After surgery, I was on 2 days of clear liquids, 4 days of full liquid, and now I'm currently on a week of pureed food. My doctor then has a week of "soft food". They define this as food that can be easily broken or flaked with a fork. I start this stage on Tuesday. I am planning on adding tuna, chicken, and meat balls to my diet. Has anyone else gone through this particular stage? Are there other things that I could possibly add? Thanks!

I personally would advise against the meatballs. I have a hard time with any type of beef but the easiest way to get it in is ground beef cooked in some type of sauce. dry meats will cause major havoc with your band. Make sure all of your meat is moist. the mayonnaise in some salads does great in helping to digest some meats. I had my surgery back in August and I still struggle with beef. Try it and if it works great but I just wanted to warn you. One thing I learned on that diet, with all the tuna and chicken salad I ate, I was able to eat crackers with it, just make sure you take small bites and chew it well. Good Luck

I had a similar plan also and I could NOT do pureed! The texture made me gag so I went straight to my own form of "soft/pureed". I would blend my food up so that it still had that same texture but I didn't have to chew it so much. I'd add chicken broth, miracle whip (yes, you can have condiments! Use them to soften and moisten the food) and sometimes just a little Water. Meatballs are not typically soft enough, but I found that blending them just a bit AND chewing, you have the texture, flavor but not the issues getting it down. So meatballs should be fine if you do blend them a little.

I disagree with the above post...you should NOT be eating crackers! I don't know any "good" doctors that would allow or recommend eating crackers with something. There's no nutritional value, they're high in carbs, they can and will get stuck and there is no Protein there....

For my first soft food dinner, I had refried bean and ground turkey with taco seasoning. I added salsa to both to add some moisture.

i have hard time with hamburger now before surgery,, hard food to digest. red meats