After three months of waiting I finally have my consultation coming up next week. With my surgeon, there's usually a 4-5 week wait from consultation to surgery, so I have a good 5 weeks to go. I'm so psyched that I'm almost there!

Anyway, I had gained weight recently, so I decided - I have to do a pre-op diet anyway, why not start a little early and get a head start losing weight? I had tried that a month ago and that's how I ended up gaining, but I decided to go on a fairly strict plan now, and since I'm sooo close to surgery, I'm finding it easy to motivate myself to stay on plan. Basically I'm doing 4 meal replacements and 2 low carb meals - totalling about 1200 calories a day.) I've completed two days on the plan and I'm doing really well sticking to plan.

Reasons why I'm starting now instead of waiting for the pre-op diet:

(1) I'm terrified that the usual pre-op diet won't be enough to shrink my liver and I'll end up having the surgery cancelled or worse - converted to open. (I do NOT want to be cut open from breast bone to pubic bone!!! I won't even consent to that!)

(2) I am so sick and tired of feeling sick and tired. I want to get started on this new phase of my life already! Why should I wait to start losing weight if I find I actually have the motivation at the moment to stick to a diet?

(3) I'm afraid of having complications in the surgery, and the less I weigh at the time of surgery, the less likely I am to have complications.

(4) I really want the Allergan APS band, not the APL. I'm sure they're both fine, but the research showed the APS patients lost 62% of their excess weight in the first year, while the APL lost 43%. They explained the difference away as follows: "The APL band is not yet achieving as good weight loss when measured as %EWL. Partly, this is due to the larger patients being allocated to the APL group (mean BMI of 49.5 for APL; mean BMI of 41.6 for APS), and partly due to inadequate adjustments as we search for the optimal adjustment protocol." So they might be right that the APL is just as good, but nevertheless I want the band that has been proven to work better. The lower BMI patients tended to get the APS bands and the higher BMI patients got the APL bands, so hopefully I can lose enough in 5 weeks to get my BMI down. (And if it's not enough, I'll just work whatever band I get! But I want to at least try for the APS.)

(5) I think adjusting to life with the band would be easier if I'd been sticking to an eating plan for 5 weeks beforehand. My appetite should be less, my stomach should be smaller - and, I won't have to give up my favorite foods "all of a sudden." (Which would be a disaster for me - I would go into serious withdrawal LOL.)

(6) I'm hoping between now and my consultation to lose back down to the weight I was when I went for my nutritionist visit. It's a pride thing I guess.

(7) Going on the all liquid pre-op diet should be easier if I'm already dieting, with half my diet consisting of shakes as it is.

I'm not weighing myself either, because I don't want to psyche myself out. Weighing myself psyches me out - if I don't lose weight I give up, and if I do lose weight I always feel it's a drop in the bucket and give up. By not looking at the numbers, I'm hoping to not give up. And once I have the surgery, I hope this won't be a problem anymore, because if I stick to the rules of the band, I'll (hopefully) just keep losing.

Wish me luck!

Edited October 26, 200817 yr by dietpeach

Way to go with getting a jump start on your new path down life. I am starting my pre-op diet Nov. 14th and have already started a pre-diet to my pre-op diet. LOL - Basically I have started with the low carb / high protien shake diet for breakfast and eating lower carb and low fat meals. For me it is all about preparing for the change and not having this be as much of a shock on my body and mind as it could be. I have already been on the modified diet for a week and am doing very well. When you get your surgery date let us all know! And if it's in December look up the December 08 Bandsters thread and join us!

Good luck to you!

For me it is all about preparing for the change and not having this be as much of a shock on my body and mind as it could be.

Exactly! I especially want to minimize the shock on my mind. Adjusting to eating with the band will be hard enough without feeling the misery of giving up so many favorites at the same time (coca-cola). I also don't want to go from eating freely to eating a liquid diet. This plan gives me a transition.

Good luck to you too, and maybe I'll see you on the December board!