Can we ever have fast food again?

Does anyone ever eat on the run?  Are there healthy choices on the run?  I can't see packing lunch for the rest of my entire life.  And do you ever eat a restaurant?  Or is it not ever worth it?

Healthy choices from fast food or restaurants:  chili, soup, grilled chicken breast (you can leave the bun), hamburgers wrapped in lettuce leaves or just on the plate with no bun (make sure they are moist enough), fajitas==skip the tortillas, shrimp, scallops, lobster, grilled fish.  Beef kabobs.   Chinese meat/vegetables without the rice.  Meatball subs (don't eat the bun).  Salads of any shape, size, variety. There is a LOT you can eat if you just are careful not to have deep-fried foods!

That's true.  Just because something comes on a bun doesn't mean we have to eat the bun.  Makes sense.  I guess it all goes back to choices.  Thanks for the great ideas!

I love your icon...can't wait until December! 

Buns and Tortillas = Food warmers. They keep the food warm. NOt to be confused with FOOD

My job necessitates a certain amount of eating out.   Pre-op, I ate 3 meals a day out.  Obviously I don't do that anymore, but I do still eat out usually once per day (lunch).   There are good choices at fast food restaurants, you just have to look for them (and special order).  Lots of time getting in enough protein (and cutting out excess calories) just means eating the burrito w/out the flour tortilla or eating the grilled chicken sandwich without the bun, etc. 

I've done really well with getting a small chili at Wendy's.  I've eaten at IHOP a couple times and have gotten the grilled talapia with no sides - once even for breakfast when I didn't want eggs - and it was very tasty and just the right size portion.  We go out to eat all the time and generally I just order an appetizer like shrimp ****tail as my main course.

I strongly recommend you don't get a grilled chicken sandwich and just eat the chicken.  Speaking from experience here, there is no "lube" to help get it down.  Sounds like a recipe for the foamies to me.  I did this lats Sunday and that dang thing was STUCK till morning.  Ugh!

My most pleasant meal out was shrimp fajitas.  I ate the shrimp.  But even at four months out I have no room for more than  one bite of veggie.  So if you think you'll be able to actually eat what you order, think again.  Resturant eating can be done with some planning and if you play with your food - searching out the protein and leaving the rest. 

Real fast food, like running through a McDonalds, is over for me.  I'm done with it.  Nobody has chili but Wendy's and unlike almost everyone else, Wendy's chili doesn't stay down for me.  Hamburger with no bun is too dry.  Chicken with no bun is, well, see above.  Fried chicken is too, well, fried!  Subway has let me get a couple teaspoons of tuna salad as a "taste test" in a little plastic container and they also sell yogurt there.  Not as much protein as I need and the tuna is high in fat, but I didn't dump on it or get it stuck so it works in a real pinch.  If my only other choice is missing a meal.

For the most part I carry food with me - protein bars, peanuts, protein water, etc. 

So for me, resturants are okay at times - but you pay alot for what you can manage to get out of it.  Fast food days are over. 

Just my humble opinion...

Jobsies:  Can you tell I'm a HUGE (no pun intended) Twilight fan?  LOL. 

Thanks everyone for the advice.  I'm trying to fathom how life will be.  I like the idea of shrimp ****tail as a main dish. 

My best friend and I go out for seafood about once a month.  Right now we gorge at Red Lobster.  I'll be ordering the flounder by itself after surgery.

I guess keeping protein bars in my bag will be the way to go.    Its all party of that lifestyle change.

I am almost 10 months out.

I have gone to Tace Bell and gotten the pintos and cheese.

I have gotten Wendy's chili.

I did have a bite of my son's angus beef burger from carl's Jr., but just a bite of the meat. he didn't like that. LOL

I go out on occaision to restaurants like Denny's (yuck), Baker's Square, Carrow's, Elephant Bar, Applebee's, Thai, Mexican, italian places.

It's really about reading the menu, looking for the small portions and eating the protien first.

I think as we heal and become 'normal', we can pretty much eat smart around the fast food chains. But I try to avoid them.