Springy Goodness!

I'm feeling awesome today! First, it's a lovely spring day here in NOLA and I'm feeling caught up on my grading stuff (so far). I'm super happy that I found some interesting material on the life of St. Peter to look at as a result of my first spiritual advising meeting. Seems ole Pete and I may have a few things in common :-) I want to find a nice blanket of clover in City Park and just go read. Unfortunately, I can't do that until at least May 23/24l, but I WILL go do that!

It's also been exactly a week since I began the two-week required pre-op liquid diet and I am down ten pounds! I'm happy that my liver will hopefully be in mint condition for the procedure. Part of me says "Hmmm, if you're suddenly losing so well, then why go through with the procedure at all? Why not just stick to this liquid thing for an extended period of time and then all will be well and you won't have to be without a normal stomach." Then, the other part of my psyche reminds me that "I've tried this before, perhaps not so severely....but.....
been there, done that......and then it all came back on plus more over time".

My recent annual check-up was ridiculously good.....BP 118/65, blood sugar perfect and all that jazz. I just have the feeling that it will catch up with me at some point because I am so far past the point of caring about dieting. Two years ago I had officially given up after six months trying the Aspen Clinic program, my "last resort". When I say gave up......I mean GAVE UP and from that point onward, I stopped caring, measuring, reading labels, exercising more than a day or two each week, and started enjoying eating more. That's a slippery slope I tell you!
I digress.....The recent check-up was another excuse to ask myself "Why I am I doing this again?"

I'd say I have a minor case of the pre-surgery jitters - even on this day full of springy goodness :-)

I will say that I do feel really supported by friends, church staff friends, family, and colleagues. That's a nice feeling :-)

I Almost Ate My Desk

I wanted to eat my desk.

Ravenous was exactly what I was yesterday. Being the first day of my two-week pre-op liquid diet, I did sort of expect this to happen. Talk about a reality call that surgery day is getting CLOSE! Tons of things going through my head: Excitement at FINALLY reaching this point, fear of the unknown and known lifestyle changes, relief, nervousness, etc.

It's not like I haven't done a liquid diet before. This time though, it comes after a year and a half of having given up on dieting - period. I have put forth many years of willpower in dieting and

When I go through a normal day, I hardly feel real hunger - even if I have eaten very little, but this was ridiculous and my inability to stop thinking about it was not helping. Also not helping was the fact that the one protein shake I drank....or tried to....was within four days of expiration. That was just plain sad as I know those boxes of shake bottles and cans sit on shelves for several years before expiration. To think that had been in my fridge for a year and a half....wow, just wow. 

Today is day # 2 and MUCH BETTER already. I attribute that to last night's Kmart run for protein shake powder, vitamin gummies, Crystal Light, and a new scale. I even found Omega-3 gummies and they do not taste fishy. When I got home, I made popsicles out of the Crystal Light and drank a real shake. I also turned my focus to reading my liquid options and found that my doctor allows broths and that some folks made soup and simply didn't eat the noodles. So, I had some soup as well and went to bed feeling full.

I FINALLY bought those little colorful popsicle thingies.

I admit, I had actually wanted them years ago, but YOWZA am I glad to have them now!

I tried Crystal Light, but I have a strong feeling that fruit juice is going to win this one for the taste and the texture.

Having communicated with my surgeon's office this morning about vitamins and more, I have  also been told I can add non-fat soups and have skim milk in my coffee so YAY! They even sent me some great recipes to try out for vegetable soup!

I plan to do a video blog in a few days. Yesterday, I also took some before and after pictures

Surgery in 14 days - wish me luck! :-)