First Post-Op Restaurant Experience

Chuck, I have to eat out a lot in my line of work as well. My restaurant "Go To" Food order is- Grilled fish, Salmon if I’m near a coast And steamed veggies. Nearly every place will sub- Steamed veggies, for just about anything. Some of the "Chain" type restaurants I’ve found to work well are mostly the Italian ones- Bertucci’s, Carrabbas, even on the low-end- Olive Garden. Bertucci’s if there’s one where you’re headed: http://www.bertuccis.com/About_Us.htm has a good Salmon and Tilipia dishes on the menu all the time, and if not into seafood- They have a meatball appetizer or an anti-pasto appetizer that with a salad makes a respectable meal choice. They also have a sausage soup that’s easy on RNY’s and Great veal dishes. Their roasted chicken is also moist, and they have a veal/salad/soup combo that’s a great way to look like you are eating a lot, without actually eating a lot. Carrabbas : http://www.carrabbas.com/locator.asp http://www.carrabbas.com/companyinfo.asp

-is also one that has the "Brick oven roasted_____/Fire grilled" always on the menu. Their grilled chicken is rarely dry- (most restaurants make it dry as cardboard) The chicken with the goat cheese kicks azz! And their Marsala Chicken is good too. They also have a Veal Piccatta that has little fat except for Olive oil and it sits well. They do Salmon really well. Even Ole Olive Garden has some good choices- http://www.olivegarden.com/locate.asp Most everything is "served over pasta" BUT- the stuffed mushroom appetizer works great With some minestrone and they have ok salads. Some of them have a "stuffed Chicken Breast" that is pretty good. The trick, (you’ve discovered the big one) is not to reach for the beverage. If you can master that one and get it to be habitual, you’ve got it made. An occasional sip if you get food that is "Whacky-Dry" Won’t do you in, just try to order stuff that won’t take a beverage to get it down. Yes? The other is resisting the chips (mex) or the bread at other places. I have an aversion to the soft-fresh bread, after gaking up a stuck Bagel bite for 4+ hours in the streets of New York.!!

Still, I’ll always be tempted to "just have a little of the crust" if it’s good bread…. Avoid it! If you can, unless of course it’s like Mucho-Multi-Grain-Low-Glycemic-sprouted grain stuff… Then, it’s a good choice, but some how less appealing……. At the real "low-end" eating out, I’ll default to Breakfast meeting….. I can, and have been able to eat and enjoy eggs since I first started back on solid foods. An egg white omelet, and just leave the toast, is a great meal that no one will notice that you aren’t Eating Too Little, because you won’t. You’ll eat about the same as anyone else.