stage 4 diet

when I am getting ready to do the stage 4 diet which will be in a couple of days.  When do the lean meats what should I mix them with to get them down.  and I am craving a pickle I love pickles can I just take one and suck on it I think I am just craving the vinegar on it .  and also I have some unsweetened applesauce can I have that??????

I'm not sure what Stage 4 is for you.   Each surgeon calls their stages different things.   Lean meats.  They have to be moist to work for me.  Chicken was never my friend at the beginning but I could occassionally do canned chicken if made into a salad (mixed with mayo).  Tuna salad was fine too.  I actually did very well with very tender roast beef and tried that earlier than I was supposed to (discovered after I'd had some that I was suppose to wait, Oops!).  As long as the meat is tender and moist, I do fine with it. When I was about 5 or 6 weeks out, I was hooked on dill pickles.  I checked with my nutritionist and was cleared to eat them.  BUT -- they had to be the baby pickles with no seeds and I had to limit my total daily sodium intake to no more than 2500mg per day (including all foods).  That gave me enough leaway to have 3 or 4 pickles throughout the day easily.  Check to make sure you're allowed it. Unsweetened applesauce was a nice treat for me.  I'd mix in some cinnamon and  heat it a bit for a warm treat (it was winter when I was that early out).  But my rule of thumb when having any type of carb-based food like fruit was to balance it with protein.  No carbs allowed without also eating protein.  So have a hunk of cheese with the applesauce.  HTH Pam