Eating out is a little harder now (but so is eating in!!)............

November 27, 2011

Restaurants. I wonderful treat for the family to take the time and go out to eat. I will be honest our family loves to go out to eat. Our schedules sometimes require it other times, well after long days working or doing the million other things we have on our to do list we just can’t bring ourselves to actually cooking something. So when Allison was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes on May 1 we really had a wake-up call about where and how we were going to deal with the aspect of restaurants. We didn’t really think about it at first – then it hit us on the way home from the hospital – she was hungry and wanted some McNuggets – what to do!!??

We were given a handy book that had some of the more popular restaurants with carb options listed out in it – we use that ALL the time. The other resource I find so important is my smart phone. When we decide to go out to eat I just open up the web search for the restaurant, search for the kids menu and hope they have it all listed.

We have found some restaurants really easy to access the information we need and then we have struggled to find others that our family really wants to go to. We had a special birthday celebration at the Cheesecake Factory – try to find that information anywhere and you will be shocked how hard it is to actually find! So we went there and asked them – they were very polite about it but didn’t have it – they did go above and beyond and called the restaurants on New York and Washington State (where they are required to have this information) and had them fax it to us at the restaurant – and we now keep that with us – I am surprised a restaurant isn’t required to have it but I was very pleased with their response and assistance to us in our need so we could have our celebration!

We had attitude at another restaurant when we asked – they looked at us like we were from outer space – how dare we ask for such a thing. We found the information online and dealt with it – as we were travelling and didn’t have any other options.  We have frequented one in Easton since and they have only been awesome and helpful so I hate to say a negative about that specific Chili’s.

However, we have found the easiest places to get this information is fast food places – we always go to McDonald’s on our way to church every Sunday – we didn’t want our tradition to change so we still go and get our pancakes – boy does syrup have a ton of CARBS!! J But, McDonalds has all the information you could possible need right there in the store at easy access, as does pretty much any fast food place.

We have even had a great waitress at the Red Robin in the Annapolis Mall that is also a Type 1 diabetic – she was our waitress – and Red Robin has an APP for their nutritional information – we go there often when we are in Annapolis – pretty much the place for the Holdgreve’s!!

At first I was so stressed about going out to eat – it has, like everything else, gotten easier. Sometimes I find it easier than eating at home when I do actually cook – I am still uncertain how to figure out how many carbs are in my mom’s recipe for penny potatoes that Allison loves – or if I make anything else from scratch – seems like I should I be better at that by now – but roll into McDonald’s and I got that down!!

I suppose like everything you slowly adapt to the necessary and as we continue to learn and figure it all out it will get better and easier as we move along. We are blessed to live in a day and age where we can whip out our smart phones and figure it all out right there, pull out the meter and the needle and still enjoy our family dinners at our local restaurants and our Sunday mornings at McDonald’s.

Until there is a cure,

Jennifer