So I LOVE my sweet tea, and I know that this is something that I have to give up before and after the surgery so I started now. I have been sweet tea free for almost a week now. It has been hard. I have been drinking nothing but water. Today I broke down and made me some decaffeniated tea with no sugar. It is not bad but know where near as good. My questions is how long does the headache last! I have had it for about four days now. The thing i can't figure out is if I am going from four 32 ounce cups of sweet tea down to zero, why haven't i lost any weight? I have been following the pre-op diet that they gave me to get used to doing this before I get my surgery date. Just scared that I am doing this now and not showing any progress, will the lap-band really work?? :smile2:

your body is in shock from no caffeine and no sugar. the weight loss will happen but right now it's in withdrawls. have you tried splenda? it's not bad in decaf tea. i know others use stevia. i think thats how it's spelled lol. my mom swears by it. good luck

I agree I use splenda in my tea, I also use a couple of constant comment tea bags in with my reg tea when i make a jar of tea gives it a lil sweet/spicy taste I love

I have used splenda before, as well as equal. I like both of them. Sometimes it leaves a funny after taste in my mouth. cybele23, what did u mean by a couple of "constant comment tea bags". I have been putting some stuff in my water called "true lemon" with a couple backs of equal. It almost taste like lemonade. It is not bad, but not the same as my sweet tea. :smile2:

I know exactly how you feel. I had to give up my sweet tea, but I also loved my Mountain Dew. I gave up both about two months ago in anticipation of my surgery. I had a headache off and on and felt terrible for about 2 weeks. I now drink nothing other than water and I am really feeling so much better. The withdrawal symptoms will subside soon and you'll feel so much better. Hang in there!

So I LOVE my sweet tea, and I know that this is something that I have to give up before and after the surgery so I started now. I have been sweet tea free for almost a week now. It has been hard. I have been drinking nothing but Water. Today I broke down and made me some decaffeniated tea with no sugar. It is not bad but know where near as good. My questions is how long does the headache last! I have had it for about four days now. The thing i can't figure out is if I am going from four 32 ounce cups of sweet tea down to zero, why haven't i lost any weight? I have been following the pre-op diet that they gave me to get used to doing this before I get my surgery date. Just scared that I am doing this now and not showing any progress, will the lap-band® really work?? :smile2:

The preop diet that I did - 2 Protein shakes and 1 meal (meat & vegs) worked! If you stick to it you are going to be hungry but most people lose about 10 pouns. I didn't give up tea but I gave up my diet coke. I didn't have much headache for that. Hope this helps, if you have other questions send me a PM.

Thanks everyone, Paula I am wondering why u didn't have to give up your tea? Was it not sweet?

I am addicted to coffee. Always have been and probably always will be. If I don't have it, I get a horrible headache and am not that fun to live with. I never had to stop drinking it. My doctor did not make me stop. I had it before my surgery and even right after. I do use artificial sweetner - but if I didn't have my coffee - I might have to live alone... somewhere far far away. I drink tea too. Did your doctor tell you that you couldn't have caffine? Just for the pre op or forever? Of course you should do what your doctor says. Good luck to you.

Edited October 3, 201015 yr by MissBS

What if you have caffeinated tea with splenda? That wouldn't detract from weight loss but would help with the caffeine withdrawal. On my diet, I am allowed to have any kind of sugar-free beverages, including coffee and tea with full caffeine.

You can add caffeine back into the diet and then slowly wean yourself off it. I went off Diet Coke cold turkey when I was pregnant, and got a headache so bad I honestly thought I had a brain tumor! My OB told me to pound back a Diet Coke and two Excedrin Migraine (which has caffeine), and sure enough, that took it away. I then slowly began to wean off it, and had no trouble.

Good luck, hope you feel better soon!

I, too, thought I couldn't drink anything other than water and my shakes for the pre-op. I got the worst headache and was dizzy the first day (I'm a morning coffee - afternoon diet coke drinker). I called my dr to see if I could at least drink black coffee. They said that was OK. Call your dr and see what they say. From reading this, it seems that there are many pre-op diets out there. The best way to know...is to call!! Good luck!

I tapered my caffeine use over a couple of weeks---when I was down to one cup/day, I stopped. And the headache still was bad for about 3 days before it tapered off.

If you like sweet tea, Crystal Light's peach tea is really good---and it's decaf. I think they also have one with lemon. Worth a try.

For what it's worth, I feel so much better without caffeine that I haven't returned to it, even though I'm now allowed.

I was a HUGE Mt. Dew Addict. I'm talking 6 to 9 cans a day. Well on day one of my pre-op diet I couldn't have that anymore. I switched cold turkey to Crystal Light WILD strawberry (the WILD Strawberry, ENERGY, has a little caffeine.) By no means is there the same amount of caffeine but I have only had 1 headache in a little over a week.

My surgeon allows coffee drinkers to keep drinking coffee before and after. He doesn't worry about the caffeine intake so much as the carbonation in pop. It makes drinking all this endless Water a little easier and my surgeon said it was just fine since there is only 10 calories per packet of crystal light versus 170 calories per can.

Edited October 4, 201015 yr by arittel

Hi! I am going through the same thing, but with diet coke. The withdrawals have been heinous (awful headaches), but I feel better today and I completely gave it up Thursday (first day on liquid diet). Good luck!

HI everyone, Thanks for the encourgement ! I have had tea, however, I have been using equal or whatever type of sweetner I can find that dosen't leave such a funny after taste in my mouth. That is the one problem that I am having now. Seems like almost all of them do, I am just learning which ones are not as bad. I have stayed away from Mcdonalds sweet tea now for a week. It has been hard but I am keeping my eye on the price.

I do sweet tea made with Splenda, but limit myself to no more than 12 oz a day. Most days I have none, but it's nice to do something non-water/non-powerade zero on occasion and I just find I don't have to make myself drink it.