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Travel for the T2.......how do you maintain your eating habits?

T

TonyHancock

Well-Known Member
Messages
60
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
It is all about to go horribly wrong for me.

My self restraint is about to go out of the window after three weeks of three 36 hour fasts per week. I am faced with some rather nice South American reds on the wine list and the steak and truffle mash sounds........well......enticing.

Overall I have fared reasonably well since diagnosis and stayed dry for 8 weeks on the bsd. My BG has dropped right down in the 5’s on the LCHF lifestyle. It is hard to maintain when living out of hotels though, although I manage in the UK by eating in room typically with food purchased at the nearest supermarket.

This next week will be tough though. I will be in Mexico City with some US colleagues who will be leading me astray in a city I don’t know and a where the language is one I don’t speak. Pre diagnosis I loved Mexican food and I know it is going to be a challenge.

I’d love to hear some tips and tricks for maintaining the LCHF lifestyle when traveling.....particularly on long haul flights.
 
It’s much harder when travelling with others but for me the following works:

- Long haul flights can be a fasting opportunity or just take some low carb foods (nuts, pork crackling etc.) so you can skip the carby bits of the supplied meals and supplement with something more suitable.

- Check out eateries close to where you’ll be staying and identify those with the best menu choices. It’s rare to find somewhere that doesn’t serve something low carb, even if it means you have to give detailed instructions about what they should leave off the plate/bring on the side.

- My motivation for self restraint comes from not wanting to lose hard won victories over BG control and weight. I try to make any going off piste a planned event rather than spontaneous. That way it’s easier to limit damage and get right back in control. I did a couple of long haul flights last summer, about 6-7 months after diagnosis and made a conscious decision to eat what I fancied on the flights, but not at any other time while away. Worked well.

- Since you already have fasting in your armoury, I’d just use that in situations where food choices are poor. You can always say you’re not hungry or feeling a bit unwell if you don’t want to offend colleagues.

- Finally, although my eyes still look at carby foods and think they look good, on the occasions I’ve succumbed, they really haven’t been great, and in the case of sweet things are usually pretty unpalatable. Remembering that helps me to keep away from them.
 
It can be a minefield. I took supplies on a flight to NZ earlier in the year, but the airline still tried to kill me with the meals.
 
Firstly, great to hear your success at doing 36 hour fasts, I am aiming for that, currently do 3 fasts a week, two days no breakie, and one day no breakie lunch 18 hr and 24 hr fasts respectively, so you have given me incentive and motivation this morning, this week I do a 36 hr. thank you.

Your hols, wow, love the Mexican foods too, although reside in spain I eat adjusted to no carbs, make my tacos with cauliflower, but I doubt in Mexico, they will do this, actually just sent couple threads this morning which may be of use to you, one Mexican Scrambled eggs and the other my own recipe from a friend who lives in a small village cancun area and its the authentic way Mexicans eat guacamole. So for sure you have scrambled eggs and guacamole you can eat.....the rest, good luck and I suggest just stick to fish, salads they do wonderfully over there, ask for the meat that's put into the TAQUITOS, i.e. beef cooked for hours I refer too, ask they put it on top of a bed of salad for example you get the hot taste of Mexican food combined with the coolness texture of salad, just an example, but I am sure you will eat well and not feel tooo guilty.

Good luck, hope this helps, take a peep at the recipes I have sent threads to this morning.
 

Do you have Google translate on your phone or tablet? It’ll speak for you in a chosen language. You may be able to get the basics across to a waiter in the restaurant?
 
I have faced the same problem with LCHF made more difficult as I do not eat meat. I tend to eat a mega-breakfast before a long-haul flight and take nuts as supplements/ meal replacements for the flight. Researching local cuisine and downloading Goggle translate onto my phone also help. So far I have eaten well and cheaply in South Africa, Argentina and Brazil and have lived off fish, cheese, eggs, salads and vegetables. I found an amazing all-you-can vege buffet in Buenos Aires with most amazing selection of dishes! The downside has been flying twice with British Airways and being completely unable to get a meal despite phoning, selecting in advance etc. I now often take a picnic or buy a salad to take on board a flight. Scandinavian countries do great protein-rich carb-free airport meals. Occasionally when it would be rude to refuse the food offered by hosts I have eaten nuts before the meal then concentrated on the low carb parts of the meal. I often don't feel confident about stating my food requirements or medical condition unless with friends. I do feel confident about travelling though!
 
Hi Tony, others have offered great advice but I suspect one of the biggest hurdles is the fact you are going with colleagues! It will be hard to choose exactly what restaurants are suitable when I assume THEY are the ones leading you about. If you're like me you don't want to keep highlighting your diabetes with 'Can't have that, don't want that' etc, it really is a mood killer for others. Having said that, you also don't want to go mad and 'ruin' your previous good efforts.
I would relax a little. I would choose the meat options (steak for me!) and just the vegetables, or fish etc which you know will be ok provided you ask them to forget any carby sauces. I am convinced that if you choose wisely 90% of the time, any little deviation won't matter. Yes, I know some people are absolutely rigid. You can have wine can't you provided you are not the type to throw caution to the wind once you have had a few!

I would also make sure I upped the exercise following any meal, even if it's just a ten minute walk. I am type 1 and I know I can take more insulin in these circumstances but at the moment I choose not to, I follow my own advice as above and it works!

As for the plane journey, take your own food with you.

Good luck & enjoy.
 
Hi, I travel extensively during the football season and regularly stay in hotels, I was reticent before i go about how I would eat being ultra low carb and maintaining my blood glucose levels, as I'm working during the time I'm away from home cooked meals.
We always try to stay in the same chain of hotels, who always maintain good food disciplines in how your food is cooked and prepared.
The trick is to make yourself known to the restaurant staff especially the chef, in all my travels, I have never found a hotel chef or staff that are non compliance to the rules set down by the local authorities for food standards. There is a food bible which has all the ingredients and information necessary in how the food is prepared and presented.
If you know how your food is prepared, then you have no need to worry.
I always take some snacks or food for the actual travelling just in case. Or if travelling on the same day as the game, I fast.
It is far easier to fast than worry about eating.
Take plenty of water, you will always feel better when hydrated. You may have to stop more on the motorway, but that is normal when you get older.
If you are flying, take a snack or two, but fast, if I was you!
 
Many, many thanks for the excellent advice. I have survived flight number two and astonishingly, according to my meter, I am still in ketosis.....just. I opted for steak on the long haul flight and left the truffle mash untouched. Only had three small glasses of a fabulous Chilean red. Breakfast was a plain omelette with mushrooms.

I am now in the lounge in Santiago airport eyeing up a cheese and cold meat plate........for later. I have a nine hour layover.

I'm going to annoy my colleagues by fasting for at least two 36 hour periods too. I'll be getting a minimum of an hour or day in on the cross trainer as well as 10,000 steps.

This year I have had five weeks at home, and other than one more night in my own bed next week I won't get home until 8th July....I head to the UK the day I get back from Mexico. (Don't ask....I have a lot of last minute stuff.) China has been a lot easier than I thought, with lots of steamed fish and vegetables, and hotpot always works for me there.

My biggest concern at the moment is the impact of jet lag on bg levels. I have not monitored levels as much as I currently do and have purchased the Accu Chek monitor that wirelessly syncs to my phone so I can follow patterns.

As an aside I once pre ordered the diabetic meal on British Airways - I was lucky enough to be able to use points to fly in First Class, and it was basically a piece of fish with an absolutely huge portion of white rice. This was in the early days for me so I was pretty ill informed about what a "diabetic" meal was. Needless to say the rice was left on the plate.

BTW I probably didn't post that I am "sort of" Australian based.
 
It has been an unusual week for me. I was in Mexico six days ago and since then have flown from Mexico City to Santiago and then on to Sydney and Melbourne and 36 hours later flew from Melbourne to Sydney and on to London via Singapore. My fasting blood sugar hovered between 1 and 2 points above my previous three weeks averages.

Then today at 1:00 AM I register 9.4 as I laid wide awake with jet lag. :-o I had eaten cheese and chorizo a couple of hours later. I got up at 4:40 AM walked 12 KM and then was down at 5.9. After a breakfast of smoked salmon, avocado and eggs I was down at 5.5 2 hours later.

6 hours after breakfast I was back at 6.7. To me my readings express some of the complexity of trying to manage blood sugar. The number of variables are way more than I ever thought. When I started I thought it was a case just managing diet, now I firmly believe that "stress" is something I have to manage significantly better than I do.
 
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