Since having the sleeve, I eat at home and prepare my own food much more often, but I haven't completely given up going through drive-thrus. I do know that the stock at most fast food restaurants and the coca-cola company must have really taken a hit when I had surgery.

I regularly go through our local Sonic and order a medium cup of ice after I have been swimming and take it home to put my Mio drops in. I know they are trained to upsell, but they seem so confused that that is all I want -- every time I go, which is almost daily.

At Sonic, I have been known to just order the toppings from a New York Dog with cheese (grilled onions, sauerkraut, spicy mustard) and or bacon egg and cheese without bread (Which one do I want, they always ask. Do I want the toaster or ciabatta? I usually have to tell them I want the toaster, but don't want the bread. -- Bless their hearts, I know they are victims of an industrial touch screen conspiracy.)

Breadless turkey sandwiches at Arby's or just a side of meatballs with cheese at Fazoli's are also meals for me on occasion.

An egg mcmuffin with an extra "round egg" and no muffin is also confusing. Apparently you have to specify "round egg" if you want the kind that comes with an egg mcmuffin and you can only get those during Breakfast hours even though they are supposed to serve breakfast all day. Sigh. I usually let them give me the muffin and either eat half or discard it lest they get completely confused.

What creative ways have you found to confound and confuse drive-thru employees?

I don't really try. I am 32 months post-op RNY. If I find something that I can eat at a fast food restaurant, it becomes my standard. I go there and order it ALL THE TIME. The chili at Wendy's is good. A crunchy taco at Taco Bell is good. A half of a French Dip sandwich at Arby's is good and I take the other half home for leftovers. For a while, Olive Gardens had a small plate menu which contain Tortelloni al Forno. This made a wonderful meal which was around $4. So I look for great meals, small volume and within my dietary requirements. Recently I came across a small mom-and-pop restaurant called Judy's Kitchen in the mall's food court. It is a strange name for a restaurant that is a Korean restaurant. They serve a simple fantastic bowl of Won-Ton Soup for around $5, so whenever I am in town I go there for lunch.

Most of the time, I will just toss the bread and eat the insides out of stuff. I don't want to go through the hassel of trying to explain a special order, because im lazy that way

On another note, Jimmy Johns has an "unwich" version of their sandwiches, wrapped in lettuce. But then I found out that the owner is a big game hunter who hunts for sport, so now I don't want to support him. I'm so torn.....

I just order the regular meal and pull out what I want. Ultimately the price doesn't end up being much different and then I don't have to deal with explaining myself repeatedly. At Chik Fil A, sometimes I just really want the piece of chicken in the sandwich, so I just order the sandwich and toss the bread, while other times I just eat half the sandwich. At Panera I get the cup of chili and a salad, but sometimes I'll get something unhealthy and only eat a little bit of it. I think those are really the only two places I go with a drive-thru except Starbucks. I do the same thing when I'm out to dinner- I make sure they leave off the cheese, dressing, and certain other toppings that will destroy the entire meal, but for the most part I will just eat around everything else because it's easier than confusing the kitchen and the price is the same.

Most of the time, I will just toss the bread and eat the insides out of stuff. I don't want to go through the hassel of trying to explain a special order, because im lazy that way

On another note, Jimmy Johns has an "unwich" version of their sandwiches, wrapped in lettuce. But then I found out that the owner is a big game hunter who hunts for sport, so now I don't want to support him. I'm so torn.....

I quit ordering from Papa John's even when I was still eating pizza because the owner's politics made me mad. So I get you.

We have a new Hobby Lobby opening up in our town today and I have the same dilemma. It was really easy to boycott them when I would have had to drive quite a ways to get there.

Same with Walmart...

I try really hard to shop local and non-chain whenever possible -- between Amazon and drugstore.com orders that is.

A side bonus about regaining my mobility is that I can be more choosy about where I shop.

My problem with just throwing the bread out myself (which I do when I have to) is: 1) it's wasteful and 2) it takes the burden of serving healthy food away from the vendor.

I order and remove what I don't want in places with a drive thru. The hassle isn't worth the outcome.

We eat out a lot and I do make requests: no croutons, no rice, etc. Doesn't ALWAYS work though

I always repeat my order two times and make sure they have it. I then explain to cashier that the reason I don't want......is because it is an unhealthy choice. I also will double check receipt to make sure it is typed right. Normally they have to call the manager over so it exposes them to reality and healthier choice and I have had some restaurants change the menu and add healthy choices!!! If everyone would do it it might actually change the menus!!

I say confuse them and they will change!!!

If you order a hamburger or a chicken sandwich and don't want the bun, can you ask them to hold the bread and wrap it in a lettuce leaf? That was something I tried years back when I was on the Atkins Diet (If they use only shredded lettuce, that will be a very difficult request. )

Could you bring a piece of low calorie bread with you and make your own open face sandwich or 2 pieces of low calorie bread for a full sandwich?

Edited January 4, 201610 yr by 4MRB4PHOTO

If you order a hamburger or a chicken sandwich and don't want the bun, can you ask them to hold the bread and wrap it in a lettuce leaf? That was something I tried years back when I was on the Atkins Diet (If they use only shredded lettuce, that will be a very difficult request. )

Could you bring a piece of low calorie bread with you and make your own open face sandwich or 2 pieces of low calorie bread for a full sandwich?

You can always ask them to give you a sandwich without bread. Some places are better prepared/trained to do this than others.

I have been to Burger King exactly one time since surgery and when I ordered a sandwich without bread it rang up as "low carb". Some places are getting the message.

Usually I try to order sandwiches without the bread/roll, but when it seems like that might be too confusing or too much of a hassle, I'll get the bread and just not eat it. I hate being wasteful though. A LOT of times when we are at a sit-down restaurant, I will ask for a half order of something and tell them it's fine if they want to charge me the full price, I just don't want to waste the food. Some restaurants I know I can get away with being super picky and specific with an order and some restaurants I know I can't and that I'll just have to pick out the bits I can't eat. Like, our favorite local restaurant is completely awesome about custom orders because they still write everything down and actually TALK to the cook. Chain restaurants where everything has to be entered on a touch screen are a whole other story.

I haven't done any fast food or drive thrus. The closest I came was we had pizza one night and I ordered a thin crust pizza loaded with nothing but chicken, tomatoes, and cheese(no sauce, no greasy gobblins nada) and then I scraped the toppings off and ate those. It didn't sit too well though, and definitely not something I will do again. Since my surgery, I've noticed a lot of my "easy" foods are really just too much work for too little payout. The idea of driving to the pizza place, buying the pizza, bringing it home, scraping off the toppings, and then just being miserable afterwards, just isn't worth it! I'd rather just grab an egg out of the fridge and boil it. Less time, less calories, less drama. It all tastes the same anyway at this point! LOL I also carry a constantly full contigo bottle of ice Water heavy on the ice, cold on the water, to keep from falling into what I perceive as the devil's den. It would be very easy to fall off the wagon and order some fries or order and seemingly innocuous chicken sandwich minus the bun and then slather in sauce and eat more of it than I should have. This way, there's no walking that line of temptation.

I either order just what I want off the snack or kiddie menu or toss what I don't want, (usually half the bread\bun). 4-6 Chick Filet nuggets, Jr burger sans half the bun, JJ's unwich are all favs.

I am a bit lost without my Diet DP but still love Sonic, so I order a large unsweet tea but half Water and half tea. (Their tea is too strong and it cuts down on the caffeine.) Many times I have ended up with half sweet tea and half unsweet tea. Not what I wanted. That is frustrating - especially when I have already driven off.

Otherwise, I try to order the best I can and take off what I don't want. I still do Taco Bell Pintos n cheese on occasion. I get the grilled nuggets at Chick-Fil-A with the Buffalo sauce. I have had a Subway turkey and cheese sandwich with lots of veggies on flatbread and then just ate it open face without the bread. Chili's and Fuddruckers (and lots of places) will do burger or chicken without the bun and served on lettuce. We have lots of Mexican food here and there I order either the chicken fajitas with no oil and no tortillas or tortilla Soup with no tortillas or chicken fajita salad with dressing on the side or a chicken fajita soft taco and just eat the insides. I have been on a few interviews lately over lunch and didn't get to pick the place or see the menu first, but I was able to order roasted chicken at those places and just ate small amounts. It wasn't suspicious that I ate so little because I was talking a lot anyway.

I have only had McDonalds once since surgery and ordered my favorite sausage biscuit with cheese in an act of rebellion. It wasn't good. The sausage got cold before I could eat too much of it and I was kind of scared to eat the biscuit. I desperately want a Chick-Fil-A chicken biscuit but have avoided thus far as I am not sure I can do the fried food. Or more correctly, I am quite scared it will be a "gateway drug" for me and I will start going down that road again. I miss my fast food Breakfast most of all the things I miss (including my Diet DP).

I just order regular, pick out the parts I want and toss the rest. Or hand them to my dog in the back seat. I do the same in regular restaurants....just order normal off the menu, share the parts I don't eat and take home the leftovers. Either I or the dog will eat them. He's definitely been on a high carb diet since this all started but he also never stops moving so he burns through em quick!

Carl's and I think Arctic Circle both do a low carb version of their burgers wrapped in lettuce, so that's the only time I've ever done a special order.

I do to avoid fast food but if I end up there i get either a small chili at wendys, or a 4 piece nuggets at mcdonalds. Usually it's also very easy to order from the kids menu at fast food places too

I haven't ventured out to fast food places yet, as I'm only 9 months post op, still a few pounds from my goal. We did get stuck in a small town on Thanksgiving night without dinner plans so we ordered a junior whataburger which I ate without the bun ( it was so gross- tasting that I haven't really been remotely interested in fast food since).There are a couple of restaurants that we go to for breakfast, and normally I would have eggs Benedict, but I now ask them to leave the English muffin off ( you should see the looks I get) and serve on tomato slices. I can usually eat only one of the eggs. My new " fast food" place is the whole foods deli or their hot soup / entree bar. It's pretty harmless I get protein and small amount of steamed or roasted veggie????