can someone HELP me????

I need help with the pre diet. I'm looking for someone who can help me do up a diet or some one that already has one. i'm suppose to do the 5th stage diet but i have a hard time with the portins and measuring.Can anyone help me. I need to lose atleast 20 lbs if i have the surgery it will be in march sometime...thanks

Nicole: read your Above post titled "are we allowed"

Are you doing a required diet per your insurance company? If so, usually its a supervised logged diet from your doctor or nutritionist. Talk to thenutritionist and see what they can do to help you because if it is supposed to be supervised, they need to have everything logged for the insurance company. Marie

Nicole: Hello wave: First tell us what is stage 5 diet? What is the challenge w/ protions or measuring? Because this doesn't get easier postop and is more critical then! Learning now w/ support may be best option!!! Does your bariatric program have a clinical nutrition MD or dietician attached to it? Isn't someone giving you guidance/monitoring? Does your insurance require a preop medically supervised diet? It is not really the best idea for any of us to give you a plan (safety wise) because food plans should be individual based on your needs and medical comorbidities! And they should be medically supervised for optimal results! Do not forget to incorperate exercise to speed up the wt loss, metabolism and improve health for surgery as well! Here is the post I give to those wishing to lose wt preop. reasons why we are asked in my program, what plan I followed (may not be best for you though so ask!). And the frame of mind I needed to drop 30# in 30 days... Be well! WT LOSS BEFORE SURGERY/MOTIVATION/AVOIDING THE LAST SUPPER SYNDROME In our program we are required to loose 10% of our body wt before surgery.... Loosing weight pre-op is required by many surgeons & for many reasons... and I am so happy I did! 1.. to show motivation, 2.. ability to adhere to a plan (as we will need to for life!), if you can't be mindful and able to follow restrictions pre-op how will you do it post-op? 3.. to increase your health even a modest 5-10% wt. loss is very helpful, the National Institute of health has even researched this...(hence why weigh****chers is so focused on the 10% wt loss) 4.. decreases surgical complications (by exercise and decrease wt your heart and lungs are in better shape for surgery, anesthesia and healing!)... 5.. Also psychologically it is tough going from a super-sized big Mac meal to clear liquids for 2 weeks post-op! 6.. ***MAIN ONE FOR PROTEIN SPARING or MEDIFAST DIETING***It helps shrink the liver and this eases their surgical procedure and decreases chance of nicking it.... 7.. exercising before helps you continue after! 8..The more you lose pre-op the less you will have to lose post-op and the closer to an ideal body-wt you will attain! I lost the weight by doing the food pyramid. That's it, I was eating so bad (fast food daily, large portions, consuming every high-fat/sugar thing imaginable and NOT exercising that just cutting down and walking 2 miles a day helped! For ME, it was "no one" was going to stop me from having this operation, it was my decision and all that was asked of me was to loose 30 lbs, I figured this is a small price for such a wonderful gift I would be given and the opportunity to have a healthier happier longer life....! I was so motivated/psyched; I dropped 30 pounds in 30 days and went on to drop 15 more before surgery! (Although this took me 2 months, as it got harder and I had a few last meals, we all do but you can't let this ruin your opportunity!) Exercise was another key; I faithfully walked 2 miles everyday..it helped that my mom went with me a lot! (a buddy is so helpful!) I followed the food pyramid given to me by clinical nutritionist Dr. Boham...I also wrote everything down (Many find www.fitday.com helpful for this) that went in my MOUTH!!! Or you can get food pyramid/bullseye version at: http://www.xenical.com/hcp/1400_Am_Beye.pdf I also had to remind myself how BAD I wanted this! Everyday it was/had to be more important to me to change my bad habits and lose weight to have this surgery than to continue to slowly kill myself with food/keep myself from the only hope I had!. I also told everyone about my plans and they helped support me, my friends/family and coworkers! I really can't give you any more guidance than this, it really had to come from within, it was a mindset with me, and I wanted this BAD real bad and I knew it was my last resort/chance! I felt invigorated and motivated by the end results...the long-term had to outweigh the short-term gratification of eating bad choices or overeating! It was a learning opportunity for me to change my habits and practice chewing well, not drinking with meals and eating smaller portions, giving up sugar/caffeine/carbonation/alcohol (if any of those are your issues, carbonation/caffeine/alcohol weren't issues for me)! So a few weeks/months of healthy habits to lose pre-op wt is not a lot if you frame it right! IT IS NOT FOREVER and it is about starting this journey! Take Care, Jamie Lap RNY 10/9/02 Dr. Singh 320/163 5'9'' (lost 45# before surgery) Plastics 6/9/04 & 11/11/2005 Dr. King http://www.obesityhelp.com/member/jamiecatlady5/ "Being happy doesn't mean everything's perfect, it just means you've decided to see beyond the imperfections!"