Basic Tips To Help With The Dinning Out Menu

Try to find out where you are going to go, before you go there.  Then you can go to the website of the restaurant and look at their menu.   This saves so much time (and heartache) to do it at home rather than at the restaurant.  If you are interested in the soup that may change, call and ask before you get there.  When you get there, you already know what food options you can order (double check to make sure it is still listed - if not, ask the server).  This gives YOU time to just sit back and be with your friends.  More importantly, it gives you time to relax (better for gastroparesis) and you can enjoy the moment rather than sitting there worrying about the menu!  

MENU RESEARCH TIPS....

• Start at the first page (normally appetizers).  This section can be our friend as the portions are small and sometimes the food is GP Friendly. 
• Mentally cross off all of the items that are not GP Friendly.  I say 'mentally' because I don't think they will let us use a black marker on their menu (yet I want to some days to just show them how unfriendly the menu is to people with digestive issues). 
• With any luck you will have 2 - 5 selections of 'food' to eat.  Be sure to look over the Side Items and ask about the Soup Of The Day.  The soup is often what I am left with to 'eat', but that is fine, since we are out with our loved ones and it is time with them that matters (that is after our health -harsh, but true).
• Look over the ingredients in the selections you have left.  Can you tolerate everything that is listed?  If not, can they accommodate you to take something out?  This is about YOU and your dinning experience (in their eyes), so be sure to ask!   You can then narrow down from there and hopefully be able to choose from at least 2 - 3 options that will be GP Friendly for you.
• Also consider how you are feeling that day and what type of 'food' you would have had at home.  Don't get too aggressive, just to 'fit in'.   You will pay for it twice!  Once at the table (literally) and the second in the bathroom.  
• If you found your meal in the regular section of the menu, ASK if they can give you 1/2 the portion.  Some place will accommodate accordingly.  There is also a Restaurant Card you can get for free from G-PACT.org that you can present to the server in hopes they will accommodate you to order a smaller portion or order off the kids/senior menu.   I haven't done this, as I rather pay for the full meal and have it as a left over to 1 - 2 more meals.

I remember the days when we would go to a restaurant and it would take about 20 minutes to decide what to have.  Reading each menu item and how the taste buds would come alive in my mouth reading the savory ingredients.  Then the friendly banter of 'what are you going to have?', 'I don't know... what are you going to try?'.  Until the ultimate decision was made that would satisfy my picky and very hard to please pallet.

I think a tear just fell in remembrance of that past life.  Oh well ... we must move on to meet the next challenge of our life or we will be stuck in bed feeling sorry for our self.   Yet a day or two of that is healthy - I must admit I can't stay strong all the time!