Pre-Surgery Diet - Day 7

So I am on day 7 of the pre-op diet. Today I get to have my last solid food until after surgery.

So I have been doing so-so on the diet. There are some days that I am doing great, drinking all my water and protein shakes and other days not so much. It's definitely easier for me to get my water in at work than it is at home.

I have been having headaches all week long. About the only thing I can do to get rid of them is to sleep.

I have only "cheated" twice. On Monday I had 1 chocolate cookie and then on Friday I bought an Atkins protein bar at the grocery store. I ate it to see if it would help with the headaches...it didn't.

Side Bar:
I will have to give some props to the folks at the Atkins company..Their food takes pretty darn good. The protein bar was chocolate covered peanut butter bar. It was kinda like peanut butter with peanut bits in it covered in chocolate. It was 240 calories, 22g of carbs, 1g of sugar and 18g of protein. I also noticed that they had Atkins peanut butter cups. Can't wait to try them after surgery! Gonna have to go to the Atkins website to look to see what else they have and if there are any coupons.

Tomorrow I start the 4 protein shakes a day. Thank goodness I found the Atkins shakes because if I hadn't it would be hard as hell this week!

I've been surfing the internet for different websites for various things. Some items that a specifically made for bariatric patients, also some websites for cooking your own high protein, low sugar and low carb foods. Here are a couple:

http://www.bariatricchoice.com/
http://www.chefdave.org/

In trying to find high protein meat, I have been looking for some different options and found a couple of great buffalo/bison meat websites. Buffalo or bison meat is very good. It's high in protein and low in fat. Plus to me it tastes just like beef. We have a Ted's Montana Grill here in Nashville and I am sure I will be going to them quite a bit. Anyway, here are a couple of buffalo websites:

http://www.highplainsbison.com/
http://www.americangourmet.net/

I also joined an online support group. It's where I got the weight loss tracker that you see on the right. It's interesting to see the before and after pictures as well as the message boards. Since the support group the hospital has only meets once a month, this is a great alternative.

http://www.obesityhelp.com/

I am on there as FTTG2010 if you decide to join and want to friend me.

Oh and in regards to my last post, I did make it through the Upper GI test okay. I didn't throw up once although the stuff you had to drink was nasty! During the pre admission registration, I did find out that I had lost 4.5 pounds in the 2 weeks since I had last been weighed. We'll see how much I lose when I go in for surgery. I've heard that most people lose 15 to 20 pounds on this diet. Let's hope so.

Pre-Surgery Diet - Day 2

I am on day 2 of the pre-surgery diet. This week I get to have 2 protein shakes a day and a Lean Cuisine/Smart One frozen meal that meets certain criteria. I also must drink at least 64 oz of water every day. As a special bonus I can also have as much sugar-free Popsicles, sugar-free Jello and chicken, beef or vegetable broth as I want.

I bought 3 different types of protein shakes: Muscle Milk Light, EAS AdvantEDGE Carb Control and Atkins Advantage all in some sort of chocolate flavor. Here is a small review:

Muscle Milk Light: I could barely get past the smell to drink it. When I finally did drink it I could barely get 2 sips in without gagging. I had about 8 sips of water afterword just to try to get the taste out of my mouth. Most of the first attempt at this drink went down the drain.

EAS AdvantEDGE Carb Control: After the disaster of the Muscle Milk I moved on to the EAS. The smell was a little better than the other, so I gave it a try. It also had an after taste but this one only took a couple of sips of water to clear. It was okay, but I wasn't eager to have another one.

Atkins Advantage: After the disaster of the first 2 I tried, needless to say I wasn't overly excited to have another one. So this morning I cracked open the Atkins one. I poured it into my reusable container and gave it a good shake. The smell wasn't too bad so I took a sip. OMG it was like drinking a milkshake! These drinks are the freaking bomb! They have very little after taste and are just great!

So I think I will be buying more of the Atkins drinks to finish out my pre-surgery diet, and will save the others I bought to try after surgery.

Yesterday I had 1 protein shake in the morning (actually a combination of 2, but close enough) and a Lean Cuisine for lunch. I was drinking my water and actually got my 64 oz in. Because of the disaster of the first attempt of protein shake, I did not drink my second protein shake last night. I had a headache so I did sleep quite a bit last night on the couch.

I did prepare to take some broth into work today last night so that I wouldn't forget. This morning I grabbed my broth but didn't grab a frozen meal because I thought I would be home early due to an errand I thought I had to run. Come to find out the errand didn't happen so for lunch I had broth. I then said, well, I'll have the meal for dinner....wrong again. I have my Upper GI xray tomorrow and I can't eat any solid food after 5 pm. I don't get off work until 5 pm. So I came home, took another little nap, had some Popsicles and at 10 pm I had my second protein shake. I am not supposed to drink anything after midnight and haven't gotten in my 64 oz of water yet. I'm only 32 oz in as of this writing. Not looking good.

Tomorrow I have to drink the chalk. I am so not looking forward to this at all. So here's hoping.