8 Tips to Prepare for Gastric Sleeve Surgery

There are many types of weight loss surgery, but gastric sleeve is, far and away, the most popular, thanks to its encouraging success rates. 

As testament to this, the gastric sleeve accounted for nearly 18% of all bariatric surgeries in the United States in 2011, and the number jumped to more than 61% as of 2019.

At Advanced Surgeons, our team of bariatric specialists has considerable experience helping our patients lose the weight they need to through a gastric sleeve procedure. We also understand that there are steps you can take in advance to boost your chances for success. We review eight of those steps here. 

Follow the recommended diet

About two weeks before your surgery, we place you on a special diet and ask that you adhere to this diet. If you’ve come this far, the odds are that you’re no stranger to dieting, so we ask that you make this push leading up to your gastric sleeve.

Maintain your health

Because the COVID-19 pandemic shows no signs of slowing, we urge you to take extra steps to protect yourself against becoming infected. If you do get COVID, we have to delay your surgery.

Create a hospital checklist

When you have gastric sleeve surgery, count on staying in the hospital for at least one night. It’s helpful if you prepare your things in advance — your night clothes, robe, toiletries, and other needed items.

Clean out the pantry

The way you eat must change after your gastric sleeve, so go through your kitchen in advance and throw out or give away the foods that will be off-limits. Boxes of cereal, bags of cookies or chips, and other high-fat, sugary foods should make this list.

Go shopping

Once your pantry is cleared of the off-limits foods, do a little shopping so you have what you need in advance. 

Your post-surgery diet will be soft foods to start. We supply you with a list of what you’ll need after your surgery. Get this grocery trip done before your surgery so you can concentrate on resting and healing afterward.

Prepare yourself socially for your new diet

Undergoing bariatric surgery is a big step, and we want to make sure that you’re comfortable with a new way of living. For example, you won’t be eating large meals, but a series of much smaller ones. That can have some impact on your social life.

Reframe your social outings from ones that are centered around food to ones that are more about spending time with friends and family.

Don’t go it alone

Speaking of friends and family, we recommend that you talk to close friends and family members about your upcoming journey and enlist their help and support. Be honest, open, and clear about what you expect from them.

Get active

There’s a great expression: “Move a muscle, change a thought.” And we suggest you take this to heart. Exercise is one of the best ways to break negative thinking, relieve anxiety, and increase your feel-good hormones. 

Rather than waiting until after the surgery, why not start an exercise regimen in advance? These literal steps will help you enormously, mentally and physically, before, during, and after your gastric sleeve surgery.

Of course, there are many other tips, but rest assured, our team is here to help you every step of the way.

If you have questions about what more you can do to prepare for gastric sleeve surgery, contact one of our locations in Valhalla, Carmel, or Poughkeepsie, New York.