Wow. Unless I share something with hubby (we've only done that a couple times cuz I feel jipped and I also like the take home box) I'm such a waste of money going out to eat. Here's my list of "wastes": Whats yours?

1. Bunch of lunch (Shakeys Pizza) or Hometown Buffet: At Shakeys I can now eat 1/2 chicken drum, 1/3 pc of pizza and maybe 4 mojos (potatoes). At Hometown Buffet (same thing as a Golden Corral for those on the East Coast) I enjoy 1 bite of about 8 different things. I stuff a napkin full of Cookies in my purse cuz hey, I just paid $11 for about .50cents worth of food! Waste of money. I attempted to use my bariatric card from my dr at Hometown Buffet to get the kids price. Nope. They said no way

2. I used to eat 2 Famous Stars w/cheese and chili cheese fries at Carls Jr. Now I can eat 1/3 of a Famous Star. Chili cheese fries? A waste of money cuz I can't eat more than 2 bites.

3. At Olive Garden I used to eat 2 bowls of Chicken Gnocchi Soup, maybe 4 breadsticks, and a full order of Seafood Alfredo. Now I can eat 1/3 of a bowl of Chicken Gnocchi and 1/2 breadstick. Maybe a few bites of salad. Haven't really tried an entree at Olive Garden. Waste of money.

4. At Red Robin I used to eat a full cheeseburger and a couple orders (bottomless) garlic fries with ranch dressing. Now I order an Avo-Cobbo salad, eat maybe 1/5 of it and have a couple bites of hubbys garlic fries. I take home the rest of the salad and by the next day, I'm sick of it or it's wilted. Waste of money

We've discussed going to Claim Jumpers Sunday champagne brunch but it's $18 and I KNOW that would be a waste of money. While hubby can put away the food, there's no way he can eat $36 worth of food. And the waste in my frig? Wow. I could feed a third world nation when I clean out my frig.

Wow, what a waste!

waste of money going out to eat

marfar7

don't have a list of places - cuz DH and i are/were pretty boring "going out to eat" people

we would go to friendly's, outback, red lobster, stuff like that

last year was my 1rst t'day at goal

i decided going to a brunch, where you get your own food would be a good idea for me

i am a picky eater, and theres a bunch of junk i don't like

i paid $21.95 for that meal!!!!!

eating as little as i did, sure wasn't worth the money but..............

got special "permission" to get a container to go and even get more from the 'food table"

i filled up the container with llllllots of roast beef, turkey - lasted so long i finally had to toss it

dh says i am now a cheap date - he's right!!!!

able to feed a 3rd world nation emptying fridge.....

gotcha, know exactly what you mean, and its so sad - there are starving people in my own backyard and all around the world

"they" never told me/us the money we save on going out to eat, we spend on new clothes

kathy

Edited December 16, 201312 yr by proudgrammy

I agree ... maybe you should just stay home and cook something nutritionally relevant.

I have to say, I'm greatfull I'm a certified chef and I don't like going out to eat, and my fiancé would rather eat what I cook ????

I agree - when I go out with friends now, I'll order something meaty but then can only eat a few bites. I'm sure to them it looks a bit strange that I barely eat my food (very few people know about my surgery) - and my fridge fills up with the to-go containers. Sometimes I'll go back to the food if it looks appetizing, but it usually just rots in the fridge. Sad! I wish more places allowed the half-orders of things.

Edited December 16, 201312 yr by Shells_Almost_There

Bariatric card?

I usually order a bowl of soup or the add on to whomever's meal I am with. Today I went to Breakfast with a friend and she ordered this monster apple pancake concoction that looked and smelled divine and I don't even like pancakes. For only $3 more, she made it a "combo and we got 2 eggs and two pieces of bacon.

I ate the eggs and bacon, and she had the pancakes. It was $12 with tax and tip and perfect! I couldn't even finish the eggs, but I tried!

When I am with my kids, I will have them order the steak or shrimp add on to their salads and eat that on the bread plate. If we go to a salad bar (love Jason's deli), I will have a kid grab me a hard boiled egg and put a little ranch on it to go along with my soup or a bit of hummus to go along with a few pepper strips.

I am all about the a'la cart menu or the sides menu. Rarely is a kids' menu healthy, but they are coming more and more so. It's no longer about the food when out which makes me very happy and quite honestly, VERY relieved.

Bariatric card?

A card most drs give their bariatric patients. It informs the server that you've had bariatric surgery and can't eat very much. Asking for permission to order an either childs plate or seniors menu (kids menu isn't usually very healthy). I've only used it twice - in 4 yrs (I'm a band revision) and Hometown Buffet won't even honor it

ASk ur nurse

My husband and I have always enjoyed dining out and while we don't do it as often as we did post surgery, we do still eat out frequently. As I travel a lot of work I am also often dining out alone.

I am more of a fine dining girl than a fast food or buffet girl, even pre OP. Fussy and high maintenance is how my husband would phrase it! Last time I had a buffet was on a trip to the US in 2011 when we were in Vegas and it just seemed the thing to do, a 'when in Rome' moment. It was disgusting and that was about six months pre OP! That said, back then I could go 3 courses with ease plus more wine than i care to remember.

Now, it is different. I am still a fine dining fan and recently did a five course degustation meal with matched wines. Even though each course was very small, It was about a bazillion calories and MFP would have exploded even if I had tried to enter it in! My husband and our friends eagerly finished what I couldn't so there was no waste and I did get to try some amazing and award winning food and enjoyed it very much. It was a special occasion though, not something to do often, and I worked my butt off In the following days and still showed a loss, albeit small, on the scale.

Mostly, we choose restaurants with shared small or tasting plates - tapas for Spanish, yakatori for Japanese, yum char for Chinese, tasting or degustation type meals in fine dining places and platters or shared plates in bistros or gastro pubs. We can order four tapas plates, for example, and I will enjoy one thing on each plate and my husband gets a regular sized meal from the remainder. We find it good value for good quality food. Most importantly, I don't feel my money is wasted nor does my husband feel he has to polish off what I leave!

Our local cafe we brunch in on weekends know about my sleeve and they are super accommodating. Getting to know people at a regular and locally owned place where the menu isn't set by some corporate elsewhere certainly helps. Plus, you are likely to be getting better quality food.

When alone I usually go for soup! So predictable. Tonight I am in a hotel and dined out at a yakatori place with two plates, one of chicken tsukune and the other mushroom yakatori. It was divine and very reasonably priced.

So there are other options for reasonably priced and quality food served in portions that suit the sleeve. It may just mean stepping outside the norm a little. It may not work for you or be to your taste though but I thought I would share regardless.

Oops, just realised I HAVE had buffet since my surgery but that is at work events or conferences and I don't count those as I am not paying! Lol. I usually go for the carvery ham and some veges and I am happy then without feeling like it is a waste. :-)

Also, in my first six months post OP I frequently got a small cup of Wendy's chilli and LOVED it. But I had it too frequently and can't stand the thought of it now.

Edited December 17, 201312 yr by LouiseC