FEELING BETTER

Yes, it has been a week since my operation and I am feeling better every day. I have been doing some walking around the neighbourhood, too. What am I eating? Actually I don't know if you call this eating--but I will not argue about the definition of eating. I drink about two liters a day of liquids. I make myself a pot of tea in the morning and drink from it all day. I am choosing teas like pomegranate, orange spice etc, which have a distinct flavour rather than regular tea. I also drink at least one cup of gatorade a day. This has electrolytes in it which your body needs. I have discovered Knorr (Bovril) chicken soup pouches (the individual ones) and this sure helps because it is very tasty and satisfying. I eat diet Jello every day. Katya has learned to like it, too, so I don't get as much as I used to. She just can't figure jello out. When she tries to pick it up it separates and then she can't get hold of it to eat it.

I also mix a small jar of baby prune juice with 3/4 litres of water and drink from this all day, too. So you can see that I get lots of liquids. The healing of the band around my stomach is coming along. I used to feel all the food (liquid) when it entered my stomach and left it. It has settled down now so I don't feel that anymore. I have never had to throw up or had any trouble with anything I eat. Tomorrow I start week two and it is still liquids. I may add the occasional protein drink. I am not complaining about this restrictive diet. The clinic in Mexico gave me an 8-week eating schedule. It clearly lists all the foods you can eat each week. New foods are added every week, too. By the end of week 8 I should be back on every day food. This is a process I have to follow to be successful.

Rudy took me to Tim Horton's tonight and he had a coffee (I was very envious) and I had a decaf tea. This was the first time that I have gone out since getting home. Felt really good. I have lost 8 pounds and have found a 'diet tracker' on Yahoo to keep track of my weight loss. I put in my original weight, put in 52 weeks (one year), the weight I want to end up at, and the date. Then every time I weight myself and have lost weight I reenter the tracker and put down my new weight. It creates a graph of your weight loss, which tells you the % of weight you have lost, and tells you how many weeks you have left to meet your goal. It is really neat and creates a visual log of your progress.

I finally told Rudy's family what I had done and they were very supportive. They had lots of questions, too.

I will wait a few week before going to see my diabetic doctor.

I find that my eye sight is changing a lot. Some days I see better than others. But I will tell you all that if this surgery is what it takes to get my health back then it is worth all I am doing--which isn't too much--just drinking, laying around and taking the occasional walk.

So far, so good!!!