Category: health

I Feel Like Garbage

I don’t feel any better at all. I might actually feel a little worse, but that’s probably just me being overdramatic. I’m leaving work sick in about nine minutes. I’m also exhausted, sort of all of a sudden. I’ve just run out of gas (figuratively) while dealing with gas (literally) pain. What a screwed up day.

I have to join a conference call at 3:30. We’re going to get an update on Dad’s rehab and I need to listen in. I would very much like to take a nap for the 90 minutes between now and then, but our bedroom suite is still under construction. Although having said that, I haven’t heard any noise coming from that part of the house for quite a while. I wonder if they are putting down floor tile… or if they left for the day. I’ll go check when I punch out.

I had eight ounces of protein shake between 9:00 and 9:30. I opened a bottle of sugar free Gatorade at 11:00 and over the course of three hours I’ve probably managed four ounces of it. If that. I am feeling pretty dehydrated, but it’s not bad enough to outdo the stomach ache.

Today blows, though I did see a critical issue come to one of my staff members and I figured it out without even looking at the data. I told him what I thought the problem would be and I was totally right. I feel smaht… even with a stomach ache screwing up my entire brain. Ugh.

Liquid Diet Day?

I’ve been up and about for almost four hours and I haven’t had anything to eat yet. My stomach is still pretty unhappy with me. It might be a little better than it was when I wrote the last post, but it’s still not good. Gas. Pain. Not nauseous at this point but probably not far off.

I haven’t eaten anything yet and I haven’t had my morning vitamins. I did chew up a couple of Gas X pills in the hopes that would help. It hasn’t. Not really at least. The only other time I took Gas X was during the first couple of weeks post-surgery and it eliminated all of my stomach discomfort almost instantly. I was hoping for more of that. Nope.

I am thinking that today is a liquid diet day. Back when we went from the stage one (liquid) diet to the stage two (puree) diet they told us if we have a bad day to just go back to stage one. Well, I am at stage… infinity? Whatever, and I am thinking of reverting back to stage one until my guts stop bitching. I have half a protein shake on a coaster on my desk next to me. I’ve had a few small sips. So far so good.

Wish your humble narrator luck.

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Another Bad Day in the Making?

Last night I managed to hit both of my food goals, despite all of the difficulties I mentioned in the previous post. Unfortunately it required me drinking a 32 ounce bottle of water starting at a little before 10:00pm. It went down without a problem, and I felt really good after it was done, but I did it in about an hour and a half and that is just too fast. 15 minutes later I ate some protein and that topped me over both goals.

It also had the side effect that I expected. I woke up today half an hour ago with a seriously gassy and upset stomach. I’m going to run for a while and re-watch episode three of Yellowjackets (buzz buzz buzz and all that) without having anything to eat or drink first. We’ll see how I feel about an hour from now. Hopefully all the trottin’ and joggin’ in place helps to clear things up rather than make it worse.

Yesterday’s last minute success may lead to today being another rough one, tiny-little-rewired-stomach-wise.

Wish me luck.

Bad Day All Around

I think today might be the most difficult day I’ve had since the gastric bypass surgery nearly seven months ago. Every time I eat or drink anything it’s upset my stomach. Not nausea per se, just feeling uncomfortably full. Actually, dinner has made me a little nauseous. I made it through 2.6 ounces of left over chicken before it set in. I think it’s starting to pass, but I am screwed as far as my food goals are concerned. I still need 15 grams of protein and a whopping 28 ounces of liquids before I sleep tonight. I have to pause an hour between eating and drinking though and it’s already quarter past eight. At least today’s weekly weigh in went well. I’ve got that going for me today

Other than that, today has just been the worst day.

I Am So Tired of This

Just found out that two staff members at the rehab facility my father is currently stuck in have tested positive for Covid-19.

I am so sick of this shit. Not just the Covid, but the whole situation. I just want my parents to be healthy again and I want them to go home. My mother never will, but my father could. Ugh. I just want them both to be better.

We have a call with the facility tomorrow. That was booked before the Covid scare. I don’t know if my father was exposed or not. If he was they will be testing him right now.

I just want this shit to end. I want our world back again.

My Stomach is Having a Weird Day

I was finished with breakfast by about 7:30am. I have felt uncomfortably full ever since. I haven’t even hit 20 ounces of liquid yet today but I just don’t feel like I can drink anything because my stomach has felt so full. I took my two calcium pills at just after noon and just that little bit of intake made me feel a little sick. Huh.

That was half an hour ago and I am starting to feel a smidge better, but it’s weird. Just weird.

On an unrelated note, the ant kingdom was slaughtered by an exterminator a few months ago. Dead ants galore. Today the final termination is happening. There is a contractor upstairs ripping up our bathroom. The walk in shower is gone. It will be replaced by a closet or some shelves or some shit. The toilet and the sink have been removed, temporarily, and the floor tiles are coming up as we speak. The tiles will be replaced by something that doesn’t need grout and the sink and the toilet will be put back. There should be some cleanup on the back wall too. No clue how long this is going to take, but I will miss our shower. I won’t miss the leak that caused the rot that ruined the wall and lead to the ant invasion though.

Back to the original point of this post… not sure what to do for lunch today. Not sure if I can handle food. I’ll probably just go the protein bar route again (that’s what I did for breakfast though so maybe that’s bad luck today?). We’ll see.

Week 30 Weigh In

So close. So close to having milestones in every category that my stats obsessed brain looks at. I mean, so close.

Hello and welcome to the week 30 weigh in. Wednesday is weigh in day and today is Wednesday. Are you ready?

I am down 3.6 pounds. That’s fantastic. I am very happy with this week’s results. The app our bluetooth scale works with didn’t capture my weight this time. I’m not sure what’s up with that. I had to add it to my iPhone’s Health app manually, like the old days and when I say old days I mean like three weeks ago. I did not move the 10’s column for my total weight, but I came ridiculously close. My weight this morning was exactly 260 pounds. Come on! 1/10th of a pound lower and I would have flipped that six to a five. Oh well. We’ll have an early weigh in this week as Sunday is the monthiversary, and hopefully (barring any catastrophes) I should be in the two-fifties by then. Fingers crossed.

Everything else hit a milestone. My BMI dropped below 32. It is 31.6. 1.7 points away from not being obese anymore, in the BMI sense. My weight loss since the surgery moved the 10’s column and reached 171.4 pounds. My weight loss since the first weigh in also flipped the 10’s column to hit 192 pounds on the nose. Two items of note here. One “bad” one good. First the “bad.” I used the quotes because it’s not actually bad at all, it’s just a sort of warning. When I was going through the pre-surgery process I was told I could expect to lose a certain percentage of my excess weight. They gave me a range between blah and blahblah. When I calculated it out it was between 130 and 170 pounds. Now that I have hit 170 pounds I feel like I am on borrowed weight-loss-time. That’s all. Not bad, just noteworthy. It might be time to slightly alter my expectations, even though I don’t really expect to suddenly stop losing weight, you know?

Now for the good note…….

ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY POUNDS, BABIE! LET’S FREAKIN’ GOOOOOOO!!!!

Okay, so the next weigh in is Sunday December 4th. The numbers should be small, Robert. Don’t freak out. Next Wednesday will also be low numbers so don’t freak out then either, Robert. All weight loss is positive for now. The goal is to get to a healthy weight and you still have quite a ways to go before you get there. Keep up the good work.

Week 29 Weigh In

Hello my friends and loyal readers! Welcome to the official Week 29 Weigh In post!

It’s amazing how gun shy one less than impressive week has made me. It’s also amazing how stupidly unpredictable weight loss can be. Yesterday I stepped on the scale as soon as I got out of bed. I was down about two pounds since last Wednesday. I did not record my weight, I was just paranoid about having a bad weigh in this week so I snuck a peek early to get a glimpse into the future. The number was good, but not spectacular.

I did it again today, but this time it’s official. I got out of bed and stepped on the scale and I am down 4.2 pounds for the week. Wow! That means I lost about two pounds yesterday. How ridiculous is that? Don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining at all. It’s just that losing two pounds yesterday implies that I could gain two pounds today. I need to stop stressing about this and just go back to one scale moment each week.

We’re in a state these days where three pounds a week feels epic. Now we hit four pounds and it’s like, Wow! I now weigh 263.6 pounds which seven months ago was absolutely unimaginable. I have lost 167.8 pounds since the surgery on May 4, 2022. I have lost 188.4 pounds since the first visit to the clinic on January 19, 2022. My BMI is down 0.5 points this week to 32.1. Like I said, ridiculous.

I was thinking of a sort of mini goal of seeing if I could hit 200 pounds overall by the time we go to Disney World on January 4, 2023. That’s only 11.6 more pounds. That’s an average of less than two pounds per week for six more weeks. That’s doable, but the real goal should be hitting 200 pounds by the anniversary of the first weigh in. That date is eight weeks from tomorrow. If I somehow manage to average 4.025 pounds per week for those eight weeks then I could hit 200 pounds since the surgery by that date. I’m not holding my breath on that though. Four pounds per week is not happening, despite hitting four pounds this week. We’ll see how close I can get.

My exercise routine got weird yesterday and it continued to today. I stopped at 30 minutes because my pace was all screwed up. The first mile was faster than eight minutes. I kept the pace consistent and the second mile pace was almost 20 minutes. It wasn’t that extreme today but it was just as dumb. I stopped at 30 minutes again, then watched the second half of Andor while eating breakfast and then ran for another 30 minutes. Same thing happened, but the two trots-in-place were enough to close my Move ring (calorie count) so I’ll take it.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. Back in the pre-surgery diet days that would make tomorrow a massive cheat day. Not this time. Those days are over. I am going to have about four ounces of food and that’s it. Last night I had more than that for dinner because I was WAY behind on my protein goal and it made me sick. It wasn’t due to a mistake like eating too fast or not chewing enough (which are my two common mistakes), it was just because I was completely full and my new little stomach didn’t like that. So I am cutting myself off despite the holiday. Four ounces is all you get, Robert.

That doesn’t change the fact that Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday of the year though. I just love it. Food or no food. It’s almost time to punch into work, and the day before Thanksgiving is traditionally the slowest, most agonizing day of the year… so duck and cover, kids. Good luck to you all, and may you all have a happy Wednesday is Weigh In Day today.

Unrelated

I have a doctors appointment this morning that is not related to my weight loss surgery. Is that even possible?

My primary care office called me a couple of months ago (I think) and reminded me that I haven’t had a standard check up in 600 years. Maybe it’s time, they suggested. Okay.

My exercise is done for the day, breakfast is done (protein bars again. I’m a little gun shy after a few bad meals this weekend), I’m all ready to go. Why do I feel nervous? Because I always feel nervous about doctors appointments. Oh well.

The Walking Dead is over. The episode was good. I wonder if a year from now will I still think it was good. It wrapped up the one outstanding storyline and then gave about half an hour of postscript that felt a little confusing. They did kill a bunch of zeds though, so that was cool.

Okay. Time to go. Wish me luck.