JustWatchMe

Mine was a five day clear liquids pre-op diet. The only suggestion I have is stick to three "meals" a day without snacks. At least for me, it helped stave off hunger after the second day. If I had anything in between, it woke up my hunger. Make sure you get plenty of protein in those three meals and don't flush them through with water right away. Protein kept me satisfied longer. Immediately pre-op and post-op is the hardest, they say, but you can do it. I'm six weeks post-op and today is my first day of solid food again. I'm in heaven. Good luck and keep posting!

I agree with the poster who said you need a positive choice in the selections. I love going out. Today is my first day of solid foods post-op and I went out all during my liquids phase. I can tell you who has the best soups in town. LOL. You can always find something. Most casual restaurants wil serve breakfast all day, so in a pinch, get eggs. My "normal" friends eat breakfast out a lot for dinner. I'm going out tonight, in fact, with my normie friend. We do every week before our exercise class. It behooves us to not overeat because we'll be exercising right afterwards. I also look online if it's a restaurant I've never been to before, but I've done that for years. Restaurants are a big part of my life, and that won't change. But there is more selection than ever, so I don't feel it's a problem. The only caveat to that would be during my liquids phase, a family member wanted to go to Red Lobster. I didn't want to go, only because that's a place I really used to overindulge on fried food and biscuits, and I wasn't sure I'd be able to have a normal soup. Plus, that family member doesn't know about my surgery and I didn't want to draw attention having only soup. Lucky for me, the outing got cancelled anyway. Dodged a bullet there. So I guess it depends on who's your dining companion. For me, it's almost always the five people who know about my surgery, so I'm cool. For other outings it might get tricky, but I've found that most people don't really give a flying fig what you're eating. They're focusing on themselves.

After a zillion years of liquids (7 weeks total), I had my first real food today. I made two scrambled eggs with a teaspoon of butter and salt and pepper. They were a little dry, which was what I was aiming for today. I ate slowly and chewed. Well, after 3/4 of the plate, I felt my band working! I think my band is just in shock that something came down the chute slowly today, but I'll take it. I felt the "soft stop" that @toomuchfun described. One bite was fine, and on the next one, I could feel the food kind of sitting there. I could have kept going, but I knew the next bite would feel uncomfortable, so I stopped. I STOPPED! Wooo hoooo! My dog is happy too, because he got the rest. I'm bringing a small meat and cheese pack to work for lunch, and my Water bottle. I am so excited. My band, whom I have named E.T., is really there and doing its job. In the time it took to type this, any residual hunger is gone. I also just hiccuped. Another "soft stop" signal. Lesson: eat slowly and listen to E.T. Have a great day, everyone! I will for sure!

Truth be told, I was only half engaged during my nutritionist sessions pre-op. Now, however, I have a million questions for her. Try to take notes and don't be afraid to phone them.

My approval was one month from submittal. My surgery was three weeks later.

Got too far beyond in laundry and literally ran out of underwear today. Lo and behold, I found some smaller, prettier delicates in the dresser that I have not worn for several years. They fit! Yahoo! (Yes, I am doing laundry tonight.)

I did it! I made it 5 days pre-op and 6 weeks post-op on liquids. Tomorrow morning is scrambled egg time. This weekend I plan to try the recipe that someone mentioned about making eggs/cheese/etc. in a muffin tin in the oven -- I thought those would be good to freeze and reheat for an easy Breakfast. Does anybody make those, and what ingredients do you use?

Martha, yes, you'll have gnawing hunger. For a couple of days. Then it will get easier. No, you won't blow it. You'll get support and encouragement from all of us. We're gonna do this!

What an important post. food gives me joy. I need to find joy in something else. The psychologist asked me to figure out what else can give me joy, and I still can't answer that. It was five months ago.

@@HealthyNewMe, that's wonderful! You keep me inspired and motivated. Way to go!

Welcome to Bandland! Take care or yourself this week and keep us posted.

... the band does not go around your head.... @@lisacaron, I love this!

Last day of liquids.... Yay! I'm setting my alarm clock half an hour early tomorrow to have time to slowly eat my scrambled eggs! Woot woot!

Yep, where my port is. Still tender at almost six weeks if I push on it.

Congratulations!

Heather, it takes time to recover from surgery, but as for me, I have more energy now than I have had in years. I'm 5-1/2 weeks post-op and I think it's the fact that my body has absolutely no junk food in it, I'm drinking lots of water every day, I'm exercising, and have lost a good chunk of weight. Everything feels better, and I have energy, finally. I sleep so well now. You'll bounce back, better than ever!

Way to go!

dink007, congratulations! Take care of yourself and keep us posted!

1-1/2 more days!

Liquid in, liquid out.

L Hartman, hope it's going well!

Mikee57, I remember that Laugh-In gag. Too funny!

Today is better. Thanks everyone. I can't believe I missed the support group meeting last night. While I was in bed feeling sorry for myself I could have been there instead. For some reason I keep getting that date wrong. Better plug those into my computer. TMF, I'm probably going to be on a day or two of liquids after my fill, but they know I'm going on food first. So 4 days of food then a fill, then probably liquids for a day or two. I'm okay with that. My nurse practitioner who does the fills actually was leaving it up to me whether to fill or not before my trip, so I still have to let her know my decision.

Today was an "off" day for me. It started okay, but I used my very late lunch break to run an errand and not eat. I could have had my Protein shake back at my desk, but by then it was an hour before going home, and my screwed up thinking told me to just skip it so I wouldn't be "full" when I got on the treadmill at home. When I did get home, I was so tired and dehydrated from not drinking my Water that I could barely motivate myself to get on the treadmill. For the first time since surgery, I cut my exercise time in half. I walked one mile instead of two and felt like a failure, which is ridiculous. Then I got on the scale to see the day's progress and didn't even enjoy seeing the number go down half a pound. Ate my Soup (too quickly since I was starving), followed by a glass of milk, and then just got totally bummed out. food, food, food. How am I going to handle food when I finally get to eat again this Thursday? I thought nothing could be better than going back on solid foods, and now I'm truly afraid that Thursday could be my bounce day. You know, lose weight like a champ, and then the first time you have something you like (like solid food in this case), send it all to hell by bouncing back up the scale? I always tell people who see my wedding photos for the first time, yeah, that's me. I was thin once. For twenty minutes. It's not far from the truth. I'm getting scared. I'm tired of this post-op liquid phase, but now I'm scared of moving forward. I don't think I can trust myself with real food. All the crazy thoughts going through my head the last few days, like how am I going to stay motivated to exercise, and how am I going to behave myself on vacation next month? How am I going to live a happy life without binge eating? Where am I going to find joy? I feel like this post-op period was so hard, but in a way, easy, because the rules and the goal were so clear. I'm afraid of eating enjoyable food again and gaining back what I lost. I know my head is messed up today, and there sure are physical and emotional contributing factors. I didn't drink any water today, just my morning Protein Shake and one cup of water at 4pm. I missed lunch and then intentionally skipped it once I could have it. I got on the treadmill dehydrated and undernourished, and couldn't even keep the pace I've been easily doing all week. Add to that a spat of sorts with my older daughter whom I haven't seen since January because she's abroad at college and it's just about killing me. And my younger daughter who returned to college today, flying back to school, of course not returning texts for hours. I was so out of sorts after my crappy liquid dinner that I just decided the safest place to be was bed. At 7:30pm. So here I am.

Yippee! What a wonderful achievement!