My Liquid Diet Post Op

**Lorna Doone** · 10-03-2010 07:14 PM

Hi folks, I have no trouble what so ever getting liquids down.
Rule of thumb-take tiny sips and it will go down. Use a spoon to regulate it.
Now I´ll tell you about my liquid diet post-op. As you know I hate protein drinks. This is from my past years of constant dieting pre-band and drinking Slimfast for breakfast & lunch. Maybe some of you can relate to it. LOL!!!
Anyhow the doctor kept me in the hospital for 2 days with only ice chips and chamomile tea. It´s really great. It sooths the stomach and is quite tasty when you´re starving.
Okay, here goes my post-op liquid diet. Bear in mind I am quite satisfied on liquids. I have become very creative with this phase. The hotel let´s me use the microwave & they have put a mini-fridge in my room. I walk to the supermarket every day to get out of the hotel & get some exercise.
I get up between 8 AM-9AM
I have not been a breakfast person for years because of the band which does not allow you to eat till after 10:00AM.
So I start my day with Chamolile tea. Sip it slowly DO NOT GULP. It´s bad for the sleeve the 1st two weeks.
Around 10:00 AM I fill my tumbler with gatorade and go for my morning walk around the shopping mall.
I come back to the hotel aound 12:00-1:00 PM. Noon.
I take a can of creamed soup, put it in the blender and completely liquify it.
To this I add 1/3 scoop of powdered non-fat milk and 24 ounces of water, along with 40 mgs. of unflavored protein powder. Remember everything must be completely blended to water. I then divide this into two meals. One for lunch and one for dinner. I then put it in the min-fridge.
For lunch I have a cup of chamomile tea, my 12 ounces of protein soup, and my dessert. My dessert consist of one serving of low-fat pudding, or jello, or
yogart. If the yogart has fruit in it you must put it in the blender. Add a little liquid, not a lot but enough to liquify it more than it is.
You can fit unlimited amounts of liquid in your pouch if you sip slowly and don´t gulp.
Around 3:00 PM. I have another gatorade.
The rest of the time I am on Crystal Light 24/7.
I can already see the weight dropping slowly but surely and I am content and not deprived in any way. I will do this for 2-3 weeks post op and then move onto soft foods. I will start my children´s liquid vitamins on day 7. I would have started sooner but I believe they have orange juice of some kind in the liquid and I wanted to wait till my stomach was better healed. On day 7 I´ll take them twice a day with lunch & dinner.
I take my post-op meds around 10:00 AM but I crush them and drink them with a teaspoon of water. Yucky, I know but a month of sacrifice is worth a lifetime of pleasure if you know what I mean.
As for my creamed soups, I buy them from the supermarket, so far I have enjoyed cream of chicken, cream of mushroom, & cream of pumpkin.
Completely liquified of course. Tommorrow I will buy cream of crab, cream of corn, cream of asparagus. See instructions above for adding protein powder and completely liquifying in 24 ounces of water.
Just because you´re on a liquid diet doesn´t mean you have to deprive yourself or be in a food jail. Be creative and use common sense. Remember you do not want to introduce solids till after 2-3 weeks as the sleeve can leak if you force solids down and break your stiches. But if you sip slowly, with a spoon you´d be surprised what will go down. Lorna

**Lorna Doone** · 10-03-2010 07:43 PM

A couple more things. I repeat lunch for dinner. 12 oz of protein soup, chamomile tea, and a low fat dessert. See my instructions above for lunch. Remember sip slowly with a spoon. For my serving of chamomile tea I add two teabags and 2 pckgs. of sweet & low or nutrisweet. It makes it very tasty and yummy. I also add a dash of salt & pepper to my soups. Remember take your time & sip slowly even if it takes you an hour to get it down. It will & you´ll be quite content on the liquid phase. Any questions ask away. Lorna

**Tammy** · 10-04-2010 05:08 PM

Hi Lorna: We're basically on the same diet from what I could see, except for the canned soup, which is replaced by soup that my sister prepares for me.

**Lorna Doone** · 10-11-2010 11:13 AM

Well folks I'm nearing the end of liquids and not too far off from puree foods. Liquids are starting to get monotonous. I started doing two different soups a day one for lunch & another for dinner. I started having a hard time finishing them. Remember this is where I add my protein so I tried something different.
I took a can of clam chowder and added a can of 2% lowfat milk, plus extra protein. I'll get two or three meals out of it. This I liquified in the blender. I took saltines and crumbled them in tiny pieces and put them into my soup as I was eating it. They got very soft & mushy but again take tiny bites so you don't overwhelm the sleeve. They went down & satisfied me giving me a little bulk to sustain me through the rest of the liquid diet. Jello taste bland to me, so I mixed orange jello with tapioca pudding and made a parfait. It was tasty. You can use your imagination to make the liquid stage more pleasant. I'm a couple days away from mushies and ready for the change. It can't come soon enough. I'm down eleven pounds since surgery. My weight loss from here on in will probably be slow going because I'm not too far from goal.
I can remember the odd ball look on the hotel staff when they found out I was going for bariatric surgery. The stares I got because I was already skinny from the band. One clerk said to me "but you're not heavy, why are you doing this?" I explained I was already banded and doing a conversion surgery to sleeve. Then they said, "well that explains it." They also told me they see many ladies convert from band to sleeve and they too heard many bad things about the band.
In my opinion I believe it's very easy to go from band to sleeve because you're already used to restricted eating and you know the rules. Also I have to say my post-op went smooth & easy because I already knew what to expect. However I believe when you go from no bariatric surgery (cold turkey) to food restriction the change can be devastating to someone not used to food restriction. You know everyone is different and some folks may need a mourning period to adjust to the big change. Any how to each their own. Best Wishes to current sleever's and those about to make a change for the better. Lorna

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