I am still a week out from my first appointments with the surgeon etc but the way that I understand it here in Australia is that you only need to meet with the surgeon, nutritionist and psychologist once, then get a surgery date.

On their website it can be as soon as two weeks after your appointment with the surgeon (assuming all is cleared) that you can have your surgery.

So to this end, I thought I would start on a modified version of the pre-op diet, gradually introducing meal replacement as I build up to the two weeks before surgery where I have to be so strict. I am hoping for a surgery date in early September at this point, so realistically it could be about 6 weeks until I get "sleeved".

I had the strawberry optifast shake today and discovered two things - first is that I need to add more water than recommended (around 250-275ML instead of 200) and the other is that it is 100 times nicer if it's really cold, so I added a few ice cubes.

I am trying to practice drinking really slowly as I know that I gulp drinks and it does make you really aware of what you are drinking and eating! I only substituted lunch today and it's been okay so far. I am a little bit hungry but it isn't too bad and I might try to have an earlier dinner tonight instead of snacking this afternoon.

So it's early days, but for anyone pre-op who is testing the waters and wanting to try the shakes, my advice is to thin it out and make it very cold