pureed vs mushies vs soft stage help

My stage two diet is pureed, which my Dr says the consistency should be like cottage cheese, with soft lumps being ok. My stage 3 diet is soft foods.

Is the mushy stage considered my stage two? I have read people eating wendy's chili in the mushies stage and didn't know if I chew well enough to pulverize the meat and beans in my mouth if this would be considered the same as pureed?

I have a fairly generous list of foods to eat, and some sample menus.

One of the dinners say I could eat "Ground beef w/marinara sauce and cooked cauliflower." This meal does not need to be blended b/c it's not specifically indicated on the menu (where some other 'meals' are).

So given that meal choice, is this sort-of a mushy stage?? Or would the chili be considered part of the Soft Foods stage??

thanks for any help... I don't want to jump ahead of my stages, but am trying to fully understand what exactly is ok for my stage.

I know many will get the wendys chili and puree it so it is mushy, I never really understood the difference between mushy and purees either. I chewed everything till there was nothing left to do but swallow.
I kinda intertwined the 2 stages together, but did not eat meat (turkey, chicken,pork, or beef) unless it was extremely juicy or very small pieces.
I know I am not much help, maybe someone else will chime in and give advice.

Our program didn't distinguish between mushies and pureed. All they ever said was try it and see how you do. I think these stages are left over from the old stomach stapling days and have just out lived themselves. There are much better techniques and materials used today to close the sleeve than there was way back when.

--gina
 

I didn't have to do purees. My nutritionalist just had me go right to soft foods chewed very well. Meats had to be very moist and I wasn't allowed raw vegies then.

Thanks for the feedback. It does feel like I have a pureed/mushy stage that sort of blends together.  I will make sure to take it slow and see how I feel...which I feel ok so far from the foods I have introduced. :)

It is confusing when every drs plan is different.  We had a pureed, then a soft food.  We were even suppose to puree scrambled egg.  Sounds like your plan kind of includes both together.  The important thing is to take small bites, chew very well and go slow.  Remember you still won't feel full so measure and stop when you reach that point.
You will be fine, I'm sure.

To add to what Gina said: there is no medical definition for any of these terms. So just because my program says "softs" and another program says "softs" doesn't mean we're allowed to eat the same things.