Wow! Good luck everyone. It is lovely to see a supportive bariatric surgery thread, mumsnet can be a bit harsh on this topic sometimes.
As I said upthread I had my surgery 10 months ago in Turkey. I have 2lbs to go till I hit my goal. For the first week or so after the op I definitely had feelings that is made a mistake, but it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
These are a few things I did, obviously different surgeons/ hospitals have their own guidelines;
After my op, it was 2 week liquids, 2 weeks purée then slightly more denser foods and I worked my way up from there.
There were a few things that helped me through those 4 weeks of liquid and purée. Drinking stock was quite nice as it’s savoury, and also watered down low sugar tomato soup. I hit my protein goals with my shakes and protein powder I had daily but I do crave a bit of savoury as well, so it was a nice change.
I know some people have baby food in their purée stage, but they aren’t nutritionally balanced for adults and they taste rank, so I avoided these! My favourite purée was cream cheese (normally laughing cow light) with salmon and broccoli blended together, really nice strong flavours and very filling. Chicken, veg and gravy/stock is another good meal blended, and you can freeze multiple portions from one cooking session. I avoided potatoes myself, although some people eat them, as I found they got quite claggy and didn’t blend to well with my meals, which was good as I didn’t want to go overboard with carbs. Sugar free jelly is another good one for a quick snack to grab, and I do admit that I had the odd serving of smooth Brussels pate too.
I have a book The Bariatric Bible, and it is really good, it’s got colour coded recipes depending on what stage you’re on (liquid, purée, soft food, normal eating etc...) and there’s also some good info on bariatric surgery in general before the recipes. I’ve made a few of them and they’re not to complex.