:sad_smile:Hi everyone,

I am in need of MAJOR support. I have been on the Optifast pre-op liquid diet for 10 days and have 4 more to go. Then I have two days of clear liquid only which leads me up to surgery on 4/22. I have cheated twice (once a small salad and the 2nd time a piece of chicken) but today I almost gave up everything. I was doing well; back on track and for the last 3 days I have been having Better than bouillion broth for dinner to curb my evening hunger with a frozen SF popsicle for dessert. The problem is I have also started diarrhea. (sorry to be gross) My tummy is always grumbly and everytime I eat broth I get the runs. I am feeling so distraught I want to just give in as I don't own a scale but my clothes tell me I have not lost major weight like others on this board. I'm afraid I will jeopardize it all tomorrow especially since now I afraid to eat. For dinner tonight all I had was and Optifast and tea. Someone please help me....I feel like crying..:biggrin:

hey if we were so great at liquid diets and all we wouldn't need the band. I only need to do one day liquid diet the day before operation so i can't relate to what you are doing. Keep your head up you can do it.....how will the doctor know that you cheated anyway...don't beat yourself up......

Hang in there.....I'm five days into my 14 day preop with Optifast.

To give you a laugh....I was really missing warm food so I decided to do the Soups or broth with optifast. Well to make a long story short, I thought I was having a touch of gas and WRONG it was the big D. I'm so glad I was on my way home from work and able to handle it quickly but they should have a warning with the Soup about that as I have not seen that in any of the posts.

Now, sounds like when you cheated you did it with Protein and a salad. No big deal....shake it off and congratulate yourself on making a good choice if you had to cheat.

Remember, nothing tastes as good as being thin feels!!!

Hang in there you have come to far to give up now....WE CAN ALL DO THIS!:biggrin:

Don't beat yourself up this is hard. Also this kind of diet messes with your head. You have no sugar in your brain. Believe me I know because I've been the weepiest, craziest mess for the past two weeks. And I didn't have to do the liquid diet, I was on low-carb. I thought I would loose my mind. So give yourself a break. You are not eating anything, that messes with your normal body processes. You're not eating any Fiber so naturally all the extra Fluid has to go somewhere. I had diarrhea as well. It was so bad for the first few days that I also had rectal bleeding and pain (sorry, TMI, I know).

So you had a salad and piece of chicken. That's not cheating, that's normal. Cheating is when you go to every drive-thru in town and order one of everything. Just think you only have 4 more days. Take it one day a time, one meal at a time. You're almost there! Hang in there. It will all be worth it!!! Good luck!

If you look at this with 4 days plus 2 liquid it IS tough.... so take a note out of the SEAL book and don't look ahead. Look at now, today. In hours, minutes, seconds, whatever you need to get through this. And you can and will do this! Six days is a lot, one day can be tough.... but an hour? Make it through for an hour. Then another. They will end and you will get there.

Bless you!

Hey - I'm right there with ya. I've been doing the Optifast fest since 4/7. It's been pretty damn rough. Some days I'm totally fine. Others, it's been like a sick and twisted game show event.

I know all about the upset stomach (you can take Immodium, btw, if it's particularly bad), the ridiculous growling noises (coming from your abdomen - not you voice ), the dragon breath...

I've broken down and fallen off 'the wagon', but it's fortunately been with decent Protein for the most part. The worst being a couple of hershey kisses, but even then, it was only four of them. The way I've been keeping track of everything is logging my intake on dailyplate.com. I've been able to monitor my caloric/carb/protein/water intake daily. Even with my cheats, I'm still consistently under 800 calories/day and sticking to the equivalent of the three Optifast shakes.

So, in my ever hungrier head, I figure, if the nutritional intake is the same as the shakes, what difference is it how I get it. There was no directive from my surgeon about solids/no solids etc.

Just know that you've got company!!!

hugs

-m

Oh, and the whites of hardboiled eggs have become my best friends. Nom nom nom!!!!!!! :tongue:

Thank you for the good advice...I did get through the day one hour at a time. So now I look forward to a better tommorrow with no cravings or drama. Thanks again for the support and words of encouragement!!

Thanks to all of your for yourwonderful words ofencouragement.

I got through today with no cheating so let's hope tomorow is better. Thanks!

Hi this is my very 1st anything on this site and I just wanna tell you that that pe-op diet had me depressed. I kept thinking is this what I am signing up for a life of boring foods and hunger. Well its NOT. I am seven days past the installation ;0 and I went to a real resturant with my family and ordered food off the menu ( it was just soup but it had soft veggies and chick). My girl friend who has had it for 18 months said it gets soooo much better cuz when you go out you can eat off the plate for 2-3 days. So stick with it just keep thinking three more days, two more days one more. . .