Redux

I'm having my VSG surgery next week. I've been reading as much as possible online and also have ordered some books, several of which I have already read. I am wondering what books others would recommend and why. I'll start with two of my own favorites thus far: 1. Bariatric surgeon Duc Vuong's book Ultimate Gastric Sleeve Success. I just read this book and it explained much of what I already knew about the surgery, but some things I didn't, and focused a lot on some practical advice, borne of his experience with his patients, on how to make the sleeve work post-op. 2. Bariatric surgeon Guillermo Alvarez's book Successful Weight Loss With the Gastric Sleeve. It was the first book I read and it covers the basics. I bought it because I was impressed with the fact that this surgeon specializes in the sleeve and has been doing this operation for fully 10 years (well before the operation was approved in the US, he was doing it down in Mexico where he practices) and has done over 9000 sleeve surgeries. Both books helped me as a newbie to understand the process. The substance was useful in both, although the style and writing (although very simple and easy to follow in both cases) left much to be desired. They both could have used an editor.

Although not related to bariatric surgery, I also want to recommend the two controversial books by Gary Taubes - 1.Good Calories, Bad Calories (2007)..., and 2. Why We Get Fat and What To Do About It (2010). He argues, using a convincing (to me at least) array of studies that have been routinely ignored by those who want to believe otherwise, that dietary fat does not make us fat or cause the diseases we most fear, but rather it is carbohydrates that do that, as they stimulate the production of insulin, the principal regulator of fat metabolism, and it is the insulin that causes us to store fat. I tend to believe his theory, and see some evidence in my own diabesity management (or mismanagement in the past) to support it - that is, the diabesity problem we face is largely a problem of the overconsumption of fake food that is high in carbohydrates, and is not related to consumption of dietary fat. As bariatric patients are supposed to be on high Protein, low carb diets, I assume that many here probably believe as I do. But I'm curious how others think.

Here are two more books that I have read and found to be helpful as I prepared for my own VSG (less than a week ago - doing well, by the way!). Both are by MDs and both focus on food as medicine and the proper use of real food, as opposed to fake food, to bring about real health and metabolic changes, with or without surgery. 1. A Pound of Cure: Change Your Eating and Your Life, One Step at a Time, by Matthew Weiner, MD, FACS. This one is a very concise and helpful book by an experienced bariatric surgeon from Michigan. I'd say it's biggest takeaway for me is the rule - which I hope to be able to follow, at some point, when I'm able to eat real food again - to eat at least a pound of vegetables each day, that being the "pound of cure". 2. The Blood Sugar Solution: The Ultrahealthy Program for Losing Weight, Preventing Disease, and Feeling Great Now! by Mark Hyman, MD This one is of interest to me as I have a classic case of diabesity and the diabesity problem is largely what he addresses in this book. The solution, of course, is to use real food as medicine. I was surprised that the author never mentioned the famous quote of Hippocrates - "Let food be thy medicine and medicine thy food" - as that is exactly what this book is about. Indeed the book goes a long way toward convincing me of the truth of that adage.

I will have to try to the unjury drinks too. Like Destiny_77, I like to mix the Protein drink (in my case, it's Premier Protein) with black coffee. It looks and kind of tastes like a coffee with cream. I can mix half of a vanilla Premier Protein Drink with black coffee, instead of hitting the drive- through at Dunkin Donuts, lol. I'm less than a week away from surgery and doing pretty well on the very restricted pre-op diet, with several Protein Drinks and one meal in the middle of the day (salad with chicken). Coffee with "cream" certainly helps me to get through the morning until I get to lunch. Good luck to all!!

I have ordered both of those books and should have them right before my surgery this next week. I am interested in the emotional side of things at this point after reading up on so much of the technical aspects of the surgery and the actual process of surgery and immediate recovery. I know I am an emotional eater, so I am looking forward to that "emotional first aid kit." Thanks, Babbs

Premier Protein, chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. They all taste fine to me.

December 22. Starting two-week preop diet on Monday.