soft food diet -- and amounts

HI, I am 13 days out and on the soft food diet phase. I was able to start this 6 days out. My ? is how many meals a day are people getting in. I find I really just want to drink. I have been eating 3 meals a day usually about 1.5 oz each and getting a protein drink in each morning. I have only been getting in about 50 g. of protein a day and was wondering if I should add another "meal" to get in the 60-80 my dr. recomends or if I should drink the protein. I guess i just don't know if I am eatting too much. I haven't felt FULL but am satisfied and am fighting head hunger. ALthough I did make my kids C.chip cookies yesterday and didn't even want one so that is saying something for this tool. Thanks for letting a woman ramble, jennifer

Jennifer, It kind of depends on what your Nuts or Docs instructions are. Some say to only eat 3 meals, no snacks and others say several small meals a day. My Doc wants me to eat 5 small meals a day so that is what I am shooting for. I keep each one of my small meals at 100-200 calories. Hugs, Dawn

I CAN'T HELP YOU ON THE "SOFT" FOOD STAGE AS MY DR HAS 4 WEEKS OF PUREE, BUT ....................... A BIG ((HUG)) & CONGRATULATIONS ON NOT GIVING IN TO THE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOWOWOWOW, WHAT DETERMINATION! I WONDER IF THERE IS SUCH A THING AS A "SPLENDA COOK BOOK". ANYONE KNOW?

There sure is a splenda cookbook -- tons of recipes online and you can join the recipe email club! Go to http://www.splenda.com/ and click on the "cooking and baking" tab..

OH MY GOSH ... THANKS SO MUCH, MS VI ... NOW, THAT WILL BE HELPFUL. MY HONEY BUNNY LOVESSSSSSSSS TO EAT & ALTHOUGH HE HAS DIABETES, IT'S SOMETIMES HARD TO KEEP HIM AWAY FROM THE GOODIES. WE'VE MOVED TO THE S-F POPCICLES & ICE CREAM & BARS, BUT COOKIES ARE HIS FAVVVVVVVV & I CAN'T FIND ANY S-F COOKIES ON THE MARKET THAT STILL DON'T SPIKE HIS SUGAR, SO THIS WILL BE FANTASTIC! HE TOLERATES SPLENDA WELL. I JUST WENT INTO THE SITE ... TOOOOO DIEEEEEEE FORRRRRRRR!!!! THANKS!!!!! GOD BLESS YOU DAWN & NICK

I eat 4 times a day and I try to space it out about 3 or 4 hours apart (this helps keep your blool sugar stable). Try adding a 4th meal to increase your protein, though I think you are doing pretty good with 50 grams of protein if it's only been 13 days for you! I get about 60 grams a day and that's by trying hard to eat high protein stuff, which isn't always easy, so on days when I don't quite make it, I use a protein supplement that has 15 grams of protein in 2 tablespoons: http://www.vitacost.com/TwinlabCherAminoProteinLiquid/searchby-PN/searchtext-twinlab%20protein FYI, 3 oz of tuna has 25 grams of protein, so I try to eat that once a day or once every other day ****il I get sick of it) since that is a good amount of protein!

I'm eating 3 3oz meal/day with no snacking, and 1 protein drink. I try to make at least 1 meal that is really high in protein. Since I cut back to 1 protein drink/day I'm getting around 70-80 gms of protein/day, with 28 of that coming from a soy milk based protein drink. Whichever way you decide to do it, definitely get the recommended amount of protein so your hair doesn't start falling out in handfulls. (I haven't had a haircut in 2 month in case this starts happening to me). Sheryl

I just started eating 2 oz- 5x's a day on Friday after being out 16 days. I can't get all that in half of the time, I get full eating just 1 oz. I have to do that for 4 weeks. I was told by my nutritionist that you may need to get in more than 5 proteins for the 1st couple of weeks that you eat. If you need to do a protein shake in addition , its a good idea. I did 3 shakes today as I didn't have time to eat real food. Only eat/drink what you can, don't over due it. Good 4 U that you didn't want any cookies. Best of luck , Lisa J