Pre-surgery lifestyle changes

Hi. Newbie here. I've been working through the pre-surgery requirements of my clinic - regularly meeting with the dietician, health checks, and psych eval (that's up next). It's involved a lot of learning and being willing to make changes so far - which leads me to my question.

What changes that you made before surgery were the most helpful in being successful after surgery? Or is there something you wish you would've done differently to make post-surgery an easier transition?

Thanks! All the information here has been great.

I don't know if this is the answer you are looking for... but the most important change presurgery was mindset. I made a decision that if I was going to do this crazy thing I was making it my job. That meant following the rules.

I don't know if you can ever be totally prepared for post-surgery. You just have to walk through the process one step at a time.

That's a perfect answer. I totally get treating it as if it were a job. I wouldn't slack off in my work - why would I slack off with my health (that's why I started this process in the first place).

I'm pretty much a rule follower to begin with and I've been slowly trying to make the changes like no drinking with or immediately after a meal, tracking what I'm eating, and portion sizing ahead of time to get in the habit and hold myself accountable for what I do.

The most useful thing I did pre-op was to find a therapist I clicked with. I knew that the surgery was only going to change my stomach and, really, it's not my stomach that go me to the point where I needed surgery - my brain did that.

That's great advice. I've heard that from a few people and it definitely makes sense to find someone and establish that partnership before the physical upheaval of surgery.

Full transparency: I went easy on myself during the 6 month pre-op period. I had so much going on in my life and used it as an excuse to do the minimum. I didn?t buckle down and be absolutely strict (no cheating period****il the pre-surgical liquid diet. I didn?t fully take advantage of the pre-op period?I?m 5 wks our and would?ve been so much further ahead if I did.

One piece of weird advice: work out those legs, glutes and core now. IF your recovery is difficult (mine was, many peoples? are not), you will have an easier time standing up, using the bathroom, sitting down etc if you have some muscles.

Al

Thank you for your candor about what you would've done slightly differently. I've been kind of lax on some of that too so far - but sounds like its more beneficial to start early on good habits.

I agree with the suggestions above.

As well, once I decided enough was enough, and started researching WLS after my PCP mentioned it to me, I started making a lot of changes that are recommended post-op:

• No drinking with meals
• No carbonated beverages
• Minimal processed food, sugar, and artificial sweeteners (which meant I didn't go through carb detox after surgery)
• No caffeine (which meant no withdrawal headaches after surgery)
• No fast food
• No alcohol
• Drank lots of water
• Had vitamin panel done and then modified supplements as appropriate
• No food funerals in the weeks/days before surgery

The results of my changes were weight loss before surgery (35 lbs) and easy recovery. I also reached goal weight in less than 1 year - lost 100 lbs.

Cutting out caffeine is definitely one of the things I'm most concerned with doing. I gave up soda cold-turkey 7 years ago - but transferred the caffeine addiction over to my daily coffee. I definitely don't want to deal with withdrawal after surgery though.

I'm lucky that the medical team at my clinic is big on the vitamin panels. They wanted to make sure levels were at a good spot before surgery so that there was less deficit to make up and so they had some baselines pre-surgery as well.

I'm just a couple months shy of 2.5 years post-op, and I didn't cut out caffeine until a couple of weeks ago (not required in my program, I chose to do it for other reasons), and let me tell you, I had WICKED headaches. I knew this was a probable symptom as I had always heard this, I was just not prepared for how intense the headaches were. They lasted for about a week and it was awful! You'll get through it, just wanted to share my experience - that those withdrawal headaches are NO JOKE!