Whole30 Day 5

I'm starting to get into a rhythm with my meals. There is something comforting about eating the same thing most days. I used to have some variation of PB&J every day during my 20s and early 30s, not to mention having it as a kid. As a young adult, I found it such an easy lunch to pack and always have the ingredients on hand - bread in freezer and the rest doesn't spoil in the pantry/fridge. Then I had a bit of food poisoning one day and on my way home early from work, up came lunch on the subway and it took almost a year before I could even eat a little bit of peanut butter in a candy, let alone a sandwhich. Which is probably just as well. But I digress. 

Not sure how detailed I'll post my meals, unless it's something new I guess. 

Meal 1: 2 soft boiled eggs and sweet potato and sausage hash

Meal 2: salmon, salad, avacado and green onion and pecans

Basically the same as the day before. Mainly because I'm using up ingredients and it fits with the weather. 

I will say I have noticed two things - good and bad. First the bad - sugar cravings. I've read tons about how we are programmed to crave sugar and I always equated this to the cravings I get for chocolate some months - loud and in your face. You can ignore them but you are very aware of them. I figured no problem, as long as you know, you can have the mental upper hand. But yesterday and today it's starting to dawn on me that the sugar cravings come in many different packages and I've been experiencing the quiet ones. I keep finding myself wanting to munch on something. I have a bowl of freshly washed blueberries in the fridge and I think, oh I'll just pop a few. Tricky that - because I realize I'm not hungry in the least and what it is is the sugar dragon wanting to be fed in any form. I think I need to be careful with sweet fruit - like the chopped mango and blueberries in the fridge as I write this. At least for the initial few weeks. 

I've been learning to not do things unconcsiously and to unpack some old thinking. Like fruit is good so go ahead and eat it. Which is true, but don't eat it to quench a sugar craving. I'll first see if I want to eat a full meal and I usually don't - because I'm not hungry. And then I realize I just want something to munch on. But then I ask myself why, if I'm not hungry. Part of it is stress and part is ... I don't want to use the word boredom, but it is kind of that. It's like I'm using my brain on coast level and not fully engaged. So I'll deep dive into something, like writing this or cleaning or organizing (my favorite). I'm also trying to make decisions about framing art - a project that has gone on too long. And I realize I want to munch on something to procrastinate. Or at least there is that past association. I always thought psychological eating was for other people that were overweight and on tv shows and did it in an extreme way. Now I see we all do it in some form and it's interesting to finally start being aware of this so late in life. Why do I consume something - a particular ingredient or dish, etc. I finished reading the book, "It Starts with Food" (have to return it to the library today) and I understand a lot more about the science and health effects about different types of food. 

Which leads me to observation number two. I think dairy makes me bloated. I won't really know until I start reintroducing foods in a few weeks and seeing their effects. But my belly has definitely gotten smaller. I really should have measured it, but as I mentioned earlier I was surprised how big I was getting, like I was pregnant, and not in the first trimester. I still have a little bit of gut showing - the flat stomach of my 20s is not something I expect these days, but I really think my belly has gone down in size a bunch, and after only a few days.  Who knows, it might change again as things adjust, but this does support the correlation to daiy and bloating. I'd eat a lot of yogurt and cheese and milk and keifer each day and then when I'd be away on trips, not much at all, like this last trip, and the gut started to recede. I've heard of bloating! but again never really understood what it meant and didn't think it happened to me.  For the longest time I didn't know what a headache meant when I was younger. It's obvious in retrospect of course. 

I'm thinking I'll pick up the book "Salt Sugar Fat" and finish the book. I started reading it awhile back and thought it was really good and interesting, but had to put it down since I felt so helpless learning about sugar, but feeling powerless to get out from under it. Now I feel like I understand the science much better, have a plan and as a result, I'm on the road of being the one in control. Plus, I'm thinking it will help keep me motivated and not succumb to the sugar dragon when it raises it's head in all it's tricky forms. 

Whole30 Day 4

I think I have some good news, this morning was a first for a long while. After eating breakfast I didn't feel a sudden drop in energy. I've been getting really tired after breakfast for quite some time now. I don't notice it with the other meals as much, although after dinner I'm usually winding down anyways. I've tried switching out my breakfasts and dropping different components - OJ, jam, flour. But no luck, and frankly I only did it for a few days which retrospectively wasn't enough time to let the system reset. This morning I had what I'm considering my new norm for breakfast, not too different than before. Before, I used to have two soft boiled eggs, two slices whole wheat toast with jam or honey and a glass of OJ or fruit smoothie (odwalla style). Now it's the two soft boiled eggs and sweet potato with sausage hash. And it was faster to prep too. Since I had cooked a big batch of the hash and just needed to zap.

Meal 1: soft boiled eggs and sweet potato hash

- two eggs

- 2/3 sausage

- 2/3 sweet potato 

- 1/4 onion

- 1/4 red pepper

- 1/4 cooked spinach

- 1/2 tbsp olive oil

I'm not clear on when to eat the meals though. I'm still figuring out this part. The idea is to have three regular, consistent meals every 4-5 hours. Your body then gets on a rhythmic cycle of processing the food. Last night I did end up skipping meal 3 which I probably shouldn't have done but wasn't terribly hungry and was tired. But then this morning I had a snack mid-morning of a helping of monkey salad. I'm still learning in how to truly listen to my body and think the munchie feeling wasn't from being hungry but stress eating - I can't find some mail (ugh).  I'm also not totally focused on my food when eating.  I'm used to having "company" either by watching a show or listening to a podcast. Not sure if that effects my meals too. 

The main conundrum is the eating cycle period. I usually feed the cats at 6 am and 6 PM and eat around then too. And then eat at noon. But that is a 6 hour gap, not a 4-5 hour gap as recommended. Today, I tried moving my first meal up to 7 am and am thinking I'll try eating meal 3 at 5 PM. My understanding is that after the 30 days you listen to your signals and adjust when you eat, but during the thirty day period, you switch to a regular eating pattern as a start. 

Lastly to report, I did not sleep great last night. Again not sure if it's the jet lag and weather, or the middle of the night bathroom breaks. Usually I sleep pretty well, can get to sleep quickly and only have one bathroom visit, if at all, during the night, and wake up at the same time each morning, sans alarm clock. Hopefully this straightens itself out one way or another this month. 

Meal 2: salad and salmon with avacado, green onions and almonds

Meal 3: chicken, tomato + basil, asparagus

And I had some sliced strawberries in he here somewhere, I believe at the end of meal 2. They were supe ripe and needed to be eaten. They did seem to taste much sweeter. I don't know if it's because of my change in leptin and things are tasting sweeter, or they were sweeter from being more ripe.

Whole30 Day 3

I was reading up on water and it seems like I'm generally under hydrated. Yesterday I measured my glass and it's 12 ounces and I had around six I think. Which is about the recommended eight glasses of eight ounces. But I've been reading the amount of water you are supposed to drink should be based on your weight and activity level and climate. So for the summer weather I think I should be targeting between 8 and 10 glasses.  Up to 12 if I'm out running. The only downside is the middle of the night interruptions, if you know what I mean. I went three times but think I was woken up in part with my fan going on and off since the temperature was hovering around the setting I had. I also read you should drink your water in small batches and not just chug it a few times each day. I figured I'd try drinking a glass every 90 minutes to start me on a routine. I unfortunately woke up at 4 this morning.  I had a glass of water when I got up so that would mean I stop drinking at 7 PM at the latest. Seems to work in theory, here's testing it.

This morning, besides waking up early, I felt a normal hungry. The last several days my stomach felt like I had that nervous stomach feeling. I was attributing it to no-carbs via grains. Now it feels like a more normal well rounded hunger. I also think I might have had too much protein yesterday morning so am going to try adjusting the same meal.

Meal 1: soft boiled eggs and hash browns

- 2 eggs

- one chicken sausage, sun dried tomato

- one sweet potato

- 1/4 large red pepper

- 1/4 onion

- two handfuls of spinach 

- 1 tbsp olive oil

I've found out two things: one it is best to do the cooking in the morning when it's cool out and I'm at my highest energy level. And two, that potatoes are on the list of good foods. In the book they were verboten but on the website they are added. The initial thinking is that, although an ok food, they would be a trigger for not good foods like chips and fries. But since I don't really eat much of either and never have cravings for chips and rarely for fries, I'll include them in my repertoire. I think I've decided to add them in after day 10 when you are starting to feel a slump of eating the same old stuff. I've been really reading and rereading the timeline that the program posts on what to expect at each stage of the 30 days. I'm in the hang-over stage right now as I detox from carbs and sugars.  I can't say I feel super hung over but I did have a bit of a headache last night going to bed and a little this morning. But again, it could be attributed to the heat, dehydration, or the jet lag. Although I think the jet leg reason will be gone tomorrow.  You know that general rule when heading west - for every hour time difference, you need a day to fully get back. The time difference was 7 hours and tomorrow is a week since I've been back. 

I ended up taking a late morning nap which pushed back my mid day meal. I've been feeling fairly full between meals, but when I sit down to eat, I realize I was actually hungry. 

Meal 2:  salad

- small chicken breast

- half an avacodo

- 1/4 sweet onion

- 2 tbsp lemon juice

- 1 tbsp olive oil

- 1/4 cup sliced almonds

- 3 handfuls of lettuce

I little while after, I felt a slight sugar craving. Nothing too strong, so was thinking of having some fruit, but realized I should ignore the sugar demon. Instead I drank some water, realizing I was a bit thirsty. I didn't quite keep up with my 90 minute drinking schedule. And the water seemed to do the trick - interesting. 

I do think my belly has shrunk a little. I should have taken a measurement at the start. I'm staying off the scale as recommended and understand the body weight will be shifting a bunch. Overall, feel like I'm on the right track but do feel tired, low energy. And today is nice and cool so no blaming the heat. Hopefully the energy picks up. 

I'm deliberating on having meal 3. I ate around 3:30 and it's 7:30 now. I don't want to eat to close to bed and don't feel terribly hungry. 

Whole30 Day 2

I think I'm starting to understand the differences in my hunger. I've been slowly learning how to distinguish my types of tired. I no longer think "I'm tired", but try to distinguish between "I'm physically tired" and "I'm mentally tired". More times than not, I'm mentally tired which let's me reflect and figure out what is mentally tiring. Usually it's a whirring in the back of the brain I'm not fully conscious of, but does take energy. Now I'm trying to figure out if I'm carb hungry or whole food hungry. Usually if I feel carb hungry but have been good on other fronts, I realize I'm not really hungry. Sugar cravings are pretty obvious and luckily not much of those ...yet. 

This morning I woke up early again, but not until 4:30, so the jet lag is getting better. Decent energy and not too hungry but as 6 am rolled around, I was feeling the hunger. I decided to go with more cooked meal for meal 1 instead of raw vegetables. 

Meal 1: soft boiled eggs and vegetable stir fry with chicken sausage

- 3 eggs

- one sun dried tomato chicken sausage

- half large red pepper, sliced

- half medium onion, sliced

- one tablespoon, for cooking

I filled up on this meal, on the last few bites I was conscious that I was pretty much full. I think the sausage helped. I had pulled out the ingredients to have monkey cereal, but glad I didn't prep a serving. I'm not sure if I got the fat in this meal as the oil got lost in the juices of the stir fry. 

Meal 2: Leftovers salad

- 1/2 chicken breast

- 1/3 cup salmon

- 10 asparagus stalks

- 1/4 sweet onion, sliced

- 2 handfuls lettuce

- 8 strawberries

- small mango

- 1/2 lime juiced

- 1 tbsp olive oil

This meal, I wasn't sure if I had enough meat, we'll see. I was pretty full by the end. This was made from stuff in the fridge that was pretty much ready to go - cooked already. I'm curious what it will be like as it gets hotter this month. I usually eat yogurt or sorbet to help keep my body temperature down on hot days. And I feel like there is a bunch of cooking. Everything has been pretty quick, but still, stove/oven in the summer isn't great. I always have the AC units I can put in if needed. On another note, I don't think I'm drinking enough water. Need to start a water log I think. First I got to figure out how big my glasses are. 

This afternoon I was sluggish but I blame it on the heat - it was in the 90s and I really slow down in the heat. I had my first craving. Luckily it wasn't in the house which is good. My go to is cold yogurt with homemade strawberry jam or some Italian sorbet. It was kind of a sugar craving but more psychological since I associate consuming those items with an initial cooling down. 

I have boxed up the freezer and fridge - taped boxes in out of sight spots. As I was working on the pantry I was reading the ingredients religiously and realized I already messed up. Turns out it's ok since it's a sugar thing and a small dose. My balsamic vinegar, which is on the ok list, has caramel coloring. It seems obvious this is a sugar, but only discovered after I googled about the vinegar and another ingredient. Who knew?  And that's the point, to be aware of exactly how much you consume has sugar in it. Looks like my other vinegars are good and frankly I've been liking the lime juice vinegrette. If I want I think there are compliant balsamic vinegars, maybe in week three I'll pick it up, along with mustard - mine has wine in it. I really don't have much on stock which feels strange. I left the tea out, but mainly so I had something on the shelf. Frankly it's too hot to think of tea, even without honey. 

I find I'm referencing the book "It Starts with Food" a bunch to remind me of the particulars. I'm still reading the science stuff behind how the foods work and feel like I should get a notebook out and take notes, I keep forgetting the particulars. I think it's due back at the library soon. I hate buying hard cover books, but it's not out in paperback - bummer. 

The heat has effected my appetitie, but am glad I had cooked up leftovers. I've learned from previous years to pace myself with raw leaf vegetables (from my years of having a CSA were I ate salads morning, noon and night). So I'm trying to limit one salad meal per day, at least at first. Maybe I'll try the monkey cereal tonight. I definitely find myself wanting snacks, but am finding what I really need is either water - dehydration or, as right now, I need to just fix a proper meal and not have a snacks dinner, which I often do in the summer, years past. 

Meal 3: monkey salad + chicken/tomato/asparagus salad (no lettuce)

- 1/4 chicken breast

- 4 asparagus stalks

- one small tomato 

- 3 tbsp chopped basil

- 1 tsp olive oil

- one banana

- 1/4 cup cashews

- 1/4 cup blueberries

- one tbsp almond butter

- one tbsp coconut flakes

- dash of cinnamon

Not as many vegetables and I've exceeded the recommended 1-2 fruit helpings per day. But I think I ate the fruit because it went with the meal and not for sugar cravings. I need to pay attention next time. And the plate for dinner was a small lunch plate, so although I had my meat, and filled the rest of the plate with veggies, it was on the small side. But I was reading that if you had too much meat earlier in the day this is you trying to balance things out. That, or it's just hot out and my appetite is low.  Found I gobbled everything down, so although I didn't feel supper hungry I was actually hungry. Good to know. 

Whole30 Day 1

This morning I woke up early - still jet lagged, so I did a bit of stuff before breakfast but then realized I need to get going since breakfast will take longer than usual to prep. And usual means making eggs, pancakes or something decent sized. I really have no idea on proportions, so am trying to track these too as I go along. Oh, and I'm not supposed to think of the three meals in the traditional sense as it effects what food I think of, but instead call them meal 1, 2, and 3. Totally makes sense, especially for a big breakfast lover like me. 

Meal 1: poached eggs on spinach salad

- three handfuls of raw spinach

- six biggish strawberries, sliced

- half an avacado, sliced

- two tablespoons of olive oil

- splash of balsamic viniger

- one tablespoon of sliced almonds

- one teaspoon chopped chives

- three poached eggs

I couldn't figure out how many eggs to have. They say whatever you can hold in one hand. At first I was going to have just two but I'm glad I had three. I did feel hungry after, as I was in the car driving an hour to pick up Wallis from surgery. Which is strange since just the morning before I was driving to drop her off and in the rush went out the door with no breakfast and only had a granola bar on my drive home. I think there is some major psychological stuff going on. I know I can't have carbs so I'm missing them before they are even gone. That, or it could have been that I accidently skipped dinner the night before - falling asleep early, and was even more hungry than usual.  I was still tired after eating breakfast - felt like a dip, but could also be the jet lag and having woken up extra early (3 am). Recipe note, the chives got lost in the vinegrette. Next time sprinkle them on top or try something stronger. 

Meal 2: chicken, asparagus, sweet potato

- 3/4 large chicken breast - with seasoning (no salt)

- one smallish sweet potato

- 10ish asparagus 

Nothing fancy, mainly because I had to run to the grocery store to get my food that I was supposed to have bought on day zero. I felt hungry and still had that salad stomach feeling - fullish, but not stick to your bones full. So I figured I'd eat non salad food, something I would have considered as a complete meal prior.  Even though it has no carbs.  Not sure I ate enough as I still felt a bit hungry afterwards but was reading about satiety versus satiation. It seemed like it should have been enough. I did feel awfully tired in the afternoon. But again this could be from jet lag and my messed up night sleeping. I had minor sweet cravings but then I drank some water and all good. 

Meal 3: Salmon, avacodo salad

- 0.5 pound of salmon fillet

- half an avacado

- quarter sweet onion

- two handfuls lettuce

- one tablespoon olive oil

- one half lime juiced

- one small tomato diced

Even though I was hungrish I didn't snack.  Mainly because I read if you do need to snack it should be a protein. Maybe I should hard boil some eggs in case. At least for this first week as I try to figure out portions. 

Summary for day one. Felt tired and hungry.  And learned I end to start making my meals earlier.

Whole30 Day 0

I was going to set up a separate blog to record this month but the app doesn't allow me on my ipad and I'm too lazy to do it on my computer. 

So day zero is my prep day (technically on Thursday). I swung by my local "farm stand". If I've taken you, it's like a Whole Foods but attached to a large farm. Lots of expensive goodies, but if you focus on the produce they grow on their farm and not the stuff they import, some real bargains. I picked up some local asparagus, spinach, baby lettuce, radishes, rhubarb, eggs, strawberries and some potted basil. The place is also a nursery. I meant to swing by Whole Foods too but was hungry for lunch and then the afternoon flew by. I feel hung over with this jet lag. Luckily I had enough for breakfast on day 1 and made a grocery run in the morning. I usually stay along the border of the grocery store but this time I stayed just at the front half - produce and meat counters. 

I'm buying tons more meat than usual. You are supposed to have a palm size of meat per meal, at a minimum. I used to eat meat a few times a week. I decided on chicken breasts, fresh salmon, ground lamb and chicken sausages. The last one I had to go through a lot of reading ingredients before finding two packages I could eat. And bacon may be challenging - they all have sugar in them - who knew?!  

I bought a bunch of vegetables and a few fruits. Not too much more than what I usually buy and picked up some cashews, coconut flakes and almond butter. Figured I'll try making monkey salad. So at the end of the first round of shopping, I'm at $138 spent. I'm tracking my spending too since I'm anticipating my food budget will go up twofold at a minimum this month.

I did sign up for a meat share from a local farm. I signed up for 15 lbs a month for the summer cycle (six months). I hope that's not too much. I'm guessing that will be about half my meat for the month and if I scale back after 30 days for whatever reasons, it's just the right amount of meat. I was thinking why I don't eat meat much and it came down to most meats are not healthy (the hormones and food they consume) and the happiness of the animals. I hate seeing the meat farms, so I just don't support them with my money on a regular basis. The meat share takes care of these issues by providing healthy and happy meat. Not cheap but that's why people eat junk food and that's not good. As I'm switching my material purchases (I.e. Having a smaller closet, but with better quality items), it correlates into food. Why consume (and spend money on) empty calories or food that does you damage. Spend the money on the good stuff that gives you energy. Luckily I'm in a position where I can afford not buying the cheap stuff. And I'm thankful for that. 

I still need to box up my pantry, fridge and freezer. I figured it best to get all the non-whole items out of sight and easy access, but keep them for the reintroducing period in a month. I'm hoping to get to that in the afternoon. And just have taped up boxes in the fridge and freezer. Makes it harder to dive in and get to the chocolate chips or crackers.

Right now, the two things I don't think I could live without are dairy and sweets. I just love them - you only need to check out my pinterest boards to see all the goodies. I don't love carbs, but there is no denying they are a staple of my diet. It will be interesting to see if my taste usd/cravings/enjoyment changes after the thirty days. 

The last thing I thought I should do on day zero is write down all my general ailments. I have no grand expectations that after thirty days they will all be gone, but I do want to be cognitive of any that do disappear. And I'm horrible at noticing these things. So here goes, my ailments in no particular order:

- low energy - in general

- low energy dip after eating breakfast especially

- weight gain

- bigger stomach (I'd say I'm nearly in my second trimester)

- bigger thighs - noticing it in some clothes

- stuffiness in the nose (afraid I'm allergic to cats or have house mold)

- redness on the nose - seems to worsen and lessen but don't know why

- minor face acne - at first I thought I had bed bugs or something

- general body aches - just feeling old all of a sudden

- joint discomfort sometimes - not sure if it was from working out

- lethargic at times - maybe due to new lifestyle - no deadlines/stress

- headaches sometimes - I think from dehydration - need to drink more water

- sweet cravings - sometimes correlating with my cycle and I've noticed it when I'm hungry

- cholesterol - I'm still in the good range, but each test show me creeping up close to the limit and some of my family members have high cholesterol. 

As I think of more, I'll add them. The main ailment I'm hoping this program will address is my tiredness. I thought I was getting more and more tired because of work and related stress. But this year I've been good about removing mental stress from my life. And I've tried different things to combat the energy. When I get out and exercise - my big thing at the moment is orienteering, I'm really tired after and it doesn't seem to be right. Disproportionate. Something's up and I dont think it's because I'm just getting older. Doctors have done tests in the past and find nothing so therefore nothing is resolved - just the general exercise more and eat healthy. Im excited to finally have a framework to figure out what "eat healthy" means for my body. Here goes!

Istanbul and Athens and life back home

We just got back from our trip, Nick, mom and I. I feel like I've experienced a ful spectrum of travel styles this year from traveling solo (amsterdam) to traveling with a tour group (Transylvania) to traveling with family. The other interesting difference, is that I usually visit only one city per vacation. This time we squeezed in two. The challenge being, I mostly remember Athens, being the last placed we stayed. And we stayed at a really nice house just steps from the acropolis, on a quiet residential street.

It was a fun trip and both nick  and I were happy we could take mom on this trip since she really enjoyed herself. Now I'm back and getting over the jet lag and it already seems like another world away. I'm so happy I don't have to go into work and can enjoy a leisurely recovery. I've really been enjoying my sabbatical and am starting to get used to this lifestyle. But now that I'm back, I'm at the point where I need to figure out the next chapter. And cram in a bunch of projects. I've been getting a bunch done - I will be having a garage sale next weekend, weather permitting, with my neighbors that will finally empty my basement that has been filling up from my editing. I liked the Marie Kondo approach to organization and I keep reminding myself of the mindset shift, it's hard to break old habits.  But it does help that I'm on restrictive spending mode. 

Along the same lines, I'm tackling a new mindset project, moving from my environment changes (stuff around me), to my physical/psychological environment. I'm starting the Whole30 on friday - tomorrow. I'm off to shop for a bunch of vegetables and meat. I think I eat pretty healthy and up to a month ago would say I didn't eat hardly any processed foods. Until I realized single ingredients are processed too, like flour. My main goal is to have a healthier body and I'm realizing my body is reacting to food.  I've had low energy in the past, especially last year, and I attributed it to the stress of work.  But after removing the mental stress, I'll still find I have dips in energy, especially right after eating breakfast. I started experimenting with different foods but felt like it was a jumbled mess and not getting anywhere.  And then someone mentioned the very popular Whole30. Just what I needed, a road map to healthy figure out what food effects me and how. The premise is that you detox your body of potentially challenging food.  Basically all my favorites, dairy, grains, legumes, sugar, alcohol.  And you eat meals around a serving of protein, vegetables and healthy fats. I do eat these types of meals often - especially fancy salads. But the dairy, carbs and sugar are what I'm going to be challenged with since I'll often throw in some quinoa and cheese into my salads.  Although I am excited to beat the "sugar dragon" as they call it.  My vague New Years resolution was to cut the sugar intake down.  It was a lot of Will power battles. Around Easter, it was a real fight not to go back to the store to buy more Cadbury cream eggs. This was after I had already consumed several. And frankly, my thighs are proof that my battle with sugar isn't going well. But honestly, the more I read about sugar the more I realize it's a drug, so my results are only expected. You can't expect not to be a crack addict, when you still have a little bit each week. Hence the need to detox the system. 

It will be an interesting month, but frankly this is the best timing - no stress of work, no travel, and fresh produce is blooming.  I'm dropping Wallis off for surgery this morning, eating the last of the non-whole 30 food in the fridge (yogurt, cheese, bread and waffle mix), filling the fridge with new food.  And emptying the pantry - I'm putting the non- whole30 in a bin in the basement.  So I have to work at greeting to the pasta and other foodstuff. I'll keep you posted. 

Wallis is going in for surgery on her right leg and to do some follow up repairs on her left leg. She's going to be my bionic cat by the end and hopefully have much better knees. I have no idea what to expect, even though we went through this only recently. Before whe could use her good leg to move around with, but now, with both legs out of commission, how... How does she use the kitty litter box, move to eat, drink, etc. So many questions, which I'm sure they will answer tomorrow, post surgery. She's been a trooper, but it's a battle to get her in the pet carrier. She was so easy going before when it came to the vet visits but I guess it's only expected after all the vet visits recently. Hopefully this is the homestretch.