Well, today is the start to becoming banded. I officially start the two week pre-op diet. I'm a little nervous about giving up certain foods and wondering if I will be able to survive on just Protein shakes and veggies. My wife is starting with me today even though she doesn't have to officially start until tomorrow. She wants to get an extra day.

For the past couple of weeks I haven't been dieting, but with my wife we were visiting all of our favorite restaurants so we could order our favorite foods. Yesterday, for our last meals we went to Red Lobster for lunch and then an Italian restaurant for dinner and I pigged out for the last time. It has been our "Tour de Food" so-to-say. I'm glad we did this b/c now I am ready to say good-bye to that lifestyle and begin this diet. Not just the pre diet but the whole change in eating once I am banded.

Any suggestions on how to get through the two week pre diet? What were your favorite Protein Shakes with Water?

Well, today is the start to becoming banded. I officially start the two week pre-op diet. I'm a little nervous about giving up certain foods and wondering if I will be able to survive on just Protein shakes and veggies. My wife is starting with me today even though she doesn't have to officially start until tomorrow. She wants to get an extra day.

For the past couple of weeks I haven't been dieting, but with my wife we were visiting all of our favorite restaurants so we could order our favorite foods. Yesterday, for our last meals we went to Red Lobster for lunch and then an Italian restaurant for dinner and I pigged out for the last time. It has been our "Tour de Food" so-to-say. I'm glad we did this b/c now I am ready to say good-bye to that lifestyle and begin this diet. Not just the pre diet but the whole change in eating once I am banded.

Any suggestions on how to get through the two week pre diet? What were your favorite Protein Shakes with Water?

Dwrd, it's monday and I'm ten days into the two week pre-op diet and I can relate to everyting you wrote. We did the farewell tour as well, ended up at Ryan's. I suppose it's telling that all the waitresses at Ryan's said they were going to miss me. But anyway, its Monday and I get banded on Thursday.

As to the pre-op diet, I found that the shakes were what staved off the hunger the best. I'm doing two a day. I found that mixing in some ice and running them in the blender to make what seems like a real milkshake helps a lot. When I crave something else, I go with cream of chicken Soup. Only I like to load it with Texas Pete hot sauce (do so at your own risk cause it'll burn twice if you know what I mean) to give it some flavor. On Friday, I was feeling real weak and a little dizzy. I added a sleeve of saltines to the soup for supper and I felt a whole lot better. I know this was cheating, but I had to do something. I also did some studying of labels and found that if I substitutes some cheese in my diet, it helped with the diarhea (sp?) and the calorie and carb count wasn't too different than having cream soup with skim milk.

Hang in there. Right now you're thinking about food. I know I was. Trust me, when you get three days out, like I am now, you're thinking about surgery. And for what its worth, it does take your mind off of food.

Hope this helps.

BTW, the first week of pre-op diet I lost 12 lbs., now its kind of stabilized. I guess it was the crackers.

Thank you Junior for the encouragement. I'm glad to hear it gets better towards the end of the pre op diet. Right now I am hungry and want to eat a cheeseburger. I didn't think the pre-op diet would be this hard. I'm going to have to stay busy to keep my mind off of food.

Thank you Junior for the encouragement. I'm glad to hear it gets better towards the end of the pre op diet. Right now I am hungry and want to eat a cheeseburger. I didn't think the pre-op diet would be this hard. I'm going to have to stay busy to keep my mind off of food.

Yer most welcome. Don't know why exactly, but for me, I could eat a whole plate full of Egg Rolls.

But earlier I was speaking to my wife about the diet and she pondered just how low the percentage of patients there must be who truly stuck to the pre-op diet... I mean to the letter. I did it for a little over a week and it was rougher than I was expecting too. As I mentioned above, I had to cheat a little with some crackers just to be able to function.

My surgeon told me that he's done many operations where once he got them open he could tell they'd likely eaten anything and everything right up to the night before surgery. Sure enough, while they're coming out of the sleep of surgery and seem to be prone to truthfulness, he asks them about their diet and they confess.

But if you're serious about this, then the pre-op diet is the beginning of a path to more energy, less diabetes, more confidence, less hypertension, and so on and so on. Seems a small price to pay.:thumbup:

The only pre-op diet instructions I had was clear liquids the day before the surger and nothing the day of. Pretty quick transitions back to solids too. Allowed to have soft meats the third week after surgery.

I did the Optifast bars and shakes for my 2 week diet. It was really hard the first 3 days. And yes I did cheat once or twice, maybe more..., just like I do now, but my cheating is to take a CC Cookie as i walk by the plate and take a bit and throw the rest away. My joints are hurting so much from the excess weight that I had a big motivation to stick to the plan. I lost 15 pounds while subsisting on mostly choc bars, choc and vanilla shakes. (did you know after a while it looks the same on the way out as it does on the way in.)

The reason for the 2week diet is to shrink the fatty tissue in the abdominal cavity to make the surgery less difficult. Less difficult means less likely to have post-op complications. The thing that hurt me the most was where the Liver retractor was, I guess someone was really cranking on my liver during the operation.

I also made "The rounds". Now I go for Quality food not quantity food. I eat about as much as my 6 year old. It is really amazing the change that has occured in my stomach and mind. I Love Food. I was able to eat an entire pizza before and loved every bite as I was stuffing it down. I still love food but now I take a bite or two of pizza with the crust and then switch to eating the topping and savore every bite. I had Mexican food the other night ate a few bites in the afternoon and was satisfied and saved the rest for dinner. I also had a choc chip cookie. :Banane37:

I'm two days into the pre-op Optifast diet. Hate these &$#%ing shakes. But, all for the greater good. We ordered pizza and wings the last night before I started this. And beer. Sweet beer. At this point, I just would like to chew something. I have found, though, that I do like the Optifast tomato soup. Thank God for small favors.

Any of you guys who had to do this two week liquid diet get really cranky? I'm feeling really cranky right now.

I'm two days into the pre-op Optifast diet. Hate these &$#%ing shakes. But, all for the greater good. We ordered pizza and wings the last night before I started this. And beer. Sweet beer. At this point, I just would like to chew something. I have found, though, that I do like the Optifast tomato soup. Thank God for small favors.

Any of you guys who had to do this two week liquid diet get really cranky? I'm feeling really cranky right now.

I'll tell ya a little secret. Along with my liquids there was the occaisional Xanax.

I'll tell ya a little secret. Along with my liquids there was the occaisional Xanax. :smile2:

Not a bad idea Jr. Wish I had a script for that.

Dwrd73--you are going to be banded with your wife? How cool! My husband just wants to try to do the diet changes along with me...we'll see. He DOES have more willpower than I do!

Good luck to you!

~~anne