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Working away from home - what to eat?

A

andyslowrider

Active Member
Messages
28
Location
UK
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Hi,

COVID permitting, I'm due to be working away from home for a couple of weeks soon, living out of a city centre Premier Inn type hotel and eating out each evening. Breakfast should be fine - bacon, eggs, some sausages, cold meats, cheeses all work quite well for me on LCHF. I'm a bit unsure about how to stick to LCHF reasonably dilligently whilst eating out each night though, especially as I have a fairly healthy apetite and am not a lover a green veg.

Any recommendations for restaurant chains, menu choices choices etc that are LCHF friendly, tasty, filling and don't rely on green veg to bulk them out? Also, rather than sticking to steak/chicken and salad each night, I'd like a bit of variety, so I'm keen to hear suggestions for LCHF friendly Chinese, Indian, Thai and other non-English dishes I could try.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Andy
 
Chinese - crispy duck without the pancakes or sweet sauce cucumber and spring onion should be ok with some stir fried green veg (if you like but that's optional) Ask for steamed prawns without sauce..
Indian - any Tikka dry dish (no sweetened sauce) I tend to go for chicken but lamb or even a mixed grill would work. Again plenty of veg choices aubergine (brinjal) spinach (saag) cauliflower (gobi) or mushrooms.
Thai a coconut milk based curry should be ok or the various salads with meat.. "tiger cry' (steak) just don't get the rice.
Any half decent burger place should do a burger without chips and buns if requested.

Simply put avoid the stodge and fill up on fats and proteins.
 
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Nando’s is a good ‘staple’ chain as is Five Guys - very geared up for bunless burgers.

Most places will work with you to find something - I quite often find that suggesting an egg, for example, as a replacement for fries or salad doesn’t incur any extra charges.

Anywhere you can ask for the sauce on the side is also good - then you can taste and see how much (if any) you want.
 
My hubby non diabetic but does low carbs and is at the moment on keto - he is now back to “normal” working and is away most of the week, if he’s eating with others he has steak, chicken, fish with above ground veg/salad with butter or mayo. Maybe a cheese platter without the carby biscuits If he’s just on his own he often goes to supermarkets and gets hot chicken or hot sausage they even sometimes have hot ham hocks with salad bag or as he calls it a picnic to eat in his room, cold meats, salad, cheese boiled eggs.

Like @Goonergal has said Nando’s is great - we went on Saturday and had chicken with salad and broccoli as sides and some halumi cheese. Gourmet Burger Kitchen do a naked burger with salad in place of the bun. Mac Donald’s now do bunless burgers too - he usually doubles up when he has this.

Chinese he’ll have foo yung- Indian tandoori, kebabs without the pitta (not doner) are also good
 
Dry Chinese spare ribs (or Salt & Chilli), dry Chop Suey (beansprouts, veg & meat) Tikka, Tandoori or Kebabs with salad from the Indian. Halumi fries (but check that they're not crumbed) most restaurant will substitute, if they won't take your custom elsewhere
 

Useful for the carbs info but honestly think as long as you avoid Subway, turn away the bread basket and avoid any pizza only joints you should be fine!
 
Another vote for Nandos. The butterfly chicken has practically no carbohydrate. I asked similar questions when I first joined (since I'm on the road a lot) and the ability to customise McDonalds meals has proven to be an excellent tip. Triple cheeseburger, delete the bun (and in my case, the cheese, simply because I don't particularly like it) and add extra salad and onion (both free) and you've got yourself a practically zero carb, on the road meal for (I think) £2.10. If you're doing the drive-thru, check that they've given you a knife and fork before driving away. They usually do, but I've had to ask, once.

In hotels, if nothing works on the main menu, consider doubling up on a starter or side. Don't assume that chicken wings or similar won't be breaded, though. It's always best to ask. Lots of places will do you a steak, and swap the chips for salad for free.
 
For extra snacks take a few of the mini (80g) tins of tuna. Just rinse the tins out after before binning them in your room!
I make up peanut or almond butter balls for an easy travel snack, mix in some coconut flour to thicken it, and cocoa or other flavour plus sweetener. Roll the mix into balls and roll them in ground almonds or a very little coconut flour (it can absorb too much liquid). Store in a tub, keep cool.
 
Thank you. I like the sound of the peanut butter balls!
 
Everywhere will almost certainly just do a plated breakfast which limits some choices but luckily a cooked breakfast can be tailored to low carb. We've had a couple of hotel breakfasts and that's how they were served no repeat visits to the buffet...boo...
 
Working away from home could be hard for anyone who does not get much time to cook, so that affects a healthy lifestyle. I work at one of the most popular writing services in the UK, and he
 
bulkbiker said:
Indian - any Tikka dry dish (no sweetened sauce) I tend to go for chicken but lamb or even a mixed grill would work. Again plenty of veg choices aubergine (brinjal) spinach (saag) cauliflower (gobi) or mushrooms.
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Oooooooh I had kinda assumed takeaways were a no-go for me from this point... not that I ever ate them often anyway, but I hadn't even thought about a dry tikka with saag aloo... YUM!!! Whenever I'm having a girls night at my place and they all want a takeaway, I'll have to suggest Indian so I can join in
 
Butent10 said:
Working away from home could be hard for anyone who does not get much time to cook, so that affects a healthy lifestyle. I work at one of the most popular writing services in the UK, and he
Click to expand...
he what? who? huh? Where did ya go? lol
 
The usual Holiday Inn Express breakfast would be perfect. Put whatever you want on a plate, with bacon, sausage and scrambled egg all available. Take as much as you want, and go back as many times as you like.

Due to Covid-19, they've swapped this for ready made and wrapped bacon on a bun, or sausage on a bun. So I end up grabbing one of each, and then leaving the bread. I hate to waste food, so on Tuesday morning, I asked if they could just give me the bacon and sausages. The choice was to either wait 15 minutes for the next batch of food, or for them to dismantle two sandwiches for me, which is what we ended up doing. I don't know whether they re-used the bread.

I'd asked at the bar the night before, whether they could prepare something especially for me, but they'd told me to just speak to the kitchen staff in the morning.
 
That’s a shame - they obviously aren’t consistent across the group as hubby is a Holiday Inn Express this week and they are making him scrambled eggs and bacon every morning- massive portions too he’s had to ask them to half the portion - I suppose it depends on staffing levels etc on how each individual place is handling things at this time
 
It's a franchise (or at least the Expresses are, I'm not sure about the other IHG brands) so while the branding and decor tends to be consistent, they're run by various different companies. There are subtle differences in the way they operate. Some don't need my credit card on check-in because I'm a platinum Priority Club member, but others ask for it.

It's useful to know that some will do you a plated breakfast if you ask for it. I will ask in future. Thanks.
 
A little out of the box, and not quite what you asked, but what about fasting? Obviously not the whole time, but if you're concerned about the appropriateness of your diet on the road, you can always try skipping a day here or there.
 
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