My unexpected breakfast in Key West
to you
It was Saturday morning in Key West, Florida. My wife and I were on vacation celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary, and we started the day off with breakfast at a small café right below our AirBnB.
I’m pretty good at navigating restaurant menus, despite how deliberate I am about what I eat, and despite the many distracting temptations most menus have.
It’s an important skill needed to enjoy the social aspect of eating out with friends and family … without derailing your health or how you feel, or inconveniencing anyone.
On vacation, I usually lean a little more towards eating for pleasure, as in enjoying something I usually don’t eat … but not to the extent of ruining the rest of my day.
Within this scope, one of my go-to choices, particularly for breakfast, is an omelet with a side of bacon.
A key part of that omelet is ketchup.
As a kid, I lived on ketchup. I put it on almost everything. Even now, on the rare occasions that I eat French fries, I eat them because they’re good dipping sticks for ketchup.
Back to breakfast in Key West … I rolled into that café salivating from thinking about the ketchup-covered omelet I was eagerly planning to devour!
But then I read the menu. Nothing even resembled an omelet. And the server confirmed they couldn’t make one.
Even worse, there were no obvious backup choices. Everything on the menu was a no-go for me … pastries, French toast, pancakes, etc.
Sure, it was vacation, but no amount of food-induced pleasure is worth spending the hours afterward feeling bloated, exhausted, and moody. And for me, that type of meal would likely push my blood sugar into diabetic range, or close to it. No thanks.
For a moment, I thought I’d finally met the menu I couldn’t navigate. I took a deep breath and gave it another look, with a more open mind.
With a little creativity, I figured out a tasty alternative!
I ordered four side dishes – smoked salmon, a poached egg, half an avocado, and bacon. And I mashed it all together …
Yum! And no remorse or post-meal hangover whatsoever!
Dr. Vin’s better-than-an-omelet salmon, egg, bacon, avocado mash – I think it deserves a spot on their menu!
But if that sounds gross to you, don’t worry. There’s still insight to take from this.
Not seeing any obvious smart (and appealing) choices on a menu doesn’t mean you’re in trouble.
Most importantly, don’t let it be an excuse to make a choice you know you’ll regret.
Ask for substitutions or subtractions. If even that won’t work, try being a bit more creative, like ordering a combination of appetizers or side dishes.
If I had a dollar for every time I ordered a burger or sandwich without the bun, or asked for vegetables or coleslaw in place of a typical carb-heavy side like pasta or fries, it would pay for another trip to Key West … maybe a few!
The tradeoff for this minor inconvenience is huge:
You’ll be able to fully enjoy social opportunities to eat out with friends and family without the stress of thinking you'll ruin your health or derail your weight loss.
You still, of course, need the commitment to not cave into the many temptations you’ll see on most menus. But that’s more about the meaning behind the goals inspiring your choices, which is a topic for a separate email.
To smart but still enjoyable menu choices,
Dr. Vin
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