Soft food-3 1/2 weeks post op

Yes my surgeon requires liquid only for 3 weeks, but said I couldn't advance until I saw them, so it ended up being 3 1/2 weeks. I could have protein shakes, egg drop soup, and clears only. Meatballs did great today. No issues at all, but I chewed them incessantly. I could feel my restriction, which cued me to slow down and chew.

You likely won't feel restriction until fully healed, which is around the 6 week mark. It's imperative that you measure/weigh things now. I'd start with 1-2 ounces, three meatballs sounds like a LOT of food for 3.5 weeks out. Be careful.

Really? They were little ones. Like maybe the diameter of a quarter.

The feeling I felt was like the food was moving slowly, like I needed to let whatever was there go down before I took another bite. Almost like a tightness. It happened after 2 bites so I wouldn't think that was overfilling at that point. What exactly does restriction feel like?

The only real way to know how much you're eating is to weigh or measure. Which you really should be doing at this point.

3.5 weeks to start "solid" food, even if soft, might be too soon for you. If you feel that tightness, you should stop eating, or slow down, or switch to something softer or pureed. So that's one sort of restriction - the tightness feeling.

Then there's the "I feel full" type of restriction. That's the sort of thing that you won't normally feel until you're fully healed because the nerves are still reconnecting so you're not getting accurate information from your stomach.

Ahhh okay. I read about the lack of feeling full due to the severed nerves. Yes I'm definitely not feeling the normal fullness. Thanks!

I actually didn't have any restriction for over a year. All of our bodies are different. Even now, it's not what I think of as fullness, necessarily. It's more like the one-bite difference between "tra la la la eating" and "OMG WTH" basically. Again, though, everyone is different :)

Interesting. I definitely got that you need to slowdown sort of stuck feeling. I had it tonight again when I ate beans and cheese. It's similar to the feeling I got when I had the lap band, except with the lap band I would throw up despite my chewing incessantly. It's a much milder form of restriction.

I got a food scale so I could go ahead and start measuring my stuff pre-op. If you don't have one, Amazon has several for under $10 that have accuracy reviews that will arrive in one to two days :-)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B072545SRJ/ref=mh_s9_acsd_topr_b1DNz_c_x_6_w?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=mobile-hybrid-12&pf_rd_r=X6VZ8CTH5DDQBEDM2VBQ&pf_rd_t=30901&pf_rd_p=a5d59e8e-e2e2-53b5-ba73-1365edaa9b53&pf_rd_i=289787

Thanks so much. I definitely need one. Will order today. I have to place an Amazon order anyway.

Here is another hint for weighing and measuring. Some things are hard to weigh (like meat on bones or poultry. I will weigh before I start and then weigh what is left when I am done to determine how much I actually consumed. For example, how do account for that really dry piece that you pushed aside? Weigh it and subtract it from the amount you started with. Same with soup or wet stuff. Put it in a measuring cup before you start. If you have any left, measure it again and subtract the difference. This is how much you ate.

Before I start, I log the total weight in MyFitnessPal. This gives me a general idea of what the macros would be if I ate the whole thing. Then when I am done I adjust it to the actual amount I ate, allowing me to accurately gauge the numbers.

There have also been times when I've weighed half way through to see how much I had eaten and then decide if I want to continue (if I'm not full).

I also get very technical. If I eat a single almond or pistachio? I weigh it in grams and log it. I don't want any stray calories or carbs going in without my being very aware of them. Not to say there aren't times when I estimate (always round up, not down), but mostly I try to be very accurate.

Luckily my kitchen table has a monitor mounted on the wall and a wireless keyboard and mouse are always in easy reach. We are a very tech dependent household. Many times during dinner conversation we will "Google" something to settle a difference of opinion or do a fact check.