My successful restaurant navigation story (grass-fed ribeye = yum!)

[Snappy Shark]

I spent Labor Day weekend (more specifically Days 12 through 16) visiting my family, and I was only a little worried about staying compliant at home. While there was plenty of wine that I politely declined, my family is not big on grains so there weren't very many temptations in the house (and I got to sample some DELICIOUS sugar-free Italian sausages from their pork share - WOW).

The difficulty came when we went out for a pretty fancy-pants dinner at a beautiful restaurant that served amazing food (most of which I couldn't eat, in its menu form, anyway). There were some amazing appetizers that I passed on (fried calamari is just not the same through the nostrils only), but the waitress was totally wonderful, and I ended up with a gigantic, beautiful rib eye steak (from a local grass-fed cow!) atop naked salad greens and steamed green beans. I asked for the steak to be cooked in EVOO only, and it was so delicious that it didn't need anything else (save for some salt and ground pepper). I ate the. whole. thing.

I passed on the incredibly decadent and lovely-looking desserts that were passed around, too (I can't tell you how difficult it was to say no to stone fruit cobbler, fried ricotta atop homemade chocolate pudding and an artisan cheese plate). However, I slept soundly with a full, but not uncomfortably so, belly knowing that I got plenty of nourishment from that steak and that it actually didn't kill me to pass on beautiful desserts that probably would have made me feel horrendous.

I LOVE feeling this amazing physically (Day 20, currently), but I'm also loving the psychological strength, too. I don't NEED wine or dessert - and I can actually just decide to pass on those things and be okay with that. How empowering!

[AliceRF]

This is a fantastic story. I'm dreading social outings.