Question:
I have my surgery date. now some questions.
I have my date, Sept 4th. My question is, what should I do now to get some weight off besides the 10 day liquid deit before surgery. I have uped my water intake and started taking my multivit. biotin, b12 and b6. Should I start buying the stage foods for after surgery? Should I go ahead and start a low fat diet? I just want to jump start the process because I have 283 pounds to lose. I know I will do it. It's my goal and I will stick to all my Dr's guidelines. I just want to jumpstart it now. — Jennifer B. (posted on July 27, 2008)
July 27, 2008
Jennifer,
Alright now... congratulations girl!!! I'm very excited for you and all of
the upcoming, exciting stuff you have to look forward to.
Sounds like you are ahead of the game with your vitamins and water intake.
Good for you. You will need to get yourself in "fighting shape"
by exercising as much as you can. Since exercise must become a part of
your life, there's no time like the present. Start now... do whatever you
can today and strive to do a little more tomorrow. I began with 2 minutes
on the treadmill at 402# with a BMI of 71 so I can completely relate to
your situation. You certainly have the right attitude.
I would also suggest you get an incentive spirometer or you may already
have one if you have ever had surgery before. It is the machine with the
ball in it that measures the depth of inspiration (how hard you breathe
in). This is the one thing that I see left out of most pre-op suggestions.
It is just as important to get your lungs in as good a shape as you can
too. The exercise helps lungs too. Great in helping post op pneumonia.
Do it a few times each day now, after surgery every hour.
It might be a little early to start stashing foods away. However, recipe
trials might be a good idea.
I would suggest you begin looking through low carb and/or bariatric
cookbooks to read about other's travels and recipe ideas. I love Susan
Maria Leach's book from bariatriceating.com. She is a chef that also had
RNY. The beginning of the book is about her story, the end is very
detailed recipes according to different stages of post op eating with WLS.
I also recommend "The Emotional First Aid Toolkit, A Practical Guide
To Life After Bariatric Surgery" by Cynthia Alexander.
As far as I'm concerned, you can never be armed with too much information
so read and learn.
Good luck to you,
Dawn Vickers, RN, BLC, CLC
— DawnVic
July 27, 2008
I agree with Dawn and I want to add if you want to loose weight now I would
start enforcing a low cal, low carb, high protein diet. Now I don't know if
that is what your surgeon would want but I did that before my liquid diet
and it helped me loose 15 lbs and now I have lost another 11 lbs on the
liquid diet. My surgery is this Tuesday. Good luck with surgery!
— bridgadean
July 27, 2008
I agree with all the ladies posting, exercise and diet. You may want to
ask your Surgeon about the vitamins prior to surgery. They may tell you to
stop taking certain things so many days/or a week prior to surgery. When
in doubt, ask your surgeon.
Prior to my plastic surgery, the surgeon told me to stop taking my vitamins
just prior and a few weeks after surgery - due to the bleeding factor (even
after surgery). But my plastic surgeon failed to tell me WHEN I could
start taking them again and I forgot to ask, figured she would tell me. It
was time for the PCP to order blood work and my liver counts went out of
whack , come to find out - that my problem - back on the vitamins - the
numbers went back to normal.
Good luck!
— C-There
July 27, 2008
Hey, Jennifer!
Congratulations! Sept. 4th is your new birthday. Don't kill yourself
trying to jumpstart too much--do what your mind tells you that you can
handle. Stick, like you said, to your dr's advice. If you can exercise,
great--if not, when you see those numbers dropping dramatically on the
scale, that will get you up & moving! The 10 day liquid diet will
boost your weight loss big time so relax!
One thing NO ONE told me that I want to share w/ you b/c I feel your
enthusiasm, is that for a week or so post surgery you may not lose
anything--you may even see a few pounds gained. I wouldn't even get on the
scale at this point! Wait a week or 2 after surgery and then get on and
see it magically decline! But that first week or 2 is a b*tch--in the
hospital, the day after, I was actually like 6 lbs. heavier. I think it's
the trauma to your body along w/ the IV fluids.
I had my surgery on March 10th (RNY). Started at 303 and I'm down 78.
Have met so many mini goals--clothes shopping is becoming almost fun! The
biggest reward, and I know you'll relate to this!, was when my 9 yr. old
gave me a hug one day and excitedly exclaimed "Mommy! I can put my
arms all the way around you now!!!!!!!!" If I never lost one more
pound after that it would have been great!
Good luck to you!!!!!!!
— movinmom03
July 27, 2008
Yes, I'd start some type of program now. The more weight before surgery you
can lose, the closer you'll come to your goal wt loss. Start by upping
water intake to 48-64 oz per day. It's best to use water bottles to gage
these amounts. Try to eat high protein foods. A good idea might be to buy a
protein drink to supplemnent your daily diet to increase your protein
intake but still reduce your food intake. Also take out things in your
daily diet that may be issues after surgery--like a lot of highly processed
carbs--white breads, pasta, etc. Take out sodas from your daily routine.
You should not have them after surgery anyway. Switch from standard coffee
to decaf coffee, as most surgeons want you to greatly restric your caffeine
intake after surgery. Give up desserts, or at least minimize them for now.
Give up eating past 7 PM at night. Try to exercise some, as exercise will
be needed daily as a post op. You may be amazed at how much you can lose
prior to surgery. There is one guy in one of my support groups that lose
about 80 pounds pre op. He had many health issues, and wanted to maximize
his results. He was a young black man, with high bp, diabetes and other
issues. When he had surgery, he looked like he had had it months before due
to his wt. loss. If it's difficult to exercise, try doing it in a pool.
Your body weighs a lot less in water. Or you can get DVD's with chair
exercises. I've tried the chair exercises in my nutrition class prior to
surgery. The DVD, a straght back chair, and some low weight soup cans can
help you work up a sweat just sitting in a chair. Good luck, and keep us
posted on your progress. You might also consider these additions--good
vitamins on a daily basis, and high protein snacks (dried peas and dried
edamame worked well for me). Liquid vitamins seemed to absorbed better in
my body, and helped with later wt loss for me. Also up your daily intake of
vitamin D, as most US people are deficient in that area. DAVE
— Dave Chambers
July 27, 2008
Jennifer...this is great! It's good that you have started some of your
vitamins, etc., before hand. At your pre-op, be sure and tell them a list
of what you are using/taking. I had started biotin before my surgery,
also, and had to quit using it a few days beforehand. I would recommend
you buying some staples ahead of time...for the "liquid" stage
anyway...soups, jello, etc...and maybe even some items for the
"mush" stage. I would also recommend you starting to walk a
little if possible each day. The doctor will want you to do this as soon
as possible after surgery anyway...and doing some before surgery will help
you physically be in better shape ahead of time. As far as losing in
advance, I would recommend a high protein (but low fat) diet that included
whole grains (always check the nutritional contents...some things say whole
grain, yet they will be a very small portion of it), fruits and veggies.
Good luck and best wishes for much success!
— BrendaMS
July 28, 2008
Only thing I would add to all the wonderful comments is to start trying
various protein drinks now so that you know which ones you like and ones
that agree with you. Makes it much easier to have the proper products at
home when you come home from the hospital. Best of luck to you - - it's a
great journey to be starting on.
— Monte57
July 28, 2008
Get started on a good powerful "liquid" vitamin/mineral
supplement such as VEMMA. Go to www.TrySomeVemma.com It will also help
with weight loss pre-op. Good luck
— [Deactivated Member]
July 28, 2008
I just wanted to say thank you for all the wonderful replies. I am gonna
look up low fat high protein foods and get on that soon.. I have been
riding my bike here at home because it is easier for me to do than walking
right now. I can ride the bike up to 15 mins at a time where as I can only
last a few mins on the tredmill. But I will work on this. I dont have the
little breathing machine thingy that was mentioned but I have been doing
some deep breathing. I remember that being stressed to me after my
gallbladder surgery so I was thinking it would be important here too. i
can't wait for my surgery but I do want to get my body ready for it. I am
in pain alot but I'm not letting that stop me, I just take regular breaks
to rest and when I feel upto it again I get up and move. Even if its just
walking room to room or doing some exercises sitting down. I'm determined.
I want to wish you all the best. Have a great day!
— Jennifer B.
July 28, 2008
You have made the frist step in the right direction. One thing you could
do is to try some of the meals that you are going to eat after surgery. I
modified a lot of my recipes and tried them on my family so I could meet
the after surgery meal plans. I tried elimination of carbs, reducing fats
and going to Olive Oil in my recipes before surgery. I elimitated deserts
other than health ones, I vonventrated on giving up soft drinks and learend
what flavors of Crystal Lite i enjoied. I had to mix two to get the exact
flavor that i like. I also tried to find out what Gym I was going to go to
and what I needed to do after surgery. I bought a Wii Fit and started to
use it before surgery and still do today. I found my old food processer
and jucier needed replacing and I learned to make all the meals that I
needed for two weeks after i got home. During the final two weeks I made
up and put those meals in a Zip Lock COntainer and had them ready when I
got home to heat and eat. I also found what I was going to have to fix for
others that I could not eat, and how I was going to deal with it. Alos I
found that by telling all my feinds, I prevented the comments that many
have from freindsafter the facts. Be prepaired, so freinds like you fat,
and thinner then they are and this might effect a few poor freindship in
the long run. I know others will give you some other great ideas, but I
though I ould hit on the ones that many of us never think back about.
— William (Bill) wmil
July 28, 2008
Now that i am 4 1/2 years post op, I often wonder "if I knew then,
what i know now, could i have done it without surgery"...It would have
been easier...but No...I have an eating disorder and always go back to
gaining...UNTIL the surgery...kept it off all these years...So anyway..back
to what I know now...changing what you eat is often the easiest way to lose
with no big effort. Eating leaner choices of the same food makes a HUGE
difference...1 pound is 3500 calories...If you cut back 500 cals a
day....that's a pound a week...If you add exercise that can make it a good
1 1/2 a week. Sometimes it's as simple as cutting out a sugary drink like
soda or coffee with fru-fru a day at 200+ calories...DON"T drink your
calories! Simple...Replace with water...This is before surgery...fill your
belly with water first (you are not allowed to do that after surgery)...eat
til satisfed...low carbs! High protein...eat all the lean meats...then
veggies and a salad and if you still want a bread or rice...then have a
taste of it...But you should not leave meat on your plate...Leave the
carbs! Do not go back for seconds after you feel satisfied...Eat lean
meats like fish more often weekly. (shrimp, cod, chilean sea bass, orange
roughy, tilapia for mild fish flavor) Salmon and tuna are much fishier
tasting but such a good fish! Use turkey or veggie burger in place of
fatty hamburger. Make a lettuce wrap...Roll tuna fish in a big leaf of
lettuce or a low carb wheat wrap...So many places to cut back...but so
satisfying. Eat fruit for sweets...Use jello or sf puddings make low fat,
low carb desserts! Cottage chese snacks...lunchmeat wrapped around a large
pickle... This is how I still eat now...It's easier to give up bread and
rice and pasta, because the surgery just doesn't allow me to enjoy those
things...They hurt going down...That's enough to stop a carb addict
easily...But pre surgery, these simple ways can be a HUGE difference and
get you started for the future of how you will need to eat...Plus...CHEW
CHEW CHEW...each bite...15 to 20 chews...Start practicing now...You get
fuller faster because you actually have to slow down and your brain signals
of fullness has time to catch up to your what's in your belly!
Anyway...hope that helps...and congrats and good luck!
— .Anita R.
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