Bad Advice from NUT?

 I emailed her just be sure how much I am suppose to eating as I start soft foods today.  She told me that I don't need to measure and to eat to the feeling of fullness. Now, I know from reading the boards that this is bad advice.  I'm 8 day post op.  So I emailed her back that I'd like to have some measurement guidelines as I was under the impression that I might not feel restriction at this time (Please correct me if I'm wrong). She emailed me back and said to refer to my binder.  I've read my binder from cover to cover and no where does it give me measurement guides.  Am I over thinking this?  I emailed back and told her that I have read the binder several times and I need guidelines.  Clearly, portion control was a problem.  It really kinda upset me.  So, I'm coming to the board to vent.  Thanks for listening!

I'm sorry you aren't feeling like you are getting any good advice from your NUT! When I ate soft foods I started by making 1/8 cup ricotta cheese with 1/8 cup speghetti sauce with some garlic salt. I heated that up in the microwave for 15 seconds and that was good.

I also had a scrambled egg but never could get the whole thing down.

I also did 1/8 cup refried beans with a pinch of shredded cheese and a dab of salsa and that was good too!

What I was told was 2 to 4 oz is what I should expect to be eating give or take about 6 times a day. when I left the hospital they gave me the little cups that come with liquid medicine to help measure. I was always at about 2 oz then i was full. The cups were 2 oz each and to fill one and eat that and then if I didnt feel full have another and that was a good way to measure how much I could handle. Your body will for sure tell you when you have had enough. It isnt a good feeling when you over eat. But the little cups really helped me not to get to that point.

 For the first 6 weeks, I rarely ever sat down with more than 1/4 cup or 2oz of food. I was usually fine with that since I wasn't really hungry. At 6 weeks out though, I was able to eat a whole scrambled egg and similar amounts of food but only for soft type foods. 

Id say start with small portions. Stop and evaluate how you feel. If you are satisfied, just be done with the meal. You will need to supplement with shakes though. 

I can't believe the differences in the surgeons/nutritionists advice from one to another. 

I am on day 17 post-op, and my surgeon would only allow clear liquids for the first week, then I got to switch to full liquids.  On my plan, that meant adding pureed cream soups, small-curd runny cottage cheese, SF FF puddings and unsweetened applesauce only.  The guidelines said to limit my intake of soups to 1/2 cup per meal, or if it was pudding, cottage cheese or applesauce, to limit it to 1/3 cup per meal.  I am allowed 3 meals per day, plus one protein drink.  I am on this full liquid diet until Monday (at 3 weeks post-op), then I switch to a soft diet. 

When i started my journey I was told 3 oz of lean protien per meal. If I could get a veggie in too then that was a bonus. 10 months out from surgery and somedays I cant the veggie in. I am doing good to get my protien in. Do eggs fat free or low fat cheese. Tuna fish is soft. I tried Salmon and keep trying but everytime I eat it it comes back to haunt me so it just stay away from it now. Good luck on your journey!

You are not overthinking this.  This is crucial! 

I did not find my "sense of fullness" to be any help at all, especially not at first.  Honestly, I don't think I ate more than 2 ounces at a time for many months - 4 or 5 at least. 

My binder said 4-8 fluid ounces at a meal - it was really more like 2 ounces period.  Don't pu**** 

My surgeon turned me loose on solids at two weeks, so yes, there is a huge variation between doctors, NUTs and patients.

This is my suggestion, stick to protein drinks for the first two weeks supplemented with sf jello, Popsicles, water or any other liquid.  Drink bullion soups and keep your liquids up.  After two weeks, eat no more than 1/4 of a cup of food, mostly protein and keep it mushy for the second two week period.  Think cottage cheese, ricotta, pureed soups and the like.  Continue to mostly push protein drinks and liquids.  After the first month, start incorporating solid protein, keep it soft at first and never eat more than 1/4 cup at a time.  Take pencil eraser sized bites and chew them into nothing, think about 30 chews.  Try to eat 80 grams of protein a day and keep your calories under 800, way under 800 in the beginning.  Don't try to eat "all the calories", just focus on getting protein in.  Keep carbs under 40 grams a day.  Slowly, very slowly, increase your capacity to 1/3 of a cup and then a few months out, 1/2 cup.  Eventually working up to about 2-3 ounces of dense protein and a few bites of green veggies.  Do this until you reach your goal, you should be golden. 

Or disregard everything I said and do it your way, whatever works. This is your journey and only you get to decide who knows what they are talking about.  Good luck to you no matter what you choose to do.

There can be so much variation in what and how much different people can tolerate when that it's hard to give a solid rule on it. Restriction on these mushy and soft foods in particular can show remarkable variation between individuals (even liquids can show much variation.) The first couple of days out of the hospital I was in a hotel and living mostly on pre-packaged jello, pudding and yogurts which were generally half cup servings and those worked well for me and I didn't feel the need for more; some may feel restriction before they reach that point. At home, using my own yogurt and pudding blends I continued the half cup serving as that provid ed 10-12g of protein and adequate sataity, though being slider type foods I probably could have had more but nutritionally that was a good amount for that meal/snack at that time. Likewise with the protein shakes I generally took them in one cup servings though I probably could have had more had I chosen to; my wife, on the other hand, when she went thru this a few years ago was fairly restricted even on liquids, barely able to get 3-4 oz in at a sitting - just variations between us all.

So, my practice was to limit these soft and liquid foods to a reasonable serving that provided appropriate nutrition (primarily protein at that point) for that meal, so I never had any more than a half cup of soft things or one cup of liquids at a sitting; had I felt some restriction before reaching that point, then of course that would have been the limit.