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Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Giving up the Bubbly

In addition to being six months post-surgery, I am also celebrating about 7 months soda free. There should be a support group for that kind of thing huh?

Hi my name is Laura and I'm addicted to Diet Coke. It's been 7 months since my last drink. 

Honestly, if I didn't HAVE to give it up I probably never would have. I tried in vain to quit many times. I would even quit for more than a month's time and go back to it. Even when I was under dietician care and they told me you MUST give it up, I didn't. Not until it was time for the pre-surgery detox diet and I had to.

It's liquid crack. 

The reason I can't have it now is simply because of carbonation. Carbonation is no longer my friend because it can cause my new stomach to expand. And after going through all of this, I simply don't want that to happen. So I don't ever eat more than my allotted volume (8oz) and I never drink the bubbly. One of the dieticians told me once that putting soda into your stomach is putting air into a balloon. And that visual scared me straight.

Luckily I've always been a fan of iced tea so I switched to these puppies for my portable cold caffeine beverage of choice.

This unsweetened iced tea is usually all the caffeine I consume in one day, with the occasional exception of a cup of coffee. I've never been as much of a huge coffee nut as my husband so if you see me going for a cup on a normal day...that's when you know that the tired has really hit the fan.

I do miss my old friend Diet Coke on rare occasion. At a local firehouse chicken dinner in the 100 degree heat, I literally salivated at my family drinking ice cold Dr. Pepper. But I lived. And when I see those occasional articles pass by on Facebook about how diet soda is bad for your kidneys, your teeth, you blood sugar or that aspartame will give you every cancer known to man...I'm a little bit glad to be forced away from it.

I'll miss you my old bubbly friend. We've been through so much together. But all bad things must eventually come to an end. I won't forget you.

6 Month Selfie

I'm coming up on the six month post surgery mark and am down around 65 lbs. I'm feeling good and rocking my first pair of non plus-sized jeans in a LONG time.

 Recently I went out painting with my old friend Erin. She's known me since 4th grade so she's seen me at EVERY size...pre-pubsecent to pregnant to plump. In that order, probably. Anyway we had been conversing all night through dinner and our art class and she finally blurted it out...you know I've been looking at you all night but I just now noticed you have a LOT LESS face! That made me laugh. Yes I do think I have considerably less face.

Dec. 2012
Sept. 2013

Also a little less hair, which can be a common bariatric side affect due to the striking cut in calories. But honestly my hair was so thick and curly that it doesn't bother me much. Plus my hair dresser gave me some biotin supplements to help keep it healthy and they seem to help. My dietician is also going to tell me to up my protein intake when I go in for the six month appointment, I'm calling it now. More protein, better hair!

Aside from hair I'm happy to have less of everything. Less face, less butt, less everything.