Approved foods?Q

I had surgery on 2/20 (9 - almost 10 days ago). I went home from the hospital on a full liquid diet. He had asked if I'd tried yogurt or anything of that nature, but at that time I had not (due to a virus/sore throat I had after surgery). He now wants me to go to purée food and even try soft food in a week. So... I was wondering if cooked vegetables were ok? Like really baked, steamed, boiled (whatever you have to do to get them soft). Also, healthy choice has little ready to go cups of frozen greek yogurt. Anybody try these?! Are these acceptable? 

I'be tried cottage cheese, scrambled eggs, and mashed potatoes. Happy to report so far all has gone well! I make sure they are really fine and I'm not even really eating a 1/4 cup. 

 

Any other suggestions? I've heard retried beans, cheese, and salsa are good.

What about baked beans really mashed up?!

I made mashed cauliflower the other night. It was really pretty good. I boiled it in chicken broth and then mashed with so low fat cheddar and parm. My kids liked it too. I added some protein powder to mine.

Yum! That sounds really good. How long ago did you have your surgery? I just want to be sure it's not too soon for that.  I a little nervous. Haha. I remember hearing something about vegetables should be added later after surgery.

Frozen Greek yogurt is basically ice cream. I'd avoid it. Don't forget unfrozen Greek yogurt though. Awesome stuff.

To know if something is a puree, think "Can I drink it with a straw?" or "Is it the consistency of a smoothie?" Softs are harder because soft is on a scale. But scrambled eggs and string cheese count. Some people count lunch meat but I think that's kind of on the edge.

I would say that you should stay away from vegetables as they are not giving you the protein that you are needing at this point.  Remember that when you sit down and eat you must first have the protein.  If there is room (this early out there wouldn't be) then you can have vegetables.  Of course unless we are talking about beans and a few others that are high in protein that is.

Also on a side note my nutritionist classified the puree stage as anything that you can mash with a fork.  I used that definition and was fine with many things early on.  Canned chicken breast blended with any of the Walden Farms (0 calorie) dressings such as Bacon Ranch (yum) or even their BBQ sauce (be careful as they have a spicy one and a non spicy one).  Blend the chicken with the BBQ sauce and then microwave it to heat it up.  It is good.  Also can do the same thing with tuna (perhaps not the BBQ but certainly the Bacon Ranch dressing.)  Walden Farms can be bought at many grocery stores ... locally I can get it at Kroger.  I have seen some at Food Lion, HEB, and Walmart as well.  

The other thing I did was to get Bumble Bee Crab Meat (claw meat).  Trader Joe's actually sells it cheaper than Walmart.  I think it is about $9 per 16 oz container.  If you are eating roughly 3 oz portions then this is 5 meals for under $10.  Great if you are a crab lover as I am.  

For the pureed stage I usually like to mention the website ... The World According to Eggface for ideas.  http://theworldaccordingtoeggface.blogspot.com/

Also my friend Dave has a website with many recipes for various stages of weight loss ...

 http://www.schronce.net/forum/index.php?16  Go to the section "WLS Friendly".

Also http://www.blogilates.com/recipe-index/clean-perfect-pumpkin -protein-pancake-recipe  for the Pumpkin Protein Pancakes.  Pancakes could definitely be mashed with a fork although I might do this on the tail end of the pureed stage or the beginning of the soft foods stage.  

Just some ideas.

As for what is acceptable and what you shouldn't do ... the first thing you want to do is keep track of all food and liquids on a place such as My Fitness Pal .... myfitnesspal.com.  Most plans allow for about 600-800 calories per day and 40g carbs or less per day  Enter things as you go and as long as you are working toward about 80g protein in a day everything else will fall into place.  You will learn that it is very tough to do much with vegetables this early on if you want to get to that 80g of protein.  Of course follow you surgeons post op guidelines and don't go by the numbers I have put out there.  I was just using those as an example.

Thank you for all the advice!

I am not saying what you should or should not eat. Just giving you my list. My soft food stage says I can have soft cooked veggies, cooked beans, refried beans, cooked or canned fruit, banana without membranes, ground meat, fish or poultry, eggs, casseroles made with ground meat and veggies, yogurt, cottage cheese, ricotta, sliced cheese, low-fat meat or milk based soups, cooked cereals, mashed potatoes and toast.

I don't know if I would buy the frozen greek yogurt, as said above it almost the same as ice cream, but you can find a yogurt you like and freeze it. Same thing, but probably less sugar or other junk.

Wonderful! Thank you!

I am almost three weeks out and love to add the unjury chicken soup protein to mashed veggies. I still do mostly full liquids because I haven't gotten the hang of getting all the protein in with purée.