My First Lunch Out With My Mom

Today was a pretty big day for me!  I am officially just over 3 weeks out from my surgery and so far I have lost 30 pounds and I have gone down a shirt size and a pant size!  It has been an incredible feeling and I LOVE it!  But also equally exciting was going out to lunch today with my mom and doing some shopping.

We started out by going to a couple of gift shops and wouldn't you know it, I didn't find anything for me, but I found a couple of things for my nieces and nephews.  They always score big when I go shopping with my mom LOL  Then we went to Lowe's so I could pick up a new front light.  We had a really bad wind storm come thru Tuesday and Wednesday this week and it took out my light pole, so I kind of needed to get that fixed.  Then it was off to Super Wal-Mart, Hobby Lobby and Jo-Ann's.

But the best parts were yet to come.  Up next was the quilt shop for some fat quarters.  I'm making my sister and a co-worker these for their birthdays and I hope they like them!  Then, finally after starting our day out at 10am it was time for lunch!

There aren't many choices for someone that is just over 3 weeks out who is just adding deli meat and cheese sticks to their diet, so we decided on Panera Bread hoping to find something with a broth.  To my surprise, they had a creamy tomato soup that I thought sounded pretty darned good.  Their soup comes with HUGE croutons and your choice of an apple or chips.  I asked for mine to go, without the croutons and with an apple.  I couldn't wait to dig into this creamy yumminess even though I was a little nervous about how my pouch would handle it.  Good news!  It went over GREAT!  I didn't eat much and of course didn't touch my apple (I'm hoping to save it for next week when I get my fruits back) but now I lunch for tomorrow too.

As my mom and I were sitting there, I made the comment how amazing it was that after a few bites of this soup, I felt full and it was a good feeling.  Not that horrible, after Thanksgiving, I'm going to hurl feeling, but a feeling that made me proud.  I knew I couldn't finish the whole thing when I ordered (hence the to go bowl) and was perfectly happy with the small amount that I had eaten.  Every day, I find out something new or figure out something new about my pouch and I love it.  I've had more good experiences than bad and I'm so glad I decided to take this huge step in my life.  Everyday I'm doing a little better, feeling a little better, but most importantly, I'm living a lot better!