Eating and dealing with stress while on vacation in New York
#297836 - 01/24/07 04:53 AM
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oldestofseven
Reged: 12/30/06
Posts: 156
Loc: tiny almost unheard of town in the middle of Va
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My family and I are going to New York in a couple of months for a week. We're staying with my mom's family, but we aren't going to be at the house much during the trip, as there will be much sightseeing and such. I was wondering if anyone knows of any good places to eat, or any suggestions on bringing my own food with me, and meals that will be easy to prepare since I won't be in the comfort of my own home. Thanks in advance. And as I said, it won't be for a couple of months, so please take your time in answering. I just wanted to get a headstart on the planning lol. 
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Adrianna, IBS-D, stable since May 2007, living life to the fullest because of it! 
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I always find when traveling that I actually do ok because I tell myself that I will be!! Seriously, I worry everytime I have a vacation but when I think about it - the most important thing is to have a good time. I feel like I will have control over my stomach - not the other way around. That is very important I think with IBS is to find away to get control and learn what works for you. Half the battle with IBS is not to get to anxious/stressed because it makes the symptons worse.
I always bring a surplus of teas (green, peppermint and fennel). If you are worried about food, I find that luna bars are good and easy to pack. If you are staying with family I find (for me) the best breakfast that won't kill me is oatmeal. You can bring that with you. Another thing, I always do better when I have time to wake up and exercise before starting out on my day. When in Seattle last year I visited the gym in the morning to "wake my stomach up gently" and other days walked in the morning. If you can, learn a few yoga moves and practise for 10-15 minutes before you get dressed. It will help relax you as well as be good for your tummy. Maybe you can bring a dvd with you. And if you are in NY there are tons of places to walk. My stomach never feels bad when I walk...and I did a 60 mile walk for breast cancer!! And my tummy survived!!
If you look hard enough you can find regular foods that will work for you - especially in NY. You would be surprised.. you can often find oatmeal in delis (ask if there is milk/cream in it). For lunch you can find plain turkey sandwiches. Asian restaurants are the easiest...white rice and steamed/stirfried veggies. Italian is really hard..try to avoid that if you can.
Hope this helps...and have fun! Don't stress! It's vacation!
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On vacation I find it's important to adhere as closely as possible to my routine of SFS, probiotics, etc. Remember to get plenty to drink - I always find this harder to do on vacation, because I'm so focused on sightseeing and other fun activities. Also, try to get in some exercise. That shouldn't be too hard in New York because it's easy to walk a lot of places.
I think food may be less hassle than you think - New York has just about everything.
Food and restaurant tips:
There should be tons of places to get bagels and tea/hot water. Lots of delis and sandwich shops have bagels, and there's a coffee shop about every block. Bring your own peppermint tea bags everywhere in case you end up in a place that doesn't have it.
Don't panic if your family wants to eat at a steakhouse. They are surprisingly safe because most of them offer simple grilled seafood dishes and baked potatoes (I sometimes order a potato as an appetizer).
Asian places are indeed your friend. However, you probably want to gravitate towards Thai and Vietnamese, as Chinese is often a bit greasy.
Middle Eastern food can also be a good choice, since it usually includes plenty of couscous, rice, and pita bread.
Relax and have fun. If you get stressed out, see if you can go up to the Cloisters - it's very pretty and quiet up there, one of the most relaxing places I've been in NYC.
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-Carol
IBS-A
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Well, I live in NYC, but don't eat out much so...
If you are hungry and out and about, you can always get a soft pretsel (regular), they are pretty safe, as they are basically bread and salt. They are yummy too.
Food to brind, bring oatmeal packets, they sell individual packets that are dairy free (if you're avoiding dairy), you can always quickly prepare one if there's nothing safe to eat on the table with some water and a microwave.
A safe place I eat is Subway (pretty much all the food I eat when I eat out), you just tell them how to make your sandwich, e.g. no cheese, no mayo, use chicken breast or turkey meat and so on. There are Subways pretty much everywhere.
Also, if you tollerate bananas (most people do), you can always pick up some bananas on the way to your mom's folks.
In general, I would stay away from bringing my own fancy food for fear of insulting the hosts. Just keep it simple and enjoy it
I hope you won't come during the summer, cause it gets TERRIBLE arround here, extremely hot weather, coupled with sky rocketting humidity and all the concrete and subways getting heated up, it's a health hazard. I recommend Fall and Spring, when the weather is crisp, cool and just gorgeous.
--J
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Thank you for your help. I didn't even think of soft pretzels or oatmeal packets and bananas lol. I personally don't like oatmeal, but I guess I'll try it anyway. Subway,,, mmmm I love Subway. I'll definitely be going there often  lol. Hmmmm,, we will be coming in the summer  Maybe I'll talk to my mom and see if we can change it to Spring. Thank you again for your help
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Adrianna, IBS-D, stable since May 2007, living life to the fullest because of it!
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Yes, exercise will be easy because we plan to walk just about everywhere. My mom's family lives in the City, so it'll be easy. I didn't think about bagels either, or bringing my own tea bags. Haha I'm glad I posted this! lol. And thanks for your advise on the steakhouse, I love grilled seafood and baked potatoes, so that'll be easy And I LOVE Thai and Vietnamese restaurants, as does my family, so if we do eat out, those will probably be our choices I'm sure I'll have a lot of fun, I've never been up to New York before so I'm pretty excited. I'll definitely talk to my mom about going up to the Cloisters. That's a great idea.
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Adrianna, IBS-D, stable since May 2007, living life to the fullest because of it!
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Yea, I worry everytime I have to go out of the house, and I always end up getting myself sick over it But I'm getting better. Last Saturday I had to go to a funeral and reception, which meant I was going to be away from the house for over 3 hours; I was pretty freaked out. But I did ok. During the funeral I started feeling a bit sick but then I just told myself that I was going to be ok, and I was I even managed to find some food to eat at the reception! lol. And yesterday, I went longer and further than I have been in a long time. I went to a store that is 30 mins away from my house, was there for over an hour, and then went to another store for almost an hour, before coming back home. And I did get a bit nervous but I was fine in the end
What are luna bars? I've never heard of them before? I like the idea of exercising lightly in the morning, I'll try that. I'll find some dvd's that I can bring with me; I'll be sharing a room with my sisters and I'll have my laptop with me, so I won't be bothering anyone by like camping out in the living room lol
I guess I never really thought about it, because I live in such a small town, the only restaurant we have here is McDonalds lol, but I guess NY would have more choices of foods to eat Eating out just always freaks me out because usually I'm so softspoken and really don't care where we go, but now I have to learn to speak up and say exactly what I can and cannot eat. But I'll be with family, so it'll be ok. Thank you all for your help
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Adrianna, IBS-D, stable since May 2007, living life to the fullest because of it!
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i live in ny, but since im unstable and always seem to be eating the worst foods for my ibs since i like to go out and eat a lot, i can't be of much help as to where to go eat, but try going on www.menupages.com. it has many food places in ny and tells you whats on their menu. most don't have the ingredients though... but at least you'll have some idea
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Well, about eating out, most restaurants would be OK serving you a baked potato with some meat/fish/whatever that you also request to be baked. Unless it's an Italian place and they insist on putting mozarella on everything (and tons of olive oil too), LOL.
I didn't use to like oatmeal either, but I had to get used to it. YOu don't have to be the same, though... well, for breakfast, what do you usually eat? Just asking to have white bread at the hosts home at all times might help tons. I went to my stay with my friends this past Christmas and that's what I did (didn't even bring oatmeal), I asked that they have white bread. We bought some when we got there and I just ate most things with MUCH MORE bread than the particular things they had served. They didn't really cook IBS safe but it was inappropriate to request too much attention to be given to my meals, plus her husband was loosing weight so you know what that means in terms of the IF content of the dishes.
White bread is very versatile, you can just eat a snack of toast with something (jam, turkey breast), and later not each much of the unsafe food.
Oh, forgot to say -- do change it to spring, it is absolutely terrible in the summer. Unless El Nino makes the summer more temperate, but I doubt it would be substantial if there was an effect like that.
Last summer we had a couple of times when the heat index was at 44 Celsius, which is 112 Fahrenheit (the actual temperature was a couple of degrees above body temperature, which is dangerous enough, but the humidity was making it terrible) and that's not even measured in Manhattan where all the subways are (imagine, every subway is a tiny oven... with an AC... and the ground under you heats up like hell!). Make your best to change it for Spring. If not, prepare for indoor entertainment, of which we have plenty -- with all the museums around here.
Edited by Jeio (01/25/07 04:08 PM)
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Oh ok, well I talked to my mom yesterday and she said most likely we won't really be eating out anyway, except for like Subway and street-side pretzels stands or whatever. So the eating out won't be as big a problem as I thought. Bringing food with me while sightseeing will be though; I snack about every half hour, literally. Thank goodness I'm homeschooled cuz I'd STARVE in school lol.
Well I should probably at least try to get used to oatmeal lol, my family eats it anyway, and if it's good for me I should give it another shot. For breakfast usually I eat a banana and toasted bagel, or a bowl of rice chex with plain soy milk, or a toasted turkey sandwich. Yesterday I tried having a strawberry banana smoothie, but I got sick afterwards, I had too much strawberry and not enough banana lol. I will bring tons of white bread, I eat it all day long. And I'll probably bring lots of saltines and pretzels and grahm crackers, those are my typical snacks.
So I guess food really won't be too much of a problem, I'm just worried cuz i haven't been that far from home since before my IBS really got back. Last summer I went to some more of my mom's family down in Puerto Rico for almost two weeks and I was fine. Living on bananas and mangoes was great But like I said, that was before my IBS was bad, maybe even before I really had IBS, just lactose intollerence.
I will definitely try to change the date to spring, it's bad enough here during the summer, and I'm in Va, so it's not really that bad at all, I just hate the summer heat, and if you say its terrible up there, I'm gonna try to avoid it at all costs. If they do stick with the summer date though, would you suggest that I just stay home (my dad won't be going because of work), or should I risk it and go anyway? Before I found this site and started the diet, I was SERIOUSLY considering staying home. I'm sure we'll be going to museums either way, but still, I'm a bit nervous about the heat and humidity.
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Adrianna, IBS-D, stable since May 2007, living life to the fullest because of it!
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