Ok...I am new to this forum and have a million questions, but I will start with this one.

My surgery is scheduled for November 14th and I begin the Pre-op diet on October 31st. Can anyone give me some ideas for meals/shakes etc....for pre-op. My doctor's program is a high Protein - low/zero carb diet (3 meals a day composed of 4 oz of protein and salad like veggies). Any ideas?

Russ H.

My dr has me on a diet of two shakes a day and one small low carb meal. I was told my shakes couldn't have more than 20g of carbs so I have gone with the Adkins shakes they have 6g of carbs. I must admit they are better than I thought they would be. Good luck with the Pre op diet, I have 13 days left...

The only special diet I was on by the doctor was the day before, don't eat anything for 24 hours and on morning of surgery try not to swallow water when brushing your teeth. Otherwise, it didn't matter what I ate for two weeks prior, I had a class reunion the weekend before and enjoyed every eating and drinking minute of it.

I wasn't on any special pre-op diet other than the typical day before thing, but I think that it is a good idea to start getting used to your long term diet since so much of the long term success of WLS are the lifestyle changes made along the way - the WLS helps you get the weight off, but it's largely up to you to keep it off. From what you are saying, it seems that the doc wants you on real food, but portion and carb limited and high Protein, is that right? That isn't a bad thing to do (I still can't understand the docs who put their patients on extensive liquids for weeks pre-op) and is something that I was doing for a long time pre-op (before any decisions had even been made) as I was working to adapt my tastes to more and more nutritionally dense foods. I have largely succeeded on that front, though could never get the meal sizes required for satiety down - hence the VSG for me.

Certainly you can have a 4 oz piece of meat, or a couple of slices of deli meat for lunches. Add some veg on the side to taste - I often have a couple ounces each of carrot sticks and grape tomato. Some salads to go along with that, or with the meat mixed in a la chicken caesar or southwest style salads. 2-3 oz of meat at a sitting will be your typical post-op capacity. Post-op I frequently have small southwest style salads with a couple ounces of leftover meat flavored with BBQ sauce mixed into some chopped spinach, green onions, peppers, tomatos, avo, etc.., some grated cheese and a little dressing, while dinner is usually some 3ish oz of freshly cooked meat with a token amount of veg on the side or mixed in (like a stir fry or meat heavy stew.)

You should certainly experiment with different Protein shakes, pre-made and/or powders depending upon your lifestyle needs, to find the ones that you like - the highest protein/lowest carb drink that your surgeon may recommend is useless if you can't stand drinking it. I have played with the powders for years mixing and matching them to my taste and as different products go on and off the market. I find the EAS powders my choice at the moment, sometimes with some leftover Muscle Milk mixed in, as it has a fairly delicate flavor (at least the chocolate variety does) and minimal "protein drink" taste, that can be enhanced with unsweetened cocoa powder or SF chocolate syrup to taste.

You should also try out yogurts (preferrably greek yogurt, as that has about double the protein as regular yogurt) and find one, or a blend, that you like/can tolerate. I don't like the plain yogurts, but find that a blend of plain with some sweetened vanilla yogurt (I'm running a 3-1 ratio now) with a little vanilla extract and maybe a bit of Splenda added in suits me fine now - enough sweetness for my taste without being overly sweet, and not noticably artificial in flavor. A little bit of jam mixed into plain yogurt works well too, and is a lot less costly on the calorie/carb front than the commercially sweetened yogurts.

SF instant pudding mixes can be protein enhanced by adding Protein Powder to the mix, and I usually replace a cup of the milk in the mix with a cup of greek yogurt to the mix instead for added protein and better texture.

Good luck with it all, it is worth the trip!