Eating Big Meals

[Guest sonotech]

I have noticed (especially when I go OUT to dinner), that about half-way through my meal that I start to feel worse and it just increasingly gets worse as the meal goes on.

I usually start feeling lightheaded, nauseous, and like my BP is dropping.

I then have to lay down in the car on the way home. (my poor husband)

So much for our anniversary dinner last night.

Does anyone else have this problem?? And if so, any tips??

LAURA

[futurehope]

This is a tough one.

My suggestions:

Try not to be really hungry before you go eat out. That way your blood sugar will not change from real low (very hungry) to real high (loads of food)

Eat your usual amount. Brown bag the rest of it.

Stay away from the high sugar foods such as dessert. If you must indulge (your anniversity, for instance), buy it at the restaurant and take it home where it won't matter so much how you feel.

Be aware of foods that have caused problems in the past and avoid them.

If you feel symptoms coming on, slow down or stop and take the rest home with you.

Don't drink alcohol before or during the meal.

Stay away from high sugar beverages.

No we cannot overindulge anymore, unless we're at home where we don't care.

Take care. I know this is a real bummer. But I'm sure several of us here can relate.

[Guest sonotech]

Thank you for your reply. I will DEFINATELY try your suggestions.

I think you are on to something when you say to not get too hungry B4 eating, cuz I am REALLY bad about doing this. Many days I will go almost the WHOLE DAY without eating and then dinner will be my FIRST meal of the day, and I know that last night I was starving when we got to the restaurant.

THANK YOU,

LAURA

[Dizzy Dame]

Alot of us have problems when we eat large meals. This has to do with blood being shunted to our stomach as we digest, lessening the already meager supply to our brain.

I know I've benefitted from eating 6-7 teeny tiny meals a day, snacks really...like 1/2 of a sandwich every 2 hours, or a few baby carrots. I used to eat "normal" sized meals but they made me HORRIBLY sick.

Whenever I go out, I try to go to restaraunts that offer "small" meals: sushi, tapas (spanish appitizers) and teppanyaki/shabu shabu (japanese bbq and japanese pot meals) are three types of meals that naturally come in small, POTSy sized portions-- although, shabu shabu and tapas are very hard to find if you don't live in a big city.

Hopefully eating slightly smaller portions will help you

Cheers,

Lauren

[lalalisa]

Laura,

Hello! Eating out has become semi-complicated for me as well. Portions are so huge in restaurants and I can never finish my meal. By the time I eat a side salad and some bread I'm basically full!

I often order an appetizer as my entree' or just order things that will be good the next day (such as pasta).

You're not alone

Lisa

[kmpower]

I can almost guarantee a tachy episode if I eat too much. Sometimes I don't know it is too much for me until too late, because the food was richer, oilier, poorly combined, etc. I am most cautious in the evening when I will be lying down because I am so vulnerable then.

I also have a problem with just plain sitting long, so restaurants add that complication. I just don't do it. We order restaurant meals, but eat them at home. On our anniversary, we had a favorite restaurant meal.

When in doubt, eat less, chew more, drink water, be careful, brown bag the rest.

OLL

[Lukkychrm42]

Yep- same here. Also, more likely to be tachy when lying down after eating. I also get very symptomatic when I haven't eaten, so it seems best to eat smaller meals more frequently.

[Stace915]

Yea I also have the same problem I usually bring some baby carrots to work with yogurt or something and by the time I eat the carrots I end up not eatting anything else till I get home and then I will usually have 2 small things. Last time I ate a big meal I went right to lay down afterwards.

[MightyMouse]

From a technical perspective, the term for this is "post prandial hypotension", and as mentioned above, is usually provoked by the gut shunting blood volume to the stomach to aide in digestion.

Nina

[OCsunshine]

Definitely a BIG problem.

As Dizzy already said, it's because the blood goes to the stomach to do the "digestion" job so we have virtually NO blood left up in our brains where we need it. Unfortunate, huh?

I always get a booth when I'm going to a 'real' restaurant that will take a long time. Booths are better for me b/c I can sit sideways and put my feet up. Speaking of that, I always wear shoes that are easy to slip off and on because I take them off while I eat so I can tuck my feet up but not make a huge scene about untieing my shoes in the restaurant. Ha ha ha.

Others already suggested eating smaller portions- definitely a good idea, but hard to resist when you are being served delicious food. I usually eat wayyyy too much.

If I'm with a group of people, I will eat slowly or just start eating my meal after everyone else is almost finished. Then I don't have to worry about feeling full and light-headed and like I'm going to black out for half an hour while other people finish their meals. So make THEM wait on YOU and then as soon as you're done eating, get the check and get the heck outta there before you fall on the floor. ;-)

[bttrflyamby1981]

I do too

I agree with everyone

It helps me to drink a glass of water so I don't over eat.

Amber