Phase 3 is
Mashed potatoes
Meat in baby food form
Cottage cheese etc
So if you are having a hard time getting enough food in to match your protein, the first thing you should know is that it's okay to be low on protein for the first few weeks. Your body is going through a lot and you just might not be able to get enough nutrients right now.
That's why you're taking vitamins. You might even want to double up on what's already doubled up, your daily multivitamin. In the short-term, this won't cause you any problems, but as soon as your eating is back to normal, then only take two multivitamins a day as you've already been instructed to do for life.
I hope that you're not having a problem with dairy because that is the solution to your problem right now. The first thing you need to do is make some magic milk:
First up, the recipe for super milk or magic milk. It's simple but also kind of hard. The recipe is 1 quart of nonfat milk that you put in a blender and then pour in 1 packet of Milkman dry milk & blend. Now a cup of milk has 16 grams of protein instead of eight. That is a big help.
I snipped that from an old post I sent here when I was first a member of this group. Once you make the milk, use it with everything you cook for yourself that can include milk. This includes fat-free sugar-free puddings, creamy soups like cream of chicken or mushroom, simple cereals like Malt-O-Meal or cream of wheat, or smoothies or hot chocolate or whatever liquid you can take in. You can also add yogurt to your smoothie for even more protein.
Magic milk is a lifesaver in terms of getting your protein. I still use it occasionally.
If you can't get Milkman, any powdered milk will do. Using Milkman with nonfat milk just tastes a lot better. I used to make a milk drink that contained 8 oz of milk and about a tablespoon of dark molasses. The molasses adds to your iron need and to me this drink was delicious as a treat. You don't need to worry about calories yet, but you do want to make sure that your body is as nutrient-rich as possible as you heal. And of course protein is the main building block of our entire physiology.
I usually don't dispute what a doctor tells you to do, but I think the membership here in general is in agreement that you are too early in the healing phase to be eating foods that are too solid. So use this milk with everything you're eating and make the food as liquid as possible. If you made Malt-O-Meal with this milk, instead of using any water on the stove, you would put one tablespoon of Malt-O-Meal into a cup of milk and bring it to a boil. Then you just cook it until it's slightly thick and slowly eat it.
That's really all I have to contribute go to your current phase. Do not move on to thicker foods or solids but do make sure you use milk and cook as many things as you can think of with it. It's kind of monotonous but I remember it being very comforting after I had surgery.
Just one more thing. Everything you consume should be taken in very slowly. It virtually passes through your pouch in a matter of minutes and then goes to your small intestine, which is where the nutrients are absorbed. Take your time and you probably will have less nausea, and you will certainly be getting more nutritional benefit. You don't have the digestive juices you used to have before that part of your stomach was removed or made tiny.
I hope this helps. It's really really simple. But if you can tolerate milk, you can double your protein right off the bat and protein helps you in so many ways during the healing process. When you start to eat semi-solid foods, you can steam some broccoli and puree it in the blender, then make a cheese sauce using magic milk to drizzle over it. Use it to make your own homemade soups like clam chowder, thickened with a tablespoon or two of instant mashed potatoes, or mix it half-and-half with beef or chicken stock (not broth, but the intensely concentrated stock made by reducing water and soup bones by half.) and use it as gravy. Protein protein protein.
Oh I just thought of something funny. My dad used to mix his food up on his plate and mash it all together and eat it glop by glop. We would just be so grossed out by this and we'd all be saying Ew, ew, how can you eat it like that? And he would say, It all goes to the same place so what's the difference?
Mashed, pureed, or liquefied, your post op food all has the necessary stuff in it and it all goes to the same place, all intended to help you be healthy and heal without pain.
