The Atkins diet is not an incredibly difficult diet to follow – until you walk out the door of your home. Suddenly, there are all these foods that are not appropriate for you to eat right now. Spending the day at a Fair can be an exercise in determination, and will test your ability to avoid the temptation to eat foods that you shouldn’t be eating right now.
In the time since I started the Atkins diet, I have visited my local Farmers’ Market, and I spent a day at the Renaissance Faire. Each experience presented me with foods that smelled wonderful, and looked delicious. Unfortunately, most of these foods were not ones that a person is supposed to be eating while on the Atkins diet.
Each of these events required me to do a little bit of work in order to find something that I could eat, without totally cheating on the Atkins diet. It wasn’t easy, but I was able to do it. Oddly enough, I ended up selecting a barbecued turkey leg to eat at both the Farmers’ Market and the Renaissance Faire. This worked for me. Your tastes may vary.
Trying to find food at a typical State Fair is going to be a challenge! Fairs are not known for their selection of healthy foods, as you are probably well aware. This is going to make it really difficult for people who are doing the Atkins diet, (or any other diet, for that matter), to find appropriate food.
In the meantime, you are exposed to the smells and sights of very tempting foods that you probably consider to be a great treat. If you’ve been on the diet for a while, it can be hard not to give in and get a funnel cake, or a deep fried candy bar. If your family is enjoying those kinds of junk foods in front of you, it is possible that you will start to feel deprived.
This is a good time to remember all those reasons why you wanted to lose some weight. It might make it easier to say “no” when offered a bite of bacon that has been dipped in chocolate, coated in batter, and deep fried.
Personally, I struggled when I was at the Fair. Foods here are sitting on pieces of bread, or on a bun, specifically so it will be easier for fairgoers to eat as they walk around. So much for getting a burger without a bun. Foods that would be ok to eat at home, like pickles, are served at the fair on a stick, after being coated in breading, and deep fried.
My solution was to get food from a vendor called “Big Bubba’s Bad BBQ”. They are a name that people who live where I do would recognize. I decided to get “chicken on a stick”, which was exactly what you might expect it to be. I could have coated it in BBQ sauce, but decided against it. Another option would be, you guessed it, a barbecued turkey leg.
Image by blu_pineappl3 on Flickr