Today is the first day of my stage two diet. I KNOW all surgeons have different diets and stages, but this is a general question. I was clear liquids for the first week, and didn't worry about protein intake. Now I am supposed to start getting more protein in. So, this morning, I had cream of wheat with protein added to it. I literally could eat like 3 bites of it. I tried to get more, but couldn't. I'm not supposed to drink around the time that I eat and it takes me forever to eat. How do you navigate this stage? Get liquid, get protein, try new foods...it's impossible!!! I know it's day one, but I wanted some insight into how others are making this work. Thank you!!

Honestly? Treat this as a "continued liquid stage." That means you don't have to separate your drinking from protein consumption.

Ditch any carbs like Cream of Wheat, grits, etc. Go with protein shakes. Focus on getting down a minimum goal of 60g per day. At first, you might end up only being able to get about 48g of protein. Liquid protein counts toward your fluid goals each day.

Do that for however long you are supposed to be on full liquids. Anything else is just making it harder on yourself and counter productive to THE most important thing and that is staying WELL hydrated. Get those fluids in. Meet or exceed your fluid goals. It ensures that life will go easier on you as you advance through the stages.

Here are the ways I got my protein in that I loved the most:

Premier Protein in my hot decaff coffee and hot decaff tea. Best ones:

Cocomo Joe (Bananas and Cream + Decaff Coffee)--hot or cold over ice, takes away some of the intense sweetness

Bananas and Monkeys (Bananas and Cream + Decaff Coffee + 12g of powdered peanut butter low fat)--hot or cold over ice, takes away some of the intense sweetness, great made into a frappacino

MochoLoco (Chocolate + Decaff Coffee + 1 Tbsp Dark Cocoa Powder + Cinnamon)--hot to dissolve the cocoa powder or omit cocoa powder and have it as a frappacino or iced coffee, again, makes it less sweet

CaramelAmmacheoto (Caramel + Decaff Coffee + Cinnamon)hot or cold over ice, takes away some of the intense sweetness or make into a frappacino and add some canned low fat whipped topping

Vanilla Late (Vanilla + Decaff +/- Cinnamon)hot or cold over ice, takes away some of the intense sweetness, great blended with a spray of Reese's Whipping Cream (also great with chocolate flavored PP)

Peaches and Cream Tea (Peaches and Cream + Decaff Tea or Decaff Peach Tea even better or Decaff English Breakfast Tea so good!)--drink it hot or cold over ice or as a frappacino!

Unflavored Protein (Add it to all soups anywhere!)

Cream of Chicken Soup or broths mixed with Isopure Unsweetened Protein Powder and seasoned up like either Mexican Tortilla Soup minus the tortillas, or Asian Soup, or Italian flavored, or Tomato Basil flavored.

And that's what I did until I was out of Stage II and could move on to Mushies (Stage III) for me. I didn't have to do purees.

Good luck, hope this helps!

Edited July 15, 20197 yr by FluffyChix

This is gold! Thank you so much! Makes more sense to continue liquid. My problem is I can’t do whey protein that contains milk. I use soy isolate and there aren’t that many options, but I can definitely envision what this stage might look like after your post. Thanks again!

15 minutes ago, jennj said:

This is gold! Thank you so much! Makes more sense to continue liquid. My problem is I can’t do whey Protein that contains milk. I use soy isolate and there aren’t that many options, but I can definitely envision what this stage might look like after your post. Thanks again!

Some people can tolerate whey protein isolate because it does not contain lactose? Dunno. If that's the case, you can get each of these flavors in powdered Isopure Whey Protein Isolate (from Bariatric Pal or GNC). You might try a sample and see how you tolerate it?

Avoid adding fruits or sugars of any kind! Good luck!

My surgeon told me to focus on liquid over protein that early out. Three months out there are days I don't hit the protein and fluid minimums. I do the best I can.

I just bought some Oikos zero Greek yogurt it has between 11 and 15 grams protein. It’s pretty good. I also got some soup to run through the bullet for something more like food. It takes me almost an hour to finish the yogurt.