I just got back from a business trip, too. I was amazed at how many choices I found on menus that were easily adapted to low carb. I ate salmon, steak, chicken - just aked them to hold the rice/pasta/potato and give me extra veggies. At one little italian place I asked if they could NOT dredge the chicken in flour before cooking it, hold the pasta, no beans on the salad... they were very nice about it and I had a delicious meal.

I was lucky to be staying in a hotel with a daily breakfast buffet. This allowed me to coose my items carefully and I just never opened the container with the hash browns or went anywhere near the breads & pastries. (I like your 'crawling with lice' image, wordlady!) Since we had continental breakfasts in our meeting rooms, I always made sure to go get the breakfast buffet before I got to the meeting! Lunches were pretty easy with chicken caesar (hold the croutons).

I did take some Atkin's bars for the plane and in case I got stuck in a meeting for over 6 hours (which did happen).

The trick is to be clear on what you want to eat and communicate in a pleasant, but assertive, way.