Let the Countdown Begin

Well, surgery is less than 5 weeks away now.  This Thursday, the 29th, it will only be 4 weeks away and time for me to start the liquid diet.  I've already been drinking the protein shakes for breakfast so I already know how they taste.  Imaging Carnation Instant Breakfast meets chalk.  OK really they aren't that bad, of course I've only had 1 a day for 5 days.  We'll see how I am doing when I am drinking 2 a day and eating only one meal and then drinking 5 a day with no other meals.  This should be interesting.

Some things I have learned about my eating habits via my journal.  I've been following the Why D.I.E.T.? method which is Why Do I Eat This?  I've learned that I am quite lazy when it comes to food.  But even more interesting to me is why I eat at all.  I'm rarely actually hungry, because I never let myself get hungry.  I eat quite often, even if I "think" it isn't that much.  For instance...in the past I usually skipped breakfast because I enjoy sleeping more and fixing breakfast was the easiest thing to skip (the folks in the office prefer I shower over eat).  So when I finally roll into the office and think about how good I was to "skip" a meal, I'd grad a bag of chips, pack of crackers, a mini candy bar, whatever.  Each of those probably had more calories than a bowl of grits or even a slice of toast with butter.  Then at 11:30 I was "starving" but that was head hunger, not actual stomach hunger.  I was ready to leave the office and have a bitch session with my girlfriend(s).  We'd usually get an appetizer and then each an entree.  Every so often we'd have dessert or go by the bakery on the way back to the office.  Then later in the afternoon I'd again "think" I needed a pick me up, so bag of chips, pack of crackers, or candy bar (only now full size was appropriate - I mean I had to get through the rest of the day and snickers really satisfies you!).  Then comes the lazy...I had worked all day and just couldn't be bothered to cook dinner for Andrew and myself.  So Taco Bell, KFC, Burger King and Zaxby's are all on my way home and they all have drive thrus...I don't even have to get out of the car. 

Most of those habits are changing now.  I'm having breakfast now - a shake.  I'm not mid-morning snacking.  We still have lunch out, but AMS (Anne-Marie Spalinger) has agreed to skip appetizers and even split lunches once I have my surgery, saving us both calories and money!  No more bakery now and no afternoon snacks.  I'll skip drive thrus and go home and cook...or on the days I am in the office Andrew cooks and they days I work from home I cook.  It's been a good trade off and I find that it is a time for Andrew and I to talk about our days.  He's really growing up into a fine young man.  It makes me miss my mom, she'd really be proud of him right now...and maybe even me!