Okay - first timer here. Jan 25 is magic day.

nerves kicking in. need some ground advise for the pre-op diet. i can't do cottage cheese - havn't done white milk or close faxcimilies since i was 6 months old - can't handle the smell, taste - even the thought of it makes me shiver - Yogurt however - i have gotten to like over the past few years. but two weeks of yogurt and tea? - are they serious?

i'm going to try - but does anyone have some "tricks" they can share. i'm not sure what happens if i'm not able to hold out for 2 weeks of yogurt and tea?

Hi there:

Even though you can have other things I found it got old really fast, I ate alot of soup, cream of wheat, anything mushy, it was really nice when I could start soilds.

so what you are really telling me is buck up - and consider my road to be 2 weeks longer on liquids. 2 weeks pre-op - 5 weeks post-op. okay - kinda what i figured. not disapointed - but gonna have to do a lot of self peptalking.

i'll look on it as finally being able to contribute to keeping the dairy farmers in business.

thanks.

L

Hi and welcome ljgnorth!!! Good luck on your upcoming date!!

I won't lie to ya, for me the 2 week pre-op diet was REALLY hard. Admittedly, I cheated the first two days and then realized I was only hurting myself and got thru the remainder of the 2 weeks. I told myself that I NEEDED to do this to "shrink my liver" in order to make the actual operation go smoother for the docs and have a better recovery. When I told myself that....it really helped me stay on track. Seriously man, if I can do it, anyone can! I also can't stand the taste, site or smell of cottage cheese and so I only did the yogurt thing.

Tips: take one meal at a time and don't think of how many days you still have left of it....you'll go insane. "hmmmmm what will I have for Breakfast (lunch, dinner) today...hmmmm lets see....I can have yogurt or....oh yeah, there is yogurt....or perhaps some yogurt". It was tough man. But to help, I treated each time as a meal and I wouldn't eat out of the lil' yogurt cups (if that is what you have). Dish out your yogurt into a real bowl with a real spoon and sit down to breakfast/lunch/dinner like a regular person and eat. It makes ya feel like you are eating a regular meal....and have really as much as you want.

In all seriousness, if you can make it through about the first 5 days, the rest will be easier......it is the carb withdrawal that will get to ya....but after the first few days, it gets better....just keep telling yourself that you are literally going thru withdrawal; it seems to make it easier to take. Prepare yourself for the carb withdrawal headaches and irritability....but just recognize it for what it is.

Good luck!

I can say a few things to scare you, if you like

I found some really good yogurt, and that's weird, cause I don't like yogurt! It's Dairyland Classic vanilla Fat Free (with fruit on the bottom) Comes in a case of 12 or more (also at Costco), in cherry, blueberry, mango and strawberry. Are you guys allowed yogurt like that? Or only the most boring?

I never had to do the yogurt/cottage cheese thing. I wished I WAS doing it when I was doing my pre-op diet, but I'm sure they both are equally as tough.

Good luck, and welcome!

I forgot to mention....a GOOD thing about having to do the pre-op diet....you are WAY better prepared for the post-op diet as opposed to the folks I know who did not have to do a pre-op diet. For me, the post-op diet was a breeze after the pre-op....for those who didn't have a pre-op diet and then were faced with the post-op recovery diet....YIKES!!!

Good Morning ljgnorth!!

Welcome!!!!

The pre-op diet is very hard, no crap, it is hard. BUT, it is only 2 weeks. In my case it was 3 weeks, YUCK!! I have to say that I didnt cheat at all, I don't know why, if you knew me the way I know me, you'd wonder how the heck I ever did it. But my surgery went perfect, and I've had no problems at all. So, ya, it really is worth the 2 weeks of hell. When your going crazy, come on here and talk to us.

thanks people - this is good.

another part of my questions would be. is there any limitation to the yogurt. amount, kind, content.

i like the Yoplait Source yogurt.

it is almost like ice cream or pudding.

but i like the fruit ones -

i like the idea of sitting down and setting it up as a real meal.

oh we humans can fool ourselves into many things.

now if i could just fool the insurance company into paying for this... i'd be away.

L

TLBC told me that I could pretty much have as much yougurt as I wanted (but you should try and still be reasonable about it!!!...trust me you won't want to over-do it anyways....it gets pretty tiresome).

As far as type is concerned....I went with the lowfat of course. I was specifically told to NOT have the one with the fruit in it....(you know, the clumps of fruit on the bottom).....which makes sense....it adds a lot of extra sugar etc. I stuck to Source myself....(some had teeeeeny lil' bits of fruit in it)....but not chunks.

I would rather eat yogurt and cottage cheese for two weeks than lettuce and celery!!!

Lila, Lila, Lila, there you are.......get over to your thread and tell us how you are???????

i hate cotage cheese as well..... what i did was eat yogurt and Jello... as well as the allowed drinks..... milk really fills u up

a little trick i tried was to eat a different kind of yogurt at different meals...... too much sweetness got to me after a couple of days, so for dinner i had plain yogurt......at lunch i had the fruity one

ARe you serious about the Jello (i presume the sugar free) on the Pre-Op diet. i'll check that out with my Massage Therapist (also a Naturalist). What he has been telling me is that yes - the short statement is "Shrink the Liver" - however the longer version has the yogurt forcing the organs to start purging the fat and toxins out. That knowledge has helped.

on many levels.

Thanks for the responses. It seems i have trouble accessing the site from my home system, so i'm stuck waiting until i get to work each day. - for now any way.

Thanks Yoda,

that is where my thinking went - just wanted to be sure i was decifering correctly.

I am a little disapointed with TLBC. i have e-mailed twice (as suggested by Nisreen) and have had no reply. unfortunatly i do not have my diet and per-op meeting until 2 days before surgery. i seem to be relying heavily on this site for general guidance. so far - so good, how can one really mess up yogurt and tea, i am concerned about the amount of yogurt i can have. the additional problem is tht my dad accidentaly threw out the envelope that had my pre-op instrucitons in it. do you know if there is a web page that i can download the "directions" - hoping that it might be able to give me some guidelines on amounts etc.

ljgnorth: give them a call...it is harder to not respond to a phone call than it is to an e-mail.

As far as how much yougurt...pretty much as much as you want! I would generally have the little single servings....typically I would have one each for breakfast/lunch/dinner and then one as a morning/afternoon/evening snack. Sometimes I might skip the snack one and double up on a meal one....it's pretty flexible.

I will be starting the yogurt thing next week, and like you ,no amount of cottage cheese will pass my lips. That is a whole lot of yogurt.

What about Tim Hortons vanilla yogurt ?

I know for weight watchers it is only 3 points

Yasmina