**Crickets**

Himself added my picture without consent. Poophead! 

Hey it's me. The female piece of the foodie wonder team. It sure has been all kinds of quiet around here. Honestly, I have been struggling. The past year I have been going through the process to prepare for weight-loss surgery. 

Bariatric Surgery as it is formally called has a lot of misconceptions. The first is that it is "the easy way out" in terms of weight loss. Yeah no, it isn't. It is a huge life changing operation in which your guts are either rerouted, or partially removed (I did the removed type, but more about that in a bit!)

Over the past year, I have had to attend countless dietitian classes and individual sessions. I have had to have a psych eval (which I did not pass, initially due to a long hidden eating disorder),then months of therapy, pulmonary and sleep tests, starting to use a C-PAP  (to be in compliance so pulmonary will authorize me), a cardiac evaluation, and a secondary psych eval. On top of that I had to begin some better eating habits. It was hard, REALLY hard. I had to deal with my closet eating disorder that I hid from everyone, including the people who are the most important to me. I came clean and started doing better. I had very few slip ups along the way, once I came to grips with myself.

Food is a hard thing to have a problem with. It is how society celebrates, how it mourns, how it socializes, and it is one of the ways we (Himself and I) show our creativity. It was also how *I* dealt with stress, anxiety, and emotion. During all this, I never wanted food to become the enemy. It is fuel and we need it to live. I also still want to be able to live my life and not deprive myself. I wanted to be able to do the surgery and use it as a tool. The rest is on me.

So on August 12th, I went under the scalpel. I did the sleeve gastrectomy procedure. They go in and remove a section of your stomach and create a tube of the leftover, that becomes your *new* stomach. It holds decidedly less than it used to. It also removes the portion of your stomach that produces the most ghrelin (the hunger hormone). With this surgery I should lose up to 65% of my excess weight, reduce or clear my diabetes and high cholesterol and take some weight off my poor joints.

Thank you TX Center for Obesity Surgery for this image!

This surgery is done laparoscopic with one overnight in the hospital. I had a wonderful surgeon *insert shameless plug here along with link to Wellspan Bariatric Surgery, ask for Dr. Smith!* and his whole team helped me navigate the ups and downs of this. I had a few *extra* hurdles, one was the insurance company required I lose 5lbs, I know that doesn't sound like a lot, and it really isn't. But my body was like, "uhh, no this fat is mine and I shall keep it!" So I had to do a week of the pre-op liquid diet. I lost 2 lbs. 

Thankfully the insurance approved it as they saw I was doing everything possible. No one told me to stop doing the liquid diet so I stayed on it, and my surgical date was set for Aug 12th. I did almost 4 full weeks of a liquid (liver shrinking) diet. They tell you to treat it like a prescription so I didn't cheat!  

It was hard at times. I am sure I was grumpy on occasion. Day 3 is the worst, because your body goes into withdrawal mode and you get a slamming headache. Then I had the surgery with little or no side effects! I was up walking within hours of surgery. I felt good, great even. For the first time in my life I had NO hunger. The first week post-op was amazing. Himself took time off work and stayed home with me, and reminded me to drink my fluids. He was a HUGE blessing!

Then one week post-op happened, and as people are prone to do, I slid into a touch of post-op depression. I was also constantly nauseated and so exhausted. It was rough! 

I have a support group of girls who had surgery the same day and we connect with any issues we are having (ans share recipes!). None of them were having these issues. I felt pretty alone. I was not getting enough fluid or protein. I was floundering emotionally (a commercial made me cry!). 

I saw my doctor and one of the dietitians on Wednesday last week, and we talked about ways to get more protein, and my state of mind. They gave me another two weeks off work to fight through the exhaustion, and the doctor assured me that this isn't abnormal and I am doing really great. I am doing a little better every day. I am pushing my positive attitude to the forefront and working through my internal drama. 

So the big question is, what does this mean for a *FOOD* blog?! Well honestly, not a whole lot will change. We still love to go out and we love to try new places and new foods. Himself has already starting making some recipes and putting them out there with me in mind. I will continue to eat smaller portions (I get to move from purees to soft food next week!) and we will continue on life's adventure together as we have done for the past 5 years. I am just going to look thinner and hotter doing it! 😉 

Be prepared to see some reformulated recipes as I attempt to make things with fewer carbs, and experiment. I will be posting more and sharing some of this experience.

We appreciate all of our reader(s) who come along for this journey with us. Please feel free to comment here or send us some ideas on Facebook of some places or recipes you would like to see us try. 

Peace, Love, and Food! -Herself