Heart surgery will always be a traumatic event, but you can lessen the burden on your mind with proper planning and preparation. Ensuring that you go into surgery in peak physical condition can help speed recovery and reduce the likelihood of complications. Thus, it is important to place yourself on a diet prior to your scheduled surgery. If you are looking for a diet to assist you in dropping weight, consider the following routine.
The USC Recommended Diet
Although this diet from the University of Southern California School of Medicine was designed for patients to follow after surgery, you can adopt this plan beforehand to get a head start on recovery. Losing weight prior to surgery will reduce the overall strain on your heart by decreasing blood pressure. Because reducing systemic stress on the body prior to a traumatic event such as surgery is key for fast healing, dieting makes perfect sense if you have weight-control issues. The USC diet is not a restrictive affair but a number of general recommendations designed to help you improve your health prior to going under the knife.
Following the USC Diet
The recommendations made by the doctors at USC are as follows: eat a mix of healthy items, select foods that are naturally low in cholesterol and fat, consume limited amounts of sodium, reduce or wholly eliminate your intake of sugar, consume additional healthy carbs and reduce overall portion sizes.
To put these recommendations into effect, focus your diet around consumption of fruits, vegetables and lean protein sources (meat, chicken, fish and eggs). These three items should be the backbone of your nutritional strategy. Supplement them with healthy fat intake--consume natural fats (such as coconuts and avocados) and oils (such as fish, flax, olive, coconut and macadamia nut). While you can consume natural carbohydrates such as whole-grain items, oats and sweet potatoes, your best results will come from sticking to mostly fruits and non-starchy vegetables.
Considerations
Of course, consult your physician before starting any diet. Aim for gradual but steady weight loss--one to two pounds per week is a good target. Depending on the amount of time you have prior to your surgery, consider slowly weaning yourself into the diet by adopting one or two rules per week. This way, you will not feel overwhelmed by a sudden and drastic change in diet, thus being more likely to stick to the plan for the long haul.
