Most patients dread starting the pre-operative very low calorie diet, Optifast™ or Optislim™. Often the thought is that the program is simply just 3 meal replacements a day, replacing breakfast, lunch and dinner and that is absolutely it!
While the plan does involve 3 meal replacements, there are more additions included, and also a variety of ways in which you can space out your meal replacements. You do not have to follow the breakfast, lunch, and dinner timeframe for having your meal replacements. We encourage everyone to experiment a little bit and find what works best for them, and also vary their meal pattern day to day to keep things interesting!
Below are 3 examples of a day on the pre-op diet, which are not what you might expect!
Meal Plan 1
- Breakfast: 1 Optifast shake
- Morning Tea: ½ Optifast bar
- Lunch: Soup made with low starch vegetables
- Afternoon Tea: ½ Optifast bar
- Dinner: 1 Optifast shake AND Soup made with low starch vegetables
- Dessert: Diet jelly
Meal Plan 2
- Breakfast: Grilled tomatoes, mushroom and spinach with 1 tsp oil
- Morning Tea: 1 Optifast bar
- Lunch: Soup made with low starch vegetables
- Afternoon Tea: 1 Optifast pudding
- Dinner: Low starch vegetable salad
- Supper: 1 Optifast shake
Meal Plan 3
- Breakfast: 1 Optifast Shake
- Morning Tea: ½ Optifast bar with low starch vegetable sticks
- Lunch: Stir-fried low starch vegetables with 1 tsp oil
- Afternoon Tea: ½ Optifast bar with low starch vegetable sticks
- Dinner: 1 Optifast soup
- Dessert: Diet Jelly
And remember drinks need not be boring either! Diet soft drink, diet cordial, tea and coffee with artificial sweetener, mineral water, and herbal teas are all absolutely fine!
Keep an eye out on our Pinterest page for lots of great vegetable recipes suitable for the pre-op phase. As always, while you are on this plan do not hesitate to contact us for support. We appreciate it is a significant and sudden dietary change, which is not all that enjoyable so we want to help you through!
What are your ideas? How did you manage the pre-op diet? We would love to know!
