I've been on many dozens of "diets" in the past. A few months ago, I finally decided on lap band surgery since I was about 120 pounds overweight. Ironically, the surgery was scheduled for this morning!

However, after being on the preop diet for 2 weeks and after my preop appointment with my doctor, I decided to give myself one last try to control my weight issue before going under the knife. This reason along with just really bad timing made the decision pretty easy.

So, I'm giving myself until the end of summer (early September) to get my act together and do this. If I can't do this by the end of summer, then having the surgery after the kids schools start is the perfect time (and much easier for my husband to take time off for me instead of this, his busiest work month of the year).

I have found the preop diet actually pretty easy, so I'm sticking to a variation of that, but I am having trouble finding good guidance for it. It is a high-protein, low-fat diet. My husband is doing Atkins right now, so we are at total opposites which is making things a bit emotionally difficult to organize.

So here I am... almost 10 pounds down, eating sensibly (about 1200 to 1400 calories a day), not starving because of the protein I think, and exercising. Doing this the old fashioned way. Eating right and exercising...

hey welcome... i hope this works for you.

for me having patience that eating well and exercising will work is the key.

i've lost 53 pounds in the last 14 months and still have about 60 to go.... and that's to get me to a very high weight... one i can live with.

best of luck to you.

Hi there ... interesting how fate treats us sometimes, huh?
Protein and low fat ... hmmm ... that's pretty popular actually. Have you done some reading around to see who's doing what? Are you tracking somehow? How high protein and how low fat.?

I'll try to keep you in mind as I read around today and let you know if I find some posters who eat like you.

Best of luck and don't be a stranger!

Actually, no. I've been kind of "winging it" up until now because I was just doing what I was supposed to pre-operatively. But now that I want to work this into a lifestyle, I definitely think I need more guidance. I'll definitely be getting into the other forums to see who else is doing it

I need all the support I can get!

How about Meg, Mel, Ilene and Glory87?

Tracking your food, protein and fat and the protein drinks during the hot months may make this go more smoothly. A lot is mental I think, don't let anything get in your way and don't let a slip or setback cause you to give up the whole journey. And exercise is a big key for me, keeps me motivated and prevents me from wanting to eating poor choices thereby messing the exercise I have done for the day.