What do you say when you are invited to a dinner celebration, and you still have restrictions? I've been invited to a birthday celebration at a restaurant (I am hoping I can find something on the menu that will agree wth my sleeve) & I have been invited to a friend's who will cook dinner. I would never want anyone to limit their options because of me, but at the same time, I don't want to insult the host by "picking" at my food. How do you handle these situations? FYI I am only 7 weeks post Op.

I always preview menus on line when I'm going to restaurants, and that helps a lot. I try to pick two things on the menu i could happily order, so in case one has been dropped or they are out of it, I still have options that don't make me have to re-think things in the moment.

Since I've not told many people about my WLS, and my job requires that i eat out or at people's homes fairly regularly, I have a cadre of things I say now!

I'm really trying to eat carefully and eat less, and this tastes great - thank you so much for making it.

I'm so sorry, i seem to have a bit of an upset stomach...(not exactly a lie, since removing 85% of my stomach is definitely an 'upset' to my guts!)

Could you give me just about half that much? I'll come back for seconds if I can, but I'm working hard on my weight right now.

And when they ask about restrictions ahead of time, I usually just say, I'm avoiding starchy carbs these days (and maybe include beef or pork in that) and I'll be fine eating a bit of whatever you fix.

When leaving food on my plate, Gosh, thanks - this was great! I just find I'm needing to eat less these days.

So far no one has been hurt or bugged by this, and after I get over saying it (if I even need to) I find people really don't much notice what i eat anyway. Now that I've been visibly losing weight too, people have noticed and are happy for me, so they really don't say much about what I chose to eat because they've seen that whatever i'm doing is working for me. So nice!

If it's at a restaurant, you can order off the a la cart menu. That's what I did. You can order Soup, or something else that is ok for your limitations. I went to Breakfast with my family the other day. I ordered of the "a la cart" menu and got 2 eggs any style (scrambled). When everyone's meals came, I scraped 1/2 my eggs onto my hubby's plate, because no way I would be able to eat all them eggs!! Plus they would just get cold if I waited till I was done before letting him have the rest. I am pretty good an knowing how much I can eat...............and it ain't much! (4 weeks out)

I've never hesitated telling anyone about my surgery, so I tell them upfront NOT to be upset with me if I can't eat their delicious offerings, or much of it. All have totally understood and respected me for this. Restaurants are another story, though; it seems wait-staff have more difficulty understanding why you don't eat more, so I just tell them I've had surgery...they don't need to know more, and usually don't ask.

I'm still working this one out. I'm 3.5 weeks post-op (surgery on 27th April). I declined a dinner invitation to a friends house last night as I didn't want to cause a hassle once I was there. I didn't know what she was planning on cooking and didn't want to be rude by just picking pathetically at her food. 3 of my very close friends know I've had the surgery (one of which had a VSG done a bit over 12 months ago) and they are really understanding but I'm generally not telling everybody.

I did attend 3 days of training last week for work where lunch was supplied. I was nervous about how that would go. On the first day I brought some soup with me but didn't end up eating it. Luckily it was a lot of little finger foods so my pathetically empty plate went less noticed as many people were going back for many rounds of little things. I managed to find some things I could eat - some veggie fritatta (which I did A LOT of picking at)... ate a bit of the egg and some of the veggies that were soft enough... and actually managed 1/4 of an egg sandwich (i was surprised by this as bread isn't introduced for weeks yet).. and some slices of kiwi fruit. I basically spent the whole time chewing.. I figured if I turned it into soup in my mouth then I should handle it ok. And that theory pretty much worked

We have a social club dinner with work tomorrow night at a pub. I would like to go but know it will be a challenge. the meals will be huge so my little pickings wont make any indent on them at all.. That's if I can find something to pick at in the first place :/