Day 3 - Day 9: Full Liquids

Starting on Day 3, I was allowed to include the following liquids:

• Sugar-free pudding
• Oatmeal - made with quick oats and milk or Quaker Oats Weight Control Oatmeal, made thin and liquidy
• Cream of Wheat - made with milk
• Cream of Rice - made with milk
• Grits - made with milk
• Malt-o-Meal - made with milk
• Low-fat creamed soups - made with milk and strained to get rid of chunks
• Protein Shakes

Meals: You must eat four small meals a day.  Eat slowly.  2-4 ounces over 15 minutes.  If you don't feel full, eat another 2-4 ounces over the next 15 minutes.  Stop eating when you feel full even if you have not finished 2 ounces.  Always measure your food and never eat more than a 1/2 cup per meal.

Fluids: You must drink 64 ounces of water or other sugar-free, non alcoholic, non-carbonated, caffeine-free beverages between meals.  This includes Crystal light, other drink flavorings, sugar free popsicles (but no more than 7 a day), sugar free gelatin, broth, and decaf herbal teas.

Not all of these are calorie free, but still allowed I guess.

You must not drink a half hour before or a half hour after each meal.  Do not use a straw as it contributes to swallowing air.  Count your protein shakes as part of your liquid total.

Protein: Protein is vital.  Your goal for this phase is 40 grams of protein a day.  Some tips to help get you there are:  make all hot cereals with milk, drink a protein shake as a meal once a day.  Use unflavored protein powder to boost the protein content of whatever you eat.

In order to hit that 40 gram goal, I had to have a protein everyday.  I was advised by the nutritionist to not use a protein as every meal though.  She said your system needs to have real food reintroduced as soon as possible.  It prevents eating issues and blockages down the road.

Medications: All pills should be taken a half hour apart.  Pills must be taken one hour before or after eating.  If the pill round and is larger than an M&M, than use a pill cutter to halve it.  Take each half a half hour apart.  Small capsules and standard size capsules should be fine.  Large capsules must be broken open.  You can add the powder to your meal.

Incredibly hard to get all your pills in when you have as many as I do.  I have to stay on top of it all day... the couple times I didn't I was up until Midnight or later to get them all in.

Exercise: By this time, you should be stretching and doing your band exercises.

I have been doing this, I also started walking on Day 4, and got up to a mile a day by Day 6.

The picture below is everything I bought for Full Liquids.  If you see something that isn't included in the list above, that is because the doctor's office provided some Full Liquids approved recipes that contained those ingredients.  I will share the recipes in a later post.

Full Liquids

As a caution, I will say that if you are reading this and you are going to have surgery, follow your surgeon's instructions.  I have been talking with people online for over two weeks now, and the programs people are told to follow can be vastly different.  Your doctor will know what he wants you to do.  This is what my doctor wants me to do.