Getting liquids in during pureed food phase?

At 16 days (!!!) post-op, I've moved into my programs Phase 3 eating, pureed food. I'm working 3 (small) meals each day with 8 ounce protein shakes as morning, afternoon, and evening snacks - which is going pretty smoothly. 

BUT! I'm having trouble getting much more than the protein shakes in liquid-wise, especially since I need at least 30 minutes before eating and usually an hour after before I can start drinking again and not feel gross. 

Any suggestions?! The last two nights I had to keep myself awake longer than I would have liked just to get those last few ounces of protein shake in and I know 24 ounces of liquid probably isn't enough!

Morning! It is hard but you can do it. It just takes time. Drink all day when you are not eating. It feels like you are spending all day focused on food and drinks because you are right now.  

How much protein are you getting in daily? 

What time do you get up? Go to bed?

This is what I have logged for today (2 oz. egg beaters for breakfast, 2 oz. munched up chicken salad for lunch, 2 oz. cottage cheese for dinner, and the 3 protein shakes):

You say in your post "I'm only to have 4 ounces of anything per hour." Is this a restriction placed on you by your surgeon? If so, is it possible you've misunderstood the instructions? Limiting someone to only 4 ounces of fluid an hour seems odd at more than two weeks out. If you figure you have to wait one hour total per meal, start drinking at 7:30 am and stop at 10 pm that's only 46 ounces of liquid a day that you'd be able to get in aside from your shakes. That's very low. I don't think you'd ever get enough liquids in if you have that restriction to deal with. 

THANK YOU! You're totally right - this week I'm allowed/supposed to start working towards 6-8 ounces an hour when I'm not eating. I was so focused on the plan for food that I didn't remember to look at the liquids part! This will obviously makes things that much easier. DUH!

You are doing great on protein. You need to up your water. Just sip, sip, sip. If your not eating drink water. It will get easier when you can take bigger sips. Challenge yourself or make little wagers about how soon you can finish a bottle of water (within 30 minutes). It is a mind game that you can win. Try crystal lite or mio in your water or unsweetened tea with sweetener when you need some incentive.  Good luck.    

By the way, what tool do you use to calculate all you intake?

Thanks for the encouragement!

I use FitBit. I've had a FitBit Flex for about 6 months and used it religiously pre-op and now that I'm up and going I'm back to using it again. It's a great tool to help keep me moving - I love to see those steps go up and up. As a (sort of) gadget person and smartphone addict, it's been a great fit for me, much better than a traditional pedometer. I like that it tracks my activity and activity level and that I can log my food, meds, weight, liquid, etc all together.

The only thing I don't love about my FitBit is that I haven't quite figured out if/how I can input an entire recipe and then log eating a portion of it. Right now it doesn't much matter, but I know soon it will!

I don't *think* you can, but I haven't checked recently; however, I do know that fitbit can send its data to your myfitnesspal.com account, and myfitnesspal will let you enter a recipe and let you log serving portions.

Other tips were great. Just keep liquids by you all the time so you can keep drinking. Also I keep a bottle by my bed so if I wake at night I can drink then too. I also make sure to get a good start first thing in the morning.