Someone pinch me.

So many things going on, yet I've never felt so at peace in chaos.

I just had my pre-op appointment yesterday for my surgery, made all my final payments, bought a bunch of stuff I needed for myself and the pigs while in recovery, stopped most of my supplements, medications, and pre-workout *ugh* and am putting the final touches on my preparation for everything. Yet it still hadn't hit me that my surgery is only 13 days away until I picked up a massive bag of 7 prescriptions I need during recovery. I looked at that bag and it just hit me. This is happening. In 13 days, I'll be in a new body. In 13 days I'll look different in the same clothes. In 13 days my life will change, not the way I live it but the way I feel in it. Kind of crazy to wrap my head around but here we are. This is what the last 8 years have led up to. In 13 days, the goal that I set for myself 8 years ago, will be met. I always told myself I would do this, but I never thought I would be in the position to ever follow through with it and now it's almost here. Wild.

but moving on.

I'm also 3 1/2 weeks into the Gluten, Dairy, Soy, and Refined Sugar-Free eating as well as adding plenty of anti-inflammatory foods and trying to reduce/limit inflammatory foods. I have to say...it's going well. I mean, it's not without its hiccups, like when I accidentally glutened myself and felt it for a couple of days. Or when I was on a business trip and there was cheesecake in front of my face that looked SOOOOO good, and normally, just making "healthier" choices, I would have snagged one bite and it would have sufficed, but I couldn't even have THAT. That was difficult. I'm also definitely starting to miss sweet treats.

I'm learning how to find sweets that are naturally sweetened. I was nixing anything that had an "added sugar" on the nutrition label but then learned that it can be sweetened with honey that has been ADDED and therefore it is an ADDED sugar, but not refined. So I've ventured down that road a bit to add some sweet treats back in. I found an awesome brand named Hu that is free of TONS of stuff and they have CHOCOLATE. The chips aren't that great but the chocolate bars are DELICIOUS for an occasional treat.

I tried my hand at baking some blueberry lemon bars and.....it was...A DISASTER. They didn't rise, they cooked for 3x what they were supposed to and were still wet and dense. I had to trash the whole bunch. I was kind of deterred for a minute but I LOVE baking and even more so, finding ways to rework recipes to fit my needs. So I took another stab and made these Peanut Butter Cake Bars except I nixed the nuts and added unsweetened coconut flakes and Hu Chocolate Chips on top and I loved them! I think I might try with LESS artificial sweetener next time and add some dates into that mixture.

At the end of the day, this diet change has honestly made me feel SO MUCH BETTER. It's still slow-moving, but I've noticed a pretty huge difference and I'm 8lbs down since making the switch, which lets me know that something changed with the way my body processed something on that list for sure. Not sure if it was the Gluten or Dairy, maybe a combo of both, but I DO KNOW that I used one of my favorite Torani Syrups (Sugar-Free French Vanilla) the other day, two days in a row in my coffee AND protein smoothie and I just assumed since I checked others it was gluten-free, however, it's the only flavor that is NOT gluten-free. Just like the only Sugar-Free Jello Pudding Mix that ISN'T gluten-free is the freakin CHEESECAKE ONE I LOVE, but I digress. I accidentally glutened myself and it made SO MUCH SENSE because I felt like a trash bag those two days. However, this incident has made me realize, I'm not crazy. So I suppose, I'm not too mad about it.

There it is, the update that no one asked for ;0) You're welcome! I'd love to get some comments going though :0/ I wanna know what's going on with my peep's journeys out there!