Today marks exactly one year since I started my preop diet and I was reminded of all the wonderful things I've learned from this site so I thought I'd share a few.

1. Never knew about the 3 week stall until I read it on here.

2. salad Bar-Someone else had posted this tip. I now go to the Salad bar at Safeway right down the street from my house and load up the container with all sorts of veggies and do not add any dressing. Then for the week I just use my precut veggies out of my box. I waste so much less and it's super easy.

3.Powercrunch bars...they are my favorite.

4.Genepro unflavored Protein. Love this stuff heard of a new one called Piping rock that I will try when I run out of GENEPRO.

5.If you stall keep measuring as you're probably losing inches

6.Healthy options at fast food places, recipes, snack ideas

And now I've ordered a new moisturizer cream. So much wonderful information on here. I am sure there is more that I am forgetting. How about the rest of you what have you found to be the most helpful?

~LA

My fave was from lipsticklady - never trust a fart

I'm looking into the Vitamin Patches

Some very good slow cooking recipes

But mostly I enjoy the encouragement...we are all alone in this together, and odds are your experience is not as unique as you think and you can feel free to quit freaking yourself out at any time.

I'll add and edit as I think of them

Edited October 14, 201510 yr by OKCPirate

Let us know about the vitamin patches. That sounds cool as I hate taking pills. I love the encouragement. I have only told my husband and one friend so for me this is the one place I can come and share my experiences etc.

~LA

I am using the Vitamin Patches. They are great! MDPatch. I think you can get 40% off with a coupon code (search google). I'm using Multivitamin, B12, and Glucosamine. They are very soft and light.@@SeahawksFan

http://www.patchmd.com/

Edited October 14, 201510 yr by Linaka

The 3 week stall, if not fer here I would have panicked.

Love the support here, and love helping others and giving ideas.

Almost learn something every day and I def did my research before surgery. This board is amazing!

Thanks for the notes. Powercrunch - have not tried those yet. Must explore I still love the brownie from Quest. Its my favorite.

I can't pinpoint just one thing, but I do really appreciate the encouragement here. I am happy when I log on and see so many people doing well and even the ones not doing well but still hanging in there make me happy.

The recommendation to read the Beck Diet Solution. I got the book from the library and found a lot of great ideas. One of my favorites is "hunger is not an emergency", there will be another planned meal coming along very soon. I used this thought today and waited for lunch. Before surgery I always ate at the slightest hint of hunger and would snack all day long. Now I am happy with one snack a day and three meals.

I tried the Vitamin patches based on reviews on here and it wasn't a good experience. I went from having all the energy in the world to feeling like the life had been sucked out of me. I kept trying them for 2 weeks and went back to the chewables and felt better immediately. Horrible experience for me

Edited October 15, 201510 yr by natnat919

My NUT told me the patch don't provide all the nutrition we need after ALS.

The support gained here has been valuable beyond description.

Seeing what folks have achieved with body changes is inspiring. There is so much that can be done if we stay on track.

Product recommendations have been great.

The laughs. There have been tons of humorous stuff posted at a time when being able to laugh was golden for me. We all have some grim stuff to endure and work through......the sense of humor must be maintained. There are some real characters here that make this a very fun place to hang out.

There is a feeling of inclusion.......being part of a team.......facing a common struggle. Nobody is alone in their battles.

Last but not least, being able to learn more about the surgeries, the feeling afterwards, the expectations of how the surgeries will go have been great to know ahead of time. It surely gets you ready for working your way through the steps leading up to surgery.

I enjoy so much some of the smart, funny people I've met here. And there are many.

I especially treasure the contributions made by those who are 2 years or longer post-op. I don't care whether they're doing wonderfully or badly -- all their stories are helpful to me.

Thank you to everyone who's a "veteran" who continues to participate in this community.