What kinds of food do you order when you go out to eat? I never realized how much food is based on bread or pasta! For fast food places are we limited to chicken nuggets and salad? For a sit down resturant, do you order whatever you want and take most of it home or do you order soup? Most servings are so massive that it would make 3 or 4 meals for me. Just wondering what everyone else does...

I usually stick to the appetizer menu: lettuce wraps, soup, even nachos (not healthy, but band friendly for some reason for me). I've had appetizer ribs and chicken wings that were good, too. A full meal is so much food that it is a total waste of money to get it, even when I bring it home and get two more meals out of it!

<TABLE id=HB_Mail_Container height="100%" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0 UNSELECTABLE="on"><TBODY><TR height="100%" width="100%" UNSELECTABLE="on"><TD id=HB_Focus_Element vAlign=top width="100%" background="" height=250 UNSELECTABLE="off">I'm glad you posted this. I am curious as well as to what bandsters order when dining out. I couldn't tell somebody else what to eat, but as I think back, I can tell you what I HAVE ordered and been able to eat:

TACO BELL: Double Side Pintos and cheese, Add red sauce and sour cream.

TACO BELL: I too am able to eat tortilla chips, so I've ordered nachos too.

MCDONALDS: This is a hard menu for bandsters. I will order my 20 month old a kid's meal with chicken nuggets and apple slices. I can only eat a few bites of each.

MC DONALDS: If I am hungry, on the road with no time to sit and enjoy a meal in a real restaurant, need to get my blood sugar to a normal level, I order a chocolate fudge sundae. I know! I know! Not so good, but it is fat free... just lots of sugar. It curbs the appetite.

GAS STATION FOOD: Beef Jerky all the way! And a diet iced tea, Peach Snapple usually.

SUSHI: Start with chicken satay. Move onto sashimi ahi or hamachi, whichever looks to have the least amount of stringines to it. Usually both are good choices, along with salmon (but depends on if the sushi chef knows how to butcher or not) ~ And edamame are fun to eat and take a long time to eat. Sake goes down pretty easy too (lol)!

DENNY'S/IHOP/PANCAKE CIRCUS: eggs, eggs, eggs. The sausage tends to be too fatty, as well as bacon being a no-no. I order eggs, cheese, cotto, and my favorite... coffee.

NICE BREAKFAST: This morning we went to a nice Breakfast spot and I ordered the bagels with lox. I gave the bagel to my son and I ate the lox, spread cream cheese on it and sprinkled the capers and onions on top. Yum!!!!!!

Special Occassion Restaurant: I always go for the leanest Protein. Usually the salmon or chicken. Fish is easy for me to eat, so I like that. I order it as it comes and just start with the protein. I usually don't get to the starch or veggie on the plate. Don't take it home, just leave it.

WANNA BE BAD? Creme Brulee (don't tell anybody I said that!) haha

WHEN IN DOUBT: Starbucks is a great way to curb the appetite when you don't have time to eat or sit down and chew your food for 45 minutes! (who does that?) ~ A tall latte has 6 grams of

</TD></TR><TR UNSELECTABLE="on" hb_tag="1"><TD style="FONT-SIZE: 1pt" height=1 UNSELECTABLE="on">

</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> protein. That's decent, to hold you over until you can get some real food in you.

I am sure glad this came up. I have tried to stick to chicken and fish. Wanted to attemp Olive Garden but a little scared has anyone tried there food. what did you order?

I like Wendy's chili, any fast food salad, I occasionally order a burger that I eat the meat and veggies but no bun since bread and my band are enemies. At restaurants, again, salad; soups, fish, i can order sandwiches and eat the protein, but again, not the bread. There are lots of choices. I also like omelets. If I order a full meal, I bring a lot of it home. I'll have enough food left for a couple more meals.

I order from the childrens menue alot,I try to be good and if they have veggie as sides orders I will get that.

Sorry to burst your bubble...but the McDonald's hot fudge sundae has 11 grams of fat, 333 calories, and 7 grams of protein. I guess it's not the end of the world if you have that for a meal once every 6 months....but you should think about the nutrition info. The other day I got a breakfast meal at Mikey D's thinking it wouldn't be too bad. When I got home and looked up the info, I had eaten over 600 calories!!! It didn't taste good enough for 600 calories....I gotta tell ya!

We eat out quite a bit and I have found lots of things that I like. I always split something with my husband, so never worry about what's on the plate that I can't keep down. I like a nice piece of fish, seafood, chicken or steak, and also prime rib, as long as it's cooked on a grill or in some sort of sauce (I don't like fried food). I also love sushi, and I can eat one order of sashimi (2 pieces, no rice) with a cup of miso soup for a meal. We usually get some salad with our meal, and I can eat small bites of tomatoes, cucumber and avocado, along with several other vegetables served raw. Most steamed veggies work, as long as they're tender. For breakfast, I have found that scrambled eggs won't stay down, but I can eat a few bites of an omelette, or some fruit and even tried a little corned beef hash the other day and had 4 or 5 tiny bites, which worked just fine. Wendy's has a baked potato that I got one day, and it was good. I didn't eat the whole thing, but probably managed about half. At Chick-Fil-A I can eat the grilled chicken, just not the bun. At McDonald's I ordered the fish sandwich once and ate some of the fish, which wasn't very good but it stayed down okay. Fuddrucker's has a turkey burger, and I eat just the burger topped with mustard and pico de gallo. It's big even without the bun, but it's very good. Sweet Tomatoes has lots of stuff to choose from, you won't have any problem finding something to eat there. Also, Chili's has very good salads with chicken on top and those are wonderful, although much too large to finish alone.

Kristine

The Woodlands, TX

Banded since November, 2007 (lost 40 pounds so far)

I am sure glad this came up. I have tried to stick to chicken and fish. Wanted to attemp Olive Garden but a little scared has anyone tried there food. what did you order?

At Olive garden: I get Chicken Spiedini. It is chicken skewered with grilled veggies. I sub in brocoli instead of the potatoes. It is around 300 cals. Stay away from the bread and Pasta.

Here are some decent choices at Olive Garden.

Olive Garden Italian Restaurant - Our Menu - Garden Fare Menu

Chinese food I like the Won Ton Soup it has vegetables some meat slices of chicken and beef, brocholi, carots, cabage and other veggies, it is light and goes down easy and I take whats left home for another meal .

I stay away from fast food for the most part but if I do need to get something fast I will go to Wendy's and get a small chilli.

If I feel the needs to be naughty I will get a small ice cream cone from Micky D's and that usually substanes me for quite a while.

I also like the Golden Coral and Soup or Salad. If you show them your lap band card they will give you a Medical Discount.

My duaghter daughter does nt eat meat so alot of times we will share a meal and have them bring us an extra plate.

I stay away from Carb as much as possible because they make me sick. But Potatoes are ok and don't make me sick, I think it is because it is a natural carb and not processed.

I stick to the appetizer menu for the most part . Sometimes I order soup, not because I don't eat "solid food" but because I can't eat near what I used to and a lot of it doesn't do so good reheated at home.

I just now found Wendy's chili and it works very well, other then that I don't bother with fast food because there is nothing I want ( slaps forehead did I say that?!?)

<TABLE id=HB_Mail_Container height="100%" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0 UNSELECTABLE="on"><TBODY><TR height="100%" width="100%" UNSELECTABLE="on"><TD id=HB_Focus_Element vAlign=top width="100%" background="" height=250 UNSELECTABLE="off"></TD></TR><TR UNSELECTABLE="on" hb_tag="1"><TD style="FONT-SIZE: 1pt" height=1 UNSELECTABLE="on">

</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

<TABLE id=HB_Mail_Container height="100%" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0 UNSELECTABLE="on"><TBODY><TR height="100%" width="100%" UNSELECTABLE="on"><TD id=HB_Focus_Element vAlign=top width="100%" background="" height=250 UNSELECTABLE="off">AWWWWWWWWWWW MMMMAAAANNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You DID burst my bubble! I was told it was non-fat! (the fudge sundae).. maybe it's just the ice cream part that is non-fat. Well, I usually only have one a month anyway.

I stay away from fast food as much as possible... but the above are things that I have ordered over the past 9 months. I like to cook, so we usually eat 3 meals a day at home. When I get stuck out shopping or on a play date is when I have to resort to the fast food world. It's okay, it hasn't hurt my weight loss at all. Just a bad habit.

I actually keep a bag of beef jerky in my glove box in case I do get hungry in the car. I can eat a piece of that and it does me just fine 'till I get home. I do drive thru the fast food joints just for an iced tea often.

</TD></TR><TR UNSELECTABLE="on" hb_tag="1"><TD style="FONT-SIZE: 1pt" height=1 UNSELECTABLE="on">

</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>