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Hey everyone! I’m reading though all the post and it’s interesting how similar and different our experiences are. Can’t thank you all enough for sharing because sometimes I feel like it’s just me lol. This is my second week of puree foods and I can now move into soft. However I can only hold 2oz of food every 3 hrs and I drink nothing but water with electrolytes in between. I’m thinking soft foods might be too heavy for me. How much is everyone having of foods? I tried 30z of scrambled eggs yesterday took me 1 hr to finish lol. I accidentally had matcha 🍵 tea the other day because I forgot it had caffeine, silly me but my stomach did just fine. Granted it was the tip of a teaspoon with some milk. So this week I’ll be slowly adding dry decafe coffee to my morning warm cup of milk here and there. Oh homemade blended and straining apple, carrots, ginger is wonderful! I have about 4oz of it a day. I do feel “full” it’s a heaviness in my chest. I’m also still feeling discomfort here and there with purée foods as they go down my esophagus . Anyone else? That mental hunger hasn’t gone away and I know it will be a while before it does but I’m such a foodie that all I want is to “taste” food on my pallet that not the same everyday. I’m not doing artificial sugars, I’ve never liked them. My new stomach still doesn’t and nor does my pallet. I’m just going to keep sugar low as I always have. Savory foods is my achilles heal lol. I think because I’m not focused heavy on extra protein in between foods I’ve not had issues with consipation. Take care of yourselves and just try one medication at a time. My stool is “lose” but not watery. I go every other day. I’ve started vitamins but very slow and they are so sweet I have to force myself to like it. They are the Berimelts. I have a vacation coming up in two weeks, which I’m excited for! Mentally preparing myself for only having 1 taste of the food my husband and I decided to get. We have the same taste and always share or split plates so I’m not too worried about deciding on what to eat. I’m nervous about restaurants pushing food on me or asking if I didn’t like something or why we are ordering for one. If anyone lives in the UK please let me know if that’s uncommon. I know in the states when I said no water with my meal post surgery they looked at me crazy. I’m bummed that I won’t be able to enjoy beer or pub food in the UK but that’s just the way it is. Hope everyone is having a good recovery! ❤️‍🩹 I will say I’m so happy to be out of the liquid phase that was the worst for me. Also I didn’t drop any weight during the liquid phase that was my stall, funny enough because they say week 3, but not for me it was week 1 and 2. Now I’m dropping weight and down 20 pounds. (Yay) they said you’ll lose about half of your ideal weight within the 6 months so I’m on a good track. I do weigh myself daily and the scale is dijital so it records everything. I highly recommend those. Take care everyone!!

Using these logs is a struggle in the beginning especially if its home cooked food. Bought food already comes with its own nutrition label so its standard. The log you use will get used to the foods you regularly eat and show them first. The one I use stores recipes too. It does get easy.

SO happy for you!! Sounds like you've been doing all the necessary things needed for your health! I'm, however, struggling with the pureed diet. Do you have any recommendations for pureed foods? I'm struggling tremendously with the textures...and craving to just CHEW. lol. I'm going to look into Vidafuel today im so glad i came across your reply!

Hey everyone! I’m reading though all the post and it’s interesting how similar and different our experiences are. Can’t thank you all enough for sharing because sometimes I feel like it’s just me lol. This is my second week of puree foods and I can now move into soft. However I can only hold 2oz of food every 3 hrs and I drink nothing but water with electrolytes in between. I’m thinking soft foods might be too heavy for me. How much is everyone having of foods? I tried 30z of scrambled eggs yesterday took me 1 hr to finish lol. I accidentally had matcha 🍵 tea the other day because I forgot it had caffeine, silly me but my stomach did just fine. Granted it was the tip of a teaspoon with some milk. So this week I’ll be slowly adding dry decafe coffee to my morning warm cup of milk here and there. Oh homemade blended and straining apple, carrots, ginger is wonderful! I have about 4oz of it a day. I do feel “full” it’s a heaviness in my chest. I’m also still feeling discomfort here and there with purée foods as they go down my esophagus . Anyone else? That mental hunger hasn’t gone away and I know it will be a while before it does but I’m such a foodie that all I want is to “taste” food on my pallet that not the same everyday. I’m not doing artificial sugars, I’ve never liked them. My new stomach still doesn’t and nor does my pallet. I’m just going to keep sugar low as I always have. Savory foods is my achilles heal lol. I think because I’m not focused heavy on extra protein in between foods I’ve not had issues with consipation. Take care of yourselves and just try one medication at a time. My stool is “lose” but not watery. I go every other day. I’ve started vitamins but very slow and they are so sweet I have to force myself to like it. They are the Berimelts. I have a vacation coming up in two weeks, which I’m excited for! Mentally preparing myself for only having 1 taste of the food my husband and I decided to get. We have the same taste and always share or split plates so I’m not too worried about deciding on what to eat. I’m nervous about restaurants pushing food on me or asking if I didn’t like something or why we are ordering for one. If anyone lives in the UK please let me know if that’s uncommon. I know in the states when I said no water with my meal post surgery they looked at me crazy. I’m bummed that I won’t be able to enjoy beer or pub food in the UK but that’s just the way it is. Hope everyone is having a good recovery! ❤️‍🩹 I will say I’m so happy to be out of the liquid phase that was the worst for me. Also I didn’t drop any weight during the liquid phase that was my stall, funny enough because they say week 3, but not for me it was week 1 and 2. Now I’m dropping weight and down 20 pounds. (Yay) they said you’ll lose about half of your ideal weight within the 6 months so I’m on a good track. I do weigh myself daily and the scale is dijital so it records everything. I highly recommend those. Take care everyone!!

I have never really been an oatmeal fan. Did try overnight oats once witb peanut butter and some other stuff and I liked it but i learned that that added up to a lot of carbs so I didn’t stick with it. Anyways it’s an option on this puree diet and I do have the rolled oats left in the pantry so I thought I’d maybe give it a go again. During purée stage or not, how do you take your oats? Hot or cold? And with what add ins?

Sounds delicious. Post the pxts on the food before & after thread. 😊

This is good advice. Not everyone knows this, but calorie estimates in food, even prepackaged ones are not super accurate for a couple of reasons: The USDA allows manufactured foods a 10% variance. In other words, if a packaged food states the calorie content is 500 kcal, it can be anywhere between 450 and 550 and still be within the allowed variance. The USDA simply does not have the staff to check that every pre-packaged food even meets that 10% standard, so manufacturers are given wide latitude here. They can be a lot further off and it's extremely unlikely anyone would know. It's even less likely anything would be done about it. Setting aside processed foods for now (those with nutrition labels), it's not all roses for unprocessed or minimally processed foods. Even these calorie counts can be way off due to the simplistic way we estimate calories. I'm simplifying a bit here, but to get calorie counts, we traditionally use something called a bomb calorimeter. Basically we burn the food in an enclosed space and measure how much heat is given off. Obviously, this is not how our bodies process food, so saying a particular amount of a food has "200 calories" as measured by a bomb calorimeter does not equal how many calories our bodies actually get from that food. Obviously I'm being a little US specific here, but I'd guess most of the above applies to other countries as well. In short, don't get in the habit of thinking calorie counts are as accurate as they might seem. They just aren't. Use the calories as a tool if you need to, but don't get overly dependent on them.

I add date paste and cocoa powder. It is a very special, delicious sweet savory. You can also add red lentils or pureed white beans if you want to increase the protein while keeping it soft and vegetarian

I don’t think food should be labeled as “good” food or “bad” food. Food is fuel and it’s okay to have a treat. If done in moderation, and not everyday this should satisfy.

Now I want to know what you’ll do about Halloween first! But at every food based event, I try to hydrate as much as possible then focus in only the foods I really want (even if it is dessert). In the early days I would bring protein shakes along because there’s almost no protein in pies. 🤣

No! No! No! Besides why would you? Let’s be honest. We enjoy eating. The smell, the textures, the flavours, the look and sometimes the sound of food ( like the crunch of an apple) is appealing & gives us pleasure. We celebrate with food. We share food with loved ones. We give thanks with food. Why would you sacrifice that to drink a protein shake for every meal? Yes, you may be prescribed shakes in your pre surgical diet and you will be prescribed them for usually 2 weeks after surgery. The pre surgery shakes are to increase your weight loss to improve your surgical success odds & to shrink your liver so the surgeon can see the surgical field more easily. Post surgery it’s to support your healing & not strain your digestive system (remember all those sutures & stables holding it together). Short term reliance on shakes. The goals of the surgery include you changing your relationship with food and establishing a healthy, nutritionally dense, sustainable way of eating. Drinking shakes for any extended period of time is simply not sustainable. It’s not nutritionally sound, only gives more power to cravings, creates new bad relationships with food and will highly likely result in weight regain & poor health. Key word here is supplement. If you are struggling to get your protein in via the real food you eat, sure a protein shake can be beneficial as a supplement to your earring. Same with any vitamin or supplement. If your body is lacking in specific vitamin or minerals, sure take a supplement but they should never be what you totally rely on to get the nutrients your body needs to function unless you have a specific medical condition that means you can not eat real, solid food. I never touched another shake after I began purées (start of week 3). My goal was always to get all the nutrients I needed through real food. And I do. I don’t even take vitamins now (except in winter when I have a dip in my vitamin D - I feel the cold so hibernate in winter & rug up if I have to go out so little sunlight for me then). Ask your nutritionalist, surgeon & GP. I bet they agree with all of us.

The food looks really good, but you look extra fine yourself! Love the pose and the dress!

Hi everyone, I had my lap band inserted in Nov 2016 and after the first 6 months really hated it. Felt like it ruined my social life and my relationship with food. Eventually, acid reflux became so apparent I was taking Omeprazole every day, constantly vomiting and just feeling really awful. Some days could not even drink water. Had chest pain, back pain. I was miserable. So I had the band removed last week (I’m 6 days post op) and just wondered how long it took most people to feel better? Surgery went well - the band hadn’t slipped but there was scar tissue. My acid reflux went away immediately (yay!) but am still having constant cramping in the stomach area. This moves into my back quite a bit too. Was on clear fluid diet for the first 3 days and felt pretty awful, and have now graduated to mashed/puree foods, which seems to be causing diarrhoea. Just wanted to know others experiences

Food. A lot of listeria contamination warnings lately but maybe it has always been this way and I’m just noticing.

@ShoppGirl and @Onemealplan I used canned chicken breast, 2 boiled eggs, some dill relish, lit mayo, and seasonings. Put them in the food processor and blended until it was a similar consistency of mashed potato. Basically no big lumps. It is good and I put 1/4 cup portions into small containers and just take small bites. For the refried beans, I found fat free which doesn’t contain lard and the recipe I am adapting just said to add salsa to taste. I am also going to add a bit of ham. I found a small package at Kroger of diced ham. Add the cheese and puree similar to how I did the chicken salad. Putting it into small glass ramekins and popping the toaster oven to heat through. My final recipe is an egg bake. 2 eggs, 1/4c cottage cheese (low fat, small curd), 1/4c diced ham, 1/4c shredded cheese. Purée all together and split into 1/4c servings. You can cook them all at once in the oven in a cupcake pan or microwave a serving at a time.

As an British-American, I'm going back to the US for Thanksgiving in one month and I pretty much have the same concerns. Food, Food, Food is all it is. Come to find out my stepmother had the sleeve two years ago (she kept it real quiet but judged my mother for having a bypass 15 years ago, but I digress) so having one other bariatric patient at the table could be helpful for portion size recommendations. But Christmas, I'm with Italian friends. Italians (not to generalise, but something I've observed) love to feed people so I'm going to have to practice stern "no thank you".

Don’t buy too much @ShoppGirl. I found it very salty & couldn’t eat it thanks to the change to my taste buds. You may be fine with it but if you can’t tolerate it, freeze it if it’s fresh or opened & use it as a soup base instead of stock in puree or later stages.

My brother & SIL had one from their kids that they barely used, so they lent it to me. I used it once and was frustrated with the clean up lol. I ended up investing all of $30 (CAD) in a handheld immersion blender off Amazon -- mostly because I'd wanted one for a while anyway. It was super useful but I have to admit that after the puree stage, I use it maaaaybe once a week.

I have not mastered the adding of protein powder to other foods. I tried to mix Isopure in my soup last week and it got weird. Luckily I've been hitting my protein goals with food but I do supplement one Fairlife a day just to give m that extra 30g. When you get to soft food, chicken salad is a game changer. I was eating it at least once a day. Now that I'm on regular foods, I love those snack packs that are like adult lunchables. My starting goal was 64oz of protein and between the waters and Fairlife I was able to hit it pretty consistently.

Hi. What if you buy a portion control plate maybe it will help you keep your solid food under control 🤔

I'd probably bake them into some homemade sourdough bread. Something akin to Whole Foods Seeduction Bread for those that are familiar with it?

Everyone has different plans from their doctors but in all of them I have never heard of being on regular food after 2.5 weeks. Do you mean non liquid phase and that you are normal food but soft? I hope so as that is all your stomach should be handling now as you can't digest normal food at this stage, which is what may cause the vomitting and pain. It should be no water 30 minutes before and after a meal so maybe if you are only leaving it 10 minutes that is causing the problem? I did have gas issues but it was caused by complications so not the same for you I am sure. Could you ask your doctor about taking something to help with reflux?

I would mention it to your family provider. This can be a sign of prediabetes. Or it may just be what you’re eating. Some foods can cause blood sugar spikes. I don’t know too much about what specifically but if it’s not a medical thing perhaps a dietician could go over your food log and give you some tips.

This is hopefully something I’m doing right with my kids. Several have sensory issues around food so I don’t push it. My youngest has “exploration” bites and if he doesn’t like it then I’ll make him a pb&j which is a safe food for him. But I constantly remind my kids that if they’re done eating they don’t need to eat more and that listening to their body is the best thing they can do for themselves.

Ahh today is our weekend and was at my in laws from lunch and I got comfortable with food.. had abit of rice for lunch and dinner i had lasagna and also i had a piece of cheese cake and well my stomach ain't happy. I'm chilling in the toilet!! Tbh, I like to be "punished" when I know i over did. It was a good reminder to yo eat food but don't over do it!!