which is harder?

 did you guys feel the preop liquid diet was easier or the postop liquid diet?

I am struggling so hard with this liquid diet and am excited to have my surgry on Tuesday, but the closer it gets, the more nervous I am about how I will deal with the postop liquid diet, since drinking won't be as easy. 

Do the food cravings get easier after the band is placed?

I only had to have liquids the one day before surgery. After I got the band, for the first 2 wks. I had no appetite at all! It was amazing to go from being hungry all the time, to not even thinking about food. Be warned that many bandsters do not have this. So it is just a possibility.

After 2 wks. the hunger returned. Got my first fill at 6 wk.s and had 18 fills after that trying to get restriction. One think you should discuss with your Dr. PRIOR to getting the band is restriction. About 20% of bandsters never reach restriction! Most Drs. will not tell patients that BEFORE they get the band. Kind of an important little detail to leave out, don't you think?!

I did not have to do a pre op diet, but I did cut way back on my eating and I lost 18 pounds in the 6 weeks pre op.



After surgery, I was not hungry for about 5 days .... I worked to get in my liquids, but did not have an appetite.



After that, I ate small but frequent meals.

I tried to eat something every 3 hours, even if it was 1/2 a yogurt.



I figured that it helped me in a few ways

1. I was never more than 90 minutes from having eaten, or getting to eat again

2. Small amounts helped me to not stretch anyone, or stress my stomach in any way

3. I needed to get used to small portions



Personally, I did a lot of mental imagery.. I visualized the band around my stomach, even empty, as being SOME restriction.



With every fill, I visualized that it was even more.



I never tried to see how MUCH I could eat, I made a game of seeing how LITTLE I could eat.



So, I ate about 100 - 150 calories about 6 times a day.

That is quite a bit, really, for someone with a band, at the early stages



My food cravings went down ALOT ......once I have eaten, my appetite is dimmed Nd I don't want to eat again for quite a while.



Hang in there ..... You will be banded soon!

My preop diet was 30 days of skim milk 3x a DAY and all the clear, SF liquids I could get down. So by the post op diet I didn't much care anymore I was just looking forward to full liquids and mushies!

That's kind of an insane pre-op diet!

I too didn't have a liquid pre-op, but did the post-op. I also visualized the band making the smaller stomach and automatically ate less. I drank every hour and all day long with the liquids. When I started eating the mushies, I was only eating 400-500 calories a day, then on full food I am not up to 600-750 calories per day. I have really not been hungry yet. If I wait 6 hours then I am a little hungry.

You will be surprised with the change! Set your mind to the state that you can't eat more than a certain amount and you will do fine! I was a binge eater and sweets and carbs and don't even crave them anymore.

Good luck!

Wow, Sue ... You are really rocking that band.
Almost 50 pounds down!!!!!!

Nice work

Thanks Kathy! I am finally able to do more exercise and hope it keeps the loss going in the right direction!

I think so too but from what I've read they still do it! Now if I could do that why would anyone think I didn't follow my surgeons instructions for the band? Some folks have accused me of that and that's why I have failed my band! Seriously that makes no sense.

 Definitely before although mentally I was super pumped. Good luck!