How often do you eat out?

Well though I eat very healthy at home but I am a street food and restaurent addict and I end up eating atleast 4-5 times a week, taking huge bolus to cover it.

Sugars are stable due to the bolus but I wonder if it is healthy.

How often does everybody else eat out and what do you eat in general

Eating out used to be one of my favorite things. Not anymore. As a type 1 who is also a vegetarian I find it very challenging to find food in restaurants I can eat without ridiculous results. Breakfast is easy, lunch is easy, dinner...not so much. I usually just assume that I will eat something like pasta which I rarely eat at home, because that is often the only vegetarian option and that, for me, is non-negotiable.

I now go out to eat mainly as a social thing or if I'm away from home.

Usually, once a week for me. Unless I'm eating a salad bolusing is very challenging for me when eating out. Yesterday, I ate a salad with grill shrimp and of course I couldn't resist dessert. Yum, bread pudding with whiskey sauce on top!!! Yes, bad choice for sure. I knew better than to eat it but, I had an oh, what the heck moment. A complete melt down. I tested two hours later and I was at 102. Cool! I thought! Then, later I spiked to 345. Oh, not cool!
I pay for it every time! When will I learn???

Don't get me wrong. The majority of time I am very strict with my diet but, sometimes I just feel like I'm going to loose my mind if I don't eat something I'm craving.

I eat out every chance I get. Sometimes I don't eat things I should; just make sure to cover it with enough insulin and that is always the tricky part for me. Nothing like a good meal; and that is my drug of choice.

I am with Zoe on not wanting to subject myself to "ridiculous results" (lol) so I avoid eating out. I am willing to try a new restaurant if there is an entree I might go back to again and again in which case the trial and error of figuring out the optimal bolus is worth it.

I eat out a lot, but I find that I can keep my numbers safe if I watch what I order. Of course, sometimes I indulge (and with a pump I can do that and keep the numbers stable), but for me, the issue is to keep from eating things that will trigger my compulsive overeating. So, usually I eat out alone and don't order dessert. It's much harder when I eat out with others who all order dessert...I am WAY too susceptible to temptation!

Ruth

I eat out about twice per week. My normal diet is lower carb and I can find good choices on most restaurant menus. I don't experience food craving episodes very much so I find it pretty easy to make choices that avoid the post meal BG highs and roller-coaster starters. Once in a while, if my meal companions are ordering dessert and offer to share, I treat myself to a "taste," one spoon or fork-full.

I can't eat a large carb restaurant meal and have stable post meal BGs. If I eat over 30 grams of carbs at one sitting, it invites trouble. I often eat less than 20 grams of carbs at a meal out. I no longer look at large carb meal as a "treat." It is not enticing when I think about the hours it takes me to reel my sugars back into a reasonable zone.

This reminds me of when I quit smoking. If I thought about how good it would taste to inhale cigarette smoke, it would set me up for failure eventually. When I occupied my mind with thoughts about how disgusting (reality was on my side!) the actual habit is, the battle was more than half-won. Some people say you are what you eat. It's just as true that you are what you think!

BTW, quitting smoing was way harder than switching to a lower carb way of eating.

On a bad week I might eat out four or five days. That was last week for me. But I almost always get salads or other foods that don't contain a ridiculous amount of carbohydrates. I stay away from pasta and rice completely, and rarely have desserts.

Today I'm eating out for lunch because I had a bad low this morning and slept through my alarm, and therefore was late for work, didn't have breakfast, and didn't pack a lunch.

Most weeks I try to eat out perhaps once, but preferably none. It's not so much that I'm addicted to eating out, more that I end up too busy, and I don't like cooking.

I don't eat out that much now, my closest friend who likes to eat out a lot moved to CA. When I do, I also eat low carb, it's not hard to do, just switch out any carby things for low carb veggies. If I eat dessert I ask for berries. I usually have to bolus more at restaurants due to larger portions, if I will eat more. I do find it more difficult to eat out due to not knowing for sure what is in the food, carb content, and most of all the timing for my food, I wait 20 minutes after bolus and there is no guarantee when the food will get there. I do sometimes tell them I'm on insulin and need to eat in 20 minutes, that helps. In one restaurant they asked if I had any food allergies they needed to know about after I told them about the insulin, lol. I don't eat at junkfood places etc. anymore at all, never did very much before and I only eat at high quality places- why eat bad food if you're going to pay a lot for it? Yesterday I accidentally took too much fast acting and it did cross my mind to go have a sundae somewhere though, but I knew that wouldn't take care of a potentially dangerous situation. So there may be occasional times when I will treat myself to something like that, or to a higher carb meal like indian food sans the rice etc. I really wish there were some lo carb restaurants, you can find just about everything for dietary needs but that.

I'm finding more and more restaurants have their menus with nutritional information online. If they don't, I've had some success e-mailing and asking for the information. Knowing the carbohydrate content makes a HUGE difference for me. If a restaurant doesn't have nutritional information available, I stick with a salad.

That is good Jen! Most of the places I eat at are privately owned and they have no idea what carb content is, not even the chefs know!

Jen, I'm curious, do you have any luck getting that information from high end restaurants?

Rarely--once a month, but it is usually a big meal. I love to cook, so we eat at home.

Oddly, I ate out on Friday and Saturday this weekend.

I haven't tried it, since I tend to eat at chain restaurants rather than higher end ones. I would think it probably varies a lot depending on the restaurant. But restaurants in general seem to be getting a lot better with food allergies and dietary restrictions, so hopefully this is the case for higher end restaurants, too.

I tried it and all I got was weird looks.

Can anybody suggest some healthy continental meal options in restaurent.

Once a week and I normally get the salad bar and order a protein(grilled chicken usually) for a couple extra bucks.

Ha. I hear you on the weird looks. When I'm out, my strategy is similar to others mentioned here - salad + protein, dressing on the side. For me, much less opportunity for errors going this way. If something is tantalizing enough on the menu, I've been known to ask about the carb count and so I know the weird looks. I have found success with narrowing down the question. This looks like, if I want to get a wrap or sandwich or toast and these are separate servings of a processed carb product even a high end restaurant has bought these from someone else who probably needed to include nutritional information on the pkg. So, I ask, "Can you tell me how many carbs are on the package of wraps you use in your clubhouse wrap?" OR "Can I please see the nutritional information on the bag the bread you use in your sandwiches?" Depending on the situation, mentioning, "I have diabetes and it would be ideal to have this info to calculate how much insulin to take.." can help this process. I have met with success with this in the past as this narrows down the guesswork in a big way for me (and I'm still pretty new to (a) diabetes and (b) eating out as a diabetic - I avoided it for quite some time post-diagnosis). Sometimes not - and then, it's "the salad, please". I wouldn't bother to try with this in a busy place, btw. But for all this hassle, it can be worth it to enjoy something like a pulled-pork wrap without a "repercussion", be it a high or low due to incorrect "guesswork"..