More about portion sizes

I spoke to my dietician today and got some more advice on portion sizes for the pureed food phase. My provider advises me to eat 3-6 tablespoons of food per meal and I’d been wondering ‘how much food can you get on a tablespoon?’ – and ‘should this be a flat tablespoon or a heaped tablespoon?!’. Anyway, he said that first, I shouldn’t get too worried about portion size as long as I stick to the five 'rules':

1. Aim for 1000-1200 calories per day
2. Use a 7-inch side plate to eat from
3. Eat slowly
4. Chew everything well before swallowing
5. As soon as you are full – stop eating

Having said that, he estimated that a tablespoon of food could be anywhere between 40 and 70g depending on what it is – these are clearly fairly heaped tablespoons by my calculations! For further clarification, I asked if a Weight Watcher’s ocean pie (300g) was about the right size for an evening meal. He not only said 'yes' but also suggested I might have it together with some mashed vegetables! Well that’s great because that’s about the size of main meal I’ve been having. He made a few other suggestions for what to eat:

Breakfast: 1½ Weetabix OR 1 packet of Oatso Simple porridge (I’ve been having half a pack) OR one scrambled egg

Mid-morning (if hungry): A yoghurt or Muller Rice

Lunch: Baked beans OR a tin of soup OR a small piece of mashed fish OR a tin of salmon or tuna

He said that if I get hungry, reconsider the timing of my meals and perhaps go for 4-5 small meals per day rather than 3 larger meals. For instance, I could split my main meal into two and have each half a couple of hours apart. Alternately, if I get hungry late afternoon I could have a Muller Rice, yoghurt or mashed-up banana.

This all sounds excellent because it’s fairly similar to what I have been doing and it’s nice to get that reassurance!