Questions and strange looks

(Val Bundy) #1

So my first week on Keto I think has been very good…I felt pretty sh!ty at the beginning of the week but I’ve got more energy this weekend and i’m feeling good…down 11 pounds too…what?! water weight right? anyway Friday and Saturday hubby and I were out of town with friends…I tried my very best to eat keto while out at restaurants, I think I did very good.

Funny thing I found is that wait staff was totally confuddled on why I didn’t want hash browns or toast when it came with the meal, Or baked potato or fries, really you don’t want them? I had one waitress literally ask me why I didn’t want them and I told her I don’t eat starches or sugar and she was like so toast and home fries are sugar and starch? I said yeah and explained it. Then she asked me other stuff like if I feel full without eating that stuff and don’t I feel like i’m missing out and all these questions.

Then my friend asked me about it, which I was kind of happy about because she is a diabetic and has all kinds of health issues…her husband looked at me like I was insane, but ya know I guess I will have to get use to that. lol

Anyone else have this happen to them when they go out to eat?

(jilliangordona) #2

All. The. Time! It’s crazy how some places like almost ZERO non carb side options.

A few months ago I went to a seafood restaurant in Savannah, Georgia and they had sausage as a side! I was thrilled (yes I know it may have had added carbs and sugars I didn’t know about).

#3

We have the opposite experience. My husband, my parents and I do not eat the starch sides (my parents are more moderate carb lower fat but regardless). If the kids are not with us we refuse the bread basket, when we order we request no croutons. By the time we are ordering the main course the waiter will usually ask us what we want instead of the pasta it comes with and we do not have to ask.

Many of my overweight and diabetic friends know I am doing this and I have lost a substantial amount but am only about halfway to my goal. They look, they are happy for me, I am pretty loud about keto but I still get excuses. Things like my current diet is working for me (friend lost 20 lbs slowly and gained it back quickly), I cannot imagine giving up whatever. In some cases they have or have had serious illnesses or health challenges but still refuse to listen. One person is considering stomach surgery so she can qualify for a knee replacement and some days can barely walk but she still cannot imagine giving up sugar. It is so frustrating

(Karen Parrott) #4

Yes, although in So.Cal a lot of folks are now Paleo/Primal/LCHF/Keto so all the teens at the burger joints know “protein style” as I am in San Diego Co, close enough to LA and OC that they ALL know what it means.

When I go to central Indiana for High School reunions all it is is explaining. “You were morbidly obese and now your are thin! I wish I could be” my friends say. “You can be with some changes” I say. Do you want to know more? Some do, some do not.

I have to be very, very specific in Indiana, less so in So Cal. I figure I’m a good garden girl- just planting the seed. Only they can grow from the ideas.

(Karen Parrott) #5

That was me about 6 years ago- oh, Low carb will give you a heart attack. I count WW points. Finally the person said, well, I lost 30 pounds… slowly I came to my senses…

It’s tough to witness.

#6

My whole beef with waitstaff asking questions is it’s really not their business. All they really need to know is that I don’t want potatoes, bread or other starchy junk with my dinner.
Some places are really awesome about substituting side dishes, like the 99. And I find most questions can be answered with a “I just can’t have it.”

(carl) #7

Agreed. At the same time, if any human asks me questions, I gladly explain. I would feel like such a jerk if I missed an opportunity to put someone- anyone - on the path to recovery.

(Brian) #8

I’ve never had a waiter or waitress question anything I’ve ordered. I tell them what I want, they usually don’t say much of anything beyond making sure that’s what I want. You guys must go to different restaurants than I do. :wink:

(Sophie) #9

Sure, and now if I can’t get a sub, I just get the junk and throw it all into a big take away box for my friends chickens! They Love It and I get eggs as a bonus. Works for me.

#10

Fair enough. But I would feel a bit rude laying my eating philosophy on a total stranger too, since I can be a tad bit opinionated. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

(Val Bundy) #11

very true…i’m so new at this though I felt inadequate in answering questions but maybe it gave her something to think about or look in to…

(Brian) #12

If you want to, you can also say something like, “My doc has me on a special diet, no sugar, and very low carbs. He says it will help me fix some health issues.”

That implies that it’s not your idea but someone else’s (your doctor), and it also implies that someone else is dictating what you can and cannot eat, so if it’s a pain in the butt, it’s not your fault, you’re just trying to follow doctor’s orders.

May be stretching a little, but since the doctor isn’t there to answer questions, the person may just drop it. They’ll probably remember the “no sugar and no carbs” but not a whole lot else. And these days, if someone really wants to know about low carb diets, all they have to do is ask Mr. Google and read for weeks.

#13

I wish I knew what to say.

Others who have reached goal have said they still will not listen but I feel like I have a better shot at it if I am at my goal weight, to convince them

(Karen Parrott) #14

I"m at my goal weight 5.5 years and it got worse for me. The “have never started/won’t starters” gang up with the “you’re going to kill yourself” + "“I couldn’t keep it off either folks so eat some of my carbz” and make weird comments. A few folks really get it. I can count them on 1 hand (outside of my LCHF friends) .
I was 40 years yo-yo dieter. I flash my photo sometimes, in the right situation. It gets people to stop talking, anyway.

The doctor thing works well, @Bellyman said. Nobody, but nobody messes with the doctor. LOL. My doctor said to lose weight and she’s okay with it. The less I talk, then if someone sticks with it, that’s cool, I’ll talk more.

It will be a lot of repetition. I expect things will get better in each 5, 10, 15 years. It already has here in So. Cal.

#15

While I know where @Bellymanis going with the doctor thing I hate that he is right. Especially when the more I realize how misguided so many doctors are. The last place I would take nutrition advice and not the place I want the average person thinking they should go to improve their diet.

I do not care what people say to me about my diet. Whether it is going to give me a heart attack or not. My teenage daughter staged an intervention and forced me to eat during what I had hoped was a 24 hour fast about a month into keto. She has since been occupied with college and sees that it is now 4 months later and I have not wasted away to nothing.

However, I am anxious to get moving because I have 3 friends who range from extremely sick to moderately with diabetes and obesity. Plus an elderly relative. I know it is a delusion on my part that I can help them when at goal when I cannot now, but it is a feeling I cannot shake

(MooBoom) #16

Yup I got this from a server in my local ethical butchers would you believe- of all people! She looked like a prime candidate for Keto too more’s the pity. The conversation went like so:

Me: Hi, are there any fillers/bread/starch added to your sausages?
Server: Why?Are you allergic?
Me: No, just can’t have starches or carbs really
Server: Why not?
Me: I live a ketogenic lifestyle
Server: Oh god that, that’s so bad for you why would you do that to yourself? You’ll get a heart attack! What about your cholesterol? And bowel cancer- you have to watch for that.
Me: Actually there’s a growing body of evidence which strongly contradicts those fears, and I’ve never felt better in my adult life and am losing weight like nobody’s business (thinking, ie NONE OF YOURS!)
Server: huh. Horses for course I guess. Can you still have peas and corn? I heard you can have anything grown above soil.
Me: Actually no, because they are really high in carbohydrate and starch so I would have a little if my carb allowance had room for them perhaps, but mostly I’d stay away from them.
Server: sounds really restrictive, I could never do that gives judgey faced look
Me: smiles Not at all, I’d rather give up carbs and gain health, I guess it depends on what you value. Carbs or quality of life. mic drop

We’re different, and there’s a lot of misinformation and fear mongering out there. Just gotta bite our tongues and let our excellent health do the talking for us! At least that’s what I remind myself because I have a tendency to evangelise about Keto… lol!

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #17

Depends on my mood. If I’m feeling up for it, I explain that I’m eating LCHF in an attempt to stave off metabolic disease (it runs in both sides of my family). Waiters are pretty sympathetic to that. One waitress even started telling me about her diabetes and her own diet to control it; she couldn’t have been more attentive to what I wanted after that. (Gave her a big tip to encourage that kind of attitude.)

Sometimes, however, I am just in a “Shut up and bring me what I want” mood, which is tough on the waiter and I do try to control it. (I am morose, resentful, and introverted by nature and am trying to grow out of it.) When I realize I’m being nasty, I make a point of apologizing and tipping well.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #18

Yes! Drs. Phinney, Volek, Gerber, Attia, Lustig, Bikman, Cucuzella, . . . . :grinning::bacon:

(Mark Rhodes) #19

If we feel a “reason” is required, usually because we ask information on how something is prepared, we explain we are diabetic and there are foods that trigger a very bad response. Not only do most people know too little they do not want their customer having a reaction and the wait staff is extra diligent in salad dressings, diet beverages etc.

(Ross) #20

It’s getting popular enough that I don’t get many questions anymore. I even ran into a pizza joint up north of Hibbing that makes a brilliant crustless zero carb pizza. I wish a local place made it down here in the Twin Cities!

I do often get pointed questions from curious friends and acquaintances. Some are honestly worried that i’m going to kill myself from all the high fat bacon & butter I eat…other see the change in me and want what I have. We all become walking-talking examples of this way of life after a while.