Struggling to eat! Need ideas

Hi all! Today is three weeks since my surgery and I am struggling to eat and drink! I am not used to drinking all day long and am moving around a lot chasing a 4 1/2 year old. I leave my cups everywhere LOL and I know I am so dehydrated.  I am also struggling with what to eat, I am bored with shakes and I am not sure what "soft diet foods" are, other than the few mentioned after surgery. I am not maintaining the calories, protein or liquids! :( Any suggestions??? Please help.

PUSH THOSE FLUIDS or you are going to be in the ER. In fact, if you know you are dehydrated, talk to your surgeon about getting a bag or two of IV fluids. Chances are you'll feel 100% better.

Soft diet foods:

Yogurt, cottage cheese, SOFT cooked egg, cooked cereal, pudding, egg drop soup, other very soft soups (mash up the contents of a canned soup). ricotta cheese (try it with a little Italian style sauce), low fat refried beans....

But what you really NEED are fluids. You don't need to eat if you aren't drinking enough to keep yourself out of dehydration. Drink up!!

 For fluids, you may need to just leave a water bottle in each room. It'll make it easier for you as you're chasing down the tot.

As for foods, you really should check with your surgeon and/or nutritionist to see what they can suggest you to be eating. Shakes - and there are dozens of kinds, including homemade, which taste the best - puddings mixed with some protein powder, yogurt, ricotta cheese, no fat refried beans, soft scrambled eggs, hummus . . . there are all kinds of things that are soft.

OK...it amazes me how many of my new friends here on OH are not properly educated on food and drink and when!  My doctor says I will be on a liquid diet for at least 2 wks.  Get some really good juices (at a health food store or get them on line, then mix these with half water, much more palatable and you are getting some nutrition too.  Also, there are flavored syrups (unsweetened) to stir into your water. Like coconut!  remember...sip,sip,sip. Nice cup of bouillon!  If I get pissed off with liquid diet, I shall think BICYCLE!  So...soft food.  Don't forget smoothies, then there is applesauce and jello with free cool whip...tastes just like lemon meringue pie!
Use your blender for water Mellon etc.
Hope you fair better and you are getting exercise from your little one!  How lucky you are...Write here and let us know how you are doing.....SBV

Juices are full of sugar---lots of folks dump on them.

What juices are you talking about?  Fluids are water, Crystal Light, G2....Do you know how much sugar is in watermelon and apples...!! 

Soft Foods should be protein packed....cottage/ricotta cheese, eggs scrambled with some melted cheese .....2% greek plain yogurt and flavor it up...refried beens with a little hot sauce...protein first..this is what you should be thinking about...

Dehydration can happen to us in a few hours...its not pretty and takes days to recover from.  Keep some G2 in the house and drink one of them a day...just to make sure you are maintaining your electrolytes....

Hi Chilipepper!
All the things you listed are terrific and I agree.  10 years ago my daughter had gastric by-pass (the open kind).  She was the one who told me about juices.  I spoke to her last evening and now realize that I neglected to say here that she bought them at a Health Food Store and none of them had sugar.  She did have a particularly detrimental problem,  she could not drink water. Very unusual. So ..please be a little bit kinder to us newbies, I haven't even got a surgery date yet, although I AM approved!!!!!  I value this "OH" place, I am learning a lot....SBV

Even "health food store" juices have sugar. They may not have ADDED sugar, but all fruits and most veggies contain sugar naturally. This is important to realize when reading labels.