What kind of a diet?
~~~a 4 weeks skim milk diet

What side effects if any? 
~~~ it was giving me low blood sugar/dizziness/nausea.  The dr ok'd add protein powder in low amounts,  It has helped,  Also the sugra free coffee syrups were making me sick, sugar alcohols dont agree with me!!

How much weight loss? 
~~~18 so far, yes i cheated a little

Love it/Hate it? 
~~~Both, It is super tough mentally, having no variety does something to your brain and makes you feel kind of deprived, head hunger was awful!!  Had trouble even grocery shopping for family.  My husband has generously been doing all the cooking and even making my son's lunches so i can focus on me and not have to look at food!  on the other hand there is a certain freedom in just drinking milk. I also had a mini breakdown and learned alot about myself and what causes me to eat.  it was super enlightening and i am hoping will make after surgery easier!

 Have you learned anything from it?
~~~I eat at certain times of day for now reason, in front of computer, out of boredom or nerves.  Cravings are for the most part mental and when i think i can't stand it any longer and have to have food, I drink milk and feel full,  i learned that i can be satisfied with anything that nourishes my body.

Do you recommend it? 
~~~Oddly yes, with dr supervision

 How have you coped?
 ~~~I think i went through a grieveing process with food, it was like a breakup. denyed i needed preop diet because i thought i knew everything about dieting. tried to bargain with my eating and straddle the fence.  accpeted it felt good about it at first because i was doing the right things.  got angry and depressed had a mini hissyfit.  now i have accepted and embraced it and dug in to get through it. 

my advice meditate, listen to music, do whatever it takes to get through it.  "cheating" is a slippery slope and leads to alot of guilt and lost time.  take advantage now because the lower your preop weight the lower your ending number, believe it or not at this high of a weight it is easier to lose weight than after you lsoe 100 pounds! enlist your family and friends by asking them to cook, or do activites that arent food related.  finally love yourself enough to choose yourself over food!

Ok, so i FREAKED the FLIP out Monday morning!

I had my pre surgical appt today.  I had lost 13 pounds in 13 days, had some bathroom issues, will power issues and gained 5 back.  I was waiting for my dr to open so i could cancel my appt and reschedule for next week.  Hoping to give myself some more time to get it together. 

I had a major attack of nerves realising that I was only 2 weeks away from surgery and felt like a hot crying mess!  My friend saw my panicked facebook post and called me at 7:30 this morning.  She had surgery 2 years ago and gave me a huge pep talk, I cried and confessed that i had cheated on my skim milk diet and  although I had nothing but skim milk for 9 days i faltered.  She told me that she realised over the weekend that i had 2 weeks left and figured I was flipping out.  Assured me that it is normal and lots of people flip out at this point, it is a huge change!  also reminded me that i had lost 65 pounds so I wasnt a total failure and had even lost a net of 8 the last 2 weeks.  So i got a grip.

At first the milk was ok but then it was making me really dizzy and nauseous.  Then i started being unable to go to the bathroom and stopped losing and actually gained a few back.  I kept craving protein!

Day 10= a chicken breast
Day 11= a hard boiled egg
Day 12=a  low fat peanut butter and sugar free jelly, hoped the grainy bread would "move" things!
Day 13=a weight watchers ravioli meal

I was convinced my surgeon would cancel my surgery and I was screwed and the worst person ever.

Well my friend talked me off the ledge and I went to my appt.  My Dr. was ok with my weight loss.  She helped with alot of my nervousenss and was very supportive.  I told her how I had been craving protein and the milk makes me shaky and dizzy and nauseous, She said to stop my metformin the milk was making me hypoglycemic.
She said I could add some protien powder, thank God!!

I mixed my skim milk with 2 scoops of powder in a big jug for the day.  i am drinking less milk to equal the amount of calories it adds.  I could kick myself,  even a couple of bites of food makes it really hard to get back on the liquids completely.  so here I go again,  the 3-4 days of suffering before my brain stops having a tantrum.

i call this day 2 take 2 of total liquids, I did it before, I can do it again!  Besides I learned a valuable lesson.

You can't have a Peanut butter and jelly pity party every time the scale doesn't go your "weigh".  That is how I got in this mess in the first place. 

benefiber

benefiber

benefiber

senakot

senakot

citrucel

senakot

miralax

miralax

senakot

i feel like a stuffed turkey!! how can drinking milk do this to a person!!!!

feeling pretty good, there was definately a rough few days to start, head hunger is the worst, i am glad i am doing it because i feel like i am learning a bit about myself now instead of later when i have other things like protein to worry about. 
seeing a commercial or food or smelling things gives me the most intense "tastes" in  my mouth and i have to get distracted or drink something.,  this has gotten better as i go along, like a kid having a tantrum, they dont get what they want and give up eventually.

i never paid attention to how many social cues there are that make you eat. in the past i would have picked up something and eaten it, definately something to watch out for.  also had alot of impulses where i started to get up or pick up food that i never noticed before, even on the low carb diet i would have grabbed a "healthy" snack.  it makes me wonder now, how much of it i really "needed".

one thing i have found is that after day 6 constipation became and issue.  2 days and now i am finally taking some benefiber and hoping for the best, i didnt weigh myself today because i feel like a stuffed turkey!

the nausea has gone away, sadly i think that the sugar free syrups were doing it. i am back to regular milk at the moment, straight no chaser.