More Food Choices

I'm starting to do a better job of having complete meals at home (meat, potatoes, vegetables).  Sometimes it is leftovers from when we went out to eat, one set of leftovers can last me several meals.  Sometimes it is something purchased at the meat counter at the local grocery store (our meat counter has preseasoned meats, precooked vegetables and others things, making home preparation very easy).  Sometimes it is cooking fish that was purchased in the frozen section at the grocery store.  But the point is, to start with, I was just doing things like a mini bagel with cheese and deli meats or something like that.  That is fine, but it gets boring really fast.  I realized I hadn't been having hot food at home.  Having hot food at home added to the enjoyment of food and "flavors" that I talked about in my previous post about eating out.

I have also added some new meat to my repertoire.  I have had pork chop and BBQ pork ribs.  Both have went down fine and more importantly, stayed down.  I take pretty small bites.

In general terms, I am quite pleased with my ability to eat "real food".  Some people talk about difficulty with food getting stuck or having to puree food or chew, chew, chew.  I don't feel like I've had any of those problems.  I find myself taking bigger bites than I probably should and chewing less than I probably should, but most everything seems to go down fine.  When I have had problems, I don't necessarily feel like it's directly related to what I'm eating or how I'm eating it.  I think sometimes things just settle well and sometimes they don't.  It seems I'm more likely to have problems with Carnation Breakfast with milk (which usually is fine) than I am with food items.

I'm also getting pretty good about anticipating how much food I can eat.  I can usually judge it pretty close and put the right amount of food on my plate.  The amount of food I am eating at each sitting is also expanding.  Also, there is more differentiation between "meals" and "snacks".  The first couple of weeks, I was eating every 2-3 hours, but you couldn't tell if I was eating lunch or supper or a snack in between.  Recently, it is often more like a meal twice a day (excluding breakfast) and then snacks in between.

I've still got a long ways to go....but I'm getting the hang of this thing.