The Low Carb Lunch Meetup at Floyd’s Shrimp House on Fort Walton Beach

I had a great time at the low carb meetup over lunch at Fort Walton Beach! 🙂 I’ll share the meals, and my “low carb confessions” over lunch with you…

* To get notified of upcoming low carb meetups around the world, make sure you’re subscribed by email. The next lunch will be in Hartford, CT this weekend (June 14/15). I’m still working out the details, so I’ll let you know where/when.

This was my 4th Annual Low Carb Beach Trip, and I had tons of FUN – as usual.

That’s me goofing off at the beach on Saturday before a work lunch I attended. 🙂

I’ll share all the meals from my road trip & beach stay with you soon, to give you great ideas of what to eat on the road or on vacation – so stay tuned for that!

While I was there, I met up with a couple of friends for a Low Carb Lunch who happened to also be vacationing down the beach from us.

We met at Floyd’s Shrimp House on Sunday afternoon, right on the beach. It’s a beautiful spot. I *love* the Okaloosa Island area!

Ricky was with me on the trip, so there were four of us for lunch. The two ladies that joined us, Deanna and Rhonda – are sisters. Deanna and I had met before, at a get together in August, which was cool. 🙂

I loved the fun/airy atmosphere at Floyd’s Shrimp House. It’s a pretty big place with indoor seating with air conditioning, outdoor bars, beach-side outdoor seating – a bit of a maze really, but a very neat location with fun decor. I’m guessing it makes for a great party spot on weekend nights…

The food was okay. You can see the menu here. Nothing spectacular, especially compared with other fabulous meals I had along the beach over the weekend. The Crab Trap and The Black Pearl are definitely better picks for amazing seafood plates right near the Okaloosa Island Pier. But the company was GREAT. 🙂

Here’s a picture of all three of us together after lunch:

That’s Deanna on the left, me in the middle, Rhonda on the right. Rhonda has lost 28 pounds since March on the low carb diet, by the way. Impressive!!

I ordered the Grilled Chicken & Shrimp, with double steamed vegetables. I’d already had mahi, scallops, crab, oysters, etc throughout the weekend, so chicken sounded good. Unfortunately it came drowning in Teriyaki sauce (which was NOT mentioned in the description on the menu!).

It wasn’t a sweet sauce, just Teriyaki, but I wiped it off anyway -lol. I’ve gotten to a point where I really LIKE the flavor of “real food”. A bit of salt to amplify the true flavors is all I really need. Too much sauce kinda ruins the food for me.

Ricky had the same thing. The steamed veggies were delicious!!

Rhonda and Deanna both ordered the steak & veggies:

All of our plates came with texas toast and/or hush puppies, which we promptly discarded 😛 and the waiter quickly whisked away.

Over lunch we discussed our low carb journey, shared quite a few laughs!, talked about what a pain it is to get off track (or: having to get back ON track!), etc.

We also chatted and talked about life & work, and had a great time just hanging out and getting to know each other better. 🙂

Deanna asked my opinion of Atkins bars and shakes. My answer? They’re a junk “food product” with crap ingredients. I don’t even like the taste of most of them – OR the weird taste/feel they leave in my mouth. BUT… I used them when I first started out and lost weight just fine. In fact, I still eat them sometimes – rarely, but the Peanut Butter Granola Bar is not bad, especially with a good coffee.

I prefer Quest Bars over Atkins Bars. They have MUCH better (higher quality) ingredients, they TASTE a lot better, and I just enjoy them more all the way around. They have tons of great flavors to choose from too! That said, I can only eat them in maintenance mode because they stall my weight loss. Which is weird, because Atkins bars do not – and Quest are definitely a better food product. Go figure.

I’ve heard people say the same about Atkins bars & shakes, so it pays to test that on yourself and see which you can eat (and actually enjoy) and STILL lose weight.

Deanna asked about my favorite restaurants for eating low carb too. I shared my experience of eating low carb at The Donut Hole the night before, and how to do easy replacements when you’re eating out. Hardee’s / Carl Jr is a great drive-thru fast food place to get a delicious Low Carb Thickburger. I love getting “loaded broccoli” at most restaurants. I just ask for it “loaded like a baked potato – broccoli with butter, sour cream, cheese & bacon on top”.

We talked about cheat days, and how they don’t work – for ANY of us – and our experiences with that. We discussed ways to get creative with our foods & recipes to keep from getting bored with meals on the low carb diet.

We were also all “traveling low carb” and talked about how we were managing that. The conversation was just great, and lunch was a lot of fun!

They’re both members of the Low Carb Challenge Group, so that’ll be a great way for us to stay in touch. It’s a fun group, and there are always tons of creative low carb recipes & food ideas shared in the group, so definitely join us if you haven’t already.

Stay tuned for details on upcoming Low Carb Meetups in YOUR area! 🙂

Best,
Lynn Terry, aka Low Carb Traveler

p.s. After lunch, Ricky and I walked around Floyd’s Shrimp house a bit (which is HUGE) and goofed off a little before we got back on the road for the 7 hour trip home to Tennessee. Here’s a picture of me goofing off there, lol: