Day 5 of 2 Week Meal Replacement

Day 5 of 2 Week Meal Replacement

Day 5 of my Meal replacement Diet prior to surgery… and still going OK…
I find that I am not hungry at all in the mornings  (which is not that unusual for me anyway) so rather than forcing myself to eat breakfast when I don’t really feel like it (and yes… I do know it is “the most important meal of the day)) I have decided to incorporate the 16:8 Diet – which involves only eating within an 8 hr period each day – and then fasting for the remaining 16.  This sounds pretty  nasty, but actually works in pretty well with my eating patterns anyway…. I am now only eating between Midday and 8PM – which is not too bad …
Now I know that the idea for the OptiFAST VLCD is to reach “Ketosis“… and I am not really sure if/how 16:8 may impact on that… but I have so far lost another 2KG in the last 5 days… so can that be a bad thing ??
Day 2 of 2 Week Meal Replacement

Day 2 of 2 Week Meal Replacement

Day 2 of my Meal replacement Diet prior to surgery… and so far so good….
Except… I caught up with some old Uni mates today for “lunch” and I was all psyched to just have my OptiFAST Food Bar and water… but I forgot my food bar… I was still holding strong for a H2O only lunch but my mate decides it was his shout … So I caved in and had a Woodfired Vegetable Salad (quinoa, cranberries, sumac, almonds, labneh), which I decided wasn’t the worst thing in the world I could have (and was actually quite tasty – considering my Taste is only back about 60% what it should be) – Thanks Marty 🙂
Back onto water, celery and carrots, with some Soup for dinner 🙂
2 Weeks “Meal Replacement” Starts Today

2 Weeks “Meal Replacement” Starts Today

Okay… so today I start my 2 weeks pre-surgery Meal Replacement Diet… which essentially involves replacing all meals with OptiFAST Shakes/Soups/Bars with a few fruit and veges in-between – and lots of water.

I’ve been out shopping (spent $150 on OptiFAST) and the photo above shows pretty much everything I will be eating over the next 2 weeks.

  • OptiFAST Chocolate/Caramel Shakes
  • OptiFAST Berry Crunch Bars (No Chocolate available at the moment)
  • OptiFAST Chicken/Vegetable Soups
  • Some Veges – I prefer Celery, Carrots and Tomatoes (yeah I know they are really fruit)
  • Some Fruit – Berries and Apples – (Not in Photo)
  • Plenty of water (I can have carbonated water Before Surgery, but NOT After)… I will have Lemon Juice in it to make it more “interesting”… and I am not really supposed to have the Flavoured Mineral water but that is my secret (not so secret anymore) treat
  • Tea (I don’t drink Coffee) without sugar (but I can have skim milk) – I have got a few different varieties of herbal teas to make life a little bit more interesting too.
Pre Surgery Optifast Diet

Pre Surgery Optifast Diet

17 days to go before my surgery… so I need to start planing and getting my head around the “meal replacement” diet which I need to start 14 days prior (6th Sep).

The purpose of the pre-surgery diet is primarily to shrink down my Liver a bit (so they have more space in my stomach cavity for the keyhole surgery)… I will also (presumably) shed a few more kilos prior to the surgery.

For two weeks I get to replace ALL meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner) withOptiFAST Very Low Carb (VLCD) Shakes, Soups and Food Bars… I am also allowed, for morning/afternoon tea a handful of berries or an apple, and with dinner 2 cups of veggies…. Oh Joy !!!

Apparently the first 3-4 days will be the hardest, while my body adapts to the change of diet and I may experience (short term) headaches, light-headedness and tiredness.  I also need to keep a close eye on my blood sugar, monitoring regularly and will probably need to cut down Diabetes medications by about half.

I seem to be slowly getting back my taste (which I lost about 8weeks ago)… but am not sure if this is a good ot a bad thing… I am not anticipating a “taste extravaganza” from OptiFAST.