I’m wondering how many different foods i should be trying at each food stage.

I’ve been eating the same meals for a couple of days (white fish and veggies pureed together) purely because one filet of fish cooked ended up making 5 of my tiny meals.

But i wonder if i should be varying meals more ? As in intentionally trying new foods ? I’m moving to soft foods next week so i was looking for meal ideas…

Also, how do you you know you’re actually ready to move up a food stage ? I’m scared of soft foods then regular food :O

Your plan should list the foods you are able to eat & those you need to avoid at each stage. It should also say how long you stay on each stage. If it doesn’t, contact your team & ask for more specific information. Your tummy lets you know pretty quickly if you’re not ready. It may be discomfort on eating, a feeling of heaviness, you may regurgitate what you’ve eaten. It’s a lot of trial & error honestly.

For example, most plans tend to advise 2 weeks on each stage. Some people stay a little longer on a stage or go back a stage simply because we heal differently & their tummy just isn’t ready for the foods (texture & density) on the next stage.

Some foods are on the avoid list because they can be hard to digest by your healing tummy (bread, pasta, rice, seeds, fruit & vegetable skins, etc.). Other foods are off the list because of their nutrient content & calories (many plans are no starchy vegetables for e.g..). There may be foods on your list your tummy can’t tolerate (chicken breast, eggs often are a struggle few a while). Your tummy can be fussy while healing & the temporary change to our taste buds &/or sense of smell can make foods extra sweet, extra salty or just plain disgusting. Textures can be off putting too at this time.

Many of us ate the same meals or rotated through a small selection especially in the first couple of months. One because we eat such small portions there’s lots of left overs. Two, because our fussy tummy & you can’t tolerate a wide variety of foods. Three it means you don’t have to think to much about food & what your going to eat & you know how much protein & other nutrients you’re getting with each meal. I still eat a lot to routine & often have the same meals & I’m almost 5 years out. It’s not that I can’t eat a variety of foods it’s just easier sometimes (or maybe I’m lazy LOL!).

I struggled in purées to find foods that tasted good because the taste or texture was awful. Thank goodness for runny scrambled eggs, milky rolled oats, yoghurt & soups.

In soft foods I ate a lot of minced meat dishes - savoury mince, meatballs (rissoles in Australia), bolognese (no pasta), etc., slow cooked stews, thick meat & vegetable soups, omelettes. Try some savoury egg muffins (add cheese, mushrooms, onions & other pre cooked vegetables you like) & a lot of people swear by ricotta bake (someone will have a recipe they’ll happily share).

I got a handout from my clinic to say what foods I could eat in each stage and how long I was to stay in each stage for, did you not get similar from yours?

I found that I ate the same things for a lot of the meals, and still do, because as you say the portions are small when cooking something from scratch.

If you have a lot of the same food left and it is staying down comfortably maybe you could even mix it up a bit by adding a different spice or something to change the dish a bit. I have a new found love for spices and herbs now that I add to everything.

I do have the detailed food plan it’s just that once something works in my stage i stick to it - i don’t try anything else on the approved list for my stage

And i was wondering if maybe it’s better to try a new food on the approved list every couple of days … i don’t know if that makes sense

Almost like testing tolerance to as much as possible within the plan of course

10 minutes ago, lily06 said:

I do have the detailed food plan it’s just that once something works in my stage i stick to it - i don’t try anything else on the approved list for my stage

And i was wondering if maybe it’s better to try a new food on the approved list every couple of days … i don’t know if that makes sense

Almost like testing tolerance to as much as possible within the plan of course

If you have the space in the freezer to store everything then yes you could try to mix it up a bit. I would recommend having something available as a back up just in case, this is where I went wrong one day by thinking the soup I had made would be good for my meals that day only to taste it and it was disgusting, shops were closed and I had no back-up food and had to go to have a protein shake instead.

If you are on the pureed/soft stage you could try minced turkey or chicken, bolognese (I had/have this a lot) and then I made a slightly different version as well that I found here - https://www.bariatricfoodcoach.com/lasagna-stew/

I used to put a generous amount of red wine in my bologneses previously, obviously had to cut that out for now ?

I did not get a very detailed plan, and my program advances quickly so that in theory you can have no restrictions at 4 weeks. For me, that has been way too fast. I have found the Bariatric Diet Guide and Cookbook by Dr. Matthew Weiner very helpful. Now that my own program says I can have anything, I'm appreciating his stages (which vary from the typical phases you see in most programs).