Post-Op Activities with Friends

Someone posted earlier that she's not hanging out with friends as much because so many things revolve around food and drinking.  Which is so true!  Can we brainstorm ways to hang out with friends that don't focus on food?  I'm always looking for new ideas.  

Here are some things I do with friends these days:

Sing in a choir together
Take a fitness class
Go for a walk in the city
Run in races together!  

I still do things with friends that revolve around food but they are different... 

- cook together

- get coffee

- go for a walk

- drop in for cuddles with their dogs

- play dates with our kids

- ceramic painting

- enjoying life, laughter and maybe a glass of wine :)

Organized activities like Gwen talks about are great. On a "just hanging out" level, I've found that it's really not as much about food and drinking than I thought. I can hang out with friends, and just drink water or iced tea, and it's fine. The perception that it was all about food and alcohol was mostly in my head. 

I totally agree - it's much less intimidating now than it was shortly after surgery.  Now I know that going to a restaurant with friends is no big deal because I can eat my small meal and enjoy the companionship.  But right after surgery, it was a bit scary!  

When my friends are drinking I take a big 20 oz bottle of Isopure and sip on that all evening.  I get in lots of protein and I'm not feeling left out.

I would have to Agree with BostonJoe.  It is not all about food, as we think or thought.  its really all in our heads... finding that Eureka moment when you realize that you can be around food without having the need to stuff it into your Pie-hole.  For me (And i am a rookie), it was very stress reducing knowing that i can leave food on my plate and i will not die...

My wife and i look back at times when we would have dinner at  "Skinny" Friends houses, and get the same portion as they would eat and have to stop on the way home for a feed of food... well that does not happen any more.  Food addiction  be it over or under eating needs to be treated as such, An Addiction..  unfortunately like breathing.. we have to eat.    So, from what i can tell.  we will all have to learn to live with food around us.  But learning to eat like a "Skinny" Person is the end goal.

My BF and I love bowling and going to the gym just to sit in the hot tub :)

I sort of want to try roller skating.. 

And, of course, shopping for clothes with friends is an option now and it wasn't an option before!

I'm losing too fast for clothes shopping to be a viable activity. Anything I buy right now will be too big in a month, so I'm keeping it to a minimum. Plus, I'm a guy, so I don't really regard clothes shopping as entertainment. :P

So far, I've gone thrift shopping with a friend when I've needed clothes for a specifi****asion.  Shopping isn't something I've ever enjoyed, but it's nice that I -can- shop with a friend now because I can actually shop where my friends shop.  

Plus, after years of having to wear things that fit, not because they looked good, I don't trust my sense of fashion/style at all.  So having someone with me to reassure me that something looks good on me has been a boon.