Bariatric sleeve

missyd8971

Hello everyone...I am having the gastric sleeve surgery on Nov 14th. I started my pre-op diet today which pretty much consists of protein shakes, lean meats and vegetables. My nutritionist says to try to stay below 1000 calories per day. I'm a little nervous about staying on track prior to my surgery and would greatly appreciate any tips (I feel like I'm going to be starving lol)!! Thank you in advance!!!

NewCaddy

The pre-op is hard. One thing I did was to have 2 protein shakes per day and then a meal. I remember thinking, geez, if its so hard to do, how am I going to be successful afterwards. Don't worry about that. It's much easier to meet the goals right after surgery than it is before. The sleeve is definitely a great tool.

I am down 31 pounds. I had surgery on August 29th. The other thing I would suggest is to take measurements the day before surgery. You will have a starting point. There are times that you stall in your actual weight loss but you can see that you have still lost inches.

Remember that every person's body reacts different as well. I just saw a lady has lost 78 pounds and she is only 2 weeks further than me. That can be a bit frustrating if you start to compare yourself to others. My surgeon had us all take a standard 2 weeks off work. When I went back, I was in terrible pain and they had me do another week at half days. Luckily, I have a wonderful employer that actually let me do the surgery and take the time off (even though I have only been here 3 months). Plus don't expect to bounce back right away. I was 4 1/2 weeks out before I felt like I turned a corner and felt good again.

Good luck and if you want, you can friend me. Might be nice having a MFP friend that is going through the same things.

missyd8971

Congratulations on your success and thank you so much for all of the advise!! So far so good today - I had a premier protein shake for breakfast and one for lunch. I also had a P3 and a couple of carrots and for dinner I'm going to have some chicken and some broccoli.

I work in an office so I am hoping to be back at work the following week for 2 days and then I'll be off again for Thanksgiving weekend. If I need more time I'm sure my employer will work with me - they are very supportive!

Thanks again and I will defiantly friend you!!

Mavenly

Fellow sleever here, also happy to have other friends. Pre-op is definitely hard, definitely recommend measurements and pictures as a start.

finding_onederland

Another Sleever here too (sleeved on 9/6) - I found the pre-op liquid diet (and the post-op liquid diet) tough. It is a mental game for sure!

Find ways to distract yourself when you are tempted to eat out of boredom - I had a list of "whys" that i would refer to when I felt like I wanted to eat.

I also just read an article about cravings from Michelle May (she wrote a book and founded amihungry.com) - I thought it was good advice and I have "ducked" my cravings a few times!

Duck Your Cravings

Learning to observe your cravings in a curious but uninvolved manner can take the power out them. Try this exercise:

The next time you have a craving, stop what you’re doing, close your eyes, and focus on your breath.
Observe the craving as if it was a duck, bobbing around in your awareness.
Become curious but remain calmly detached as you watch it.
If the craving becomes stronger, imagine that is simply paddling toward you.
If you feel compelled to stop and eat the object of your craving, smile as you picture yourself chasing down an innocent duck.
Practice slowing and deepening your breath as you patiently wait for the craving to turn and float away.
Imagine the lake returning to peaceful stillness.

newstar44

Premier Protein shakes. 30 grams per serving, 160 calories per serving, keeps you full. Serve on ice, very tasty.

Evamutt

I'm not a sleaver, but my hubby lost alot of weight & kept it off using the nutribullit, making his own shakes. He put all his meals in there( dinner foods he added some milk for make it like soup) due to having to have all his upper teeth pulled & waiting months for dentures. He says food absorbs better & he has kept the weight off

rossanapedroso

hi everyone rossana here. new to this site. been attending classes through kaiser for pre-op sleeve. having a hard time. my weight keeps fluctuating and having cravings. glad to find this site. thanks for all the pep talk.

jyamiolk

I had the sleeve October 2014 and have lost 123 pounds. For my preop I had to do two weeks of full liquids. That was challenging. After the third day I went into Ketosis and the hunger pangs went away. make sure to weigh and measure everything post surgery. Not sure if they will put you through phases but I had a few weeks of full liquids, then graduated to pureed (sp) then mushy and finally solid. Good luck and reach out if you have any questions. During your honeymoon stage (approximately a year) focus on the physical changes like waist size as you are on this journey. Tracking weight is good but can get obsessive (I weighed every day and sometimes twice a day) Once I hit maintenance I went to three times a week and currently weighing once a week.

NicoleL874

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/637-gastric-bypass-vsg-lapband

NicoleL874

Check out that group! Great group! Lots of info in the boards!

I did 3 Carnation Instant Breakfast shakes before surgery, per day. I was also allowed up to 1,000 calories total. I did a lot of salads, slaws, only with lemon juice or apple cider vinegar. Pickles were a great snack for crunching. We were not allowed any meats or carbs, just a small list of veggies and our shakes. It's completely doable, just mentally difficult. The first 48 hours were the worst.

I had my VSG on 10/15/15

HW: 307
SW: 283
CW: 145
GW: 130-150

thollingsworth216

Question for the sleevers?? Aredirect any of you smokers? I am and my doc said I have to quit prior to surgery. I can understand that. However, hentering made it sound like if you smoke and have this procedure, your would die. That a leak was inevitable and it could kill you. Is smoking really that detrimental??

NewCaddy

I'm not a smoker but what I've heard is that many doctors won't even operate on someone that smokes. That smoking causes complications that could lead to leaks and/or ulcers.

aprilj79

I will begin my 6 month pre surgery medically supervised diet on Monday (even though I can't get in to actually start the supervised part until January). I would love to connect with some people who will keep me motivated and encouraged along this journey. Please add me!

AllisonMart

Hi, we had sleeve surgery on the same day! I'm down 47.8 lbs since the end of August, and just started the soft food diet on Monday. Struggling with it a bit.