Day 3 Paging Dr. Bayer

It's slightly in the background now, but I woke up yesterday morning with a hang-over type headache. I took two aspirins and dove back under the covers with my favorite overweight orange feline for another 30 minutes. My headache hung in the background on and off all day. Nothing huge, just slightly annoying and then it raged back a bit before bed. Two more aspirin and off to sleep I went. Yep, these are the effects of giving up virtually everything 'good' in life, as some may see it.

But, the benefits are starting to trickle in and they far outweigh any soon-to-be-gone-forever headache. For example, my belly is peaceful. *hold for a moment of that music they play when you're in awe of something* The absence of constant low grade pain and mild to wild bloating is truly something to behold. The projection of my belly is also different. Not quite so fluffy. But what's most notable is it feels good inside. Cue more of that music, please.

The 'baggage' under my jawline, second in abhorrence only to my bloated belly, has noticeably decreased and my skin appears to be healing from its last freak out. I mean break out.

The weirdest thing though is my mouth feels so clean it's almost annoying. I'm not talking about my teeth, though yeah, they're clean but my mouth itself. It's very interesting and I expect it'll improve even more. I now can tell my mouth and gums and tongue have been covered in some heavy slime for lack of a better word. Ew. Oh yours is, too, trust me. Along with it dissipating I noticed my sense of smell starting to heighten. I noticed it this morning when one of my blankets had a smell I'd never noticed. I'd not washed the blankets in a while but I'd never noticed it had this slightly unpleasant smell. Into the washer everything went. I'm also doing saline sinus rinses everyday, but have done them regularly in the past and never improved my sense of smell. I also feel less 'full in the head' and I suspect I will soon have happy and free sinuses, which would be a total boon. Not to mention just another way to say buh bye to another doctor...hallelujah...maybe no more chronic sinus infections since my brain surgery.

Oh, and I've lost 3 lbs. I will expect to have an upfront loss and then a more gradual loss over time. The calculator tells me that if I lose around 1.54 lbs a week I'll be at my goal by next New Years Eve. I have no idea how plateaus work with this lifestyle but I guess we're going to find out.

Dinner last night at the buffet was interesting. Martin joked that I could not go past 'this section' - which of course was the salad section. Yep, that's fine. I told him, "Look, I'll be back at the table eating sooner than you - catch me if you can!" LOL!

Of course, I had to kinda note all the bowls full of stuff I could not have on the salad bar alone. Their fruit offerings left a lot to be desired, just cantaloupe and honeydew. Not even a banana. I had to force myself to not look at the bowl of fruit so covered in whip cream that you couldn't even identify the fruit beneath. Ew. I think I liked the other location we go to better as they had more fresh fruit. Hmmm. I piled some spinach on my little plate, some raw mushrooms, cucumber slices, tomatoes and shredded carrots. I'd leave the fruit for later. The sunflower seeds were all roasted, processed, salted and dead. No thanks. Maybe I should start carrying some raw sunflower seeds in my purse.

Upon returning to the table, Martin makes this face :/ and asks me where the dressing is. "Umm no dressing.", I said. He replied,"WHAT? OMG you can't eat just that!" "Umm, yes, I can! No icky dressings, thanks, though", I said. He says, "Well they have low fat, don't they?" AHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!! I can see it's going to be a long year and this is just one person I'm dealing with so far. "Honey," I said, "It's actually not the FAT that's the problem. It's all the chemicals and dairy and spices and - bleck - I'm done with it. This is fine! It's really fine." He stared into his mixed batch of stuff and shook his head.

But, it was fine. I admit had I normally been there I would have had all that other stuff and it was a slight shock and a little weird but I have to realize what I stand to gain. Then I discovered the mushrooms tasted great all on their own and the carrots were really sweet compared to the rest of the mix, and this is only day two at this point. I have gotten used to other new food before and liked it. I can do the same with this. It's not that I didn't like it, I did, I just have to give myself time to adjust without all the 'normal' stuff we do to food.

We came by my house to grab my daughter's skates and I grabbed a banana at the same time. He looked at me funny. I said, "Hey, get used to it. I eat all the time." And I have to say, it's not a problem. It feels natural.

Tomorrow, I'll tell you just why it feels natural. In the meantime, don't forget to check out my Fitday journal if you want to follow my food and exercise. Hopefully I won't need 'Dr. Bayer' for much longer.

I'm off to go throw myself in the pool! YAY!