Staying on the Atkins diet is much easier when you are eating at home. It can be a bit of a challenge if you are attending a Summer festival. My family likes to visit the local Renaissance Faire when it comes to town. What on earth would I be able to eat there, without cheating on my diet?
One of the events I look forward to every Summer is a visit to the Renaissance Faire. The one closest to where I live now, in California, appears briefly, for just one particular weekend. In Wisconsin, there is the Bristol Renaissance Faire, that has a dedicated fairground, and that lasts for the entire Summer.
These types of festivals pop up all across the country, and each one will be slightly different from all the rest. Some will have jousting events for people to watch, but not all of them can provide that. There will be different vendors, selling anything from ceramic mugs to fantasy artwork, to entire costumes that people can wear when they attend their next Faire. There always are vendors selling food and drink, which can range from typical “fair food” to things that people might actually have consumed in the time period the Faire is reenacting.
I knew that I would have to be very careful about what I decided to eat at the Renaissance Faire, just like I had to be watchful when I went to the Farmers’ Market. It takes a little bit more thinking, but you really can stay on the Atkins diet while at the Renaissance Fair if you try.
I highly recommend getting a turkey leg. They are grilled, covered with a barbecue sauce, and absolutely huge! You could eat the entire thing, and still be at zero carbs, (unless the turkey leg was completely smothered in sauce). Turkey legs tend to sell out quickly, because they are incredibly tasty. This is now my new favorite thing to eat at the Renaissance Faire.
The Faire I was at had vendors selling Polish sausage, German sausage, and “spicy sausage”. These come served in a bun. Technically, I suppose you could hold the sausage in the bun, and try and eat just the sausage part out of it. Most Faires do not have plastic forks and knives available for people who wish to use them.
This means you would have to carefully extract the sausage from the bun, and eat it that way, or try to eat around the bun. This could earn you some funny looks, and perhaps even some snarky comments from the workers who are in costume, and in character.
Mead is an alcoholic beverage that is made from fermented honey and water. Ale is a beer that has been brewed from malted barley. My best guess is that these drinks have too many carbs in them for people who don’t want to cheat on the Atkins diet to even consider consuming.
Fortunately, the vendors that sell mead and ale generally will also sell water. If you are in Phase 2 or higher of the Atkins diet, you might be able to drink a fresh squeezed lemonade. This year, I saw a vendor who offered lemonade flavored with Splenda.
Image by Bunny Paffenroth on Flickr