Have you been on vacation since surgery? How did you do?

I'll be visiting family at a beautiful beach town soon! & I've been over-planning to not mess up my progress or hurt my stomach. I have so many restaurant options already picked out, microwavable meals I can have, protein snacks, & I'm packing a Bento box just in case I need to take extra protein out w me. It's gonna be a challenge but I think I'm well prepared!

Any tips?

I just got back from a 5 day "mini-vacation" and the one thing I can say is that I way, way over prepared. I was so worried about having food I could eat that I put together multiple bento boxes (one per day), that I never touched. I also had protein bars, protein drinks, protein snacks, etc. I hardly touched any of that either. Mostly I just ate what everyone else was eating, just a lot less.

I think in the end it was good for me to learn to eat "in the real world".

The one thing I did struggle with was getting my liquids in. We were pretty active most of the time and I kept falling behind on my fluid intake. In retrospect, I think I actually should have focused a lot more on how to get my fluids in, and a lot less on the food part.

Lol, I over prepared too. I made sure to have a mini fridge or cooler available. I did bring my lunchbox with ice packs and chicken just in case there weren’t good choices. That chicken saved me a couple of times when it was lasagna/Spaghetti. (Not a restaurant but family reunion over several days). I stayed in country so I could bring my water bottle and flavor packets, which would have been fine empty for traveling out of the country. The best part was being so active that I was really burning calories! I lost weight and enjoyed every bit of time with my family!

I always over prepare for holidays. I always overthink things. Even now one year out, I have a pile of non-refrigerator snacks ready to go in my suitcase. Nuts, cheese dippers, mug shots and protein bars. If you are really stuck have a latte or even a glass of milk. It will boost your energy levels for a little while

I have went on quite a few vacations or 1/2 day trips since surgery. My first one was about 1.5 months after surgery and I was just getting back to a normal solid diet. We went out to eat once a day and I just ordered what I already knew was "Safe" for me and things I had previously tried eating without issues.

Other than that I just stuck to my shakes for breakfast and a small snack/meal somewhere in the day depending on the times we went out to eat. I kind of worked around that.

I will say I wasted a lot of food from eating out because I could only eat a few bites. Sometimes I just shared someone else's meal. Having a few bites of theirs was more than enough for me at that time.

I am far enough out now, that I know easily what to order when eating out and how it will effect me so I just stick with it.

I am on the run a lot and always busy so I eat out more than I prefer but I make it work and it hasn't seemed to taint my progress.

Good luck and just stick with your "safe foods" and you will just fine.

On 11/20/2022 at 3:08 PM, SpartanMaker said:

The one thing I did struggle with was getting my liquids in. We were pretty active most of the time and I kept falling behind on my Fluid intake. In retrospect, I think I actually should have focused a lot more on how to get my fluids in, and a lot less on the food part.

This made me realize that I planned for EVERYTHING except for my water intake. Thanks for the reminder!!

On 11/20/2022 at 5:35 PM, learn2cook said:

Lol, I over prepared too. I made sure to have a mini fridge or cooler available. I did bring my lunchbox with ice packs and chicken just in case there weren’t good choices. That chicken saved me a couple of times when it was lasagna/Spaghetti. (Not a restaurant but family reunion over several days). I stayed in country so I could bring my water bottle and flavor packets, which would have been fine empty for traveling out of the country. The best part was being so active that I was really burning calories! I lost weight and enjoyed every bit of time with my family!

Ohhhh good point on being active. I'll be walking non stop without even thinking about it. I was thinking of eating healthy BUT not tracking just to give myself a break & knowing I'll be walking everywhere definitely makes me wanna do that more!