I am 8 days post op and my nutritionist said that I am ready to begin the pureed food stage (I tolerated the liquid stage very well). I started with 3 tbsp of scrambled eggs made with a splash of milk to soften them up a bit. It felt so good to eat something real again! I took very small bites and chewed a lot before swallowing, taking about 20 minutes to finish. Everything felt fine and I was feeling confident about this new phase! I waited 30 minutes to drink Water, which I sipped over the next half hour. About an hour later (2 hours after my eggs), I had half of a premier Protein shake that was blended with a few pieces of banana and 1 tbsp of creamy, natural Peanut Butter. It tasted delicious and went down without any problems. About 15 minutes after my shake, I felt a bit sore on my left side (sort of like a cramping feeling). Is this feeling just because my body is now digesting real food while it is still healing or could it mean that I am not able to tolerate what I just ate? How soon after you eat something new do you feel if it isn't sitting well? This is different than the full feeling (usually in my chest) that I got when I drank too much on the liquid diet. Is this dumping or could it just be gas? I feel completely fine otherwise. Any advice would help!

Also, what were your favorite foods to eat during the puree phase?

I suspect if your body didn't tolerate the food, you would be rushing to the bathroom very quickly. The pain you felt would seem to correspond to your system reacting to solid food pushing on the walls of your pouch/sleeve/band again, which would be normal. I will qualify that statement by saying I know precisely f**k-all other than what I personally experienced. I had the cramping feeling on my right side but it went away after a couple days.

Thanks for the response! That's what I was thinking... I'm trying to listen to my body but so much is new and different right now, I don't know what everything should actually feel like!

I am 8 days post op and my nutritionist said that I am ready to begin the pureed food stage (I tolerated the liquid stage very well). I started with 3 tbsp of scrambled eggs made with a splash of milk to soften them up a bit. It felt so good to eat something real again! [emoji4] I took very small bites and chewed a lot before swallowing, taking about 20 minutes to finish. Everything felt fine and I was feeling confident about this new phase! I waited 30 minutes to drink Water, which I sipped over the next half hour. About an hour later (2 hours after my eggs), I had half of a premier Protein shake that was blended with a few pieces of banana and 1 tbsp of creamy, natural Peanut Butter. It tasted delicious and went down without any problems. About 15 minutes after my shake, I felt a bit sore on my left side (sort of like a cramping feeling). Is this feeling just because my body is now digesting real food while it is still healing or could it mean that I am not able to tolerate what I just ate? How soon after you eat something new do you feel if it isn't sitting well? This is different than the full feeling (usually in my chest) that I got when I drank too much on the liquid diet. Is this dumping or could it just be gas? I feel completely fine otherwise. Any advice would help!

Also, what were your favorite foods to eat during the puree phase?

What a great idea to add stuff to the protein shake. I am sick of the shakes but still need them for my protein count. Thanks!

Dumping occurs when you eat something with too much sugar or too much fat. You would have had much more severe symptoms such as racing heartbeat, sweating, diarrhea, etc. When I first started eating pureed and then soft foods, some foods would cause me to feel uncomfortable. Sometimes it happens if something isn't moist enough. When I started real food, chicken felt very uncomfortable and I learned to eat it with salsa, hummus or guacamole to moisten it up.

I really didn't do well on the pureed phase. I don't like refried beans and couldn't stand the sight of pureed meat. I stuck to yogurt, shakes, unsweetened applesauce and SF pudding mixed with protein powder for the most part. Once on soft foods I did much better.

Edited April 6, 20179 yr by Airstream88

Airstream88, what kind of protein powder do you use? I've been searching for an unflavored one that is truly unflavored... do you have any recommendations?

2 minutes ago, newbie123 said:

I've been searching for an unflavored one that is truly unflavored

I don't think there is such a beast. Unflavored meaning that they do not add flavors to mask the taste of whey protein. But it is not unflavored as in it has no flavor. Unflavored still tastes like whey protein.

26 minutes ago, Navigating the Wilderness said:

Unflavored still tastes like whey protein.

That's what I was afraid of!

Do you use protein powder? What's your favorite kind? Do you have any other ideas for adding protein to foods that are lower in protein?

I don't use protein shakes very often. For my 10 days of post op I used unjury chocolate splendor and their chicken soup. The vanilla and strawberry were straight ass in my opinion. It got to the point where I was choosing between a shake and Greek yogurt. Yogurt won out each time. If I had to do a shake, it would probably be the unjury chocolate splendor. I hate chocolate, but it was the best at masking the flavor. I used to do the EAS strawberry pre made shakes and they were not bad, but this surgeon wanted unjury only.

I have found the best unflavored protein powder!! It is called GENEPRO!!! Mind you I am over 3 and 1/2 years out and I have tried sooo many different bars and drinks. For premade drinks I loved Atkins. For protein bars I love Powercrunch bars. I wish I could have found GENEPRO sooner. You can mix it in anything. I use it everyday in my Espresso coffee. It has 30grams of protein in one tablespoon. For jmyself it is a WIN WIN because I would drink my coffee any way. To add it to hot stuff, I put a little warmish (not boiling) add the protein and whisk it up before adding it to your drink. You can add it to lots of food. Just remember that our bodies can only absorbe 30grams of protein at a time. Or at least that is what my Surgeon told me. Good Luck and have a great day!!

18 hours ago, newbie123 said:

Airstream88, what kind of Protein powder do you use? I've been searching for an unflavored one that is truly unflavored... do you have any recommendations?

I used Isopure Unflavored. - bought it from Amazon. It didn't change the flavor of the pudding or applesauce IMO but it did change the texture. Start with 1/4 scoop and adjust from there. My favorite flavored powder was Unjury Chocolate Splendor. Also the Inspire protein powders you can buy from bariatriceating.com are pretty good.

Thank you everyone for all of the input!

Just an update, my doctor assured me that the cramping was normal after moving from liquids to foods. Also, the cramping is gone today and I'm feeling great!