Congrats Lisa on your sugery coming up. I was just banded on 12/30/2011 so I am very new to this myself. I was on liquids for 4 weeks before surgery and I lost 32 pounds. I won't say it was easy but I knew this was something I had wanted for a long time. I drank 3 sim fast drinks a day and ate sugar free jello like it was going out of style. My doctor put me on 800 calories a day and I stuck to it. Like I said it wasn't easy at times but you can do it. I know after 2 weeks on mine I could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel When he opened me up he came out bragging because my liver and stomache was so small he had to put a smaller band on me and the surgery went great. Just hang in there