post op life: better than expected.

[makemyownluck 785]

I'm 9 days post op this morning.

Yesterday I was cleared for full liquids and soft foods at the same time.

I ate:

yogurt with fruit on the bottom

a scrambled egg with cheese

premier Protein shake in chocolate

a small piece of sharp cheddar cheese.

This was over the course of about 9-10 hours.

Right before bed, I started thinking I was such a pig. That I did too much, too fast. I didn't feel sick. It all went down fine. I feel fine this morning.

So I took a step back at the big picture.

What I ate was not bad. I did pretty good as far as choices, but I didn't meet my Protein goal. So technically, I didn't do great, either. It just strikes me how I'm feeling guilty about what I ate. I never really felt hungry. It was just like every few hours, it would pop into my head to eat something. So I ate a little bit of something and felt fine.

This morning I had a Jello cup when I woke up. I was doing that for the week I was on clears only, so now it felt like habit, lol. Now I've been up a couple hours, so I just made a scrambled egg, with parmesan cheese, a little basil, salt and pepper. I make it in a coffee mug in the microwave. Heat for 30 seconds, stir. Heat another 5-15 seconds and it's done. prepare, cook and eat out of the same dish!

I'm going to start sipping a Protein Shake in a bit. If I can get 2 of these down a day, I'll be really close to meeting my requirement, so all my other meals should get me to goal.

I'm making some chicken Soup for late lunch. No actual chicken - but onion/carrot/celery sauteed in olive oil with garlic and rosemary - then add a tsp of better than bouillon, some Tomato paste, mix it together well and sautee some more, then add chicken broth and simmer until veggies are super tender with 1-2 bay leaves. I hope it's good without the chicken! I might try blending it together with some unflavored Protein powder and see how that tastes.

and dinner will probably be 2nds on the Soup, maybe some cottage cheese or yogurt later as well.

and another Protein Shake.

This seems like SO MUCH to me!! But I want to get my protein and fluids in...

It is nice to know that my love of cooking can survive post-op. Because I took pleasure in making my eggs delicious and I'm looking forward to making the soup later. I was worried that food would turn me off for a while post-op!

[gg955 4]

You are doing great and I might borrow yor Soup recipe! I found if I put Special K Protein Water powder in my water I sip all day (to get in my 64 ounces) it adds very few calories (30) but 5 grams of protein and 5 grams of Fiber, so you get 10 gms of protein from your water intake. Also, early on when I was having trouble with my protein goals, I would sip on New Whey, a Liquid Protein supplement that has zero sugar, zero fat and 42 gms of protein in 3.8 ounces. I would do half over crushed ice, let it get real cold and a little watered down, as sip over 30 to 45 minutes in the evening. Actually, I still do that on days I have been running around and not able to eat.

Keep up the good work, and any time you want to post recipes, I'd love to see them!

[makemyownluck 785]

well, my chicken Soup didn't end up as what I planned, but I discovered a can of tomatoes in the pantry I forgot about.

I stink at writing recipes, so this will be more like a narrative of how I cooked it. Also, i don't always measure stuff when it comes to soup, so this is vague in some parts. I added a scoop of nectar unflavored Protein powder to my 1/3 cup serving at the end (make sure it cools!) and it was pretty good - each scoop of that has 10g Protein.

I sauteed a cup each of diced celery, carrots and onions in about 2 tbsp olive oil.

I added 2 cloves of garlic, minced, black pepper, a tsp of Kosher salt and a tsp of celery salt (the only thing I DO measure is salt cuz I have a hx of HTN).

I simmered that down for about 5 minutes. The longer the better, get the veggies nice and soft.

Then I added 1 tbsp Tomato paste and a tbsp of "Better than Bouillon" chicken flavor bouillon. stir and cook for another min or two, you want the tomato to cook out some good flavor. It will darken all the veggies as it cooks.

Then I added a large can of diced tomatoes. I used Cento brand, but anything would do, I'm sure. Low sodium tomatoes would be best, but I can't always find those and this is what I had. Cook that to a slow bubble. While it's heating, add in spices. whatever you like. I added 4 shakes of red pepper flake, some montreal chicken seasoning (like 2 shakes), a shake of garlic powder, and onion powder, I have some fresh basil so I diced about 6 leaves of that. I also added 2 bay leaves. I happen to have all that around, you can easily substitute what you like/have.

I let the tomato mixture cook for about 45 minutes. I use my trusty coated cast Iron pot for Soups,so it can take the prolonged heat. This cooks out some of the Water in the tomatoes, and also softens the veggies. I then added 2 boxes of low sodium chicken broth and some diced parsley. Stirred, tasted to adjust seasoniing and simmer another 1/2 hr.

At this point, you can eat as-is if you're on a mushy stage of your post op diet or farther out.

I'm on soft stage, so I used my stick blender to make a blended soup. It's sort of a minestrone/tomato soup hybrid.

Or if you're on clears, you could strain the veggies and the broth is really good too.

I served 1/3 cup with 1 scoop of Syntrax nectar Protein Powder and garnished with parmesan cheese.

[JProx 161]

Glad to see you doing so well.

[makemyownluck 785]

I am, J - how are you feeling these days? All well on your end?