Hey everyone!! I just wanted to share with everyone some things that have been helping me pre-op and if anyone wants to share what helped them! I am so happy that I have three weeks before my surgery to take the time to really prepare myself. I'll start with In my down time now I have been reading the Big Book on the Gastric Bypass by Alex Brecher. I got it on Amazon Kindle for $8.99 and it has been an amazing source of knowledge that has helped me feel way more at ease about my surgery. It touches on pretty much everything! What are some things you guys are doing to prepare or did prepare? Would love to hear it ❤️

While I was waiting for my surgery ( which seemed like forever ) I decided to make my future self a type of scrap book. I scoured the internet for healthy recipes , articles, cartoons . My surgeon even gave me pictures of my insides while he was cutting and stapling my stomach and ready to pull it out ! Yep - those are in there,too ! LOL I drew alot of pictures, used alot of stickers and just made it fun to look through. I'm still working on it , I have alot of recipes to write out yet. It kept my mind occupied and my hands too busy to snack LOL

Omg I love this what a creative idea. Those surgery pictures of the insides would make me think twice before trying to cheat haha. This would be great to do in the hospital too after surgery so I have a project to occupy my time. My therapist told me there's tons of good recipes for bariatric meals on Pinterest so I joined that today and started saving some and reading articles as well!

Don't forget to look up weight loss cartoons .... they'll crack you up later when you're reading through it

What helped me pre-op was I started detoxing and dieting a whole month before my surgery. I started with a semi-liquid diet on May 11th. Protein Shake for breakfast and lunch and a healthy, no carb dinner. I stopped drinking alcohol and upped my water to 6 or 7 bottles a day. Then 10 days (because they had a cancellation and asked if I wanted it sooner than scheduled) before surgery, I started on all liquids. In the first 24 days before surgery, I lost 23 lbs. That really, really motivated me and made me feel so good both physically and emotionally. It also helped the surgeon with a successful surgery because of the liver shrinkage. Y'all have some awesome ideas!

I am slowly preparing with dieting as well. I'm eating all the right foods, but probably not limited my intake as much as I should. I completely cut out alcohol too and don't plan on drinking again. I never liked soda or carbonated drinks so that part will be easy for me, but I love water haha and right now I drink a lot of water. I was worried that it would be hard for me not to drink water because some medications I'm on give me dry mouth and make me really thirsty. How far in advance did they tell you to do all liquids before surgery? Mine is two days but I thought maybe i should try to do it for a week to shrink my liver more too. I asked the office and they told me no I don't need to do that but I want the best recovery possible...

Did you snack between during your semi liquid diet, I really want to do that too at the exact three week mark

6 minutes ago, MasonMoonGirl said:

I am slowly preparing with dieting as well. I'm eating all the right foods, but probably not limited my intake as much as I should. I completely cut out alcohol too and don't plan on drinking again. I never liked soda or carbonated drinks so that part will be easy for me, but I love Water haha and right now I drink a lot of water. I was worried that it would be hard for me not to drink water because some medications I'm on give me dry mouth and make me really thirsty. How far in advance did they tell you to do all liquids before surgery? Mine is two days but I thought maybe i should try to do it for a week to shrink my liver more too. I asked the office and they told me no I don't need to do that but I want the best recovery possible...

For me it was supposed to be 12 days on full liquids and then 2 days clear liquids right before surgery. My doc told me that if they opened me up and found any food in my stomach and/or gut, he'd cancel it and sew me back up! So, I wasn't taking any chances. He also wanted me to lose some weight prior to my surgery, so that also motivated me to start detoxing and dieting 4 weeks before I had to. I wasn't counting calories or anything on my semi-liquid diet, but I wasn't snacking either. I would control myself until dinnertime, lol. But I found that once you detox from carbs, it gets really easy to not crave them so much at all.

Edited July 14, 20233 yr by CarmenG

I've never been on a liquid diet in my life so wish me luck ? I'm going to start the semi liquid next week so if you guys see another depressed post don't be surprised lolll jk

Best of luck!!! You'll do great! I think what made it easier for me is that I'm a teacher, and there's NO EATING in my class (cuz middle schoolers started taking "special" gummies to school and teachers thought it was regular candy). My class periods are 49 minutes long with a 4-minute passing period. We need to stand in the hallways while kids go to their next classes. There's really no time to be snacking and eating and stuff. At home, however, is was a whole different story. That's why I left my actual solid meal for dinner. As an example, I'd eat a homemade cheeseburger sans the bread, or rotisserie chicken, or pork chops. I didn't hold back on beef, chicken, pork, or CHEESE! I ?cheese. ? When I was craving sweets, I'd just drink another protein shake.

Edited July 14, 20233 yr by CarmenG

I am currently off of work so I will be home all day. I'm definetely going to need a lot of distractions! Did the liquid diet make you weak or not want to do anything physically? We have a mini beach getaway planned and I love to go in the water and waves I wonder if that's too much for the supervised starvation ill be on ?? the premiere protein cake batter shake definetely takes care of my sweet tooth! I want to be under 300 for my surgery and I have 10 pounds to go I hope I can do it!

I'm home right now too until Aug 8th when I go back. Initially when I detoxed from carbs and alcohol (semi-liquid diet), I did not feel weak. The first three days were a b*tch because withdrawal. Yes, even from carbs. But on like day 4, I was really feeling good. I had energy, I was in ketosis, and I was sleeping sooo much better at night. I think you'll do great at the beach, just please hydrate and take your shakes, maybe even no sugar, super low-carb protein bars, and have a good, healthy dinner.

Yes during my carb withdrawl is when I posted that depressed before surgery post lolll. Now I feel much better my fiance ate a burger with Bun in front of me at lunch and before that would have pissed me off to the max and now it didn't bother me haha. We are actually staying on the beach so our cottage has a refrigerator and kitchen I'm very happy I don't have to eat out and ruin my diet. I just made a meal plan for the week of my semi liquid diet I am a huge sauce person so I'm doing a keto lettuce crunchwrap Supreme (keto taco bell) for dinner and a big Mac salad. Going to measure my sauce so I don't go crazy I know it would be better without it but until I go full liquid I'll allow it it's still low carb since made with Mayo!

Ya know... I was pleasantly surprised to find out that steak sauce and tomato sauce are almost void of carbs.

Thank you @MasonMoonGirl I downloaded that e-book, only $6.95.

Awesome you won't regret it, I'm about halfway thru!