Preop Advice

My surgery is in 20 days I am so disappointed. I am 5'4.5 and 290. My goal is 135-140. I promised myself I would lose weight prior to surgery and I haven't. :(

My dr only requires a 3 day preop diet but I want to start tomorrow. I have broth, premier protein shakes, sf popsicles and sf jello. Water, of course.

Any advice for optimum loss? Would love to hear your 2 week losses. I want to lose 20 but know that is not possible.....thanks!

I think it's great you want to do more than the minimum you were asked to do. But short term, you are bound to be disappointed if your primary interest is a number on the scale.

Start weighing and tracking everything you eat. Set a minimum amount of daily protein, and a maximum amount of calories to consumd every day. Those are things you should be doing after surgery, so starting a little early will be great.

If you can stick to those limits for the next 20 days, you will be doing great, and it shouldn't matter what the scale number says.

Track honestly and accurately -- the good, the bad, and the ugly. It's a tool that will help immensely.

What Grim wrote is sound advice.   Additionally, HIDE YOUR SCALE.   With his advice, your surgery day weigh-in will be a pleasant surprise and you'll have a handle on tracking and making wise choices (love using MyFitnessPal).

One more thing I did was not compare myself to others STATS, as it's similar to depending on the scale as the only measure of progress.  I use small victories as measure for myself . . . like not having a wedgie, not worrying about how far away I have to park at work, etc.  This is a time for being creative and enjoying each moment on this VSG journey.

Jo

Terrific attitude in that you want to start now, and in my humble opinion it will really help you to adjust to the eating post-op. I can't encourage it enough in other words. My preop was 1 "sensible" meal that was protein and green leafy veggies, and shakes for the other two. I can no longer remember if I had structured snacks at that time, but very likely did. They were big on not going to long of a period without eating, but the snacks would have been like a cheese stick (low fat, the 50-80 calories kind) or a cup of fresh strawberries. I just wanted to share that I started 3 months prior to my surgery (only required 2 weeks prior) and that whole first month I didn't lose despite staying 100% on plan. I was insulin resistent and it just too my body a long time to lose early on. I was satisfied with not gaining though, as I was coming off a period where I had been gaining at least 10 poiunds a month for several months, and was a total train wreck with the eating prior. I did eventually take a decent amount off preop, so moral of the story is stick with it even if you don't see the scale cooperating- at some point it will! 

My nut recommended that my sensible meal be for dinner. That didn't work at all for me, so I put it at lunch. That was much, much better for me and I was able to stick with it. Carefully consider what your current eating habits are (as far as times during the day) and use that for a guide. When the nut had me map out what my normal eating pattern (albeit dysfunctional one) was, we matched the times that I normally ate and planned out the stuff from there. Very very helpful in that it didn't make me feel deprived or anything. The last really helpful tip was she recommended to wean myself off of artificial sweetners and any food other than fruit that was sweet. I programs your brain to constantly crave sweet, and you acclimate to it. I am not so good at that now, but back then I tried to stick with it as much as possible and it did help. 

Finally, exericise. I had to start veeeerrrrrrryyyyyyy slowly, as I was in terrible shape. Walking is a terrific choice if you are not prone to hit the gym. I ended up putting long walks in the evening right during the time I knew I was at highest risk for grazing, and that totally kept me from killing a really good day of calorie management. 

Great job for wanting to tackle this head on!!!

Sorry- just noticed a few typos above- but my browser doesn't show the entire window where I can get to the edit button. 

Don't beat yourself up. Just follow your doc's orders and do the 3 day. Until then, cut out carbs and sugar, don't overeat and just relax.  You'll have plenty of days after surgery to be on liquids. I'm on day 12 and finally allowed "full" liquids, it's a wonderful step up from clear liquids.