Foods...?

Thank you so much for the ideas. They are wonderful!! What kind of cheese do you buy? I

I get Cracker Barrel cheese... Costco usually has BIG blocks for $8 or less.. I like all of the varieties ..marble, mild, old, mozzarella (I mostly use this for my homemade pizza)

Anytime another store has it on sale, I but many! 

Thank you for your response, do you find that the beans give you a lot of gas? I know everyone is different but that is what I'm afraid of. 

Asfar as the chili is it portioned in 1/4 cup servings? 

Thank you for the compliment but you have done amazing as well! I'm not that far ahead of you. And we all lose differently :-)

There is a chart on here I have seen it. I will try to find it. 

You can portion anything out for each stage that you are at... At your stage, I would do 1/4 cup or even 1/2 cup and eat "some now" and eat the rest "later"

i am 5 weeks post op, and am finding it a really slow process.  I am eating scrambled eggs for breakfast, and today i started with 1 piece of whole wheat toast to dip in my egg!! yay!! i have also tried the tuna and cracker combo packs for lunch, and what ever i give my family for dinner i just take a bit and mu**** all together.  It is important for us to share meals together (I have 4 young kids) so I have to eat with them, and it is hard to explain to them that I don't want dinner.  I made beef stew, with crushed tomatoes of thickener, not flour, vegies cooked until soft, and of course I still have my protein shakes if I don't really want to eat.  canned chicken (low sodium) canned tuna, both mixed with a little light mayo, and I LOVE the crunchy melba toasts or the little appetizer toasts...at lest they crunch and make me think I am eating snacky stuff.  I have not noticed a hunger, but my period is due and these last few evenings I have had cravings for something...just don't know what!  one of those little toasts and i feel better!

I wish I could eat eggs, one thing I never thought I would miss lol. 

As as far as bread itself I don't even want to get back into eating it, especially this early out. Bread is one of my downfalls.  

My kids are teenagers and my husband works shift work so most nights it's just me at home.

going to have to become creative I guess :-) 

Hi all.  So, thinking of how small your stomach is; it's about the size of a golf ball right after surgery and takes a long time to stretch out larger........ you should be filling it with dense proteins and forgetting the crackers, potatoes, flour, etc.  At four years out I rarely eat bread (it seems to scratch my innards), no potatoes, rice, pasta or flour.  Occasionally cracker or two, but not until the last year have I even bothered.  Use cucumber chips or carrot slices for crackers...or make kale chips.  Buy shiritaki noodles if necessary, or use julienned zucchini or spaghetti squash in place of pasta.....If I have a wrap, I eat the inside only, or use butter lettuce to wrap it in.   Red lentils are a great thickener and great protein..... quinoa flakes in place of oatmeal....imitation crab, beef or turkey jerky (homemade is so easy!)  Devilled eggs (hard boiled bother me; scratchy as well), chicken taco soup, pea soup with carrots,celery, onions, no potatoes....source yoghurt with addition of protein powder, hemp seeds, flax,whatever.... Muffins in a minute if I crave a sweet.....  Just remember the size of your stomach and put in the proteins and veggies first; you will find you really don't need to go for the starches/potatoes/crackers, etc.

Thank you for the great post. How soon out were you able to eat the raw veggies? I couldn't imagine trying carrots yet. I think cucumbers would be okay though. The seeds don't stick do they? 

I took a while for raw carrots, and when I did, had probably half a carrot.  It killed me so either it didn't agree or I didn't chew enough; could be either.  I have been pretty careful with them since!!!  Mushrooms, celery (peel the stringy parts off), peppers, cukes were all ok for me about 6 weeks out if I remember.  But of course, was sticking to the protein first and a lot of dishes had cooked veg in them so did them instead.  Peppers make good chip alternatives!!  Another super easy favourite..... sliced garlic, sauteed in a bit of water until softened; add cleaned spinach and let wilt.  Add lemon juice, salt and pepper....  This would be good in a one egg omelette with some feta cheese as well.  Just drain the spinach when cooked.....

I like a variety of foods and always have, even when I only ate a tsp or so, so I am always looking for recipe sites.  Of course, theworldaccordingtoeggface, bariatricfoodie, bariatricgirl, eatingwell, are all great sites but there are so many out there.  Go explore; it's amazing what people come up with for recipes and you should never suffer from 'sameness' in food if you look around!!!  Oh, and turkey pepperoni is another go to, and the cheddar I buy is low fat, so that helps too.  It just doesn't melt quite as well, but I can accept that!

I think that's one thing people have to realize; you make substitutions and it might not be exactly as you remembered the food in your pre-surgery days, but it's the healthy version for you, so learn to accept the new flavours.  Ie.  the chocolate avocado pudding...who would have thought!!!  But this one really, really tastes like chocolate pudding or pie filling!!!!  And use cold coconut milk (I drained the liquid part off once chilled) and made coconut whipping cream.

Yup; doing the avocados for dinner tonight.  Here is the recipe if you are interested....these should be soft enough for almost anyone!!!!  http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/chipotle_cheddar_avocado.html

Cucumber will be fine... You could always cut the seed part out/off. 

I eat cukes, I like them in salads, on their own, or even in vinegar.

As long as you chew everything to mush, you should be ok.