One of my favorite restaurants is Cafe Rio, a Utah-based Mexican fast casual diner. Tacos, burritos, enchiladas, salads, tostadas, and nachos galore! Their signature meat is a sweet pork barbacoa, pulled to perfection. The portions are plentiful and prices are reasonable. Oh, and the food tastes wonderful too.

All of these things are great…unless you’ve had weight loss surgery. Today was my coworker Suzanne’s last day, and a bunch of people met for lunch at Cafe Rio. I was feeling good and craving the Rio, so I decided to show up a little early, save some tables, and look over the menu with a fine-toothed comb.

After assessing what I can eat and what was on the menu, I thought of the genius idea for my dietary needs – a portion of pork barbacoa, smothered with green sauce and melted cheese. I talked to three different people at the register, showed them my dietary needs card, and they were all kinda weird about me ordering it. Since it would be about 4 bucks, it didn’t really seem worth it to me because I’d only be eating about 2 ounces of it. Plus, they acted like it was a huge inconvenience.

So instead, I ate off of Suzanne’s giant pork nachos. I took three chips from her pile, and only ate the pork and cheese, with a little bit of well-chewed pico de gallo. I tried the back beans, but they weren’t soft enough to mash, so I didn’t have them. I barely made a dent in her dish, and picked at the meat and cheese a little more over the hour, but left the restaurant feeling comepletely satisfied. Best part is that I got to eat some of my favorite food, meed my dietary needs, and it didn’t get me sick at all. Win win!