Lessons about eating out

I've just returned from a weekend away. I stayed with some colleagues at a hotel and so had to deal with all the challenges of eating breakfast, lunch and dinner away from home for the first time. On Friday evening, I ate in a small restaurant on the way to the venue in Norfolk. I chose salmon, which came served with chips and a generous bowl of salad. Bearing in mind that I only got filled less than a week ago, I only ate a little of the salad and found it a bit hard-going because it's quite hard and relatively indigestible. The salmon went down fine and I managed about ten chips - the first chips I have eaten since October!!!

Next morning at the hotel, I played relatively safe again and ate scrambled egg, tomato and mushroom with half a slice of toast. I tried to eat some grapefruit segments beforehand but had to give up on these as they were getting 'stuck' in my throat and kicking off a bit of acid indigestion. I had the same thing with the mushrooms and the skin on the tomatoes. Next morning I played even safer and went for tomatoes and toast only.

Saturday lunch was taken in a Tesco's cafe! I found a really nice prawn pasta salad which went down without any problems and was lovely. Today's lunch was had in the more celubrious surroundings of an olde worlde pub in the most beautful little English village. I chose butternut squash and goat's cheese lasagne (remember, I'm a veggie!). This was served with chips and salad. As an aside, I never do understand why restaurants always serve lasagne, which is rich with carbohydrate in the form of pasta, with chips - more carbs?! Anyway, the lasagne was delicious but took me ages to eat and, as usual, I was last to finish by quite some way. Others were going to have dessert so I insisted they have their plates cleared and order dessert while I carried on finishing my main course!! I also ate a little of the salad and about six chips.

On Saturday evening, everyone else was going to have three courses and I knew that if I tried this I would be there until morning! In the end, I decided to have a small starter (four tiny Thai fish cakes) as my main course, and a very slidey dessert - apple pie and custard - my first proper 'treat' in ages. During at least a couple of my meals over the weekend I ate bread and/or toast without difficulty.

What have I learnt from all this?

1. If eating out with others, bear in mind that whatever I eat, I'll finish ages after everyone else! Make jokes about being a 'slow eater' to avoid any awkward questions. Choose one or two small courses and have a starter as a main course to speed things up!

2. Genuine slider foods (like apple pie and custard) go down VERY easily, in relatively big mouthfuls, quite fast and with little 'chewing'. If looking to eat quickly, eat these foods and enjoy - but beware of the huge hike in calories....... ;-(

3. 'Good', healthy foods such as salad, crunchy / raw vegetables take loads of chewing and are relatively difficult to swallow. They cause minor acid indigestion at times (but not always) and should be eaten exceptionally slowly (especially first thing in the morning) when eating out with others (to avoid embarrassing moments).

4. There is no need to be afraid of eating out. It's different to how it used to be, but it can still be done and a lot of fun had along the way!