Today is the 1st day of my Preop diet. I have scoured for weeks to come up with ideas on the Pre-op diet. I have purchased cream of wheat, skim milk, Protein mix, whipping cream, chicken for broth, honey, vanilla yogurt, a few more things.

What did you consume in your prep diet? I need real world suggestions and ideas instead of reading thousands of webpages online where the authors have constantly used copy/paste on their articles.

I had to do a 2 week clear liquid diet (Protein w/ less than 5 grams per serving, water, broth, tea, coffee... NOTHING else). So this was horrible while I was one it BUT I have learned A LOT from having to do it. It's crazy to do it if you don't have to but I really recommend you push yourself! It really does teach you about yourself when you are out of your comfort zone. Good luck!

What were your doctor's instructions?

My doc required a two week liquid diet - 3 Protein shakes per day and 64 ounces of Clear liquids. I could also have sugar free Jello and sugar free popsicles. My friend (different doctor in another state) was told 2 Protein Shakes per day and one lean cuisine meal.

I found lots of ways of making the protein shakes more interesting. Adding crystal light powder, unsweetened cocoa, various extracts.

A scoop of vanilla Protein Powder, tablespoon of cocoa, half a pack of Starbucks Via, 8 ounces almond milk and 5 ice cubes in a blender = great substitute for a frappachino.

Good luck on your journey.

I got to do 2 shakes per day and some veggies at night. That was it.

Thanks everyone for suggestions. My docs instructions are liquid diet for 6 days and then day before surgery a clear liquid diet. Nothing after 12 the night before. They gave me some literature with ideas so I went out and purchased some ingredients. For example the cream of wheat has to e drinkable. Yogurt has to be plain or vanilla with no solid fruit. So far I'm doing really good. Today I am making a chicken soup without consuming the chicken. Mostly need the broth. So I have slot of faith in myself. I feel like I am going to run out of ideas by Monday...

Protein shakes will help keep you from getting too hungry. Experiment with them. For example, I bought pie spice extract and mixed it with the Muscle Milk light latte powder for a cappachino like drink. I also blended in some LF peanut butter for a creamy drink.

My doc's office offered two options - you could follow the liquied diet that you do on your own or you could purchase ready-to-drink protein shakes, soups, and granola bars and you were allowed to gave any combination of 6 items per day (but only one granola bar per day). I did this option just because it was easy for me - the shakes came in little juice boxes and it gave me some variety - not to mention the granola bar each night was a god sent after liquids all day. They also told me if I absolutely had to cheat to do something like a couple bits of grilled chicken breast or tuna - something high in protein and not much of it.

Pre and post op recipes, visit http://bandipes.blogspot.com

My surgeon had me on the Medi-Fast diet, which is expensive and not very tasty and really not filling at all! But it worked and I guess it was a way that they could control what I ate.

My doctor wanted me to loose 33 pounds which I did. Long story short I ended up loosing 50 pounds presurgery so I did'nt have a 2 week presurgery diet. I decided to have a low cal/fat protein shake for breakfast and dinner and a low cal/fat protein based lunch the couple weeks before surgery.

I plan on having sugar free Jello, sugar free popsicles, Fruit ice, which can be made with crystal light or sugar Free Kool-aid. chicken and beef bouillon, no sugar added apple, cranberry, or grape juice. You can also dilute the juice as 1 part juice 1 part Water. Amplify Protein powder (grey container from GNC) which is low carb, low sugar and 1 scoop is 20 grams of protein. I currently have the chocolate and have been using it since the beginning of the year. It tastes just like Nestle Quick. They also offer Cookies & Cream, and vanilla. I plan on purchasing the other flavors this week so that I am prepared.

Some other ideas are:

Carnation Instant Breakfast (no sugar added) made with 1 cup of skim milk and 1/3 cup of dry non-fat milk powder

Low carb slim-fast shakes

Carb Solution shakes

Isopure

EAS Advantage

Atkins Advantage Shakes

Optisource High Protein drinks ( I have heard these taste very very good, grape apparently is the best)

My doctor had me do low carb for two weeks. Generally it is no more than 40 grams of carbs per day. There are low carb options out there if you look hard enough. I tried to follow the Atkins diet Induction phase. The list of foods to eat the nurse gave me was my guide. Mixing up different vegtables helpe with the boredom. I would make dishes I had never made before and left out any high carb vegetables. My go to substitute for potatoes was turnips. I also went through bags of pork rinds; as well as several pounds of hard cheese and jars of dill pickles. Several times I grilled steaks and used them in salads as well. Just try to focus on what you can eat and fill the fridge with those. Become a label reader. I was downing the sugar free popsickles two at a time until I read the lable. 3 grams of carbs per popsickle. Don't sweat the small stuff. This period will pass quickly. In 36 hrs I go for my lap band and I feel like it was yesterday when he told me to cut out the carbs.

I had to do 4 protein shakes a day and all the jello, pudding, pop sickles, and I ate a bunch of tomato soup. I also had chicken and beef broth and tomato/basil soup was my favorite!