Internal: I have listened to positive motivational podcasts, self-help books that I love. Trying to embrace this is a permanent lifestyle, eating, drinking, exercise change. At times I worry I'll eat the same types of food over and over. Then I look at Pinterest, cooking books and know I will still have fun cooking, eating, and being with family at meals. Just anxious about what work will be like with eating between patients. (I work at a prison.) I am 5 weeks out and have lost 54 pounds and am off medication (Blood pressure, diabetes) So, still EXCITED. My goal is to lose 120 pounds and keep it off for life!

I traveled to Spain this year. Have been there a few times in the past few years. What I loved was tapas. Small, delicious dishes served one after another.

I had a tapas party a few weeks before I began the presurgical diet. I made sure that there were a lot of dishes that were great for my health conscious friends and a few for their husbands (ha!).

Everyone brought a tapas dish and I made 6. Half the people (women) were on keto diets so the carb dishes were for men. Several guests were vegan. The great thing with tapas, is you can make something special for each person and they can just ignore the ones outside of their scope. I think I will do another before Christmas. You can eat very little, eat slowly, and no one notices!

I bought tapas dishes and appetizer forks and spoons for my meals. They make me feel special they're so pretty.