Up's and Down's

Today has been a pretty good day....in fact it has been a great day!  I went to my new PCP today and found that I have lost 4 more lbs. since my visit with the nutritionist on 2/22.  So that's a total of 18 lbs. so far.  I am feeling really great about that!  The downer was that I realized today at lunch just how important it is to follow the 30-rule that the nutritionist told us to start doing.  The 30-rule is simply.....chew every bite 30 times, take at least 30 minutes to eat your meal, and nothing to drink 30 minutes before or after your meal.  This does several things.  One - by chewing every bite 30 times it helps you to slow down and really start the process of digestion.  Two - by taking 30 mins. to eat, that means you are eating really slow and you are giving your brain time to catch up with what is going in your stomach so that you can stop when you start to feel full - not after you are already stuffed.  Three - not drinking before your meal allows you not to fill up on liquids and not drinking afterwards allows the food to stay in your stomach longer so your body is able to absorb the proteins and nutrients you just put in it.  It will also make you stay fuller longer.  This is what we will have to do after surgery and she wanted us to start practicing now so that we will be used to it after surgery.  Well last night I woofed my dinner down because I was starving and I was miserable the rest of the night because I had overeaten.  Today at lunch I had to woof my food down because I had my doctors appointment that I had to get to and didn't have time to eat slowly.....as soon as I got done eating I realized that I again had overeaten.  Although I wasn't "miserable" I was way to full!  So lesson learned.....do everything in my power to follow the 30-rule.  On another up note, I was offered cake squares from my favorite bakery today and I turned them down!  Big accomplishment for me!  Hope everyone is having a great day!