Bariatric Best Friends

My blender. It has gotten more use in the last two weeks than it has since I bought it. I mix pudding and puree soup. And since that's all I can eat (until tomorrow) you can imagine how much it gets used.

4 oz. canning jars are seriously wonderful. I make my pudding and pureed soups and then portion them out in the canning jars. I know I can eat one in a sitting, they stay fresher longer, and they're in a cute little container sized just for me.

Protein powder. I'm sure you're not surprised to know how amazingly hard it is to get enough protein and other nutrients (as well as calories) when all you can eat is yogurt, pudding, and soup. I have "Syntrax Nectar Sweets Chocolate Truffle" protein powder and it is soooo chocolately delicious. I mix it in the pudding and with milk to make sure, that while I can't hit 1200 calories yet, I can hit my 60 - 70 grams of protein I'm supposed to ingest a day. I also got some non flavored protein on the way so I can add it to soups and other food to help with my protein consumption.

Baby spoons. I have to take the tiniest of bites to make sure I don't overfill my stomach. I haven't had the need of forks yet as everything I can eat is a soquid, so I don't know if I like baby forks. But the spoons we got for Sassypants when she first started eating are the spoons I use at every meal. They help make sure my bites are small which is a good thing, even if it does take me 30 minutes to eat 4 oz of food.

Ice Breakers Sugar Free Wintergreen Mints. I have yuck mouth. I have yuck mouth all the time -- no matter how much I brush my teeth, no matter how much I use mouthwash, no matter what. I keep a container of mints with me at all times to help fight off yuck mouth. I even pop one in the middle of the night when I wake up and my mouth is so gross I can't fall right back to sleep. I'm assured by everyone who has had the surgery that it goes away. They can't tell me when, but they all swear that it does. I'm counting down the days because it's seriously gross.

Chewable Vitamins and Chewable Calcium. I tried taking the bevy of vitamins I'm supposed to take for the rest of my life and it made me throw up. And that was unpleasant to say the least. So hello chewables. There are liquids too but I can't drink them. I have an aversion to syrup medicines to the severity that I'd rather be in pain than take the liquid pain killer. *Shivers* Yuck.