Opti-OMG!

I'm not easing into liquid meal replacement.  No Way.
Here's my plan:

I want to embrace the first horrible 3 days of detox from my carb addiction.  I want to feel true hunger again.  I want to remember every vile moment. (maybe hubby doesn't..lol)
And I want to be able to recall all of it forever.
Never again do I want to have to go through this.

I recently stopped a 25/day ciggie habit of 30 years doing exactly the same.  Embraced the withdrawal.  Every hideous craving, every time distortion, every anxious moment.  It did stop, once it was out of my system.  Then came the head game. But I haven't looked back.

I will use Ketostix because I have used them on low carb years ago and I remember how great it is when they turn purple.  It also helped me stay motivated and will again.

Don't laugh, but I used my tongue instead of Ketostix when I stopped smoking.  Every day (sometimes several times/day), I'd poke my tongue out in the mirror and admire the pink colour it was instead of green tinge (gross, sorry).

PC wrote:

That booklet is written for an entirely different audience - people who aren't preparing for major bariatric surgery, who just want a cheap way of losing a few kilos.

The recommendations in that booklet are completely irrelevant for our purposes and don't belong in a discussion such as this one.

I agree PC - that booklet has nothing to do with bariatric surgery patients. Optifast does come with its own program for those who aren't preparing for surgery, but for those that are the program is irrelevant, and posting any information to the contrary can be confusing for those preparing for surgery and unaware of the difference. Open the box and throw the booklet away - it's irrelevant. 

It is most important to mentally prepare yourself, perhaps even more so than physically preparing yourself. For the last two weeks I've been replacing one meal a day, but this week due to some health issues and some circumstances beyond my control I've decided to take a break for a few days and concentrate on the way I'm feeling before and after I eat. It is true that you cannot ease into keytosis, but you CAN ease your mind into the habits that will bring you success post surgery and beyond, and that goes far beyond just the opti. I am learning through trial and error what makes me feel good and what doesnt, along with what feeling full feels like because I'm slowing down my eating and eating smaller portions over a longer period of time. I've learnt that it takes a LOT less food than I've been eating for me to feel full provided I take my time, and I think that's a major lesson to learn. 

Changing mindsets doesn't happen overnight - and cutting out part of my stomach will not change my mindset. That work begins now, before I go under the knife or even start my pre op diet. It's not an overnight fix, its a long term journey that unfolds day by day. DO NOT leave it til your pre op diet to start redefining the way you relate to food or you'll be in for quite a shock post surgery! Good luck :)

You can only do wat works for you, but NO EASING in to sleeve surgery there one day gone the next. Hope you recover well make smart  choices and continue the losses

That booklet is written for an entirely different audience - people who aren't preparing for major bariatric surgery, who just want a cheap way of losing a few kilos.

The recommendations in that booklet are completely irrelevant for our purposes and don't belong in a discussion such as this one.

Im not wrong on all counts
Wat ive said is in the book optifast supply in thier product its not my interpretation of the stuff its wat a highly trained and skilled scientist along with dietitians have recommended. . Its in black and white in the box 4 phases intensive, transition, maintenance,  stabilization no where is ther an ease in to it phase. That is wat your dietician has givin you.

The proof is in the results  as  diet experts you or I are not professional if we were we would not be having gastric sleeve surgery so dont tell me im wrong. .

Hey buckab, In the nicest possible way, I would also have to disagree. Maybe if people thought that they were easing into ketosis you would be right, but I don't think anyone believes they are doing that.

I am currently "easing into Opti" myself. By that, my version means to replace one meal a day with a shake and to try and eat pretty healthily for my other meals and in a little while I will try moving to 2 shakes. I have decided that this will ease me in by starting to get my body used to fewer calories gradually, rather than a sudden switch - not to mention my mind, lol! However ketosis is of course not expected until I am fully in my Opti phase.

I see what you were thinking though and appreciate that you are trying to help others, but I think "easing in" is probably practised by quite a few people with varied approaches. 😄

buckab wrote:

Hi all ive been reading through the post and I see a common mistake in them you can not easy in to optifast it works on ketosis which is your bodys reaction to low but useful calories  in the box it explains this three optis a day and two liters of water minimum on top of shakes  and if your still hungry up to two cups of the listted vegies (low starch ones) and one teaspoon of oil.  drink black tea and coffee and diet drinks if you want but keep daily calories under 850

Wrong on all counts.

You can ease into Optifast.  I did it on a pre-existing low carb diet.  The main thing you need to ease into is the routine.  That's entirely separate to its effects.  I lost weight on 1, 2 and 3+ Optifasts a day, but I really valued easing into it because it got me used to the idea that nutrition didn't necessarily come from a full stomach and a heap of chewing.

Also, the low-starch veggies are NOT an optional extra, in case you get hungry.  They are a mandatory requirement, and according to my nutritionist, 2 cups is the minimum, not the maximum.

Hi all ive been reading through the post and I see a common mistake in them you can not easy in to optifast it works on ketosis which is your bodys reaction to low but useful calories  in the box it explains this three optis a day and two liters of water minimum on top of shakes  and if your still hungry up to two cups of the listted vegies (low starch ones) and one teaspoon of oil.  drink black tea and coffee and diet drinks if you want but keep daily calories under 850 
 Im 27kgs down in 4 weeks cravings died away after two days if you dont cheat . Now post op and yet to weigh in im stayin off them until my post op appointment 21/8/14.

Msforgiven83 wrote:

I am working on acclimatising myself to optifast before I'm on it full time and I was wondering if there was any restriction on how much you can have per day? The reason I ask is because I've been having a shake first thing in the morning and generally it's 2-3 hours and I am STARVING - is it just me or is the protein in these shakes not working for me?????? If I can only have three doses of optifast per day I am going to be VERY hard to live with!!!! 

Any suggestions on how to quell the hunger pains or will this just be part of the whole keytosis thing?

I'm told (broscience alert) this advice applies to people with type A or AB blood:

Ditch the wheat.  It'll take a few days to get over the cravings without it, but if you try to ease into Optifast while still eating wheat products (including some varieties of Optifast itself!) you'll keep having the cravings until a few days after you stop.

Aside from brief experiments and a few slip-ups, I haven't had wheat in two years.  I eased into the Optifast early and had no problems. 

A simpler solution might be water.  At first I was hungry for lunch after a breakfast Optifast a little earlier than usual (3.5 hours I think) but a big gulp of water fixed that.  Eventually I made it to 4-5 hours and was only mildly hungry, and that's where I am now.

Also, what guidelines did your nutritionist give you?  My guidelines are to work around 3-4 Optifast a day plus unlimited non-starchy veg (minimum 2 cups, preferably more) plus a teaspoon of oil, though he said I can eat other things so long as I maintain weight loss pre-op (and boy am I managing that!).  My cheats thus far are adding cottage cheese (borderline) and salsa (allowable - it's mostly tomato, jalapeno and onion) to my veggies to make them go down easier.  I've also had a tin of sardines in my veg every other day, to boost protein and allowable oil, but I'll ease up on the sardines a little as the op gets closer.  Fish oil can interfere with blood clotting, from what I've heard.  If I really crave something else, I'll poach an egg.  I'm 33 and I only just learned how to do that a week ago, in the microwave, in an ordinary breakfast bowl half-full of water, for 3 bursts of 1 minute!

On my list I am allowed two cups of approved vegies per day plus a diet jelly and all sorts of other fluids like cordial, soft drink etc.

I am working on acclimatising myself to optifast before I'm on it full time and I was wondering if there was any restriction on how much you can have per day? The reason I ask is because I've been having a shake first thing in the morning and generally it's 2-3 hours and I am STARVING - is it just me or is the protein in these shakes not working for me?????? If I can only have three doses of optifast per day I am going to be VERY hard to live with!!!! 

Any suggestions on how to quell the hunger pains or will this just be part of the whole keytosis thing? 

thanks! 

 

Willowgirl wrote:

On my diet sheet today they suggested putting coffee into the Vanilla Opti.

Ive been blending strawberries in. I might try coffee as well.

I'm in my second week of opti and yep, OMG is right!  I thought I'd be all good with the soups but holy cow, those things are reeeevolting! I've packed them up hoping to either offload or return them to where I got them (mental note: email supplier today).  I'm finding the shakes okay albeit a little sweet. I like caramel, banana and chocolate the best but the others are fine so I'm okay with them.

Just on the headaches - I had headaches for most of the first week and have one again this morning. It's not caffeine for me because I haven't stopped having coffee, I just stopped putting milk in it.  I think in my case it's the whole detox process from carbs, fat etc. 

I'm trying to think one day at a time and not the weeks of opti stretching ahead of me or I feel like I can't do it. One day at a time...

On my diet sheet today they suggested putting coffee into the Vanilla Opti.

My dietician said that Optifast isn't what's important.  What matters is healthy weight loss for two weeks prior to surgery, to get the liver as small as possible and clear up a bit of the fat around it.

Optifast is merely a way to achieve that result, short-term.

If you're cheating a little, so long as it's not in an especially stupid manner (sugary or starchy carbs or excessive calories or anything that could interfere with surgery), and you can maintain the weight loss, it probably won't matter.

Its funny how dieticians are different, my dietician told me it was ok to have low fat milk in tea or coffee and equal. Also fine to have a boiled egg in the morning.

I got a 21 pack of vanilla from the chemist, went home and tried and yukkkkkkk, I thought no way I could do 2 weeks of this.  
  
I did read somewhere where you can buy a mutil flavored pack, Tried Banana Strawberry coffee caramel all I loved chocolate so so.
So I was a much happier guy then let me tell you lol 
 

Do you like milky coffee? I hate black coffee so I had for preop breakfast every day, vanilla opti hot with instant coffee, you could have cocoa instead. Postop during the liquid stage I had the same, with a quarter cup of skim milk powder added (I think that adds up to about 25 grams of protein).

Geoffrey W wrote:

I was thinking of mixing the chocolate and vanilla together?

Excellent idea! I bought a box of 21 Vanilla. The likelihood of using any of the remaining 20 sachets is negligible. It was hideous!

I wonder what else it could be mixed with. Cocoa powder perhaps?

I was thinking of mixing the chocolate and vanilla together? Coffee is my favourite, I did enjoy the chocolate for a while now I can't handle it. Out of desperation I tried the vanilla and enjoyed it? Maybe my taste buds are changing??? I like my shakes extra cold so it's in the freezer or if I'm running late I just add ice! The colder they are the nicer the taste 
Good luck

Every Dr has what they like to use some do use other brands but it is up to him/her.  I didn't have a high BMI but my Dr makes everyone do it to take the fat off the liver it is in the way of the stomach so the less fat it has on it the better they can see the stomach.

There are some surgeons who don't put you on opti,he usually gauges it by your bmi and how much weight you have to lose,doing opti is to shrink the liver down so he can operate safely with more space.I did not have to do opti as I did not have heaps to lose but had other issues due to high weight.I did opti myself for three days just to clear out the stomach .Surgeons who calculate you with high bmi and have much weight to,lose usually will make you do opti,so it depends on yourself and your surgeons methods,they all vary.

It seems all surgeons put everyone on optifast before surgery. Wouldn't isowhey do the same thing? The choc isowhey actually tastes ok.

Sleeve is done. I am finding it takes me 3 hours to drink a cup of fluid. Any faster drinking in quite painful. Dr Taylor said the ideal is to drink Opti-fast or similar but he said if it is too unpleasant drink something else. I tried Achieve-it yesterday and it was too gross. I will give opti-fast another chance but Achieve it is going to be off loaded.

ozrick33 wrote:

Have not tried the vanilla yet but I might give it a go. Surgery is this afternoon. I have lost 10kg on the Opti-fast 2 week deal. Feel good too. Lets get this happening!

BFSCOTT wrote:

I've been on the Vanilla flavoured Optifast for 5 days now and the taste is fine, no issue with it at all, I weighted myself yesterday and I'd lost 6kg in 4 days! I had to look at the scales a few times as I though I'd misread it, but not it was correct.

Not surprising though as I'm not eating bugger all (bowl of steamed veg at night) plus the 3 Optifast Sachets, I guess the body has got only one choice hey, tap in and burn the stored fuel.

Good Luck with everything Rick, I'm sure it will be a great success, and yes the Vanilla ones are fine (Haven't tried anything else) and I guess you can ad flavourings if needed but to be honest its 200ml so just drink it I say!

Look farward to hearing how you are going.