First Post-Op Restaurant Experience

I too have been in the eat out phase recently.  The ones we have hit are Applebee's (grilled shrimp salad with a low fat dressing), the 99 (Cobb salad has grilled chicken, blue cheese, bacon crumbles, on dietfacts.com it comes out pretty high in protein and lower in fat, get it with the low fat burboun dressing), Texas Roadhouse ( I get the veggie plate 4 sidesof your choice I usually go with the salad that has egg, the baked beans, sweet potatoe plain, and the steamed veggies), and Chili's ( I get the cedar plank Tilapia). I also went to the Outback and got the shrimp griller with no rice and double veggies. The last waitress I think thought I was kinda cute because she hooked me up with double shrimp.  I don't think I dump, so I have to really watch what I eat. I had some serious stomach pain one time but I am sure I ate way too much.  Check out dietfacts.com if you haven't already. Also most places will hook you up with nut facts if you ask.

Chuck, Tomorrow is my one year surgiversary.  I couldn't tolerate salads until I was about 11 months out.  Even now I have to be very careful.  My wife, on the otherhand, could eat salads with no problem.  We used to share a meal right after surgery, but now we often order whatever we can and take home lots of leftovers.  One meal out will sometimes last 3 or 4 lunches for the next week.  Lately I've been just ordering an appetizer, but even that is too much.  It takes time to figure out our eating.  Every person is different.  It seems like more and more restaurants don't even flinch when you say you're sharing a meal, which is nice.  The hardest thing to get thru their heads is when my wife doesn't want anything to drink.  They just keep asking, "you sure, you don't even wan****er?"

Good luck.

Floyd

Thank you all for the great suggestions - and, for making me crave some nice FRESH seafood.   I live in the desert - and, we only have one restaurant here where I trust the seafood (they fly it in fresh every morning, and it's tasty)!!!!   And, those delicious sounding fish dishes from Chili's are not on the menu out here in the land of the rising Mormons!!!!   They had some shrimp and salmon, but the salmon was about 15 bucks and, given my current 2-3 ounce eating capacity, I decided I wasn't going to spend that much on a piece of old, frozen fish!!!! I lived in Wash, DC and NYC for many years, and since moving to Utah 5 years ago it's REALLY hard to do fish here (with one very notable -and pricey - exepction).  Next time I'll get a bit more brave and try some chicken with some type of sauce on it - that would have made it a lot better I'm sure.  And, the breakfast idea is a great one too - I totally forgot about a local diner near our office, where I'm known as a regular (although they haven't seen me for a couple months now).  They'll just have to realize I'm not going to be getting my usual anymore (greek omellete, double hashbrowns with cheese, 2 sausage links, English muffin).  I may still do the greek omellete, but the rest will have to wait. Thanks again for the input everyone - it's very helpful. Chuck

Yes dont forget the local diner........unlike the chain restaurants they are usually more willing to make meaql ajustments, since they usually cook the food for real and dont use pre setup dishes that come out of bottles or bags so they taste the same everywhere.