I the only issue I have had was being kept awake for24 hours at the hospital.  It would have been much better to just go home after the operation. My throat was/is a little sore from the breathing tube and the voice is still a little stratchy, but other than that, I am back to normal.

I drank Natraburst smoothies for the first couple of days and that helped a lot. I mixed the Natrabrust powder with plain yogurt and some frozen blueberries and it was a great meal replacement and it was easy on the sore throat.

So with smoothies, in addition to my wife’s awesome cabbage-hamburger soup, I am making a full recovery.

I am happy to report that I am exactly on course, having lost 10 pounds in 5 weeks.

So far, all the weight loss can be attributed to changes in eating habits, as I haven’t got the desire to actually start exercising yet.

I think one big factor is drinking lots of water too. From the very first day, I have been trying to make sure that I drank the recommended 8 glasses of water each day. The first couple of days, it was kind of hard to drink that much, but now I drink even more than 8 glasses a day.

Being hydrated helps you in many ways:

• Regulates your appetite
• Increases your metabolism
• boost your energy levels
• helps you retain less water
• helps reduce high blood pressure
• helps reduce high cholesterol
• eases joint pain
• releases toxic waste products
• improves skin
One other big change was staying away from the fast food lunch everyday. Not having a cheese burger and fries really cut back on the ole calories! I do really like cheese burgers and fries, but so far I haven’t really missed them at all. Could be that by eating healthy and drinking lots of water, my body doesn’t crave anything!

Another big plus is that I actually like all of the healthy foods that I am eating now, especially yogurt. I make my own yogurt because most the yogurt in the stores has way too much sugar in it. It is not good for the diet and it is just too sweet to eat.

More on the health benefits of yogurt coming soon.

Homemade Yogurt ( Greek Style )

Ingredients:

* 1/2 gallon of milk ( I used whole, you can use whatever you like )
* 1 cup powered milk ( to make the yogurt thicker )
* 1 – 5.3 oz. container of Brown Cow All Natural Greek Yogurt with live active cultures (Use any yogurt you like like as long as it is plain and it has live cultures in it. You can use some of this batch to make your next batch)

Directions:

1. Place milk in sauce pan and whisk in the powered milk.

2. Heat the milk until it reaches 120 degrees (F) ( if using pasteurized milk. 185 degrees (F) if using raw milk )

3. Let the milk cool to 115 degrees (F)

4. Add the yogurt to the warm milk and mix it well.

5. Pour the milk-yogurt mixture into two quart glass jars (clean and sterilized )

6. Place lids on jars and place in a electric oven that was warmed to about 115 degrees. Turn the oven light on and leave it on the entire time.

7. You want to keep the oven about 115 degrees for 4 to 12 hours, depending on how you like your yogurt. Longer times equals firmer and tangier yogurt.

8. The light in my oven keeps it above 100 degrees, you might need to turn the oven on for a couple of seconds every now and then, to keep it around 115 degrees.

9. After the desired amount of time ( I usually go 8 hours, ie overnight ) remove the yogurt from the oven and put in the refrigerator.
It is ready to eat when it is cool.

Serve plain or with any kind of fruit.

Ready to ferment in the oven