to Edinburgh where there is a Boots at Waverley station that has a reasonable selection of food.
I'm going to contact Costa Coffee and the Pumpkin Cafe head offices to ask why they don't carry salad-based food. They are big enough chains to be able to stock them. Maybe it is a case of if you don't ask, you won't get.
I'm going to contact Costa Coffee and the Pumpkin Cafe head offices to ask why they don't carry salad-based food. They are big enough chains to be able to stock them. Maybe it is a case of if you don't ask, you won't get.
sdgray22
Well-Known Member
Sorry I don't think it is harsh at all. It is time we all stood up and said these type of places are outdated .They are promoting a completely unhealthy way of eating whoever you are and whatever you have got if anything. If the person in charge has done all the qualifications needed to run an eating establishments they would I would have thought known the rudiments of nutrition. Greens and salads and fruit are basic requirements in a healthy diet. I am sure if the people who tried to live on Macdonalds and ended up dangerously ill tried to live off these sort of eating establishments they would be in the same boat! And who else is to be ashamed about it except themselves. My opinion and I am sticking to it. I am not asking for a special diet dish just one dish on the menu during that day that was a salad or had a vegetable with it, or even a piece of fruit would have been nice!!! No-one can surely disagree with that.
clearviews
Well-Known Member
Hi sdgray22
I agree with most of your post. It is definately time to take a stand for what we diabetics need. Many do not want it but many of us choose to reject what our brain wants but accept what gives us the best chance of complication free lives.
If I am spending my money when eating out, I want specifics and it is not just any vegetables, it is green, non-starchy vegetables that I need (not that my brain always likes them but that is what keeps me on target).
Even a piece of fruit doesn't work for me though berries do.
Green salads are safe for me.
Even MacDonalds can work in an emergency by asking for the meal without the bread, muffin etc. I don't get a discount but chosen carefully I can have the burger, without the bun or just the chicken with the garden salad. I know it is different in each country.
As far as the poster who believes that only cereal for breakfast keeps them full--------I KNOW what you are feeling. All of my pre-diabetic life that was me. I had to have some form of cereal, bread etc. Cooked breakfasts were for special occasions.
If eggs are an issue, try a protein shake. They really work though I was sceptical! Give them a go........ Sausages, bacon, mushrooms, zucchini, a small slice of tomato, grilled haloumi. Yes, my brain would have objected once. I had to retrain it.
Geen vegetables with nothing starchy was never my first choice. Diabetes was out of left field. I am prepared to change what I offer my brain and body for fuel 'cos I am NOT going to allow any more complications to happen. I am not going to give up and say "it is already too late". What I will say is--it is not going to get any worse and it hasn't, in fact there were gains and improvements.
I will fight and the huge pay off was that the weight dropped off. I can do much more than before without the effort. Think it all depends how strong you are about living a long, pain free life. Would an alcoholic choose to go without their drug of choice? That is where I think the food addiction has to be faced, just the way any addict does.
I love my life.
I agree with most of your post. It is definately time to take a stand for what we diabetics need. Many do not want it but many of us choose to reject what our brain wants but accept what gives us the best chance of complication free lives.
If I am spending my money when eating out, I want specifics and it is not just any vegetables, it is green, non-starchy vegetables that I need (not that my brain always likes them but that is what keeps me on target).
Even a piece of fruit doesn't work for me though berries do.
Green salads are safe for me.
Even MacDonalds can work in an emergency by asking for the meal without the bread, muffin etc. I don't get a discount but chosen carefully I can have the burger, without the bun or just the chicken with the garden salad. I know it is different in each country.
As far as the poster who believes that only cereal for breakfast keeps them full--------I KNOW what you are feeling. All of my pre-diabetic life that was me. I had to have some form of cereal, bread etc. Cooked breakfasts were for special occasions.
If eggs are an issue, try a protein shake. They really work though I was sceptical! Give them a go........ Sausages, bacon, mushrooms, zucchini, a small slice of tomato, grilled haloumi. Yes, my brain would have objected once. I had to retrain it.
Geen vegetables with nothing starchy was never my first choice. Diabetes was out of left field. I am prepared to change what I offer my brain and body for fuel 'cos I am NOT going to allow any more complications to happen. I am not going to give up and say "it is already too late". What I will say is--it is not going to get any worse and it hasn't, in fact there were gains and improvements.
I will fight and the huge pay off was that the weight dropped off. I can do much more than before without the effort. Think it all depends how strong you are about living a long, pain free life. Would an alcoholic choose to go without their drug of choice? That is where I think the food addiction has to be faced, just the way any addict does.
I love my life.
lucylocket61
Expert
Thats a good point clearviews about food addiction. I would have strenuously denied I was addicted to bread, pasta, sweets, and any sort of carbs really. But coming off them was like giving up smoking at first. 3 weeks down the line, my addiction craving are totally over. Its just my eyes which want them.
I agree with the OP that eating 'on the go' is difficult. Going to a restaurant is not too bad as there are dishes you can have and add/subtract greens and carbs.
We travel up and down the M1 fairly regularly and previously would have a Maccy d's mcmuffin for breakfast
and usually stop and have a costa coffee latte and muffin further along. However that is now out of the question. So we have to work around it; we have breakfast before we leave , I do a plate of cold ham, eggs and cheese the night before as doing a fry up at 04:00 isn'y my idea of fun! We take with us a box with nuts an cheese and some fruit in. We had worked out that if we were 'desperate' we could have a mcmuffin but just remove the muffin bit. Service stations do now tend to sell salad boxes in the stores there now but you have to make sure you have a fork to eat it with! Latte's are history so it is a black coffee now.
Yesterday though we were out and decided to stop for lunch at the cafe in Waitrose. Nothing suitable at all. Lots of sandwiches, panini's, pastries, cakes and muffins. We thought we may have been able to get a 'breakfast' but it was either bacon or sausage in a bun. There was a sweet and sour chicken dish which we could have had without the rice but we didn't want a 'meal' and who knows how many carbs there would have been in the sauce anyway!
It is difficult to eat on the move so we tend to eat at home these days and just stop for coffee's. Now instead of having sweets in the car, we have nuts!!
I am not sure we can change the choices offered in cafe's. As an earlier poster said, they will be selling what the majority of customers want so doubt they would change too much.
On another point, I too couldn't have imagined not eating cereals, cake, potato etc but it is surprising how quickly you can get used to it. I should add I do not have diabetes, it is my husband, but I don't think it is fair for me to eat carbs whilst he doesn't so we eat identical food. I am conscious that I will have to be careful not to lose too much weight so I sometimes have a carby snack or meal when I am out with friends. In saying that I had some cake when I was out with a friend the other day and didn't really enjoy it - too sweet!
We travel up and down the M1 fairly regularly and previously would have a Maccy d's mcmuffin for breakfast
and usually stop and have a costa coffee latte and muffin further along. However that is now out of the question. So we have to work around it; we have breakfast before we leave , I do a plate of cold ham, eggs and cheese the night before as doing a fry up at 04:00 isn'y my idea of fun! We take with us a box with nuts an cheese and some fruit in. We had worked out that if we were 'desperate' we could have a mcmuffin but just remove the muffin bit. Service stations do now tend to sell salad boxes in the stores there now but you have to make sure you have a fork to eat it with! Latte's are history so it is a black coffee now.Yesterday though we were out and decided to stop for lunch at the cafe in Waitrose. Nothing suitable at all. Lots of sandwiches, panini's, pastries, cakes and muffins. We thought we may have been able to get a 'breakfast' but it was either bacon or sausage in a bun. There was a sweet and sour chicken dish which we could have had without the rice but we didn't want a 'meal' and who knows how many carbs there would have been in the sauce anyway!
It is difficult to eat on the move so we tend to eat at home these days and just stop for coffee's. Now instead of having sweets in the car, we have nuts!!
I am not sure we can change the choices offered in cafe's. As an earlier poster said, they will be selling what the majority of customers want so doubt they would change too much.
On another point, I too couldn't have imagined not eating cereals, cake, potato etc but it is surprising how quickly you can get used to it. I should add I do not have diabetes, it is my husband, but I don't think it is fair for me to eat carbs whilst he doesn't so we eat identical food. I am conscious that I will have to be careful not to lose too much weight so I sometimes have a carby snack or meal when I am out with friends. In saying that I had some cake when I was out with a friend the other day and didn't really enjoy it - too sweet!
wiflib
Well-Known Member
Last time I was in Swansea, I took the Grandchildren to have lunch in Plantasia. It's a little, tiny area with a few chairs and tables and a small area from which they produce the food. It is typically sandwiches, cakes, pastries that sort of thing, all prepared on the little counter behind the till. I told the lady there that I have diabetes and don't eat carbs and could I just have a boiled egg and some ham and cheese? She smiled and five minutes later, I got something that is not on the menu at all. A heap of salad leaves and cucumber, some ham and a goodly dollop of egg mayo, which she makes on the premises. I know, because she apologised for having used all the boiled eggs up for the egg mayo sandwich filling.
We left with my profuse thanks ringing in her ears. I told her there were few places that would put themselves out like that but she couldn't see what the fuss was all about.
One happy customer that will keep going back.
wiflib
We left with my profuse thanks ringing in her ears. I told her there were few places that would put themselves out like that but she couldn't see what the fuss was all about.
One happy customer that will keep going back.
wiflib
clearviews
Well-Known Member
I so agree noblehead, If we are not creating a demand by asking, how are the providors going to know what we need or want?
Wiflib....... as usual, I love your work!
While travelling the outback 3 years ago we would go into truck stops where the brave or drivers of road trains go and order the burger option on a plate with no bun. Many of these places ship in salads at great cost. I always got the most amazing meal in the outback!! Ask, ask (politely) and let them know what you need.
Alison
Wiflib....... as usual, I love your work!
While travelling the outback 3 years ago we would go into truck stops where the brave or drivers of road trains go and order the burger option on a plate with no bun. Many of these places ship in salads at great cost. I always got the most amazing meal in the outback!! Ask, ask (politely) and let them know what you need.
Alison
