snrussell09

I have a few months at least until I'll be able to get the surgery so me and my Dad have gone to the psychologist, nutritionist, surgeon and the nurse a few times and we have learned about the post-op diet. I have samples for the shakes and Vitamins. Would it be okay for someone who hasn't had the sleeve to follow the post op diet? The shakes, vitamins and Protein guidelines along with the portion sizes? We figured we might as well give it a shot to drop some weight without the surgery before since we have to wait a few months regardless, right? I know there may be some needed adjustments but would doing this diet be ok or would the lack of solid foods and more Protein Shakes instead of regular meals? I guess I want to know if it's safe or not. I have the packets, foods list, portion sizes, vitamins, protein shakes.

I've been wanting to do these for a long time, I go to Jamba Juice often and their smoothies are perfect and fresh but really expensive to do on a daily basis. I want to make them at home so I am wondering what kind of blender I would need. I've heard of VitaMix, Blendtec, Ninja, the one Montell Williams has on his infomercial(heard bad things about it). The regular ones like Hamilton Beach just aren't powerful enough. I think I'd need like 2 HP or something like that to pulverize the ice. The VitaMix and Blendtec are out of my price range but I really want one, are there any that make pro quality frozen smoothies out there that are cheaper? I hear mixed reviews on the ninjas but they are under 150 for the 1100 and 1200 models which are 2 HP I think. Any suggestions would be great!

I actually just left Jamba juice and the guy told me they used vitamix blenders, probably higher powered ones because he said they cost $800 but that's good to know. Nice, I won't be sleeved for months so ill be trying these out.

Oh really? I had no idea that was the reason for the preop diet. Yeah I wasn't wanting to do an all liquid diet right now but I have trouble eating greens straight up for some reason, I can't get them down so I tried green smoothies and they were pretty good and I could put any kind of vegetable, fruit, protein or flavoring I wanted so I thought I would have a couple of them a day in addition to the small meals. As of right now, Dr. Cribbins in Plano. He was the closest to where I live.

Do you use it as a meal or a snack?

Oh yeah, I've heard about those too. That's a nice price, does it work with ice too?

Great, thanks for the advice guys. I've started to watch the carbs and basically avoid them as much as possible but I live with my parents so it's hard because they aren't and I can't afford to go out and get the healthy salads or whatever it may be. My family has some kind of rice or potatoes with pretty much every meal! I'm a college student. I have been on a low sugar diet for years because my face breaks out when I drink a coke or something a couple days later, it's ridiculous so I don't drink sodas or eat deserts. I do love sweet tea though, it's everywhere in Texas. I was thinking of using some of my student loan money and buying one of those professional blenders like they have at jamba juice and throw some vegetables and stuff in there and use those with meals or in place of them sometime.

I am 21, 6'4 and a little over 400 pounds. I've always been big and tall, since I was elementary school and I have really never minded being a big guy. The things that I do mind is being unhealthy, out of shape and it's getting to the point where being this big is really inconvenient being a college student like going out, doing things, and even going to class(these seats/desks aren't exactly designed for bigger people). I hate sweating all of the time, and I love working out but it's just really difficult so I've decided that it's been long enough and I want to get this taken care of while I'm young and in school. It sucks being bigger than almost everyone on campus and it would be easier to meet people and not look so intimidating lol. I don't like the idea of doing surgery but the diets just don't work for me, I've tried many of them. The things that worry me about the sleeve is that it's permanent, and being as young as I am it seems like that losing 70% of my stomach is drastic and I'm worried about the long term effects because the sleeve has like a 3 year history or something like that. The sleeve seems to accomplish exactly what I want it to, I always felt that I had a bigger stomach than most because it takes a lot to get me full or even content and it's not that I like eating, it's that I'm constantly hungry. So I guess my questions are: Would it a good idea for someone my age? Is there anyone else out there that had it done at a young age? Is there any info of possible long term issues? My insurance covers from like 70-90% of the procedure depending on where it'd done. I'm sold on the positives of the surgery but just trying to get as much info as possible. Sorry for the long thread! Thanks for any advice you may have.

Thanks everyone for all of your replies, I definitely appreciate them all. I got caught up in school in work so I didn't get to reply but I've been going to the several appointments that are required to get insurance approval and I have my final appointment in a week, then they send it off to the insurance company and have a date penciled in for early December if everything goes well. I just went to a nutritionist and she basically went over the pre-op and post op diets and the entire process and I feel like the nurse and surgeon didn't go into this kind of detail so I now have more questions about the actual food intake part of the surgery. She was saying that the new stomach would only hold 2-4 ounces of food, so you would have to eat 3-4 meals a day while snacking in between while having the Protein shakes and that I would need 80-90 grams of protein a day, due to my height. The limitations of food after the post-op diets seem different than what I have read here or what the doctor laid out. I have read about people eating sandwiches and things like that but the nutritionist said I wouldn't be able to eat a sandwich(either from some place like Subway or a regular one you make at home) because it would either be too much or I wouldn't be able to to tolerate it. So it seems like I got different information from the actual doctors office during the one on one, the other visits with the nurse and the nutritionist and then what I have read, I'm just worried about what I will be able to eat and I won't be able to eat(not the amounts) once the surgery and post-op diets are completed. Is it just different for everyone? Can you eat normal foods and can you eat out at a restaurant or do you have to pretty much cook everything yourself to meet the restrictions? I'm excited to be closer in the process and I will be out of school in December so I should have time to focus on the diets at home.