Yep, I have already "cheated" on the clear liquid diet. I blended some FF Refried Beans with a half a can of mild enchilada sauce. It was about the consistency of a thick gravy - and it tasted like heaven and felt like REAL FOOD. So, I guess following "to the letter" is out the window.

The good news is that I am learning some stuff from eating this quasi-real-food.

1) Getting hungry is very bad. I waited something like 6-8 hours before I ate my liquid beans. I ended up eating like a whole cup of them - not kosher.

2) I have "new band" restriction. I could tell about when I was supposed to stop - I got that burpy thing that I have seen folks post about. I didn't stop eating, though... Nope. Hungry is BAD. Fortunately, the beans were properly liquid, so I just had to burp and wait a minute and I could take another spoonful without pain. [uh, I am afraid they call that "eating around the band" but I really hadn't had any food to speak of today, so I did it on purpose.]

3) see item 1. Hungry is VERY BAD. My personal goal of No PB's will be right out the window if I don't stop eating when I get the signal. So now I know that I have to portion out the food BEFORE I start eating. If it isn't there in front of me, I will be too damned lazy to get up and get more, unless I am really and truly hungry.

Oh well. It isn't like I am anywhere near a "normal" calorie count and my body won't have to work too hard to digest liquid beans, so I am not going to beat myself up about it. It's just interesting that I am only like 2 days in and I am already "cheating". Maybe I should have that discussion with my Brain, right away.

Overall, I feel much much better today. Lots less pain (yeah, the 2nd day after the Anesthesia wore off, I had pain) and many more hours of consciousness. I wasn't QUITE up to a trip to IKEA, yet. Tomorrow, I promised DH we could go for a short trip tomorrow. I am supposed to be walking more... and there will be much less traffic there if we go during the week. If I feel even a little bit better tomorrow, it should be fine. Truth be told, I could have done it today. I just didn't want to.

Well, I am going to go burp in a different room, now.

urp. giggles!