?? Early in Process... What does full feel like??

[heartfire 4]

I'm able to do full liquids/purees and very soft foods now. I've been on shakes for 3 weeks (10 days before surgery, 2 weeks after surgery).

We were in town yesterday running errands and DD got hungry (of course!) so we went to KFC (yes, I know that isn't great but there wasn't much in the way of choices for me). We ordered a side of mashed potatoes and gravy for me. I ate really small bites and waited in between to make sure it was all okay. I stopped after a few bites because I just wasn't really hungry. I'm not sure if I felt full or not. If you'd have seen the container you'd think all I did was stir up the gravy in it and play with it some! I was concerned about how my stomach was going to handle it as well since I hadn't had actual food in so long but it did okay.

Another reason I stopped is because I don't know what full is supposed to feel like and I just didn't want to have one bite too many and have to run to the restroom!

Today is not much better. I had about a 1/4 of scrambled egg w/ milk and cheese cooked in it and some taco sauce on top. I drank about 4oz. of Tomato Soup, again made with milk and some parmesan cheese grated into it. (Trying to boost the protein!) I'm not hungry at all, unless it's been a couple of hours, so I eat a little and am not hungry anymore.

I was curious so figured I'd better start tracking my calories again on daily plate and I'm at 178 for the day so far! It's 3:30PM here right now.

Do I just measure it and go from there or do something different? I'm so confused. What was it like for you that are a little farther ahead of me?

Thanks for any help you might be able to give! And sorry this is so long!

[Lanakila 1]

I think you should go with the 1/4 cup rule until you figure out where full is for you. Think about how much food would fit in your cupped hand and aim for that. Remember that the Soup, being a liquid, is likely not going to make you feel full, even though you had half a cup of it, since it slides through pretty easily. I think that it is great that you are tracking your food, but you really need to focus on getting those calories up some too. You DO need to eat enough to heal well and still have the energy to be active. Hang in there!

Edited September 7, 2008 by Lanakila

[MistyD65 1]

I think I've only been "full" 2 or 3 times since I started soft foods on 8/27. Each time I ate right at a full cup of food. I felt, in the band area, a pain like a "stitch" you get when running. So, I've been assuming that's what the pain was - hitting that full mark, or maybe even a bit over it. If I only eat 1/2-3/4 cup, I'm fine. And I haven't been trying to eat til I'm full; instead, I'm following the soft foods meal suggestions that my nutritionist gave me. All of the meals appear to have between 1/2-3/4 cup of food. When I have finished the meal, I'm no longer hungry. I sometimes feel like I could eat more, and I often want to eat more, but I know that since I'm no longer hungry, that I've had all I need. THAT'S the big change I'm having to make, and I'd probably say most of us have to make - only eating as much as we need, not as much as we want.:shades_smile:

[heartfire 4]

Thanks!

I've managed to get up to 488 calories so far and that's after dinner. I've also hit the 25+ grams of Protein my surgeon wants us to aim for right now. I'm trying for a little higher calorie foods with more Protein.

I made SF lemon pudding last night with 1% milk and I'll have a serving of that later.

Dinner tonight was Amy's Organic Split Pea Soup and I tossed some FF sour cream in it. Ate about a cup of it over 30 minutes. My bigger stomach feels full. No problems with the pouch even though there were some soft "chunks" in the soup. I just went slow and made sure each spoonful was good to go before trying another.

I ended up having a serving of creamy Peanut Butter, it's got 200 cal, 7 grams of protein and only 3 grams of sugar so that helped. I may have to be having a "snack" of Peanut Butter to help with my numbers. I'm feeling fine even with the low calories but I'm not doing anything right now either!

I'll keep tracking to make certain of my calorie and protein intake. I've got to watch those numbers!

Were you both getting more calories than that at this stage? How?

[MistyD65 1]

I was on modified full liquids for 3 weeks after surgery...basically Clear Liquids plus Protein Drinks. For the first week I was only getting about 300 calories a day. Once I realized that, I found a Protein Drink with more calories and added that to the other two I was using, rotating between the three. I was able to get up to about 500 calories, and there I stayed for the next two weeks. I'm on soft foods now, and I've yet to hit the 1000 mark; I think 950 is the highest I've been so far. But I'll be adding more foods in the coming weeks, so I should be there without much trouble.