Okay, I think I can do this! I freaked out a little about lowering my carbs and upping my protein for my pre-op diet. Although I've been on and off of diets for 20 years, I have never tried a high protein diet because of my addiction to potatoes.

The first week of trying, I was visiting family in another state. I had a mini-meltdown when I discovered I really did not know much about carbs in the foods I ate. I decided that I did know that I could eat meat, cheese, lettuce, and eggs. So I decided I could really focus on protein for breakfast and lunch with no or very little carbs and then not stress about dinners. I thought it was at least a start.

Upon my return home, I had another meltdown. I was exhausted from the 13 hour drive the day before and just wanted something to eat. I had a protein bar for breakfast and one for lunch, but realized I would need to go grocery shopping. To tide me over I decided to have a yogurt and as I was eating it, read the back and realized how many carbs it contained. That's when I lost it. I felt that I did not have any idea what I was doing and that maybe this surgery wasn't going to work for me.

Thankfully my husband was home and decided we needed to take a field trip (I'm a teacher, so he talked to me in my terms :-). I protested feeling that I needed to read the two South Beach diet books I had picked up and make a plan before heading to the store. He basically said that this wasn't that difficult and I could do it; I'd been talking daily about surgery for the last three months and reading like crazy. (A little background: my husband exercises at the gym 7 days a week and eats pretty healthy all the time, but never really knew how many carbs certain foods contained...he just makes sure to eat a balanced diet and stays away from potatoes.)

We got to the store and started going through the isles reading labels and putting together foods I liked that could be for breakfast and lunch and snacks. This went really well and I was surprised at how many things we found.

This all happened Wednesday, and I can say that each day I grow more confident that I am making the changes I need to to live a healthier life. I've also discovered that I enjoy cooking. We did go out on Friday and I was very pleased that I didn't crave fries. I had a salad without dressing and a chicken burger without the bun. On Saturday, we went to a baseball game and stopped by Subway (one of my favorite fast food places) and got a spinach salad with chicken and a cup of dressing on the side and didn't even use 1/4 of it.

Tomorrow I meet with the nutritionist, so we'll see what other changes I need to make, but I feel good right now and think I can do this.