An Exciting Time!
The soft foods diet is an exciting time. You can finally feel like a normal person again by eating foods that much of your family eats without having to puree it. You’ll still want to make sure you’re choosing low-fat, low-sugar foods and avoiding carbonation, caffeine and straws. It’s such a relief to get to this point in your journey. The hardest part is over, but a new challenge is beginning as you learn what to eat and when to eat.
I can’t stress the importance of chewing each bite 20 to 30 times. It will help your stomach digest the food better. At this point in your post-op bariatric journey, you should be eating around two to three ounces per meal, but some people may be able to tolerate up to four ounces. Each person is different, so get to know your hunger and satisfied cues. For me, I know when I burp that I had enough, and I need to push my plate away. Other people sneeze, yawn or sigh when they’re full. As soon as you get the cue to indicate you are satisfied, remove the food from in front of you, so you’re not tempted to eat past satisfied.
Examples of Soft Foods Diet
Some of the new foods you can eat on the soft foods diet stage are canned meats, like tuna, chicken and salmon. You can also have cottage cheese, scrambled eggs, hard-boiled eggs and soft canned fruits. You can eat bananas, oatmeal and Cream of Wheat. Any soft foods, meaning you can cut them with a fork, can be eaten. You can even try saltine crackers!
You can also continue with any of the foods from the previous phases. Sugar-free ice pops, gelatin and pudding were still some of my favorites even at this stage. They also help you reach your hydration goals for the day. It’s so nice at this point to eat these foods without having to thin them down or zap them through a blender. By now, you should start feeling human again. You should have some of your energy back and be able to do more things. Your weight is most likely dropping, so you are probably feeling amazing. You might even start to like how you look. Although, don’t be surprised if your mind doesn’t change as quickly as your body. It’s easy to not be able to see the weight loss when you look in the mirror every day.
Soft Foods Diet Tips
Just because you are feeling really good, doesn’t mean that you can lax on the rules. You still need to be eating two to three ounces of food per meal over 20 to 30 minutes, taking 20 to 30 chews per bite. Your food should be low-fat and low-sugar. Make sure you are weighing and measuring all of your portions so that you know you’re not overeating. Try one new food at a time to determine tolerance. Sometimes, the first time you try a specific food after surgery it doesn’t agree with your stomach. Wait a few weeks and try it again. You may need to eliminate it all together from your diet, but it shouldn’t stop you from trying it again just in case.
Protein First!
Always eat your protein first! I can’t stress this tip enough. You need to be meeting your protein goals every single day. If you eat your fruit or vegetables first, you might not have enough room for your protein. You probably won’t be eating any carbohydrates at this point, unless you have oatmeal, Cream of Wheat, Cream of Rice or saltine crackers.
You can also add protein powder to these meals too to boost the protein content. Protein is king and should be eaten first. Chew each bite 20 to 30 times to make sure that it can pass through your new stomach opening, which is now the size of a pencil eraser. Additionally, take your time and eat slowly. Put your utensil down between bites. Savor the food. Often, when you eat too fast, it causes pain. No one wants that! You want to be able to enjoy eating what you can.
For your protein powder, I suggest a whey protein isolate, like Isotope from RedCon1. Each serving has 1.5 grams of sugar, 0.5 grams of fat, and a whopping 25 grams of protein. Just one serving has nearly half of your required protein content. They have delicious flavors. Want 20 percent off your order? Use code T20NickyBi at check out! This code is just for my Stop Weighting, Start Doing readers, and I would be thrilled if you joined the RedCon1 family with me!
Soft Foods Diet Recipes
Cooking starts to get fun again at this stage. It’s almost like a game to me to see how much protein I can add to a meal and have it still be delicious and satisfying. Make sure your ingredients are low-sugar and low-fat, as you don’t want to experience dumping syndrome. If you want more information on dumping, check out this article from the Mayo Clinic. It’s a horrible experience, and both gastric bypass and sleeve patients can have dumping syndrome. Hopefully none of these recipes trigger your dumping syndrome, but as everyone is different, try one new food at a time. Give some of these recipes a try. You won’t regret it!
Click next to get all of the yummy recipes!
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