What? Am I a rabbit?

I honestly wasn’t sure how I was going to do on this low calorie, probably tasteless and “OMG, do I have to eat SALADS all the time, what am I a rabbit?” diet. You know I’ve done the low carb diet before, and I’ve done the low fat diet before. But now I had to do BOTH of them. How on earth? But I was determined.

I looked over the diet carefully. In big letters at the top of the first page, it clearly read “PURCHASE A FOOD SCALE – THIS IS MANDATORY.” Wow, how bossy. And yeah, ok, right. That’s what my first thoughts were. I’d attempted the weighing of my food before - back in the OLD days of Weight Watchers. You measured EVERYTHING. This diet was very reminiscent of that diet. I hated it back then. One of the things I want so desperately was to NOT think about food! And now I have to plan out everything and measure and weigh everything. BUT, I was determined that I was going to do this. On one of the many pages of the diet that I received, there was a statement that said something like "If you don’t think you can do this diet, just think – this is temporary. It’s just to get the weight off for the surgery." I could live with that.

I decided that I would start the diet on the following Monday, March 26th. So, the first day of the diet was supposed to be a day off, but I took a 10a-10p overtime shift. I carefully measured out all my food and packed my lunch box with lunch and dinner AND I ate my breakfast before I left for work. I actually made it through the day without being too hungry in between. Mid afternoon when I started getting hungry, I sliced up an apple. That actually was tasty and filling. I thought that being at work would be tougher on my first day, but I think it was helpful. I hadn’t yet had the opportunity to clean out my refrigerator and my pantry so that might have been a challenge. The next few days went well believe it or not. Not A LOT of cravings, but there were some and I was hungry between meals, but pushed myself through and didn’t cheat.

I forgot to mention in my last post that I was also told that I had to cut out soda (I drink Diet Pepsi almost exclusively – never a sugared soda). I looked at the nurse like she was crazy. She told me that I might as well stop drinking it now as I won’t be able to drink it after surgery because it will cause me to bloat and may cause some stretching of my stomach. That would NOT be helpful. CRAP. I am addicted to caffeine. I also knew that I couldn’t drink iced coffee on the diet either because the cream is not accounted for in the calories. So, during the first week I switched to Snapple raspberry iced tea. I ended up with terrible heartburn, even though I took Omeprazole every night before bed. CRAP, again.

By the end of the week, I started feeling kinda blah in my stomach and a little tired. I figured it was the diet; my body was probably in shock not getting the calories I normally consumed. I worked that Saturday (overtime) even though it was my birthday. I never work on my birthday, but this year I really needed the money.

The next day I would be traveling overnight on personal business.

......to be continued.