WIAW: Post-Op Edition

Hey guys! Happy hump day. I have been SO lazy with everything this week, such as publishing my posts in advance, so you are getting a live post this morning!

I thought I’d share a typical day of meals as I’m recovering from my knee surgery and what I’m looking for nutrition-wise as my body is healing.

My appetite and eating habits have been all over the place throughout the past week and a half. I’ve gone from having no appetite to having food aversions to eating everything in front of my face.

I know things get wonky with your diet in the days following surgery, so there are certain things that haven’t bothered me too too much- like my fruit, vegetable or calcium intake. These are things I’m normally pretty conscious of but figure I’ll get back on track as I’m starting to feel better. I still think I’ve done pretty well in these areas but some days are better than others.

The main thing I’ve been keeping in the back of my main is my protein intake. Protein is important for wound healing and your estimated needs increase after surgical procedures. I normally don’t pay too much attention to protein on the daily because I know I get enough, but I’ve made sure to have some at every meal after my procedure.

Here’s an example of a typical day of eats for me recently:

Breakfast: I worked on this Banana Pear Shamrock Smoothie recipe for a St. Patrick’s Day smoothie post (THANK YOU for your kind comments and sharing my post on social media!), so I had it several days in a row as I was tweaking it for my blog post.

If you’re wanting a smoothie with protein, cow’s milk is great to use as your liquid base… 8g in 1 cup.

Lunch: my lunches have mostly been packaged or pre-prepared food because I definitely don’t feel like cooking right now. I’ve had a lot of tuna also. I went to Fresh Market recently so I’m sorry if the rest of this post seems like an ad for their store…. it’s not, I promise, I’m just feeling extra lazy right now! I knew it would be easy for me to get in and out of there quickly since I can’t walk very well, so I made a quick stop there this week to pick up a few things. I actually was feeling really good about being out and doing something for myself, but then an employee seemed concerned and asked if I needed someone to help me with shopping. Haha.

Anyway, I got this lentil soup from Fresh Market and have really enjoyed it.

It has been great for days when I’ve not had much of an appetite because it feels lighter on my stomach even though a bowl (1.5 servings, according to the nutrition label) still has 16.5g of protein.

By the way, I was pretty satisfied with the nutrition label of this soup. It didn’t have an astronomical amount of sodium (like most soups do) and the ingredients were all things that I would recognize and pronounce. That’s a win in my book.

Snack: Okay, so I’m not going to lie… I’ve had a major sweet tooth lately and it has been especially bad as I’m sitting at home doing nothing. I’ve been eating more candy and cookies than I normally do but I’m just going to give myself a pass for another week or so.

I have been obsessed with these dark chocolate covered sea salt almonds from Fresh Market’s bulk candy aisle. They are the perfect mix of sweet and salty. And at least there are almonds in there, right? That’s better than pure sugar. At least that’s what I’m going to go with.

Dinner: My dinners have been complete random and mostly made by other people! This dish has been one of my favs, which was a meatloaf made by my mom.

Paired with some easy veggies- half of a baked potato and some steamed broccoli. I attempted to drink a glass of milk with this meal but it was too much for my stomach.

That’s it for today! Thanks Jenn and Meg for hosting the WIAW link-up!