Arrggghhhh! I hate the pre-op diet.

In all my years, I can't recall a single person who said they LOVED their pre-op plan!

Hang in there - it's all part of "the experience", and serves its purposes...

It will all be a distant memory, soon enough, and YOU will be encouraging OTHERS !!

Hang in there !!!

Hey look on the bright side, it's only 2 weeks, some people have to do 3 (me), or 4 or 5. Not sure what your pre-op diet is mine was liquid (Optifast) only, but it did get better after a couple of days. I too was still having 1 diet pepsi a day up until a couple days before surgery. Not sure how long you'll be off, but I was back at work and still only on 400 - 500 calories a day. You cope because that's the whole purpose, eating less and losing weight.

For me it was too reminiscent of when I did Optifast in the late 80's. I did 12 weeks of liquid diet, approximately 500 calories a day and talk about gnawing hunger. I lost over 50lbs in 12 weeks but even the thought of a shake makes me cringe now. The first 4 weeks after surgery were the worst. But it gets better. Some people love smoothies and to me it reminds me too much of Optifast and I won't drink them. I would rather chew my calories. Just know you will get through this, the surgeon is hoping to get rid of some of the fat on your liver to make the surgery easier. If your liver is too big and in the way they may have to cancel your surgery, until you lose more weight. So think of it as making the surgeons job easier if that helps you get through it. You will survive.

Thank you everyone for all the encouragement. Today (second day) was much better. Here are some coping techniques I'm using.

• I'm pampering myself (facials, etc.). This isn't something I normally do, but it provides a distraction from the hunger, and gives me new sensations to focus on.
• I tried a new diet gelatin, Hartley's 10 cal passion fruit, which I love. No aftertaste, at least to me.
• I got some lovely herbal tea (Celestial Seasonings Country Peach Passion). When I sip it, I make sure to enjoy the aroma. I used to drink Celestial Seasonings teas often when I was in the U.S., but it's not that easy to get in Ireland. I bought myself a 12-pack!
• I'm spending extra time snuggling with my cats.

Herbal tea is a great idea! We need to drink lots of fluids after surgery, and tea is a wonderful way to stay hydrated.

If you can't get it easily, I would be more than happy to get a bunch of it for you and ship it across the pond :)

I love the pampering / facials approach. That's very smart. Wish I'd thought of that during my pre-op diet. :)

I am on the second week of my pre-op diet and I gotta say, it's getting a lot easier. I still have cravings, all the food cravings are of food I've already had. I think about the other cravings, the craving to be able to go S.C.U.B.A. diving, or take dance classes, or even just spend the day at the zoo with my nieces and nephews without getting tired and out of breath in the first fifteen minutes. Figure out what your cravings are, the reasons why you are doing this surgery, and focus on that. For me, focusing on those, makes wanting to have a big mac for the 100th time not seem as important. As far as the diet coke goes, I've noticed a lot of people with opinions about that. As long as you follow your doctor's guidelines, what you do is your own business and you need to do whatever helps you survive. As for me, I went from drinking 3-6 cans of Mt. Dew a day to none. It sucked the first few days, but I figured I had to quit eventually, and I figured it would be easier to quit before I had to worry about recovering from surgery. Now, believe it or not, a sugar free popsicle tastes better to me than a can of Mt. Dew ever did.

Hi TheWombat,

Congratulations on starting your journey to taking control of your life This will be one of the hardest thing for you to go through. Take it one day at a time and power through it. Your not alone in this misery, so many before you had to suffer through We look forward to your updates and how you are doing.

Thank you for the encouragement!

I sucks but hang in there. It was very hard and I only had to do a one week pre op diet. Tip: the popsicles helped me a lot!