By Jess

So, today marks the last day of my two-week liquid puree diet. It has been two and a half weeks since I’ve eaten anything solid. I have to say, the thought of the eggs, chicken, salmon, fruit, vegetables, and cheese that I’m going to eat tomorrow is propelling me through today.

You know what’s funny? I’ve been eating about 700 calories a day, made up entirely of yogurt, cottage cheese, and protein shakes, so that list of food that I’m going to eat tomorrow? It sounds like SO MUCH. Seriously, yesterday I was entering in the dinner that I’d eaten (8 ounces of cottage cheese) to SparkPeople and thinking about how I’d eaten SO MUCH that day. Then I looked at my calorie tally for the day: 460.

So yes, I do plan to eat all that food tomorrow, but it will have to be in small quantities. My sample meal plan recommends only an ounce or two of meat, one ounce of cheese, one egg, and a quarter cup of fruits and vegetables. And really, even in those small quantities I feel overwhelmed just imagining eating it all.

But oh, the VARIETY. It’s going to be GLORIOUS.

Anyway. I didn’t mean to spend so much time talking about my food habits. Really I want to do a more global post-surgery check-in. Tomorrow will mark two weeks out from my surgery, and so far I’ve lost just under 20 pounds, including the three-day clear liquid diet that I did pre-surgery. Some of the 20 pounds is absolutely made up of water weight. I lost 10 pounds during that three-day liquid diet and I’ve lost another 10 in the two weeks since the surgery.

I’m really pleased about this progress, especially because this part of the process doesn’t even focus on weight loss. I’m focusing on protein intake, and I’m hitting my goals, and I’m not counting calories (though I do take a look at the totals that SparkPeople provides, more out of curiosity than anything else). I don’t have any fills in my band yet, so I don’t have restriction–so my appetite is still “normal.” But I guess there’s SOME restriction, because the band itself does create a bit of a pouch, and also not really eating for so long has probably shrunk my stomach, pouch included.

These last two weeks have been a struggle. There was a notable day early last week when I posted a miserable entry on my personal blog because I was struggling so much. In retrospect I realize that all that bad stuff happened around the time that the internal surgery-related swelling started to go down, causing my appetite to increase, but my mind and eating ability hadn’t caught up yet.

Luckily, things improved after that. The gas pains went away, the leg numbness is pretty much gone, I’ve become reconciled to my extremely limited diet, and watching my weight get steadily lower has buoyed me through the tougher times.

Still, I did have a mini-breakdown this weekend involving many tears. I was initially upset about something else, and as my husband and I were talking about it and I was feeling sad, I suddenly wailed, “I’m HUNGRY. And we’re out of cottage che-ee-ee-eese!” And then I burst into tears and buried my face in the couch. Because I’m four years old.

But seriously, it’s a lot harder to cope with life in general when you’re hungry, and the only options available to you to ease that hunger are incredibly unappetizing. All I can say is, thank god I like yogurt and cottage cheese. And thank god my husband knows me very well, and after checking to make sure I was OK post-breakdown, went straight to the grocery store and came home with not only cottage cheese but also a bouquet of purple flowers.

This week I’m feeling much better. I took the steristrips off and scrubbed the bandage residue off with rubbing alcohol, and the incisions look like they’re going to turn into nearly-invisible small scars. The leg numbness is pretty much entirely gone. I have a lot more energy. I’m walking at least half an hour a day, and feeling good about it. I’m off painkillers entirely, including Tylenol. I’m resigned to my fate and trying to look on the bright side–think of all the calcium I’m getting. No osteoporosis for me!

And in just one short day, I can eat real food again. Small quantities of healthy food, but food nonetheless. I’m really interested to see how the change in dietary habits affects my weight loss. And I’m really looking forward to the next part. It’s all uphill from here.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 27th, 2009 at 4:49 pm and is filed under Blogs, Not a Diet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.