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Hi everyone. I'm Lisa and I'm having a vertical gastrectomy (gastric sleeve) done on April 25. I'm very blessed in that I have two housemates who are very supportive of my decision, as is most of my family (I haven't told everyone). <3

I'm on day 3 of the pre-surgery liquid diet. So far, so good. I've completed all my visits and testing and the only thing left is the final visit with my surgeon, hospital registration, pre-surgical testing (blood typing, etc.) at the hospital and the anesthesia consult. Since I started the liquid diet, I'm down 4 pounds, so that's just a hair over a pound a day. I'll take it!

I've found that using unsalted beef and chicken broth works for me because I toss in some garlic powder, and salt and pepper to my taste. I also use one scoop of Unjury unflavored protein powder with the broth to up the protein content. Best way I have found to do it: Dump one scoop of protein powder into deep cup; pour in cold broth and mix well (you'll still have some small "lumps" of the powder, but they will disappear). Next flavor with garlic powder (or onion powder) and salt and pepper to taste. Mix well each time you add something. You'll notice those tiny lumps of protein powder disappearing. Once everything is mixed well, I let the cup of broth sit for a minute, give it another stir, and then put it into the microwave for 1 minute. After that minute, I take it out, mix it well, and nuke it for another minute. I'm using a cup that easily holds two cups of broth.

For RTD shakes I'm using Premier AS Bananas and Creme flavored. It tastes the best of all of them, I think. The chocolate actually tastes like chocolate milk to me, but I couldn't stand the vanilla, caramel (burnt aftertaste) or strawberries and creme (no flavor).

Is anyone else here working on their pre-surgery liquid diet? Post-surgery? What types of protein shakes/powders have you found that you like? Any good post-surgery recipes? Which type of surgery have you had/are you having?

I look forward to chatting with everyone.

Best wishes,
Lisa

Replies

  • azbridgie
    azbridgie Posts: 1 Member
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    How is it going? How did your surgery go? My surgery is May 24 (sleeve also) so I will be about a month behind you. I figure lets stir this little group up. I am doing my preop diet right now. I'm on day 7 and yesterday was the hardest. I was ready to snap yesterday, I wanted everything, I wanted burgers and nuggets and donuts and sodas, but I survived and today has been just fine.

    I am with you on the Premier, chocolate is my favorite actually but the caramel has really started to get to me, I am choking down the last few that I bought. I HATE the vanilla but I think I am going to try it again after surgery.
  • dyme_diva
    dyme_diva Posts: 1 Member
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    Hello Ladies~
    I'm looking to schedule my surgery in August so I'm looking to join and learn from you as I travel this journey. I'm more afraid of saggy skin than the weight loss so I'm hopeful that I can drop the weight and not have the saggy skin afterwards.

    I'd love to hear how you all are doing post op.
  • catweiler57
    catweiler57 Posts: 14 Member
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    I had RnY (gastric bypass) in January 2017 and am doing very well. I am down 118 pounds so far with about 35 more pounds to go to goal. Exercising every day has actually become something I look forward to. So glad I had this done.
  • AlwaysAScorpio1
    AlwaysAScorpio1 Posts: 5 Member
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    I know I "poofed" after my original post . Apologies. Life got insane, to put it mildly and then I was off MFP for a long while. I had my VSG on April 25, 2017 as scheduled and things went pretty well. My surgery took over six hours, but only because I had a ton of abdominal adhesions that the surgeon needed to deal with before she could even get near my stomach. The day after surgery I was up walking the unit floor multiple times a day, and I went home two days after surgery. Healing up was fairly easy; the first week I felt fine. What sucked was the total loss of energy that started the second week and lasted almost six weeks. It's now been two years since my surgery, and I went from highest weight of 306 down to 189, and then had to have shoulder and elbow surgery this past October. I wasn't able to really use the gym as much as I wanted (and sometimes not at all) because of the shoulder and elbow issues prior to that surgery (from late August on) and after surgery, wasn't able to use the gym until mid-February. I gained 20 lbs back. I'm back in the process of losing my gain, working on losing more, and getting more active again. Don't let anyone tell you that you'll never gain any weight after the surgery; if you're not careful with what you're eating, and you're not careful to get as much exercise as you can, you will gain back. I tend to eat when I'm bored and, believe me, I was plenty bored over this past winter!

    One thing I did notice after my VSG was that my taste buds changed... a LOT! Some of my favorite foods (Bananas and Cream premier shakes especially) just tasted so awful I wanted to be sick. Conversely, tastes that I had absolutely HATED prior to surgery were enjoyable. I actually LOVE roasted brussel sprouts now, whereas before there was not enough money on this planet to get me to even sniff at one. LOL! It took me up until about 8 months ago to be able to again tolerate the taste of the Bananas and Cream protein shakes, but they're back on my list. A lot of things now, however, tend to have a chemical taste to me and when that happens it completely turns me off of eating. Do any of you deal with that? My vitamins (Flintstones Complete) especially taste like toxic chemicals some days.