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In December I drove across the US –and set out armed with a box plus cooler of travelling food (Optimist Crackers, cheeses, dips, cream cheese muffins, salad makings – this was to be thrifty carb-friendly eats) and stuck like glue to my routine until … er … New Orleans.
We were busy being tourists when a rain storm descended, and we took refuge in Café Du Monde. Uh oh. They serve coffee and beignets. They’re famous for them. Everyone told me to have a beignet (fried bread/donut w/ confectioner’s sugar) in N.O. but I was determined to ignore such blasphemy.
My friend wanted one and ordered. Our coffee came – plus a plate of 3 large, luscious-looking beignets. I did what I often do, took a knife and cut off less than a bite, a bare taste. Ahhhh. Gimme that beignet – now! I savored. I ate the whole thing plus 1/4 of a second. It was wonderful. In a nod to diabetes, I shook off some of the confectioner’s sugar.
I’ve no idea what my bs was that afternoon, but by evening it was fine, fasting the next morning was high normal. Fantastic! Worth it!
The trouble is, that beignet set me up for more exceptions – bigger bites of carbs off my friend’s plate, a pinch of bread here and there – things I rarely do. Still, I was pretty much getting away with it because the rest of my diet was solid.
It was during a drive along the Florida Panhandle that I lost my diabetic mind. We stopped for a champagne brunch at a fabulous restaurant on a gorgeous white-sand beach. We were in a large sunroom, huge windows wide open to the Gulf, and I went for the champagne, first since diabetes. I ordered well – a seafood omelet which was the best I’ve ever had – with almost more seafood (crab, shrimp, crawfish) than eggs. Divine. Trouble came in the form of a basket filled with fresh-baked sweet breads: double-chocolate muffin, poppyseed muffin, banana nut bread, pastries, OMG! My willpower was lacking the power of will (champagne flowed) and I weakly took a sliver of each one, then another sliver of my favorites, finally the moist double-chocolate did me in (it was –not- made from black beans). That evening my bg was 148, something I’ve not seen in a long time, who knows what it was during the day. I’d be surprised if I didn’t top 200. Bad. Very bad.
The next day I had a fresh hushpuppy they forgot to leave off my plate – more trouble. My friend had even said, “put the hushpuppy on my plate,” and I blurted ‘no!’ with the determined resistance of a 2-yr old. Thankfully I stopped the slide there – the hushpuppy incident scared me straight.
The next couple of days until landing in NC went well – I was back on program – and so relieved to arrive at a house with my own kitchen and stash of recipes and ingredients, that I sailed through Christmas without any exceptions. I’m back to <100 fastings.
I don’t regret the lapses (esp the beignet!) because I enjoyed them, I survived, and I learned some things: I’m not immune to temptation, I still love carbs but can survive without them, and I can never get too comfy because major lapses are possible no matter how big a purist I delude myself that I can be.
We were busy being tourists when a rain storm descended, and we took refuge in Café Du Monde. Uh oh. They serve coffee and beignets. They’re famous for them. Everyone told me to have a beignet (fried bread/donut w/ confectioner’s sugar) in N.O. but I was determined to ignore such blasphemy.
My friend wanted one and ordered. Our coffee came – plus a plate of 3 large, luscious-looking beignets. I did what I often do, took a knife and cut off less than a bite, a bare taste. Ahhhh. Gimme that beignet – now! I savored. I ate the whole thing plus 1/4 of a second. It was wonderful. In a nod to diabetes, I shook off some of the confectioner’s sugar.
I’ve no idea what my bs was that afternoon, but by evening it was fine, fasting the next morning was high normal. Fantastic! Worth it!
The trouble is, that beignet set me up for more exceptions – bigger bites of carbs off my friend’s plate, a pinch of bread here and there – things I rarely do. Still, I was pretty much getting away with it because the rest of my diet was solid.
It was during a drive along the Florida Panhandle that I lost my diabetic mind. We stopped for a champagne brunch at a fabulous restaurant on a gorgeous white-sand beach. We were in a large sunroom, huge windows wide open to the Gulf, and I went for the champagne, first since diabetes. I ordered well – a seafood omelet which was the best I’ve ever had – with almost more seafood (crab, shrimp, crawfish) than eggs. Divine. Trouble came in the form of a basket filled with fresh-baked sweet breads: double-chocolate muffin, poppyseed muffin, banana nut bread, pastries, OMG! My willpower was lacking the power of will (champagne flowed) and I weakly took a sliver of each one, then another sliver of my favorites, finally the moist double-chocolate did me in (it was –not- made from black beans). That evening my bg was 148, something I’ve not seen in a long time, who knows what it was during the day. I’d be surprised if I didn’t top 200. Bad. Very bad.
The next day I had a fresh hushpuppy they forgot to leave off my plate – more trouble. My friend had even said, “put the hushpuppy on my plate,” and I blurted ‘no!’ with the determined resistance of a 2-yr old. Thankfully I stopped the slide there – the hushpuppy incident scared me straight.
The next couple of days until landing in NC went well – I was back on program – and so relieved to arrive at a house with my own kitchen and stash of recipes and ingredients, that I sailed through Christmas without any exceptions. I’m back to <100 fastings.
I don’t regret the lapses (esp the beignet!) because I enjoyed them, I survived, and I learned some things: I’m not immune to temptation, I still love carbs but can survive without them, and I can never get too comfy because major lapses are possible no matter how big a purist I delude myself that I can be.
). I ask myself now "was it worth it?" At the time, I guess the answer was yes or I would not have done it. Hind sight, absolutely not! I hate feeling like this and now I have to get through the work day feeling like I have the flu. Yuck. 
