I am doing horrible on the preop diet. I have been on it four days but I am having trouble sticking to it. I am hoping to get back on track today. Anyone else having troubles?

I have 3 more days left on my pre op.... I cheated once and i felt really bad.... I have had a really hard time though. My doctor told me to stay active and i have been doing classes at my gym and its making me SOOO hungry. But he told me to lose as much weight as i possibly can before surgery. I am down 12.7lbs so far... I feel like it should be more, but everyone is telling me i am beating myself up! Just stay busy and try to take your mind off of it!! Good Luck!

Hey it's ok... dust yourself off and start fresh. Today is a new day!

I know the pre-op is hard, but if you stick to it by the 3rd or 4th day you'll pass the hump and be fine. Besides it will give you a nice little head start on your weight loss and a safer surgery.

Good Luck you can do this!!

You are going to have to take a deep breath, decide today is the day you are going to follow it. You will have no choice after surgery and think of it this way; your surgeon needs your liver as small as it can be. If he gets in there and it's too big and can't do the surgery, will you still think what you ate is worth it?

I kept that in my mind and asked myself that often on my pre op diet. It helped.

Hope it helps you.

Good luck! You can do it!

I'm on day 11 and I know how you feel but it does get better. Just focus on one day at a time and congratulate yourself each day for staying focused! You can do this.

I am on day 3. My surgeon's office gave me the 3 shakes / 1 dinner meal option so I'm lucky I guess. I've taken to eating my meal at lunch time so I have enough energy to go to the gym in the afternoon after work. The first day I was really starving and lightheaded. Today I feel pretty good so far and found drinking a lot of Water helps - though it makes me run to the bathroom a dozen times at the office .

Newat52 you are so right! I am going to keep that in mind as well.

I posted about this a few weeks ago. The post was well received and I've referenced it a few times since for people having a hard time with the pre-op diet...

Original post: http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/topic/78443-the-pre-op-diet-is-not-a-punishment-its-an-opportunity/

Hi guys. I see a lot of you are struggling and worried pre-op about the pre-op diet. It is a HUGE challenge, but for me, it was an important one.

Exactly 1 year ago, I was in the middle of a 2 week liquid pre-op diet because my BMI was 55+ and I was self-pay in Mexico. Traveling from Canada meant that a reschedule would be A LOT of extra expense if my surgeon had to stop due to an enlarged liver mid-surgery. I had NO CHOICE but to follow the diet.

It also meant that cheating would increase the chance of complications and a longer recovery (or worse), all because I could not follow a 2 WEEK diet. Really? Here I was, about to take a seriously radical, life-changing step and get 85% of my stomach cut out permanently. But I can't follow a 2 week diet? That's crazy.

Post-op was going to be difficult for MONTHS, not days. So if I couldn't get my head in the game for the pre-op diet, then maybe I wasn't ready for what was going to follow post-op. I was terrified!

So I started the liquid diet. And I was STARVING. I was dreaming of all the foods I thought were leaving my life forever. Suddenly I didn't care that I had spent my life morbidly obese, I wanted my comfort back. I wanted to fill myself to bursting at every meal, like it was my last meal forever.

But I didn't break my diet.

Because for once, I wasn't going to cheat myself. It was time to grow up (I'm 43....) and take responsibility for my health, my future and my choices. A lifetime of justification, gluttony and excuses brought me to that operating room. Now it was time to face the music and get on with owning my future.

The first 3 days were HELL. That is when your body is detoxing from the carbs. You are using up the glycogen in your liver (to help "shrink" it) and it's screaming for replacement carbs to fill it back up. You can get through it. After 3 days it gets MUCH better. After a week you start to feel normal and more healthy than you have felt in years. You may be hungry, but you don't have the carb cravings anymore.

Most importantly, you feel IN CONTROL; and mentally and emotionally strong for battling your demons and winning. This is the first tangible proof in an unsure future that you CAN get through the post-op recovery and that you CAN succeed in losing the weight this time, FOR LIFE.

Whatever weight you lose during your pre-op diet is really inconsequential. What is important is what you gain:

- Confidence

- Emotional and physical self-control

- The desire to succeed and overcome "impossible" obstacles

- The knowledge that you are a WINNER as long as you do your best

Please don't look at the pre-op diet as a "condition" that your surgeon imposes on you (and some surgeons don't require it!). It is an OPPORTUNITY for you to test yourself, to help build your will, character and emotional toughness BEFORE you have the surgery.

It's like training for a marathon.....you put the blood sweat and tears in before the race to help you finish the race on game day. Without training and preparation, you will likely fail and you can get hurt really badly along the way!

Use your pre-op diet to work through your demons, build up your confidence and prove to yourself you can do it. If you "fall off the wagon" one day, the next day is a fresh start.

Aim for excellence. You owe it to yourself.

I am doing horrible on the preop diet. I have been on it four days but I am having trouble sticking to it. I am hoping to get back on track today. Anyone else having troubles?

The first four days were the worst for me. But now that I've gotten the hunger, headaches, weakness and all that behind me, life after getting sleeved is a lot better for me. I'm glad they made me do a two-week pre-op diet.

Wow, webchickadee, that is such a great outlook on this whole process. Thanks for sharing!

I started on Wed 05/29/2013 and I tell you that day was the hardest, my body was like what in the hell is going on with us today.. I mean it was literally a war going on inside of me. Second day getting better learning how to cope and deal with these thoughts. Drinking so much water I could burst and making sure I get all my protien in really began to help this process. Today i am day 3 and the hunger headaches are starting to go away and I feel a little pep in my step. 10 more days to go for me and I know I can do it, for once I have to dig real deep down inside myself and find my strength. I say all this because I want to be ready to handle my life after surgery. Retrain my limits and eating habits which in turn will help me daily on the long road ahead. So Im sending prayers for all of you that are having a hard time right now. Best wishes

Thanks for all your insight! I need to fo better. Tomorrow is a new day!