Surviving week two

Tomorrow is my two-week progress appt with Dr. U. I'm excited to see what his scale reads.. mine reads 268 this morning. That's an 18 lb loss in 13 days folks. I can hardly wrap my mind around it.

I am SO HAPPY that week two is coming to a close. I thought I was going to lose my mind at the beginning of the week. I could not stop thinking about food, no matter what I tried. Every TV ad, every restaurant that I passed on the street, every smell.. the food that was all around seemed to be taunting me. I was even dreaming about food. And it was pissing me off. I kept thinking "maybe my surgery didn't work" and even, "my God - will I be one of the failures?"

Thankfully, as I was in the midst of this self-doubt and anxiety, I read a post on Shel's blog from a man named Dana. That post did so much to ease my mind and help me realize that what I was experiencing was TOTALLY NORMAL. Once I realized that, the food thoughts started to drift away. It was actually quite amazing.. I took back control of my thoughts and forced food out of them.

Originally, my weekend was going to be spent with my friend C in Salinas, but our plans changed and we ended up driving to the Central Valley, where my parents live. Saturday was my best friend L's 33rd birthday. As I have mentioned before, L had WLS last August. Chris and I took her out for her birthday on Saturday night and we had a blast. I drove us around to a couple of the local spots and they had a couple of drinks and we all played pool. That evening gave L and I a chance to talk about how I was feeling and what I could expect over the next few weeks.

So now I'm going into week three feeling great - my mind is free of the food obsessing and my body is feeling better and better with every pound lost. Oh - and to celebrate this new phase in my life, I got a fresh new look too. L is a stylist - she gave me a new cut and color - a deep rich brown with a few highlights. I love the color - it really makes my eyes pop. Below are some pics - one of the new do, one from the hospital, and one right after getting home. The pic of me in the hospital upset me when I saw it, but I'm glad that I asked my step-dad to take a few. I can't ever forget that day or the gift that I was given that day. As difficult as this may be, I know that I am so fortunate for this chance at a new life.