Tomorrow will make it one week since my surgery and I am pretty pleased thus far with my results. During all the diets I have tried, the most I have ever lost is 5 lbs. Soon, I will tie and exceed that record and I didn't have to suffer for it.

I am very much enjoying getting off the broth diet and on to the "full liquids" portion of my food journey. I had some wonderful red pepper and black bean soup this evening and it was so flavorful! I cant even look at broth or the ramen noodle seasoning without feeling ill a bit. Who can blame me? I have been eating little but broth since the 12 th of February- even if my diet was pizza, I dont think that I would feel any better about eating any one food for that long!

I will try some other soups over the next few days and then start the puree diet, which I am also looking forward to.

Still not hungry yet, It almost feels like I am not alive because the hunger is missing and that is part of what makes us human- the drive to eat and sustain ourselves. It is so strange to be missing this- I thought I would love having no hunger, but right now it just feels wierd, but in a good way.

I had my surgery on friday and while I had a lot of gas pain following the surgery and some other pain the day after, yesterday and today are going great!

What I have enjoyed the most is being able to look at food and not be hungry! My parents can eat in front of me and I'm like "Whatever, I'm not hungry!" i am enjoying this new feeling so much!

I gained 3 lbs of fluid with the surgery after losing 13 on the 10 day diet of doom, but I know that this new weight will not last for long.

I could not be a happier girl right now!

I am SO not looking forward to drinking 10 oz. of magnesium citrate today. I have never taken any laxatives in my life and so I am clueless as to how this will affect me. Also, I am no longer allowed to drink any milk, so I will probably be even more hungry today. Ugh! Oh well, less than 24 hours until surgery, so I'm waiting on that!

Now on day 9 of 10 of diet of doom and seeing the end of the tunnel. My bariatric nurse said it would get easier, but I would have to disagree with him and say that unfortunately it has not. It seems to be more tolerable since I know it will be over soon, but the diet itself is not easier. I am counting down the number of meals that I will have to watch and/or smell my parents eat before surgery, and I am down to two! Also, I just weighed myself and I have lost 12 pounds since the start of the diet, so that is at least a bit of a motivator.

I never noticed before how many food commercials there are on TV! No wonder people in this country get to be overweight! We are being bombarded with so many ads for food that is so unhealthy- like fast food. Those Wendy's commercials about the cheese fries and the "fritos crunch" thing are so bad for people- they play them in my area late at night saying that it is good that the commercial is making you hungry, and you just know that the thing has like 3,000 calories in it and it would be the worst possible choice to eat at that time of day.

This diet is really making me re-examine the culture of food in America.  While I do not blame the culture for making people overweight (people have free will and control over their actions), the message in the media is so inconsistent- the ideal body type for a grown woman is 120 lbs and 5 foot 9 which is hard for almost anyone but a few scattered genetic mutants to obtain. While at the same time the media paints the picture of normal eating as someone who goes out at 10 pm and eats fast food. And the two realities- extreme thinness and late night fast food eating- are mutually exclusive. How skewed things are!

Well, this is my first post and I really don't have a lot to say as of yet except that I am on day 7 of 10 of the high protein, liquid diet of doom and am really looking forward to it being over!

I will be having surgery this Friday and looking to connect with individuals with similar issues with weight and going through WLS. No one in my family has as much of a weight problem as I do, so it is hard for them to sympathize with me. Even though I know they still love and support me, its not the same somehow.

Gotta go down another glass of skim milk- ugh!

-L