I would prep food and bring it. Bring a lunch cooler and keep it with you. Pack silverware but also they should have some around at these lunches.

It’s not weird, it’s taking care of yourself.

It’s like my friend who I saw at a baby shower. I told myself I’d just eat fruit/water/yogurt type stuff (for what I need to do right now). No muffins etc

And my friend walked in with her protein drink and she just had that. No one questioned her (or me). We both had the foods we wanted and needed. Adults let other adults just take care of themselves.

Just bring food in a thermos to keep it warm, and ask for an empty plate if it’s a seated meal, or eat it out of the thermos if it’s a boxed lunch.

Treating medical issues and disabilities like they are shameful or must be hidden isn’t the solution.

Anonymous wrote:If your CEO understands your situation, why don’t you just ask them how they would like you to handle this?

I'm planning to (or rather ask my boss who reports to CEO), but I am just trying to think through the best option to suggest since it's a weird situation.

If your CEO understands your situation, why don’t you just ask them how they would like you to handle this?

Anonymous wrote:Agree with the others - bring a pb&j or whatever easy lunch you can bring, and eat it in your car, go for a walk and stand on the sidewalk and eat a block away or worst case scenario eat it in a bathroom stall.

Then let them serve you whatever and push it around your plate.

I've never been to this partner site, but usually they are really restrictive and require you to be escorted everywhere outside of a pretty cordoned off area. Going to my car would be much weirder than a lot of other options, and I'd need to explain why.

Eating in the bathroom occurred to me, but it also seems more hassle than just leaving early. Maybe I can just say I have a last minute medical appointment. Since my CEO at least knows I'm dealing with ongoing medical issues, he would be able to believe that it got scheduled last minute.

Anonymous wrote:Bring your own food, excuse yourself for a few minutes, and eat it quickly before the event.

The event is all day, including lunch.

Anonymous wrote:Why don't you just bring a lunch box with your food from home? This is not difficult!

This seems like it might be weird in a setting with a bunch of very senior execs and CEOs, that's why I'm asking. I will bring food for the days where meetings are in our office.

There is also the problem that I need to eat a certain amount of protein before some of my meds wear off later in the day, or I feel terrible the next day. And nothing I can eat is room temperature friendly...so it also seems like it would be weird to ask the partner for a kitchenette where I can heat something up.

Agree with the others - bring a pb&j or whatever easy lunch you can bring, and eat it in your car, go for a walk and stand on the sidewalk and eat a block away or worst case scenario eat it in a bathroom stall.

Then let them serve you whatever and push it around your plate.

I am a vegetarian and will travel with bread and peanut butter to eat in my hotel room before or after work events, in case I can't eat anything provided or there is no protein. Can you drive to the meeting location so you can leave food in your car?

Pack a lunch in your tote bag, eat in the bathroom if you don’t want to pull it out. My DH has celiac so I get it.

Why don't you just bring a lunch box with your food from home? This is not difficult!

Bring your own food, excuse yourself for a few minutes, and eat it quickly before the event.

Anonymous wrote:are there any meal bars that fit within your restrictions? If so I would just bring one like that and pick at whatever is being served.

Unfortunately not

are there any meal bars that fit within your restrictions? If so I would just bring one like that and pick at whatever is being served.

I'm on a very restrictive, and non-standard, diet due to medical issues right now. I've pretty much just been working from home for two months, but this week our CEO is in town. I have meetings and events with him everyday. I think I can manage M-W, since most of it is internal and our CEO knows I am having medical issues.

Thursday and Friday we are in meetings at a partner site (huge company that you've heard of) all day, with the partner providing lunches. My diet is too restrictive to expect them to manage it, and I can't go the full day without eating. It's a big event, and the partner CEO might even stop by. I am thinking I might just leave early afternoon, after my presentation is over. But I'm wondering if this might seem rude, and I should just prep someone else and not attend. It would be really good for me professionally to attend. I've thought about seeing if I can arrange to bring my own food, but this seems worse than all the other options.

What would you do?