VICTOR: My name is Victor Barocas. I am 62 years old.

I'm CEO of a family owned chemical manufacturing and distribution company

I'm in a very stressful position trying to keep a family business together.

When we go to lunch, there's a diner that has great food and we love it there.

It really gives you the best of everything. I have kind of a crazy, crazy appetite.

Typically when I go there I will either want a BLT or a grilled cheese sandwich with bacon already in it.

They have a shrimp dinner. It's just delicious.

As a side item they give you potato salad.

And the coleslaw is just downright delicious.

They have desserts there that I look at them and I just go crazy.

Some times I say I had better not and I just fantasize about it.

Other times I'll give into my weakness

I went in for some tests one time and got a phone call a few days later saying I got diabetes. Well you could've knocked me over with a feather. I've got the sweetest tooth in the country. And it's terrible to be a diabetic and have such a sweet tooth.

I have noticed that when my weight is under control my diabetes literally, literally disappears.

I think I'm ready to make the life choices that I need to make.

I don't think I'm ever going to be able to give up eating out.

If I'm led down the right paththen maybe I can take better care of myself and be around for not just me but for my grandchildren, my wife and my sons.

CAROLYN: Well, hello. I'm Carolyn O'Neil.

VICTOR: I'm Victor Barocas. how you doing?

I'm sitting there ordering my food and Carolyn O'Neil shows up. It was a total shock!

CAROLYN: You've got some diet and health goals, so rather than take you to a health food restaurant for tofu and bean sprouts we're going to work with the menu at the Duluth Diner so that you can find stuff that you really like to eat. Wow! Did my wife put you up to this?

With type 2 diabetes, there are several goals that are very important. One is often to lose weight.

To not just focus on the sugar being important but focus on the fat in the diet. The other important thing is total calories, to cut back on total calories.

VICTOR: They got a great BLT. I don't know where they get their bacon but it's just phenomenal.

CAROLYN: Ok a few bells are going off. Bacon, ding ding ding. Bacon is high in fat and saturated fat.

VICTOR: She taught me how to go from plan A which is the normal meal as it's shown on the menu to maybe making some modifications.

CAROLYN: Two slices of bacon has 6 grams of fat. If you substituted that with Canadian bacononly 2 grams of fat.

Guess what. For every tablespoon of mayo there's 110 calories. That's a good place where you can cut back since some places put three and four tablespoons on there.

VICTOR: I love my potato salad. What could I have instead of my potato salad?

CAROLYN: This isn't exactly a direct substitution but you could have fresh fruit. I know they shop for fresh fruit daily.

Fruit certainly contains sugar but it's fructose sugar. And it contains calories, yes, but it's metabolizeda little more slowly in the body.

I noticed they have a chicken noodle soupit's a broth so it's not a cream-based soup. Those add way too many cals per teaspoonful.If you have a little cup of soup before a meal research has shown that it dampens your appetite and you tend to eat less during the rest of your meal.

The second one is sugar bandits.

The knowledge is a little bit in cooking. As you mentioned you have cole slaw. Yep, love cole slaw. If you've ever made cole slaw there's often a lot of sugar.

Even a spaghetti sauce can have a lot of sugar in it.

Some restaurants and bakeries actually specialize in making sugar free desserts. But guess what folks a lot of times a sugar free dessert is not calorie free. There's still fat in there.

People with diabetes often of course say no sugar, no dessert. But that really is a myth. but you have to plan for it and it actually works better when it's a part of the meal.

And portion control. Obviously the more you eat the more sugar you're going to consume.

That first three or four bites is just as good as the last 15 or 20 bites, so why not settle for 3 or 4?

Maybe instead of a big slab of delicious dessert, you could get a bowl of fresh fruit and maybe have it with some whip cream on top.

A tbsp of whip cream is only 50-60 cals, it's not that big of a deal. And if it adds that much flavor think of it in comparison to that huge piece of cake.

Victor tells me he really likes that shrimp salad, but we're going to customize it for his diabetes.

VICTOR: Quite frankly I'm surprised that I can eat out with diabetes. But I'm finding out that by using a little common sense and understanding what some of the rules are, that you can.

I think everything I've learned today makes a lot of sense.

CAROLYN: We would be setting ourselves up for failure if I recommended he stop eating out. I mean forget it. That's not his life Therefore the real advice that's strong and will hit home is how to navigate a restaurant menu.

So Victor, to your good health. To good meals and your good health. To you too and thanks for the advice and thanks for a great day!