So, I'm coming to the end of my soft foods period in a couple of days. I'm still nervous about eating raw vegetables and meat. So far I've been doing protein yoghurts, fat free cottage cheese, a little peanut butter, hummus etc. In the absence of guidance, what should meals look like at this stage (5 weeks out)? And how many meals per day? I can't eat much so lately I've been stretching out my pot of cottage cheese over 2 hours to get it down but obviously don't want to continue with that habit.

I wouldn't be doing raw veggies just yet, take it slow. Something you will be able to eat fine and others not so good. with the not so good ones try again in a couple of weeks it can take up to 6 months to be able to eat "anything".

I tried to have something new each day didn't always turn out good keep your portions small and chew really well. My team said the 20, 20 ,20 rule. chew 20 times, wait 20 seconds for the next bite and stop eating after 20 mins so what you didn't eat in 20 mins that's it no more. mind you I break that rule all the time especially if it something yummy. what you eat is up to you obviously dont go back to your old unhealthy habits. A good go to for me was cruskits with tuna mixed with mayo. I still have it now if i am not sure what i feel like but need to eat something. steak and salad is a favourite of mine now. omelettes are another good option in the early days

Thanks very much - it's a bit difficult to find the middle between things which are too solid and things which are slider foods. Like...is tuna salad or egg salad a slider food? My surgeon says be extra careful with beans/pulses and I've never heard that anywhere else. Otherwise he says be careful with salad and don't eat steak for 6 months. And then he says the rest of what you eat is up to you just make it high quality.

yes it is hard and its ok to stay on softer foods a bit longer too. Not sure what you call tuna salad, but tuna is high in protein so I wouldn't imagine its a slider food. I made a salad of chopped baby spinach leaves, cubed watermelon, crumbled feta cheese and a nice dressing it was nice . I ate chicken before steak and the steak I do eat is good quality tender meat .

I don't even know - I thought a slider food was one that slips out your stomach quickly, like a milkshake would be an extreme example. I suppose it's because I used to have to god awful gastric band and stuff used to get stuck all the time and I'm just nervous - this has to work for me and I want to do things correctly especially since I'm not looking to weigh and measure things.

yea - definitely don't try raw vegetables at this juncture. Maybe when you're around six months out. Even at seven years out, raw veggies sometimes still irritate my stomach.

My dietician says these are slider foods. Cake, biscuits, sweets, ice cream, mashed potato. At 5 weeks I could eat tiny slivers of hard cheese, Things on tiny pieces of melba toast like egg mayo, tuna mayo, pate. Cream cheese with a crisp breadstick, Cauliflower cheese, instant porridge and homemade veg soup with cheese stirred in

I stuck with protein shakes for breakfast and still do them. They're easy and tasty. You could do some middle-of-the-road foods like tuna salad, cottage cheese, maybe some beef stew. Do you like to cook? I'm more of a ready-made kind of girl.

Do you like fish? At this stage I ate a lot of cooked fish and sauteed vegetables. Fish is easier to digest than meat and is a good middle ground. For vegetables go for things that get a little mushy like zucchini or carrots.

1 hour ago, GradyCat said:

I stuck with Protein Shakes for Breakfast and still do them. They're easy and tasty. You could do some middle-of-the-road foods like tuna salad, cottage cheese, maybe some beef stew. Do you like to cook? I'm more of a ready-made kind of girl.

Yeah I trained as a chef when I was a kiddo. Tbh I can't stand the shakes anymore but found a protein drinking yoghurt that has a sourness that's very tasty.

10 minutes ago, LaoDaBeirut said:

Do you like fish? At this stage I ate a lot of cooked fish and sauteed vegetables. Fish is easier to digest than meat and is a good middle ground. For vegetables go for things that get a little mushy like zucchini or carrots.

Yeah I like everything - I'm a foodie (hence the weight gain!) - I'll get some cod.

1 hour ago, summerseeker said:

My dietician says these are slider foods. Cake, biscuits, sweets, ice cream, mashed potato. At 5 weeks I could eat tiny slivers of hard cheese, Things on tiny pieces of melba toast like egg mayo, tuna mayo, pate. Cream cheese with a crisp breadstick, Cauliflower cheese, instant porridge and homemade veg Soup with cheese stirred in

Excellent, off to make myself the tuna and egg.

24 minutes ago, Pollito said:

Yeah I like everything - I'm a foodie (hence the weight gain!) - I'll get some cod.

What I did for protein at this stage is cook a lot of fish and then bean based meals because beans are also fairly soft. I basically cooked my way through the Spain on a Fork guy's bean and fish recipes and then make salmon with lemon juice in the instant pot because if I cook it any other way I screw it up.

My plan sounds a little different than others on here and I wasn't supposed to be using any kind of supplement and instead was supposed to have fish or chicken breast and vegetables and the portion was supposed to be the size of my hand and I could do that as many times a day as necessary to get to 1,200 calories or have protein snacks like greek yogurt and cottage cheese.

My surgeon is also a different sort. He doesn't believe in weighing food or people or counting calories or protein powder after the first month. I'm having a lot of Greek yoghurt and cottage cheese and hummus.

I had fish in parsley or cheese sauce with soft vegetables tuna mayo in a jacket potato cottage cheese similar to everyone else also have a look on pintrest there's loads of recipes and protien drink on the site just type in Biatric food stages

2 hours ago, Jue said:

I had fish in parsley or cheese sauce with soft vegetables tuna mayo in a jacket potato cottage cheese similar to everyone else also have a look on pintrest there's loads of recipes and protien drink on the site just type in Biatric food stages

And anything you eat now that you didn't or couldn't in, for example, month 4?