The Food<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong>Week two brought on a lot of changes, all of which were definitely for the better.\u00a0\u00a0 I was no longer stuck to thin liquids and I suddenly had a whole new variety of food opened up to me.\u00a0 I was able to eat pudding, protein shakes (I also was able to have these the first week), Greek yogurt, pureed soups, fruit smoothies and other thick liquids.\u00a0 It felt so nice to be able to taste something different again!<\/p>\n One of my favorite things to eat during this time was Unox Ertwensoep (pea soup, seen in the photo above) put through the blender.\u00a0 I was incredibly nervous when I first tried it as I really had no idea how much fat was ok,\u00a0 and even though this had very little fat I was still scared out of my mind that I was going to have a bad reaction.\u00a0\u00a0 I didn\u2019t though, and I ate a LOT of this soup in the following 1-2 weeks.<\/p>\n The amount you see above is all I could take at once, which was roughly a half a cup.\u00a0 It would take me between 30-45 minutes to finish the bowl and I would often have to get up and put it in the microwave as it would get cold before I could finish it.\u00a0 Even cold it was delicious, which was strange because before the surgery I may have eaten this once a year as I really wasn\u2019t a big fan of it.\u00a0 It\u2019s \u00a0what changes when you are suddenly so limited, the tastes in this thrilled me to no end all of a sudden.<\/p>\n The Physical Bits<\/strong><\/p>\n The plasters came off my incisions during the second week and felt so much better.\u00a0 I got a little woozy as I was taking them off as I wasn\u2019t sure what to expect but they were all healed very nicely.\u00a0 As the swelling started going down in my belly I was able to assess what I was feeling a lot better.\u00a0 I still had pain in my upper belly around the incisions and in the muscles if I made movements that were too extreme.\u00a0 Getting up and down from my chair was a lot easier, I didn\u2019t have any constant pain from it, so all was well.<\/p>\n I did, however, realize something strange going on.\u00a0 I had complete numbness in one part of my upper belly and hypersensitivity at the left side of my waist by my belly button.\u00a0 When I visited the doctor for my checkup at the 10 day point, she told me it was nerve damage from the surgery and could take up to 6 months to repair itself.\u00a0\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t horrible, but it was enough to be annoying.<\/p>\n I still wasn\u2019t able to sleep on my side with total comfort and sleeping on my belly was still out of the question.\u00a0 Sometimes I could tuck a pillow up against my belly for support and sleep comfortably on my side for a few hours but it was always sore when it came time to shift to another position.<\/p>\n TMI Time!<\/strong><\/p>\n I continued to have issues with the trots and dashing to the toilet. I called the clinic about this a number of times but they continued to assure me that it was normal and was due to my liquid diet. My friends who had surgery before me told me to enjoy it while it lasted because once I started solid food, I\u2019d have the exact opposite problem. Wasn\u2019t looking forward to that.<\/p>\n The Exercise<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong>My exercise still consisted of short walks of about 20 minutes.\u00a0 I was still slow moving and it was snowy and icy at this point (in late January) so I was very slow moving both due to my lack of stamina and needing to be careful where I was stepping.\u00a0 On days when the weather was too cold or I didn\u2019t feel up to going out, I continued to climb the three flights of stairs in our building once or twice a day.<\/p>\n The Mental Bits<\/strong><\/p>\n Mentally I felt fantastic!\u00a0 I was happy and feeling incredible after getting off the diet from the week before.\u00a0 The change in diet brought me more enjoyment from the limited amount of food I was able to eat as well as increasing my energy levels a bit, which helped a lot.\u00a0 The complete lack of hunger and obsession with food continued to thrill me to no end.<\/p>\n The Out and About<\/strong><\/p>\n I didn\u2019t go out a whole lot at this point.\u00a0 I still went out and did some shopping, went out on short outings with my husband, but I generally stuck close to home.\u00a0 I had 1-2 visitors come by, which was really nice\u2026 I was still a little lacking in the brainpower department and was easily tired in that respect but it felt great to see people and socialize!<\/p>\n The Weight Loss<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong>My weight was still coming off fairly steady at that point. My weight at the two week point was 111.4 kilos (245 lbs) which was 7.6\u00a0 (approximately 17 lbs) down since the surgery and I was happy with that.\u00a0 I was already starting to feel better physically and while I couldn\u2019t necessarily SEE a lot of changes, I did notice that some of my clothes were getting looser, and when I walked I didn\u2019t feel as much shaking and wobbling going on.<\/p>\n The Long and Short of it All<\/strong><\/p>\n Week two was a drastic improvement over week one in every possible way.\u00a0 I was happy, my weight was coming off, I had no hunger and I had a bit more variety in my diet and I was moving and getting out more.\u00a0 The only down side was still having the trots every day, which also made me not want to venture too far from home.\u00a0 In the grand scheme of things it was a non-issue.\u00a0 Week two was a really good week for me!<\/p>\n The Food<\/strong><\/p>\n In the beginning of week three not a lot had changed, it was basically just a continuation of the week before.\u00a0 The booklet from the clinic said that if the thick liquid phase was going well that I could go ahead and try some more proper food.<\/p>\n I had prepared for this stage by cooking boneless, skinless chicken filet in the oven, I cooked carrot and turnip and then froze it all.\u00a0 So when it came time to try some real food (put through the food processor, of course) I had food already made and just needing to be pureed and heated up.<\/p>\n Towards the end of the third week I decided to give it a go!<\/p>\n![\"Ertwensoep\"](\"http:\/\/www.breigh.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/ertwensoep.jpg\" "\\"Ertwensoep\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nWEEK THREE<\/span><\/h2>\n