BS--It Doesn't Stand For What You Think It Does

Eating is always a challenge for our family.  With my hypoglycemia, I need to eat a mix of protein and carbs about every three hours.  I try to eat small meals or snacks throughout the day.  This means my fueling schedule is often:

8 AM: breakfast
10 AM: second breakfast or early lunch
1 PM: lunch
4 PM: first dinner or snack
7 PM: dinner

The kids typically eat on my schedule.  Since I'm an at-home mom who home schools, we're pretty able to keep my blood sugar stable while still getting done what we need and want to do.  Bryan is only affected on the occasions where we're off track and he arrives home to a nearly-starving, glucose-deprived wife who is sometimes unaware of it.

The first organ your body deprives of sugar is your brain--it's an energy hog.  So when slipping low on the blood sugar (redefining BS for my family) scale, many times I won't realize I need to eat.  I won't "feel" hungry, so I dismiss the slight dizziness and headache which are warning signs to which I should be paying close attention.

Because of this, and a few other medical things, vacations can be really stressful for me.  I need to be able to eat right after waking up.  If I'm stuck in a hotel, that often means snacking on something until I can shower and get presentable/rally the troops enough to go down to the restaurant or crappy free-breakfast room.  When I pack for a hotel-based trip, I bring enough snacks for every morning, along with a supply to keep in my purse for during the day.  If I eat dinner at a normal time, I often need a small snack before bed.  It's really tedious being constantly aware of the need for food.  Typically half of my carryon bag is filled with Luna bars, granola bars, peanuts, almonds, cookies and the like.

Add to my stupid issues the fact that our children are children, and thus, picky about what and when they eat in a country that's pretty rigid about food.  It's a recipe for drama.

Back home, I know the opening times of most major restaurants.  But here, a blood sugar crash can strike at inopportune times.  Another situation we encounter often is when I'm fine and the kids are starving.  This happens a lot here in France, since they don't finish the often-unfamiliar sandwiches and meals we're eating.

The other day, we were shopping for clothes for the adults.  I'd just found four lovely dresses and Bryan snagged a terrific sweater and three gorgeous shirts.  The kids had been pretty patient with the whole process, so we were inclined to humor them when they said they wanted to eat.  We went into a Leon--a chain of Belgian restaurants here in Paris.  They specialize in mussels, fries, beer and waffles.  What's not to like?

After determining that the kids were overwrought with boredom from the shopping, we caved and let them order waffles for lunch.  Bryan and I had eaten too recently, so we split an order of mussels. 

Lunch was:
Bryan: large beer, mussels, fries
Anne: large beer, mussels, fries, waffle
Olivia: waffle, fizzy water
Helena: waffle, fizzy water

Are we crazy?  Yep, that's what our server thought.  He thought it incredible that we split the mussels--but honestly--it had to be three pounds!  I don't know how one person could eat an order as part of a French meal.  Even if I'd been starving, I'd have been hard pressed to finish it alone, to say nothing of the salad and fries that accompanied it!  Yet we watched an elderly couple near us do just that.

And they think WE eat a lot.  That's another French paradox that's particularly acute for me.  With my blood sugar issues, I believe we eat more often, but in smaller quantities than the average American.  I've gotten good at eating half a meal and boxing up the rest.  It's not a weight management thing so much as a strategy I've learned.  If I eat too much food, it causes my stupid blood sugar to get all out of whack.  In addition to the physical discomfort of overeating, I feel hot, sweaty, dizzy and near fainting.  Notice that they're the identical symptoms of a blood sugar crash.  Gads, it's annoying.

For me to eat a truly French meal--the 90 minute, 3-course lunch or 2-hour, 4-course dinner would push me over the edge into sickness most times, unless I really held back at each course.  That would be noticed and awkward in a restaurant or family home.  So if eating at home is stressful, eating here is just all that more complicated.

Enough BS!