Wheels Up

Well, it is official. I've been through the classes, I've done the 3+ months of reduced carb diet, I've even received the letter from my insurance company telling me that I am approved. Only one thing left to do before surgery.

Today, the liquid diet phase begins.

For those who have joined us recently, the liquid diet phase means this: every "meal" I have, for the next two weeks, is a protein shake. To break up the monotony, I also get to have a few snacks every day: one cup of yogurt, up to 4 sugar-free popsicles a day, and/or all the broth I want. I also need to be ingesting at least 64 ounces of water a day, but I am an old pro at that by now - I've been doing it since March or so.

We have some very recent experience with this liquid diet thing - Lor did it just about 6 weeks ago. It is not pleasant - she was constantly craving the ability to chew anything. Plus, the adjustment of one's body to the reduced calorie load has a bit of a negative emotional side effect.

In other words, I can expect to be cranky as heck for about the first week of my 4 weeks on nothing but liquids.

The results are pretty profound, though. From the point where Lor started the liquid diet to where she exited the hospital, a period of 3 weeks, she dropped a total of 13 pounds - a little over 4 pounds a week. 

I've now been at this for 25 weeks, since I started the pre-surgery diet early, at the same time Lor did. I've managed to lose 41 pounds in that time, averaging about 1.5 pounds a week. Our surgical team constantly tells us not to compare weight loss numbers, but I am going to anyway - If I am down another 13 pounds at my post-surgical weekly weigh in, 3 weeks from today, I will have lost 54 pounds total.

I will be below 250 pounds for the first time since 2004.

When I weighed around 250, I looked something like this:

2002 - Somewhere between 240 and 250 pounds.

Yeah, I'll take that. 

Protein Shakes, here I come.

Wishing There Were More Interesting Flavors,

- Hawkwind