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**** restaurants

satkins

satkins

Well-Known Member
Messages
137
Type of diabetes
Type 2
After reading so many rants it's my turn :)

So it was another birthday at work today and we all go out for lunch. This time to a chain restaurant and they have their menu online with nutrition info. We have to pre-order so I spend morning coffee looking over everything. Finally decided on a grilled chicken garden salad with no dressing. It says it's 9g of carbs (don't know sugar though). With out the poppy seed dressing it should be lower then that 9g as the chicken is grilled and not breaded. Still had over a 1000mg of salt! Again most likely in the dressing. I test just before eating and I'm at a 5.7 which is higher then I like it but it's an okay range. Also I had a piece of bread for breakfast so I knew it would be a bit high. I test 2 hours after lunch and wow 10.9. Where the hell did all of the carbs come from? I think this is the last time I'm going for lunch. Most of the time it's some pizza or Chinese place and those are the absolute worst for me.

I'm typing this up during my afternoon coffee break. One of the girls popped her head in and asked if I wanted cake. I politely declined and she knows I'm diabetic. She then says "You don't know what your missing." What the hell! Way to make a guy feel bad. Actually I do know what I'm missing. I'm missing that gut wrenching that my stomach would be in if I ate that. I'm also missing the sever hyper my blood would be in for the next 10+ hours. Yeah it would taste good but geez.

Can't wait for my birthday to roll around. Everyone can go to lunch with out me. I'll make my self a low carb mug cake and celebrate with my wife and kids who understand.
 
Depending on the size of the salad and its contents you'd be surprised how many carbs one can contain.
 
It had iceberg lettuce, spinach, three slivers of red pepper (which that amount has never effected me before), green leaf lettuce, four quarters of cucumber, (which I didn't eat), some red onion and half a chicken breast grilled. I don't know where the carbs could be hidden in there but must have been the chicken. Normally if I had eaten 9 or 10g of carbs my BG would only go up a point or two.
 
That's why eating out stinks. It's a **** shoot. I do have to ask if it was a larger meal than you normally eat, size wise. Also did you have any dressing? The fat in the dressing helps keep things slow and low. I always seem to go high eating out no matter how hard I try to duplicate my home meals. I should bring my own plate as I use it as a measuring cup. The size of the meal makes a huge difference for me. I learned that from Bernstein.
Once I was having a slight hypo at 57. Went and got a Caesar salad at a grocery store. Tossed the croutons and just ate half the romaine with the no crb dressing. 2 hours later I was 99. The power of size. It amazes me how much lettuce can raises me. 99 still felt a lot better than 57. I'm never that low.
 
It was actually less then I normally eat and I skipped the dressing as most restaurant dressing can be high in sugar and salt. Since this is a small town I actually know one of the cooks. Turns out they put a glaze on the chicken. I suspect that is where all the hidden carbs are. Even though it's a chain restaurant they are allowed to make small changes and this is one of them. I'll bet the glaze is 99% sugar the rest salt, water and maybe a few herbs.
 
Your probably right. I think they inject sugar and salt solutions into the chicken to keep it from drying out. I generally bring small container of olive oil to dress salads. If I eat anything without fat I spike
 
Kristin251 said:
Your probably right. I think they inject sugar and salt solutions into the chicken to keep it from drying out. I generally bring small container of olive oil to dress salads. If I eat anything without fat I spike
Click to expand...

@Kristin251 , can I ask you a really stupid question? What kind of container do you use for the olive oil, and is it handbag-safe?
 
Not stupid at all. I took me awhile to figure out how to bring dressing without fear of ruling my bags. It's a small jar that looks like a miniature olive jar. Well actually it is haha. At an oil and vinegar store we have they had a 4 pack sampler set with two vinegars and two oils. Of course I saved them. They're about 2 ounces. I have also used glass spice jars. If you still fear leaking put the jar in a zip lock baggies.

I love Parmesan peppercorn dressing so I sometimes dress it first with garlic olive oil and then I only need about a tsp of the Frankenstein dressing. I never let them put it on. Always on the side so I can use what and I never get a non creamy one. Always tons of sugar
 
It's been a few weeks and we went out for another birthday lunch just a few days ago. This time I ordered the burger and fries. I nixed the bun and scraped off most of the sauces on the burger. I also had gravy on the fries. Most packaged gravy restaurants don't use flour as a thickener but instead use xanthum gum. Also found that I can handle potatoes if I don't eat to much. The extra fat from the gravy must help. I started that meal at a 5.3 and two hours later at a 6.7 which is really good. I'm happy if I can keep my numbers between 5 and 7 consistently. But I have had a few slips. Over the last month I'm running at about 75% in my target range (my personal target not what the doctor says is okay).
 
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