Surgery less than a month away...what would you do?

[brittanyandrea 11]

So I was originally scheduled for a March 28 surgery date. I'm super disappointed but my date had to be postponed due to my doctor wanting me off of birth control for a month prior to surgery.

Monday would have been the beginning of my preop diet and I started it and did amazing the first day. Stuck to the diet(stricter than I even needed to be) and the next day the same thing until the afternoon when I found out my surgery date was changed. The first thing I did after I found out was go to Wendy's. Then that night I went to Walmart and got a bunch of bad foods. It's like I'm misbehaving simply because I know I can. I'm trying not to do this but my willpower isn't really working well.

Anyway, what should I be doing at this point to prepare for surgery. I'm still doing a shake for Breakfast cause that was easy to start doing, but I'm drinking coffee like I shouldn't be and eating a bad lunch. dinner I'm still doing pretty good with but I'm afraid it's a slippery slop.

I know this is a giant ramble but some advice would be great.

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[FrankyG 1,450]

The only thing I could tell you is what you already know. Stop buying the bad stuff and recommit to staying on track for your surgery. You don't have that much longer to wait, and eating total crap now is just going to make things that much harder on you.

If you don't put the crap food in your cart then it doesn't go home with you. And you should be avoiding fast food junk like it is poison (because it kinda is). You have to get your head in the game and stop doing bad things just because you can.

You will eventually need to adjust your thinking to find other ways to deal with stress after surgery, so why not start now? Instead of turning to crappy food for comfort, try going for a walk, play a game, read a book, call a friend for a nice chat, have a big glass of ice Water, take a bubble bath, paint your nails... anything but using food to medicate whatever problem crops up in your day to day life that makes you want to turn to junk food to make it all feel better.

Really, really try to stick to your preop diet. It is absolutely necessary to do this, as the main reason is to make sure your liver is shrunk enough to not be harmed during surgery. It lies across your stomach, and they will need to lift it and hold it out of the way while they work on your stomach. If you don't stop eating crap, they could get in there and discover your liver is too fatty/large to safely perform the surgery and you'll have to recover from the incisions and gas inflation (NOT fun) and start all over (I think even with the insurance too)... that is if your surgeon even allows you to do so. And heaven forbid they proceed if they think your liver is borderline okay and it is damaged while they're moving things around in there. That is serious and life threatening and you do NOT want even a small chance of that happening. I say this because this is scary stuff, and you can use this fear to commit to trying harder and to stick to your diet. Definitely helped me anyway!

You can do this. You just have to find the strength and motivation to get your head on straight and power through the next month to make it to your surgery. Get fired up and excited about the wonderful new life you're going to have after - you don't need to eat crummy stuff to feel better - you are going to get control back over your relationship with food and be so much happier and healthier very, very soon!

[suepro 39]

You, like most of us who are going down the route of WLS, have long-term issues with food.

You were disappointed that your surgery is postponed and you went on a binge. What's done can't be undone so leave that in the past and move on.

Don't beat yourself up, ditch the junk food and get back on your pre op eating programme.

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[VSGAnn2014 12,992]

There's a wide range of attitudes about WLS and commitment levels that people who are pre-op demonstrate in getting their pre-act together pre-op.

But I have no idea whether those who "eat and act better" pre-op do better long-term than those who don't.

My surgery took for freakin' ever to get scheduled. I was so frustrated that a month before they let me know my surgery date I just went ahead and put myself on a 1400 calorie/day diet. Simply could not stand waiting anymore. I started using My Fitness Pal, stopped drinking sodas, cut down on coffee, started walking more, drinking more Water, eating slower, not drinking with meals, using small plates, etc.

The benefits I received were that I (1) lost 11 pounds in 2 months, which I didn't have to lose after surgery, (2) got a head-start building up new behaviors I needed post-op anyway, (3) didn't have to go through severe caffeine and soda withdrawals while I was on my surgeon's two-week pre-op diet, (4) regained a strong sense of self-control, which had been badly missing for a long time and (5) built up my self-confidence that I could handle what was coming pre-op and could build a new lifestyle that was quite different from how I'd been living for years.

I believe that making those changes pre-op helped me lose all my excess weight and maintain my weight loss for the last year.

But as always, others' mileage may vary.

[pegrae 88]

Jump off this wagon quickly and get back on track. Your body and emotions will thank you. . Life changes are what you need to focus on. Let me know if I can help support you!

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[OutsideMatchInside 10,166]

My opinion is going to differ from most people that are going to reply to this, but work through this the best way you can.

With pre-op and immediate post on dieting, I had about 8 weeks of almost nothing. The main thing that got me through those weeks and like week 2 post on mentally I felt I was starving, was looking back on what I had eaten and knowing that I'd had what I wanted and didn't need it now.

If you are still having good funerals, that's your business. When you preoperative diet, it might make it easier to endure. It might not. Don't beat yourself up about the past though, just move forward.

[pegrae 88]

Brittain how are you doing today? I'm thinking about you and hope you are hanging in there!

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[brittanyandrea 11]

Thank you all so much for the support.

It hasn't been easy, I'm trying to slowly adjust myself that way I don't react like I did the first time I was doing the preop diet.

I think the food funerals term is exactly what I'm going through. I want to be able to eat the things I enjoy while I can. At the same time, I want to be healthy. I want to give myself a chance at succeeding in this.

With that said, I'm still making bad decisions. My professor took us out to dinner last night and with his encouragement I ate poorly.

My preop diet is scheduled to start March 31. In the mean time I'm slowly weening myself off coffee, switching to shakes for Breakfast and lunch (I've accomplished breakfast already.) I'm just trying to do it slowly because the last time my body freaked out and I ended up really sick with a Migraine.

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