Yesterday the husband and I were off to the hospital to attend the 2 hour Nutrition Class with the Bariatric Clinic and it was definitely informative but also overwhelming at the same time.  When we arrived there were another 6 or 7 people also waiting to go into the class and I felt grateful for the small class size which would allow the opportunity to ask lots of questions as needed.  We started the appointment by going through the basic alterations that are made during the surgery to your anatomy and talked about how your new stomach will process food differently than your old stomach which led us to a discussion about the ways you’re supposed to eat post-operatively.

I have learned so much by being a part of the Obesity Help forums so not a lot of things came as a surprise to me – but despite this I enjoyed myself and felt like the information is starting to really become implanted in my memory.  The biggest thing that stood out to me when we were talking about post-op diet is the importance of eating your protein first.  Protein is necessary for healing, preventing protein malnutrition, encouraging fat loss over muscle loss, and to minimize hair loss – I plan to really make this my focus every day – and get in as much protein as possible.  In the beginning when you are not eating solid foods you can get extra protein through protein supplements like a pure protein powder or a protein shake.  A good portion of the class was spent talking about different ways that you can get your protein in and looking at the labels of protein supplements to learn what would be a good choice vs a not so good choice after surgery – over all I found this particularly helpful.

Next we spent some time talking about why you need to take vitamin and mineral supplements after having your surgery and the reasons for this are because a lot of vitamins (calcium, vitamin D, B12, and Iron) are normally absorbed from food as it passes through your duodenum  and since food will no longer enter this portion of your small intestine it is important to get as much in as possible to maximize your absorption – I know I will have to take these vitamins for the rest of my life and I am quite ok with that.  The basics are that after surgery I will need to take 2 multivitamins and 2 calcium with vitamin D per day and then I can take either a daily chewable, 2 sublingual strips a week, or 1 monthly injection of B12 – I think I am going to start by trying the 2 sublingual strips a week and see how that goes.  In general this is how my vitamin break down will look because the multi vitamin and calcium can’t be taken close together:

Breakfast – 2 chewable multivitamins

Lunch – Calcium with Vitamin D

Dinner or Evening Snack – Calcium with Vitamin D

Vitamin B 12 – at any time.

I think that is a really simple schedule to keep track of and with the help of the alarm on my iPhone I figure I’ll get by ok.

After this we talked a little about the pre and post – op diet and the schedule I will be on to re-introduce foods.  We got an opportunity to sample the optifast shakes that I have to take for 3-4 weeks prior to surgery and I can honestly say they taste like horse poop – there is something in the texture of them that hits my gag reflex in a very bad way so I am going to have to get really creative in making them taste good enough to bear for the duration of the pre-op diet – yuck – thankfully you are allowed to add sugar-free syrups and crystal lite to the shakes to make them taste better and I plan to try using my magic bullet to blend them with water – oh gosh I hope this all helps!  Here is the breakdown of what pre and post op diet will look like….

3-4 Weeks Pre- Op – Optifast Shakes (x4 a Day) plus soup broth and sugar free jello.

1-2 Days Post-Op : Clear Fluids

Weeks 1 & 2 Post-Op:  Liquid Diet that includes high protein milk based products like creamed soups.

Weeks 3 & 4 Post-Op: Puree Diet where everything you eat should be puree.

Weeks 4 to 8 Post-Op:  Soft Diet

Weeks 8 and Onward Post-Op:  Regular Diet

The nutritionist shared some things tha are important to always remember post-op and I felt it important to share them here:

1.  Separate liquids from your meals by 30 minutes.

2. Eat and drink slowly – small bites or sips.

3. Chew your food very thoroughly.

4. Concentrate on eating – avoid distractions.

5.  Pay attention to how full you feel and never eat until you feel stuffed.

6. Don’t go more than 4 hours without eating.

I think that’s a pretty good outline of the things that we talked about – I hope to start practice the above list while I wait for surgery!