Awkward starving day with the inlaws yesterday:(

I could not stop for food, only a person in my shoes could make that decision.

It's hard to believe that you couldn't stop at a gas station for 3 minutes and buy a bag of nuts. But even if that's so, food was offered to you and you turned it down.

I was writing to vent and hoping for support.

Sorry but there's no way I can support such bad decisions. It's not a good idea to get so hungry that you are sick. This is unhealthy behavior and I think that needed to be addressed.

geez!! calm down, it was one day! everyone has weird/ not-convenient food days.... poor girl is trying to stick with her diet and it was just a pain-in-the-*kitten* kind of day. It happens! Sorry you had a rough day!

The point many of us tried to make is that it didn't have to be a pain-in-the-*kitten* day. Folks are just offering tips.

Packing snacks is a life saver. I like nuts, protien bars and har boiled eggs. All are good for a hold over in a pich. I used to work on the road ALOT and meals were always problematic. I used to shake for breakfast but found real eats stayed with me longer. Eggs and whole grain toast stick for me for 4-6 hours.

I am not just restricting calories, but have other dietary issues as well, and like you, I am looking for the fruits and veggies and healthy foods when I eat, whether it is at someone else's house, or on my own.

As others have suggested, make sure that you have snacks for yourself in your purse/diaper bag/glove box. Everywhere you go. You never know when you are going to run into these issues.

You did a lot of driving, and at some point probably had to stop for gas. I would choose a gas station that has a convenience store of some sort attached. Most of the ones around here have whole fruit, snack trays of veggies and dip, fresh fruit cups, shelf-stable applesauce or fruits cups, milk, juice, water, snack packs of nuts, sandwiches if you can eat them, cheese strings and sausages if you can eat them, crackers, etc. Since you'd already run into problems at the first place and were starving, I would load up right away. Even if you get stuff you don't end up eating everything, at least you have a supply of reasonable food. Even though you thought you were going to lunch at the next place, you still have to get to the next place, visit for a bit, get on your way to the restaurant, wait for your food, etc. At best, lunch was still probably 2 hours away, and you could have done with some nuts and fruit or something to hold you over.

Having arrived empty-handed at the second place and finding that there was no good food, I would make some sort of arrangements to go to the nearest grocery or convenience store and find something to eat. Leave the hubby to visit and saddle him with the baby, whatever. Don't feel embarrassed about it, just say "I really have to go out and get some fruit. I'll be back in half an hour," and do it. Take care of your body. I don't imagine the visit was much fun at that point. Driving to destination number 3, tantruming kid or no - and yes, I have had to pull off the side of the road to prevent a kid from putting his feet through the window - I would have stopped somewhere. Even if it was out of the way. Even if it made me late. If you were not planning to fast all day, you needed to get something for yourself by this time. You knew it was another hour and a half to get to place number 3, and I don't know about you, but I have never seen dinner put on the table the minute I walked in the door. You could predict at that point that dinner was another 2.5 hours away, and you were starving.

If I was planning this day (expect the unexpected!) then not only would I have emergency food in my purse, but I would have packed homemade muffins for breakfast, various fruits to snack on, peanut butter, maybe some hardboiled eggs, veggies and hummus, and trail mix. And of course my water. Depending on what the original plans to eat were, I might also have packed a main dish or two in a cooler to share with my host (that is, something that will suffice for a meal for me, and which makes a nice supplement to someone else's meal. Maybe a crockpot dish, maybe a meal salad, something.)

I don't trust other people to feed me. If you are in a position where you cannot accept the food that people have on hand to offer you (whether because of fat/salt/calories, vegetarianism, celiac, allergies, whatever) then you need to supply more than enough food to get you through the day on the assumption that no one has any food for you. I say more than enough because you may underestimate, you may have to share, and you definitely do not want to run out and be left hungry. If you have to unpack a bunch of food when you get home, so be it.

So, you survived. You learned more about yourself and your in-laws. You know to plan ahead next time, and what your reception may be like. With my MIL, we started insisting that we bring food and cook for them, rather than allowing her to cook for us. So not only do we have food that we can eat, but we have things that we can prepare quickly rather than having to wait 2 hours after we get there, and MIL is not so exhausted and can visit with us more, and gets to have the treat of someone else cooking for her. Some in-laws I go to, I know they have healthy food in the fridge and encourage grazing. Others do not understand our dietary needs, and will never have anything that we can eat. You learn, and you grow, and you figure out what works. You survived. Next time will be better.

Pam

One unhealthy day will not kill you. We are congratulating her because of her will power. Of course she will pack snacks next time! No one enjoys having a terrible starving day like that!