My First Buffet road trip

So here I am six weeks out of my RNY surgery and feeling very good. I am down about 25 pounds and under my doctor's instructions eating almost normally. I know a lot of you are going to say "I couldn't have normal foods for five or six months at least." He told me to go out and try things. Get of the soft liquid stuff and make the stomach work for you. I think it may have been a dare because there are definitely things I cannot and should not eat. Lettuce. But surprisingly he said "Try whole wheat bread now and then and not too much - the carbs will do you good." I haven't really been that brave yet.
This week is Marla's birthday so we are off on our bi-annual casino holiday. We start in Bellingham at the Skatgit and move down to Seattle and the Tulalip, then up again to the River Rock in Richmond. It is a nice get away and because a lot of it is comped it was a bit of a foodie frenzy in the pre-surgery days. I would waddle into these great American Buffets - filled with fried fatty things like deep fried chicken, gravy, and thick salad dressing - fill my plate four or five times and congratulate myself for stopping before it got ridiculous.
So now as I perused the buffet it became a question of "Oh My God, what is there here that I can eat?" First of all - nothing fried. Then no carbs. I fell back on my training over the last three years and ditched the plates that were the size of home plate in a major league baseball game and took the smallest salad plate I could find. I refined this decision and ended up using a saucer.
Secondly - another of my rules of buffets - I have to see the plate between the food. No overlapping and no piling on. So I went first for the fish - nice moist salmon. Then I had the carver give me a small small thin slice of just rare beef. My final selection for this round was chicken. Your likely saying - gee that's a lot. My serving sizes were about the size of a teaspoon or just a taste. Still I was eating the protein first.
Marla couldn't resist one of her and my old favourites. - mashed potatoes and corn. She was feeling guilty that she was eating something that I couldn't have. I reassured her that I really didn't want it and couldn't think I would handle it very well anyways. So it was all right.
Finally - I can't just have protein. We normally eat European style where the salad is the third or last course, but I am not so good with lettuce. What I did find was cottage cheese, peaches (which mix great with the cheese) shredded cheddar (a little fatty but okay), I went for danger and tried a tomato. There was actually some things on the salad bar that was okay.
I guess the biggest thing I had to decide was that it is okay to leave stuff on your plate. For desert I found the surgar free section. I had a slice of sugar free blueberry pie and only had the tiny point of the slice.
The first time we tried this I either chewed so much that I swallowed a lot of air and burped constantly for the next two hours. The next day, I ate smaller and chewed less, and no burps. I should also say that these were by far the largest meals of the day. They are pretty average in size to what I am eating, by my very rough calorie count, really rough, it is about 400 calories per meal. So I am still shooting for eating about 800 calories a day. And all my other meals are still soft food. I have grown to really like yoghurt.
Now I really reminiscing about food but I would much rather talk about exercise. So aside from all the shopping that Marla is making us do; I am also getting a whole lot of exercise done in the fitness facilities of the hotels we are staying. I get 45 minutes of swimming and water exercise each day, and another 45 minutes of cardio and strength exercises. I am feeling really good. Now if I could only win something in the casino.