Can Lunch Packing on a Diabetic Diet be Fun?

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Laura Folos, a gifted writer whose blog is titled My Three Ring Circus of A Life, is a busy young mom who was recently diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. Portion control and specific diabetic diet plans aren’t what most would describe as ‘fun’, but when Laura told me what a difference my EasyLunchbox System was making in her life now that her eating had to be regimented and restrictive, I asked if she would share her story. I thought it could be encouraging to those who have medical conditions or allergies that require them to carefully plan and pack meals ahead. So, dear Lunchers, here’s Laura’s story in her own words:

All of my life, I’ve battled with healthy eating and what tastes good…as well as how to make it fun to eat.

So, when I was diagnosed with what appeared to be type 2 diabetes (I have recently been told I’ve got type 1.5 – originally presents as type 2, but has shades of type 1 in there – so, hence, the 1.5…) three days after my 33rd birthday, I was not only crushed, but I was given a list of everything I’d have to lose in my food library. I was told to drop my carb intake significantly and count every. single. thing. that went into my mouth.

I went on the usual purging of all carb-y stuff in my house and tried to cold turkey bagels. Yeah. That went well. You try and tell a girl from NY that she can’t have a bagel. It just doesn’t happen.

But then, I resigned myself to being a bit more sensible. I started baggie-ing my lunches. Some carrots in this baggie, some popcorn in that one, some protein in this one, and usually a drink to go with it. It became annoying, and I think I made more visits to the dollar store to stock up on baggies than I care to admit.

Since this got so everloving annoying, I quickly tired of the entire regime, and stopped. It wasn’t a cold turkey stop, just a gradual “well, I’ll only baggie what I need desperately to baggie. What do I need to measure, weigh and do all of this hoohah for?”

Laura's insulin pump

Then, I got my saving grace – my insulin pump. This made it more imperative than ever to know what was going into my mouth and to be as low-carb as possible. This was so much more exact than my old model of “eat and guess so I can shoot up, and maybe, just maybe, crash from too much or run high from too little.” This is “be as exact as you can, because with the constant rate of stuff flowing into the body, you’ve got to program it for what you eat.”

I went back to my baggies. I went back to going to the dollar store and purchasing mass quantities of the stuff.

Can you see where this is going?

I got annoyed again, stopped, and went back to my guesswork.

My overall glucose levels were fine. It wasn’t hurting me, but as my docs screamed at me, I realized the need to be more exact and eat a bit healthier.

Enter the EasyLunchbox System.

I had been peeking at bento boxes for a long time, and never really got up the nerve to get one and see what I could do with it. I always wondered how you’d keep it cool, since where I was working at the time I really didn’t have access to a fridge or the time to get to it during my fast lunch break.

So, when I finally got my EasyLunchbox, I sat down with it and mapped out what would and wouldn’t fit. I spent a good two days jamming different things in it to see what I could bring without stressing the cooler bag to the max. Could I bring 2 containers of food for nights where I had to stay late for an open house or event? Could I jam two drinks in there? Could I fit the jumbo ice pack rather than the small one?

As I found the answers to these questions (lots of yes answers and one no – the jumbo ice pack I have DOES NOT fit. It’s just too wide!)I realized that this may be the key to the problem that healthy eating holds for me: it’s not fun. It’s not what I want to do. It’s not what I want to eat for lunch!

Hmm…do we see a solution here?

So I grabbed my containers and ran to the kitchen and whipped up one of my favorite salads and filled the two small sections of the box with fruit and my favorite garlic dill cheese curds.

This lunch was looking, dare I say, FUN? AND it was low-carb and portion controlled!

WOW.

This is easy, environmentally friendly, and again, FUN!

I think I’ve found the solution to my lunch and working late dilemmas. And it’s not a baggie.

Laura Folos is a teacher and computer geek who lives in Upstate NY with her husband, son and 3 insane cats. She attempts to eat healthy at all times, even when the jar of Nutella is screaming her name. She blogs about everything under the sun from family stuff to living with type 1.5 diabetes over at  My 3 Ring Circus of a Life.

Tagged as: Bento box, diabetes, healthy lifestyle, restricted diets