Question:
what to eat

What can you eat at 4 weeks out?    — cuppaloopy (posted on January 23, 2010)

January 23, 2010
Hey Barbara, I'm 6 months out and I remember having a hard time at your juncture. Some of my helpful hints, for what it's worth: Ground chicken, turkey, fish with a little stock (in the blender or if you can afford it, get a magic bullet); Beans with ground turkey chili (I use Emeril's recipe for 5 bean chili- it's great and the family loves it), and I used unjury protein mixes which tasted discusting to me at your point in time but now they are a staple I can't do without. Lowfat cheese sticks, soy milk, and applesauce are great snacks. You'll have to experiment with what you like and what you can tolerate but your tastes will change so hang in there. My advice is to not eat anything tough, string, or rubbery. Chew really well and eat slowly, hard to relearn, I work at it everyday. Good luck and best wishes, 6 months from now you're going to know it was all worth it.
   — Connie F.

January 24, 2010
Hi Barbara....at four weeks out, I was still on a pretty soft diet. I ate poached fish (Tilapia was my favorite), tuna salad (made with Best Foods light mayo, a chopped up egg, and a little dill relish), chicken salad (made the same way), fat-free cottage cheese with a dash of dry Hidden Valley Ranch Buttermilk dressing mix in it to make it savory, low-fat smooth yogurt, fat-free-sugar-free pudding, Taco Bell refried beans (even thought I'm not a big fan of beans), scrambled egg, liverwurst, peanut butter, stewed chicken, broccoli with cheese sauce (those little Birds Eye single serving packages are just about the right consistency), and my week four diet list says that I could have a protein bar. I always looked for the protein bars that had MORE protein than carbs, and there weren't that many to be had. I think the only one that I could find was the Power Crunch bar that you can get at GNC or Vitamin Cottage in several different flavors. It also says that I could have 1/4 of a slice of whole wheat (or other whole grain) bread or 1 cracker (also whole grain). Here is a sample menu out of my book for one day's meals: 7 to 8 a.m. - 6 oz IsoPure. 8 to 9 a.m. - 8 oz water, 1 medium scrambled egg. 9 to 10 a.m. - 8 oz water. 10 to 11 a.m. 1 oz liverwurst, 2 oz dilute juice. 11 to 12 p.m. - 1 1/2 tbsp peanut butter on 1/4 slice of bread or 1 cracker, 6 oz water. 1 to 2 p.m. - 8 oz. water. 2 to 3 p.m. - 6.5 oz IsoPure. 3 to 4 p.m. - 1 oz protein bar. 4 to 5 p.m. - 8 oz water. 5 to 6 p.m. - 1/2 oz of chicken, 1/2 oz broccoli with cheese sauce, 8 oz water. 6 to 7 p.m. - 8 oz water. 7 to 8 p.m. - 8 oz sugar-free hot chocolate. They also gave us these guidelines: at 3 to 5 weeks out, we should be getting in 5 to 15 grams protein per meal, and 5 to 15 grams of carbs, with less than 5 grams of fat per meal. Hope this helps you. Also, you might be interested to know that at this point in time, I was eating sushi - only the filling, no rice, no nori (seaweed), no vegetables.... but I would have them (and still do) chop up my salmon and scallops so that they were more like a paste, add a little bit of Best Foods Light Mayo (that I brought from home) to moisten, and some microscopically diced lemon rind for flavor, and serve it to me in little bowls like they give you for your soy sauce. I don't use the soy sauce, but lately have been using a little mae ploy sweet chili sauce (less than a teaspoon) to flavor the scallops with, or a tiny dip of nitro sauce, which is made of hot chili sauce mixed with a little mayo. I also use a tiny bit of fat-free cream cheese along with the salmon. Before surgery, Friday night was a weekly ritual for sushi, and I didn't want to give that up. And, fish is good for you, and even though salmon is higher in fat than I'd like, at least it's GOOD fat (and very high in Omega-3). I hope this helps!
   — Erica Alikchihoo

January 26, 2010
Hi Barb! I'm 6 weeks out and still have to eat things that are "soupy" in texture for the most part. I have to eat the egg beaters rather than real eggs, and I can now handle little bits of ground up meat just fine. Potatoes don't bother me at all, I use the spray butter for taste. Bread was a huge dumping episode, so I won't be doing that again!
   — eyeflirt4fun