Bear with me, this is a long one.

Well, it has almost been 5 weeks of Atkins, with absolutly no cheating. I am very happy with the results, and I wouldn't give up this WOL for anything. I have a problem though. In a few weeks from now, I have to go on a business trip, and I will be out for several days. These are my concerns:

1. I haven't gone out to eat since starting the diet, because I found it to be much easier to control carb intake if I know exactly how my meals are prepared. Being out for several days means a lot of meals will have to be eaten at restaurants. I wouldn't have a problem with eating out once in a while if I knew the restaraunt well, but several straight days away from my own fridge and away from my own town is a little scary.

2. All of my colleges drink, and I mean drink. Honestly, I never started drinking until I took this job, and after starting Atkins, I gave myself a legitimate reason to lay off the alcohol, which I am really glad I did. If I do not join my colleges in drinking, I am sure that I would get a few raised eyebrows.

So these are my options:

1. I break the diet. Say to hell with it, go off the diet completly, eat all the carbs I want and drink all the beer I can. Pros, I go through the expirence smoothly. Cons, I set myself back by an unknown amount of time.

2. I stay on the diet to the best of my abilities. I lay off the obvious stuff like breads and sugars, but eat all the meat, cheese and veggies that I want (maybe a little fruit too). I order club soda when everyone else orders a sam, and I deal with it. Pros, any set back should be minimal. Cons, it might be harder to do than to say.

I have pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I will have to go off Atkins, either completely (option 1) or at least a little bit (option 2). My question is how bad could I set myself back if I go through 4 straight days of eating like a carbmonger? If the set back isn't too large then, maybe it would be worth the moral defeat. How much of a set back could option 1 give me? What do you guys think I should do?

Eating out can be easy if you let it be. There are great salads on most menus, eat them, extra dressing and all, good stuff. Also, if you are not worried about it, order things just how you want them, tell them hamburger or cheeseburger NO BUN.....they look at you funny, but so what. When they ask you what kind of potato say NONE, don't tempt yourself, if it is on your plate, it is too easy to eat. Ask for an extra serving of vegies, or a side salad to replace your potato, they may charge extra, but most don't. Buffalo wings, these are a great appetizer and low carb, if you like them.

The drinking, you must choose for yourself, maybe let your self have a couple, or go cold turkey. Remember, drinking can cause cravings to up a bit, so be careful. But again, this is solely your decision. If you make your decision to go off the WOE, don't beat yourself up about it after your trip, but remember it may be hard to jump back on the wagon.
Good luck.
Cindy

I love being on an expense account and eating LC. Can you say "Outback?" I love their steaks and I get the biggest, juicest cut my expense account allows. I order a salad with bleu cheese, no croutons (no one looks at you funny -- lots of people don't eat croutons) and veggies instead of a potato. Sometimes I get a side of saute mushrooms, too!

Seafood restaurants are easy, too. Italian is a little harder, but so many of them have grilled choices, it isn't hard. Mexican is easy with fajitas. The only type I stay away from is Chinese. I'm sure there's away to do it, but I haven't had to figure that one out yet.

What city are you going to? I bet there are several members who live there who could recommend the best places and menu items.

As for your co-workers...they might tease for a minute, but that'll just be their own guilt if they have a bit to lose, too. However, I'm betting most people will be quite impressed with your resolve.

Hi Odinisgod!

You have some fabulous momentum going. Congratulations.
From personal experience I would really encourage you not to break your stride.

If you tell people that you are hyper-insulinemic, it sounds scary enough that they will not mess with your health. If that doesn't work, it would be very true to say that you have a condition that could be pre-diabetic. Scares everybody into leaving you alone.

The first time I tried low-carb, it was amazing. I lost weight every week. Then I took a break because of my daughter's wedding. I lost my focus and by Christmas I had gained back nine months of loss - 30 pounds. The next year, although I followed the plan more strictly, I only lost 15 pound in nine months. I took a break at Christmas and fell apart. I regained ten pounds. This time around, the pounds are clinging harder than ever.

I am not trying to scare you. I just wish someone had told me that the beautiful success of your first time low-carbing is a magical gift that will not be repeated. After that, the job is much harder - it still works - you just need tons of patience.

Honestly, it isn't worth it. I felt horrible each time I went back to eating carby food. And the big risk is that going back to high-carb eating could cause you to lose your "faith" and decide that low-carbing is not worth the trouble.

I sure hope this helps. As far as eating out, there is a lot of good advice in these replies. Salad and steak - hold the potatoes. It works!

What about the 3rd option of staying on plan with a fierce determination?

I do empathise.. I live in Sydney, an am leaving tomorrow for my first business trip since low carbing to Colorado. Will be away from home 9 days, including 2 plane trips which will take 17 hours each. My initial reaction was that I wasn't going to be able to stick with it. My colleague don't drink, but boy do they eat. Our meetings are historically a total carb fest.... chocolates, crisps, pizza, deserts, sweets of all kinds.

I've worked to hard to blow it now. I decided to stay on plan. I have told all my colleagues that I've changed my eating habits, and cut out sugars and high carb foods due to borderline diabeties - of course its true, but they are amazingly supportive.

I am taking on board the plane an frozen bottle of water (to keep food chilled). Some BBQ chicken, some ham and cheese, some smoked salmon, some pork rinds, cheese dip, celery sticks, protein bars, avocado and nuts. Obviously the perishabiles I will eat before the ice melts.

Breakfast at the hotel will be bacon and eggs.... easy

Lunch, well I will be going shopping and taking food into the office and making use of microwave. tinned tuna, cheese and broccoli - protein bars - chicken and salad if we go out to lunch. They can eat their pizza, but I'll skip it (or pick off the toppings).

I know eating out can be scarey at first, but really Dinner will be easy.. just about everywhere in america has salad, steak, seafood, chicken, cheese plate for desert. My colleagues will be supportive of where we choose to eat.

I am taking a supply of SF chocolate, and sweets (just so I can join in the gorging without doing too much damage.

I may not lose weight while I'm away, but I will not lose the passion I feel for sticking to this either. For the plane flight home, I will refreeze my icepack, and do some shopping before I leave.

This will be a challenge, no doubt about it, but I keep thinking about how satisfied i will feel to succeed.

Hope this offers you some support.

Kim

Odinisgod, I travel a lot due to the type of work I am in. There are times I find it hard to stay on the diet, and other times it is pretty easy.

The times that are hard is when my company books me into one of those "inns" that are out in the middle of no where, with no restaurants attached yet they have a kitchen and fully equipped high carb pantry

The times that are most easy is when there is a restaurants close by. Most places have a pretty nice breakfast and dinner menu. I have yet to find any place that has a problem if you request that the potato be left off or no rice please. I normally get the "would you like additional veggies or a salad instead?". This past week I had breakfast buffet at the hotel, grabbed a pre made salad out of the deli cooler and ate dinner mostly with co workers. No matter where we went I managed to stay low carb by asking the wait staff to hold the high carb items and sub a salad instead.

While I was out the guys (I work in a field of mostly men) wanted to grab a drink after dinner. I walked with them to the bar and ordered water while they drank. They didn't say a word. I was an alcoholic at one time..it has been 13 months since my last drink and I know how to say no thanks at this point People can only make you feel guilty about not taking part in something bad *IF* you give them that control. Do not feel bad for taking care of YOUR health, let them have the liver problems.

While travelling through airports, I would recommend to eat before you hit the airports and carry a liter water bottle. You will have to put the bottle in a bag while going through the check points (some airports will not allow you to carry them through the metal detectors while others will). If you find yourself hungry while at an airport you can grab a burger hold the fries please and toss the bun.

Good luck and happy travels.

Odin, regardless of which option you choose keep in mind that while Atkins says 'no' to alcohol, having the odd glass of wine, beer or hard liquore will not throw you out of ketosis. Also, bear in mind that as a male you can typically handle a few more carbs than the average female LCer - owing mostly to your lean mass.

I've travelled while LCing - I even managed to spend a week in the caribbean at a resort while staying true to my WOE (and yes, I had booze and tropical fruit and yes, I enjoyed myself) - you can do LC and dining out.

You've received a lot of good advice on what you can do - what you decide to do is your choice. Just make one that you can live with and you'll enjoy the ride a lot more

Nat

OK, here we go with the dumb question from the newbie....isn't there alot of carbs in chicken wings? I would think that the sauce on them would have alot of sugar.....please enlighten me!!!!

Deb

I also would like to say that staying on this WOL is EASY when traveling. I do a fair amount of travel and I can always find health choices on the menu.
Shrimp cocktail (no red sauce)
Salad with real bleu cheese dressing
Steak, fish, chicken, duck, etc.
veggies
You get the idea.

As for Buffalo Wings, I come from the land of the Chicken Wing. Properly made the wings are deep fried (with no breading or coatings), and then spun up in a sauce of butter and hot sauce. They are a great low carb appetizer! BEWARE of places that try to bread wings and call them "Buffalo Style Wings".

Take care and enjoy your trip.
SMS

I was amazed at the number of responses when I checked back to this thread. Thanks to everyone for your advice! I know now that I can get through this without giving up my WOL, and am not nearly as worried about the trip.

Thanks everyone.