getting ready

My surgery will hopefully be within two  to three months.  

Hindsight being 20/20, what do you wish you had done differently to prepare that would have helped you after your surgery?  

I am finding it hard enough to stick to the diet now, but trust that gets easier after the surgery.  I am researching food and nutrition, buying items here and there, cleaning house, starting to weed out some of the fat clothes already.  And trying to adjust my attitude, toward food, toward my body, realistic expectations, etc.  What else should I be spending my time doing?

Getting mobile -- walking if you are not fit.  You will have to walk after surgery (to prevent blood clots), so get used to it now.  Do not go crazy - you do not need to run a marathon, just be healthy to walk.  Get walking shoes if you need them.

Commit to following the instructions your dr gave you for your pre-op diet, after surgery it will be more critical to follow your drs instructions - so get used to it and work thgouh any issues that arise.  Yes, most of us find that food issues are easier to deal with after WLS, but most still have to work through the issues concerning why we got into the habit of misusing foods and need to learn new coping skills.  If you follow your surgeon's pre-op instructions, you will prob start working through your food issues, this would be a good thing.

Good Luck!!

Thanks for those suggestions.  You must have read my mind because the exercise is the main area I am failing in.  I am just not able to do as much as I would like to and I know getting into shape will make a huge difference in how easily I recover afterward.  I am doing better on the diet, but I know for the rest of my life I am going to have to make every calorie and every cc of space count in terms of nutrition.  

Having been 284 pounds, I have a different take on this exercise thing - the early goal is to get mobile, without getting injured. That way you can have a good recovery from surgery, get some of the weight off, then, when there is less pressure on your knees and back, that is the time to up the exercise. (The first few months post-WLS, when you still may be over 250 pounds is not yet the time to do what they do on Extreme Weight loss shows - IMHO, there is never a time to do that stuff, so much risk of injury and long-term joint degeneration.)

Seriously - do not go crazy - you do not want to get injured.  If you are not fit and are carrying alot of weight, your dr. can write you a Rx for Physical Therapy to get you started safely. Just walk or even use a sitting walk-machine - at PT locations.   Wait until you lose 50 -100 pounds to intensify the exercise, if you are cleared. 

For most people, after RNY, ghrelin (the hunger hormone) levels go down by 1/3 to 1/5, whereas they go up by 1/3 to 1/2 when you go on a conventional diet.  That makes it much easier to be compliant with the post-op instructions than you think pre-op.

Yes, I agree - it will always be protein first, but after the first year, you know what foods honor your body and your taste buds, so 'what to eat' becomes less time-intensive and less of a mystery.    

Best of luck with your journey!  

My surgery is in August. Maybe we will be close to the same day! The dietitian gave me a long list of habits to work on. I tried to work on them all for about three days before I felt homicidal, lol. Now I am taking a couple of them at a time to work on. Since I have so long before my surgery, I figure I have the luxury of working slowly. Exercise will be hard for me too. It wouldn't have been even a year ago, but it seems I have gained enough in that time to put me over some kind of edge. I have a lot of joint pain and back pain with much activity at all. :( 

We are in the middle of a move right now, but when we are in our new place I am planning on getting a treadmill or something and just walking, even for just a brief time each day, just to get the habit in place.