My doctor pulled the trigger and put a referral in for me to start the 12 week Options Class. But I'm impatient and I want to start liquid diets now to see how I can handle it. I want to do it for one week and see how it goes from there. Any advice if I should give it a trial run in the early stages?

Do you have a surgery date or are you still in the pre-approval process? If you want to experiment to find protein shakes that you tolerate well that would make sense. Beyond that, I'm not sure that you gain anything by starting a liquid diet early (unless the Dr orders it).

During the pre-approval process focus on eating healthy balanced meals. Work with the nutritionist to met recommend calorie goals. This is a time to focus on modifying habits like reducing snacking, eliminating junk, etc.

I tested myself. It was rather easy to get through a week on the liquid diet, but it's a mind thing. When you are testing, you get food when it is over. I'm on my pre-op diet now and it really messes with me know that I won't be able to have certain foods again.... even if I cut them out or reduced them before. So it makes it a little harder.

Is a liquid diet part of their program as you get closer, or is this an assumption based upon what some post here - liquid pre-op diets are not a standard feature of sleeve programs, only some require them (so don't go volunteering for things you don't need to do!) I would agree that it is useful to get used to protein drinks, trying different ones to see which you prefer.

Maybe I am getting ahead of myself then because I am still in the pre approval process and my doctor did not order me to start a liquid diet YET. I'll just stick to diet and exercise in the meantime to shed some pounds before my surgery date

I don't think there's a logical answer, I'd just stick with what you're told from health professionals.

The premise of the pre-op diet is to shrink the liver. For those who don't have inflamed/expanded liver (due to progressive liver diseases) it takes very little time to shrink the liver as small as it's gonna get.