Here's the list. It's long, but hope you find it useful!

RULES FOR LIFE AFTER WEIGHT LOSS SURGERY

    FOLLOW THE RULES
    Just like most things in life, you follow the rules, you will stay out of trouble.

    NO DRINKING 30 MINUTES BEFORE A MEAL, OR FOR 30-60 MINUTES AFTERWARDS (depending on your doctor’s instructions)Forever. Start getting used to it now. Loading your pouch with water before a meal keeps you from being able to eat as much as you should, drinking during the meal or afterwards flushes out the food before you get any benefit from it.   

    DRINK AT LEAST 64 OZ OF NON-CARBONATED, NON ALCOHOLIC, CAFFEINE FREE LIQUIDS A DAY
    What does that leave, you ask? WATER!! Lots of it. Do not  leave home without it. Keep a bottle with you wherever you go.

    VITAMINS
    Every day, for the rest of your life.  Keep them next to your toothbrush/toothpaste. You will remember to take them if it is with something that is already part of your daily routine. NO CHEATING. This could result in severe consequences down the road.        

    PROTEIN FIRST
    Start every meal by eating your protein first.  It is essential to our long term health. After you have eaten your protein, go to the vegetables, then starches. Strive for 60-80 grams (at least) a day.

    EAT THREE MEALS A DAY PLUS ONE PLANNED SNACK( if allowed by your doctor)
    No mindless eating, grazing, snacking, tasting, sampling, licking of spoons, munching allowed.

    EXERCISE
    Just DO IT.  Enough said.

    SUGAR IS YOUR ENEMY
    Sugar can lead to dumping syndrome and are nothing but empty, good for nothing calories. Nausea, vomiting, sweats, heart palpatations, and drowsyness are possible side effects of eating sugar and foods high in sugar alcolhols. Avoid them. It will make you happy!




    EAT SLOWLY AND CHEW THROUGHLY
    Learn to savor your food. You will not be eating much, so enjoy it. Put your fork down between bites. CHEW, CHEW, CHEW!!!  Improper chewing can lead to painful results. Your pouch can not tolerate big chunks/ fork fulls of food.     Any meal is worth putting on a plate and sitting down to eat it. Do NOT eat in front of the TV, while reading or standing over the kitchen sink.

    MEASURE YOUR FOOD.
    Follow your doctor or nutritionists rules for the amount of food you eat. Your new pouch will only hold ONE OUNCE of food in the beginning, and will increase, at about 18 months, to a 3/4 to one cup capacity. Failure to follow this rule early out can lead to staple line disruption, pouch stretching and ultimate failure. Sorry to be blunt, but it’s true. Follow the rules!       

    JOURNAL YOUR FOOD AND WATER INTAKE   
    Writing down your intake makes you accountable for what’s gone into your mouth.  It is important that you know you’re getting in the proper nutrition daily. There are many excellent website that offer free diet journals.  Or, simply get yourself a small notepad. Whatever works for you, just do it.

    PLAN YOUR MENUS IN ADVANCE
    Poor planning promotes poor performance!  Finding yourself in a situation where you might  have a clue what you’re going to eat can  lead to bad, often unhealthy choices. If you have to be out all day, consider a small cooler with healthy snacks and water. Do not be caught unprepared

    SUPPORT GROUPS
    Studies show that a weight loss surgery patient who attends at least 5 support group meeting a year has a 77% greater chance of reaching their goal and keeping their weight off. Five meetings a year seems to be pretty good insurance at a very low price.

    MAINTAIN A POSITIVE ATTITUDE AND AVOID TOXIC INFLUENCES You are  having this surgery for your own benefit. Now is the  time to make sure you take care of YOURSELF. Do not let well meaning family and friends sabotage your efforts by listening to negative comments about your decision. Make the decision to succeed, do not  plan to fail.

    FOLLOW THE 3 BITE AND H.A.L.T RULES
    If you MUST eat something off plan, have three bites and then destroy the rest. Ma**** up, pour water on it, empty the salt shaker over it. Whatever it takes!  A few bites is enough for you to get a taste....the 10th bite tastes the same as the first, so why eat more? Never eat when you Hungry, Angry, Lonley, or Tired

    MAINTAIN YOUR FOLLOW-UP SCHEDULE WITH YOUR SURGEON
    Make sure you have your lab tests done as directed by your doctor

I've just got time to skim this - but it looks good to me! 

I agree with all of them! 

Very important and good rules.  I try to get my non-wls friends and family to follow alot of these rules, because they are good for everybody.

I have broken most of these rules (sad face) and I am trying desperatly to get back on track after a 6 month plateua. 

Lemme just give everyone here an example of WHAT CAN HAPPEN if you break these rules.  these were/are all what happened to me, and may not happen to you, but you never know so follow the rules and avoid my pain.

NO DRINKING 30 MINUTES BEFORE A MEAL, OR FOR 30-60 MINUTES AFTERWARDS
You dont want to flush your food out, you will only get hungry again.  It's like eating chinese food, you are hungry again in 30 minutes.  You will only end up eating more and not lose weight if your eating more calories. 

If you absolutly must have something to drink during meal (somethings stuck or dry throat or cough) then my surgeons office told me i could take a small sip, but only a small tiny sip, enough to cure whatever reason I need the sip.  

DRINK AT LEAST 64 OZ OF NON-CARBONATED, NON ALCOHOLIC, CAFFEINE FREE LIQUIDS A DAY

There are lots of sugar free, caffeine free dink mixes out there nowadays tha****er can no longer be boring.  You don't have to spend your money on the more expensive stuff, many dollar stores and general store carry cheaper drink mixes, like wylers sugar free mixes and hawaiian punch has several flavors all sugar free and very addicting!  I think even grocery stores are starting to carry sugar free mixes as well for very cheap.   Make sure you stock up though, and you can also find many sf flavors in tub versions so you can make a whole pitcher at a time (if not, 8 single packets make a 2 qt pitcher)
Tea and coffee come in caffeine free versions to.  If you don't drink enough water you will get dehydrated.  When I get dehydrated my skin, especially on my hands will get scaly and ashy looking.  

VITAMINS

I am guilty of not taking them in the past, result, low vit d levels have caused me to be in a lot of pain, a side effect of low vit d levels in muscle pain.
A side effect of low iron is severe restless legs and arms syndrome, this has kept me up for days crying with hardly any sleep and having to constantly move my arms and legs.  Not easy to do if your attached to oxygen and a cpap machine. 
Other side effects havent been as bad, but I learned my lesson and for fear of not wanting to deal with restless legs and arms, I REMEMBER to take my vits everyday.  I keep them on my computer desk since I am there most of the day.  Keeping a few days worth of vitamins in a bag or container in your purse is always a good idea, because you may get stuck away from home longer than you intended, and you don't want to go without.  I also keep a weeks worth of vitamins (and medicines) in an emergency pack and refresh them every few months with newer vits and medicines.  You never know with mother nature, especilly in arkansas, bad weather and tornados or floods can strike anytime, also home fires and less-likely earthquakes. 

PROTEIN FIRST
Yes you must get your protein, do you want to keep your beautiful hair?  PROTEIN PROTEIN PROTEIN, most of us may lose a little hair after wls, but if you slack out on your protein you will probably lose alot.  And also the less protein that goes in your mouth, the more protein your body will steal from your muscles.  This is important to avoid if pre-surgery you were sedentary.  If this happens you may need to go to physical therapy like me, to build back my muslces and strength since pre-surgery I was very sedentary, I have to be sure to get all my protein so my body doesn't eat my exisiting muscles.

EAT THREE MEALS A DAY PLUS ONE PLANNED SNACK
Another rule that I broke somewhere down the line.  Eating 3 meals is something I have struggled with my entire life.  I am just not a lunch person.  I eat breakfast when most eat lunch and I eat a normal dinner time.  But not being hungry can cause you to not eat your meals.  Pre-surgery I only ate if I was hungry, but my problem, how I got fat, was that I ate to much and it was not controlled.  Plus I snacked, badly.  After surgery I find that sometimes I snack.  So I need to be sure to eat 3 good meals everyday and only snack on something healthy, like on a piece of fruit. Something healthy.  

EXERCISE
You'll have more energy if you do this.  Plus you'll lose weight in all the right places and exercising can help you tone up areas that may hang when you really start losing weight.  Like tummy, thigh, arms, breasts.  All places that were the heaviest pre-surgery will probably hang after surgery.  I try to walk everyday, if something is within a mile, I chose to walk rather than find a ride.  Plus it saves on gas to walk.  Gyms can be expensive, but you can almost always find Richard Simmons workout tapes at thrift store and garage sales.  For me, their fun and I don't hurt so much doing them.  Also many other workout tapes can be found to, and many of them can be fun.  So no excuses on not working out.  

SUGAR IS YOUR ENEMY
Don't test this theory, some will find that sugar is tolerated and end up back on the cookies and ice cream train.  I did for a month last year, found I could eat gummy bears and sugar cookies and not get sick, guess what?  It became a mini-addiction.  I ate sugar cookies every day.  I realized after a month that I was no longer just eating one cookie now and then but could eat several cookies a day and I sat back and wondered how it happened.  So I stay away from sugar.  Wal Mart and Kroger have lots of goodies made with no added sugar or sweetened with splenda.  Kroger has their own brand of fruit salad in a jar sweetened with splenda.  And both stores sell ice creams pops and ice cream with no added sugar.  Not that you should be eating a bunch of bad stuff anyway, but an ice cream pop is really great on a hot day.  

EAT SLOWLY AND CHEW THROUGHLY
If you don'****ch how you eat you will find that you are throwing up everytime you eat cause you ate to quickly or didn't pay attention and swallowed bites that were to big and now you are plugged up or something is in the bottom of your throat.  So you are in pain and feel so full like you are going to bust.  The easy way to tell if your not eating right is if after only 3 or 4 bites your uncomfortably full and/or want to puke then you ate to quickly and/or to big of a bite. 
Before I sit down to eat I cut all my meat in to tiny little pieces.  I never sit down and cut my food, I always do it all as I am plating my meal.  That way I know all my bites are small.  I use a shrimp fork to eat with, a regular fork just looks so lonely with a tiny piece of meat on it.  So I feel better if I eat with a shrimp fork (their small forks with only 3 tines on them, atleast I think their shrimp forks).  Also I have some small spoons, not baby spoons, but these are taste testing spoons, their metal I found them at a thrift store.  

MEASURE YOUR FOOD.
In today's economy you don't want to be throwing food away.  Get yourself a measuring set just for you.   I use a small childs plate that is divided into 3 sections.  It works for me, it might not work for you, but give it a try.  And it's not embarrassing to eat with a childs utensils or plate/bowl especially early on when measuring is the most important. 

Also you don't want to stretch your pouch, the bigger the pouch the more food to keep your pouch happy.  It's like a loan shark, the more you give it, the more it wants. 

JOURNAL YOUR FOOD AND WATER INTAKE   
Another important rule, because if something happens, or goes wrong, you can look back and figure out what it was.  Plus you can keep track of your protein and water intakes.  If you don't write it down how will you remember?  My memory is horrible, for whatever reason, this past year, I have had a lot of trouble with short-term memory.  So I write everything down so I know whats going on.  You can do a google search and find free food journal sheets and print a few out, then whichever one you find suits your needs best go to staples or something and have a bunch of copies made.  For a small fee many places will even spiral bound it or three hole punch it.  

PLAN YOUR MENUS IN ADVANCE
This is something I have to do in my household, with just me and my roomie (of 6 years, next year we will be elgible for common law marriage), we plan everything out.  I have an erasable write on sticker (it was sold at wal mart for school lockers, different designs, they stick but can be taken off easily and stuck elsewhere) I have one on my fridge, we plan out meals for 4 days in advance.  This helps us keep track of what we have in the freezer/pantry without taking everything out.  Plus it helps my roomie and I agree on what to eat.  
And I can be sure that each meal is healthy.

SUPPORT GROUPS
It sucks that I live an hour away from Baptist Hosp and that I don't drive.  I can't make it to the support groups, I hate it, and sometimes I cry.  It's important to be around people like you.  People who are going through the same thing as you, people who have already went through it, and people who are getting ready to start their journey.  We all have something in common, wls, and we all need to be around each other for support. I get great support from my roomie and family.  But it's not the same as the support I feel when I get to go to the meetings.  

MAINTAIN A POSITIVE ATTITUDE AND AVOID TOXIC INFLUENCES
I haven't had any troubles with anyone not being supportive of my decision to have had wls.  If anything my well-meaning family gets on my nerves when I go out to eat.  "Are you supposed to be eating that Evelyn?"  "Shouldn't you be eating slower?" "Why don't you see if they will let you order from the kids menu?"  I know they mean well but my supportive family can get on my nerves.  I am thankful for them though.  I don't know what it would be like if they were the other way around. 

MAINTAIN YOUR FOLLOW-UP SCHEDULE WITH YOUR SURGEON
So important, you need to be in communication with your surgeon, and he needs to be able to see you and see how your doing.  If something started to go wrong, you may not know it, but keeping up with bloodwork and labs and seeing your surgeon, if somethng went wrong it could be caught before damage is done.

Okay so that is all that I had to say about this, hopefully reading how I messed up from time to time on each of these rules will help someone else out who is starting to get off path.  

Nice work, Susan.  These lay it out simply and capture all of the keys for success. 

Thank you Susan!
Did I mention that I looooooooooooooooove you and that your awesome???
I agree with every single one of these. i struggled with the water at first, But now I  take water with me everywhere I go.... These rules are awesome and are very helpful....