"I see a lot of cursing in your future."

Yeah, well, in my head anyway! Vulgarity is regulated here, so you may see a lot of asterisks in my posts until I'm over a few hurdles....I started my 2 week pre-op diet today. Such a good little student.....no really, I started it two days early. I woke up this morning and was like, "F*ck it, start today!" I think because I've been totally dreading it, it was just easier to start than to deal with two more days of anticipation. It's definitely going to be a test of will. You see, I like real food-healthy food. I don't mind the challenge of counting calories, protein, carb and fat grams. Of exercising on a treadmill and obsessively maintaining a 70% max heart rate for x minutes.....I think it's the OCD in me (which I think everyone has- have you met your inner OCD child yet?), but I like a challenge and proving to myself, or whoever, that I can do something, even if it's wicked hard (ok so wicked may come up here and there too- what can I say, I live in Boston!). Anyway, the problem with this liver-shrinking diet is that other than the "free" foods (carrots, cukes, peppers, spinach, etc), there is no wholesome, non- (or at least minimally) processed food to be eaten for 3 out of four meals per day. Let's see what the label of the protein meal replacement bar I ate this morning says: Whey protein, palm oil (ok), enriched flour, sugar, palm kernel oil (the oil must be extracted from the pit with a gasoline-like hydrocarbon solvent. In short, palm kernel oil is a cheap, unhealthy fat!-Dr. Weil), cocoa, fructose, soy lecithin, caramel color, salt, stevia. Actually, that's not too horrible. I can't wait to see what's on the label of the high protein Ensure shakes in my pantry. Yuck!

I'm not a big sweets eater and am hoping the "unflavored" whey protein that's coming in the mail will work when I add it to some chicken broth.

So I was across the street from my temp job at the grocery store to get a salad and was overwhelmed briefly by the thought that I couldn't do it, and then, my inner Bob Harper roared to life and said "F*ck you, hunger!", and I headed to the salad bar, got my allotted veggies and a fresh protein drink and was on my way. Yes, I realize I'm only on Day One, but the title of this post didn't mention anything about rainbows and unicorns, did it?