Thursday, January 15, 2009

The Costa Rica - How Do You Bolus For That Game

The next edition of Ring the Bolus will have pictures from the amazing activities Kim and I did in Costa Rica. But today, I wanted to share with you some pictures of the amazing food we had and how I attempted to bolus for some incredibly good (but fattening - anyone want 5 lbs!) food.

Delicious Fish Tacos - oh how fried fish taunts me! Was conservative on my bolus and went for 110 grams of carbs - 2 hours after lunch was around 190, Kim and I were still trying to be athletes at this point so a run brought that down no problem.



A few bites of shrimp enchiladas probably didn't help that calculation!



What's better than a healthy home cooked meal in a beach house with an ocean view on vacation! Local rib eye, some ravioli and you guessed it wine out of a blender! The rental house didn't have a cork screw nor did the 3 bodegas we tried to find one at - nothing says class like Cabernet out of a blender :). Totally over calculated for this meal and wound up in the 50s before bed.



I thought Kim was going to bite my hand off when I took this one - the avocado and shrimp at Cafe de Paris was so good we were too excited to take a picture at the start; no issues on the bs with this one.



Breakfast on the day we left the beach, left over shrimp pizza, some scrambled eggs and Costa Rican coffee - a perfect brunch before the drive to the mountains.



On the road around Nueva Arenal is one of the best hidden gems I have ever eaten at. Cafe de Macadamia had one of the friendliest owners and most delicious food I've encountered. The bread was made with macadamia nuts, the coffee was to die for and the talapia sandwich was out of the water fresh. The bread has way more carbs than I would have thought - normally a sandwich has about 50 grams of carbs but this one had closer to 75, well worth the slight high after lunch!



Arenal Nayara was probably the most incredible hotel I've ever stayed at. Private bungalows, outdoor showers and damn good food. I'm not sure if it was the 3 bottles of wine or an over calculation but my blood sugar dropped below 30 that evening! Thankfully all those cliff bars and glucose tabs I brought with me saved me from a really dangerous situation. The ceviche, tortilla soup, mahi mahi and steak were all incredible though - worth a scary low, maybe not but incredible nonetheless.









Desafio Adventures is the # 1 adventure company in Costa Rica. Each excursion includes a great Tico meal, like the one seen below. You'd be amazed by how many damn carbs are in that little glass of orange tastiness.



Ahhh fajitas how I miss thee. But at this meal I was sweating bullets because my meter had a major meltdown. For some reason I kept getting Error 2, I sat down to dinner knowing that I was low and ordered a coke, but couldn't tell what my blood sugar was by the time our meal arrived. When we got back to the hotel I used my back up meter to find out my blood sugar was still in the 60s. What really got me worried was the fact that the battery in my back up meter was dead (way to check that before I left), thankfully my watch and back up meter used the same battery!



Who would have thought 2 Pina Coladas could send your blood sugar to 400! Even with a 1.5 unit bolus - man those things have some sugar in them.



Nachos and chicken fried rice with shrimp - anyone want to tell me how to bolus for that one?





Roast chicken with guacamole and tortillas, I thought I had this one bolused perfectly, this was our last meal in Costa Rica about two hours before our flight and perhaps my favorite meal. But, an hour into our flight my blood sugar spiked to 250 and stayed there for a while. Kim and I had to sprint through Newark airport to make our connecting flight to Boston, the 1/2 mile run in flip flops where I sounded like a charging rhino dropped the bs below 170.



All in all figuring out the carbs went pretty well but at times had me feeling like the guy below!

4 comments:

Kim said...

hahahaa i love this post!! my mom said today "I know you like to eat but, WAY too many food pictures"! she's loco in la cabeza. despite a couple of lows, a couple of highs, and a broken meter, i think you handled an international trip perfectly!

Fun and Fearless in Beantown said...

Um, yum.

Al said...

Oh man, I'm hungry now...nice!

PJ said...

I have to admit that I couldn't even read this post because I was so distracted by the photos. Yum.