CeeGee

I'm 9 days from surgery and down to decaf coffee, green tea (not decaf yet) but can't give up my 1 a day diet coke.

mine is 27 June as well - I see a few on this date.

My mom passed away from a massive heart attack after years of being overweight and not eating healthy and I realilzed I'm following her footsteps, except for the fact that I exercise and participate in at least 6-7 5k races each year. She passed when she was 68, one year ago as of February and I am 49 and want to live longer.

the psych eval I had was two hours (over two days) of questions on a computer that were positive, negative, and neutral in nature that were evaluated and given to the psychiatrist (also a bariatric patient) who I met the next week.

I'm at the end of my first week of phase II/pre-op/liver shrinking diet and I was getting a little bored at first. My surgeon's diet consists of 3 Protein shakes a day (no fruit -too much sugar), 3 servings of dairy (either in Protein Shakes or lite yogurt), and raw veggies or a small green salad with lite vinegrette dressing; with the added colace and benefiber to keep me regular. By Tuesday (I started the diet last Monday) i was sick of protein shakes but I thought I only liked vanilla. I went to the Vitamin Shoppe where they sell single serving packets and I found that I like strawberry, strawberry-banana, oreo (of course), and chocolate so I bought a couple for variety. Then I realized that vanilla Protein powder is fabulous with coffee and some ice cubes in the Ninja IQ blender! It is now my morning fix. I know I need to add more variety, such as broth so maybe when I'm out shopping for more yogurt today I will do that. If anybody shops at Publix, I found their green label greek yogurt is really good and the nutritionist told me it is okay to eat. My one vice that I have to give up by the end of this week....diet coke. I know that I can never have anything carbonated again, and I have made peace with that but I will miss it dearly! I have a very difficult time with sugar substitutes, even in things like Crystal Light because I've had brain surgery twice, for aneurysms in my 30s and the surgery in my left frontal lobe really affected my taste buds so any sugar sub really tastes bitter to me. I did find that truvia is fine in my coffee. I know surgery will be here before I know it - because I am trying to get my work done for about 3 weeks in advance so time is running out quickly!

I moved to the Orlando area (from South Florida) but I'm still down there in spirit! I began the process in January and my surgery date is 27 June...just 9 days away. I'm excited and terrified but currently just excited. I'm on the phase II diet, which I thought would be terrible drinking only Protein shakes, 3 times a day, with fat free yogurt (green label publix brand is really good if you like greek yogurt), with some sugar free Jello if I need it and a small green salad each day with lite vinagrette dressing. I could have raw veggies, but they're not on my list of foods that I like . While I'm not down in South Florida it does seem like the three of us are around the same starting weight with similar goals so we should keep in touch during the entire process. I do travel down there an awful lot -with family still in Palm Beach and Hollywood so you never know -maybe one day after we are all used to our new eating habits we could meet up and share stories! Or maybe the two of you could come up here -visit Disney...I may or may not work for one of the areas within.

At my visit with the nurse practitioner this past week (2 days after the phase II diet) he asked how I gained weight! I explained that I panicked the week prior and at everything I would miss; such as pizza, pop tarts, and the best fried chicken and homemade macaroni and cheese I've ever made. I love to cook and I learned how to cook from southern women, then married into an Italian family, picking up great cooking skills there as well - now I need to reteach myself to cook healthy foods.

I got my surgery date a little over a week ago, then immediately had preop bloodwork done -11 vials of blood taken! I began the phase II diet this past Monday and while I am sick of Protein shakes I'm amazed how I am not craving anything to eat and no sweets at all. I got so sick of vanilla, strawberry banana, and chocolate Protein Shakes that I decided to get creative with vanilla and started adding it to my coffee (cold) with a few ice cubes in my blender and it is wonderful! I am so very excited and terrified at the same time right now, which is why I came searching for message boards. My husband tries to understand but he doesn't really know what I'm going through. He is very supportive and I love that and he won't eat in the house. I told him it's okay - people eat at work all day so it's not bothering me, but he is trying to be supportive in every way he can. This coming Wednesday I have my full pre-op day starting with the last visit with my surgeon prior to surgery the following Monday, then a metabolism test to use as the baseline for future tests, and an afternoon with my favorite Nutritionist to learn the phases of eating post surgery. I had decided to do my three month, insurance required supervised diet with the surgeon's nutritionist and she is amazing so I'm happy the class is with her. I am bringing my husband with me so he understands a little more. The surgeon who is doing my gastric bypss, Dr. T. Kim at Celebration Hospital in Florida is amazing and requires that everyone having surgery must first attend at least one support group session and then at least one per month post- surgery. I will probably take hubby to the first one post op so he can see what others feel and say. Well, off to keep myself busy so I am not thinking about anything. I've been crocheting granny squares for a volunteer group at work and doing laundry today so that's keeping me busy. Just nine days to go!