Newbie Here...Pre-op diet is HARD!!

Hello all, this is my first time posting hope I do this right. I have been approved and scheduled for surgery 06/12/12. I am currently on the Optifast shake diet. This is hard! We just returned from Disneyland and on the long drive home my family was snacking on chips, candy, soda, and McDonald's. It was so hard not to just grab some of my kids fries and devour them. I am trying to convince myself I am not hungry and food is my enemy. I am having a hard time fighting the temptation to just scarf down some food which makes me doubt I will be able to stick to a diet after surgery.

I am now 6 days post op.  I was on the Optifast diet as well.  I was told that if I needed to cheat I could eat some celery or sugar free jello or sugar free popsicles or even cucumbers.  Of course the cucumbers are the highest caloric item on that list.

I found that after 4 days on the Optifast diet I had lost the recommended weight for surgery  ... I was down 13 pounds at that point.  Only needed to loose 11.  A few days after that I actually did have some celery and sugar free jello.

You didn't mention how long you have been on the Optifast diet but I will tell you that after the first 2 or 3 days I found it wasn't all that bad.  I just kept thinking that it was all going to allow the surgery to proceed and that the end results will be worth it.  As of day 4 post op and from my initial weigh in just about 2 weeks before surgery ... I have already lost 21 pounds.  I am feeling so much better every day.

I am not in any way suggesting that you can cheat with those few things I mentioned but instead you should contact your doctor and ask if anything outside of the Optifast is acceptable if you are really finding yourself struggling.  I would imagine it depends on how much weight you need to loose prior to surgery.  Remember that the more you loose prior the easier the surgery is for your doctor and the better your recovery will be for you.  I hope this helps.  Good Luck.

The preop diets do vary very much I've heard.  One doctor's patient cordinator I spoke with told me he doesn't have patients do a liquid diet.   Just a high protein low carb, low fat diet.  (Carbs had to stay under 30 carbs a day.) But he let's his patients eat solid food not liquids.  So I'm such eating celery or cucumber will not mess up your liquid diet.  Plus both of those veggies have lots of water in them..

 I do agree with you 100%.  There seems to be a wide variety of pre-op diets.  The main goal is that you realize how much weight your surgeon wants you to loose and then bases your pre-op diet on that information.  Some people require a stricter diet than others.

My surgeon actually has all his patients on an Optifast 800 diet which basically was a shake in the morning ... 3 to 3.5 hours later a snack which was a protein bar or protein soup ... 3 to 3.5 hours later another shake ... 3 to 3.5 hours later another bar ... 3 to 3.5 hours later your final shake.

After my 6th day and the fact I had already lost the weight necessary to proceed I started snacking on celery.  And after a few days of celery and I was about a day or two prior to weigh in I had some cucmbers.  Those cucumbers were very refreshing and I cant tell you how much I enjoyed them.

Anyway as I mentioned in my last post if a person is having trouble with sticking to just Optifast then you should check with your surgeon about things like celery and cucmbers.  I also found that Snak Pak makes a sugar free jello (already made) that is sweetened with splenda (sucrolose) and is only 5 calories per cup for the strawberry and orange flavors.  However if you go to the cherry flavor it is actually 10 calories per cup.  By cup I mean the container it is in and not 8 ounces.  It is actually only 3.25 ounces.

My sugereon only requires a 5 day liquid diet to shrink the liver but I think I should do it longer because the other 3 surgeons patient cordinators that i had check out in Mexico prior to deciding to have surgery local had said a 2 to 3 week preop diet for my BMI.  1 doctor said 3 week liquid diet, another said 2 week liquid and the 3 is the one that said no liquid diet but low carb low fat diet.  I think it's the fat and the carbs that make our liver larger.   So I think what I'm going to do is do the 3rd diet for 9 days (solid food) prior to doing the 5 day liquid diet.  Giving me 2 full weeks of a low carb diet between the low carb solid food diet and than the 5 day liquid diet that way I will feel more confident  I shrank my liver for surgery and not have to worry about surgery being cancelled.
I'm going to make my own jello for the liquid diet out of herbal tea (instead of juice) plain gelatin and stevia.  Those ingredients will make the gelelo zero calories.  I wonder how it will taste. lol I'm don't do well with artificial flavors gives me headaches.  I found protein shakes sweetned with stevia that I'll use.  I'm not really looking forward to the preop diet but I imagine after surgery the post op liquid diet will be easier since the stomach will be sore.