So after not having great success with the numbers on the scale going down all weekend, I woke up this morning to discover I had lost 2 lbs!! Its better than Christmas morning...well almost anyways. Today I am 6 days out until surgery. I am getting more and more excited as the days go on. I go on Thursday for my pre-op appointment at the surgery and to do my final weigh in at the surgeon's office. So woo hoo. I will definitely be working out during lunch tomorrow.

I have been craving pizza something terrible lately. I ate it a good bit before I started my diet but still having a hard time kicking that habit. Today at work we had a safety meeting during lunch and they ordered pizza. I have to admit that no one asked me if I wanted any, which they are famous for doing, but while they were eating their pizza and I was drinking my shake I felt left out. However afterwards when I realized I had kept my mouth to myself I was proud. I have to really get used to not eating all of the bad things when the whole group is eating bad. You can ask most people, I am really not a follower, but when it comes to food I am very much a follower, it is usually pretty easy to get me to fall off the good choice bandwagon. Attached is a picture of the pizza party and my shake there in the middle. Woo hoo me!!

The hardest part right now is controlling my bite sizes. I am supposed to be taking a bite the size of the first joint on your pinkie finger and chewing excessively. Also I am not supposed to be drinking liquids while I eat. This is to keep from washing my food down my stomach quicker so I feel full longer. Whenever I go out to eat, I've never been the person who gets 100 refills of their drink. Usually I barely make it through one. But for some reason now that I am trying to monitor this its become extremely hard. Tomorrow at dinner, I am not even going to sit down with a drink. Maybe this will take away the temptation to drink.

I've pretty much decided on only making healthy choices and not eating carbs, but its the little things I am worried about perfecting before surgery. Such as the small bite, excessive chewing, and no drinking while eating. What if I can't master these things? I think I mentioned the baby plates and kids silverware that I bought. I have been eating smaller portions but starting tomorrow I will bust out the plates and silverware. I have also attached a picture of the broiled tilapia and spinach I had tonight to show my portion sizes. This is the smallest plate I have besides the baby plates. This will force me to seriously monitor my portions and the silverware will make me take smaller bites. I know this is an ongoing process, just have to keep working on it until it becomes second nature, just like eating terrible food did in my "past" life. That and I know the first time (or probably second and third time too) that I have issues with how big of bite I took or washing my food down, I will really feel the effects and focus on following the rules.

So to summarize, do not be a food follower, be a leader and make good food choices, continue working on fine tuning lap band eating habits until they are second nature, and do not give into temptation. I can do this, tomorrow is only 5 days until surgery!!

Until tomorrow,

Amanda