Category: health

Flake Day

Today is the last day of my four day weekend. I’m thinking of making it a mostly flake kinda day. I have an errand or two to run, and I want to visit mom. It’s her 82nd birthday today. Join me in wishing my mother a happy birthday.

I’m going to bring my camera with me when I go out, but I am not going to go out of my way any where. If I am out of the house and in the neighborhood I might pull over and snap a pic or two, but no exploring for a while. It’s time to start focusing all of our financial efforts on the Disney trip in January. No more wasting gas for a while.

Other than that, it’s music again. Guitars, guitars, guitars, and writing crappy riff songs. That’s my thing for a while. When I start burning out, then I might go camera nuts again. Until that day, it’s shitty rock and roll time again.

My exercise is done for the day and my calorie goal is about 70% complete. It’s time to start exercising like a madman again. I had three days where I took it easy. Now we’re back on the wagon. Let’s go!

Also, with October starting this coming weekend, it’s just about hockey season. I am going to make an attempt to be a UMass Lowell hockey fan again, for the first time since 2003. I’m going to try and catch games on the radio when I can. I don’t think they are on my old station anymore (good, the athletics department is unworthy), but I think they are on Lowell’s AM commercial station, WCAP. The Lock Monsters and the Devils games used to be broadcast on that station. I wonder if it’s the same team? We’ll see.

Here’s the schedule. Unfortunately both games against Vermont are in Lowell, so no hockey road trip to see the kids this year. Bummer, though a part of me is thinking about going to one of the games and sitting in our old Lock Monsters/Devils seats. Section G, Row 19, seats 3-6. Maybe we’ll see if Boston University is playing at Vermont and use them as an excuse. Or maybe Merrimack College? Hell, I drive through their campus when I visit mom. That could be a good enough reason.

Nine Minutes

I am nine minutes away from a four day weekend. Jen just told me she put in for Monday off too, so we’ll have an extra day together to do stuff! I think we should go leaf peeping, or lighthouse chasing, or stay home and watch Andor… twice.

We finished Cobra Kai’s new season last night. Why is that show good? It should be idiotic, but it’s good! Why? How?

My back is killing me and I am feeling weirdly full. I had breakfast a little late and had to break for lunch a little early and the two combined to make my stomach feel completely full five hours later. I am optimistic that come the time I finish preparing dinner I will be hungry again. It’s possible though that I just need a good fart and I’ll be fine. Welcome to the dream factory, kids!

My back is hurting today. I am sitting in a new office chair. I don’t know if the two things are related or not, especially because I have done 60 minutes of exercise today after doing more than 60 minutes yesterday. I even jogged in place a little this morning instead of just walking. Those things might relate to my back being sore, but it might be the chair too. I need more data to say for sure.

One minute to go…

…and it’s 5:30 and I am officially on a four day weekend!

WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Week 20 Weigh In

Line up that marching band, babie! Kick off that circus parade! Today is a gigantic day! A huge, massive, gigantic landmark of a freakin’ day!

It’s been 20 weeks since the surgery. I think today is the day that I am going to share just how much I actually weigh, and along with that I am going to share how much I weighed on day one. That number is huge. It’s embarrassing. We’re talking about someone who has been grossly overweight his entire life and never really been shy about the numbers, and this number is too high for me to have shared because it’s so embarrassing. So this post is going to be a big deal for me. I’m not doing it for anyone but me so please don’t comment or anything. Just let me stew in it, okay? Right.

Last week I said I was 4.2 pounds away from flipping down the hundreds column of my total weight. I think I also mentioned that waiting a whole week to step on the scale was going to be impossible and it was. I actually weighed myself on Sunday but didn’t update my records. I was 0.8 pounds away from flipping the hundred. Close but no cigar.

Last week I was 304.2 pounds. Today I am down to 297.4. That’s a drop of 6.8 glorious pounds, and the hundreds column has changed for the second time! I am so fucking insanely happy right now. Pardon the Eff-bomb, but it’s the only adjective that fits the feeling. I never thought I would be here again. Never. My whole adult life I have been over 300 pounds. This is a really big deal. A super big deal.

Now for the embarrassing part that will be topped off by a seriously exciting part. On January 19, 2022 when I walked into the weight loss clinic for the first time I weighed 452 pounds and my BMI was 55. On April 29, 2022 when I walked into the clinic for the last time before having the surgery on May 4th I weighed 431.4 pounds and my BMI was 52.5. Today I am 297.4 and my BMI is 36.2. That’s a drop of 154.6/134 pounds and 18.8/16.3 points. Are you kidding me? ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY FOUR POUNDS!

Prior to the surgery they gave me an estimate of the amount of weight I could reasonably expect to lose. It was between 130 and 170 pounds. I’m over 130 since the surgery so it’s safe to assume the leveling out will start at some point soon. I am nowhere close to being done though. I did the math a few weeks ago and in order to get my BMI down to an actual healthy point I will need to get down to about 190 pounds. That means I still have over 100 pounds to go.

I’m not concerning myself with what still remains right now. Today I am just feeling happy and I want to stay with this mindset for a bit before I start focusing on the future. The day I flipped from the 400s to the 300s (May 16, 2022) was a great day. It felt so good. Today, as we flip from 300s to 200s is just indescribable. I can’t put it into words. It’s epic. It’s magic. It’s majestic.

Just wait until the 200s flip to the 100s (fingers crossed I can get there). Oh boy will that be a crazy day.

Happy 20 weeks, and happy 200s! WOOHOO

Not Tonight

The sun is about to set and folks are turning on the lights outside of their businesses. I, however, am not going to be joining them. No evening drive into the city for me. I feel a ton better than I did this morning, but I’m a little on the gun shy side as far as health is concerned so I am passing on the opportunity.

Also, Boston is about to get bitch slapped by some thunderstorms and I don’t want to deal with that. So I am staying home. I have decided that in the spirit of the new Amazon Prime series The Rings of Power, I would finally get around to watching The Hobbit, even though we all know it’s gonna kinda suck. We watched the first half of the first movie once, ages ago. Tonight I started over from the beginning. Let’s see how bad it can get.

We have a piece of furniture being delivered tomorrow afternoon. I have the living room ready for them. Everything is out of the way. For now though, we’ll just spend a little time in Middle Earth with the guy from the English version of The Office.

Starting to Improve, I Hope

My day got worse after the last post. Yeah. It’s been like that. I called out of work sick at 10:30. It has not been a fun day but I think the worst might be over. I ate a protein snack and had a protein shake and nothing awful or gross has happened since. It’s been over an hour. Here’s hoping my innards are through with the whole fucking me over thing. Jerks.

For now though, how about we stay within 10-15 steps of the bathroom. You know, just in case.

Fun Fun Fun.

Rough Morning

This one might venture into TMI territory. I’ll be careful not to overshare, but given that this blog is more like a personal weight loss surgery journal just for me (sorry) I feel I need to document today’s fun. Again, sorry.

A couple of times over the last two months my digestive system has rebelled. I go a few days with nuttin’ but chirping crickets and then a very difficult, rather painful morning of struggle and teeth gritting and all sorts of fun. That’s me today. I have spent a lot of time in the bathroom with… very little reward. Is that skirting the TMI line? There has been success, it just took a lot of work and a lot of discomfort and now that things are… well… moving (wink wink) I don’t think it is going to stop for a while. How’s that? Did I give enough detail for me to know what I am talking about when I review this post five years from now without maybe grossing out all of you fine people who happen to read this? Would it make you all feel better if I say that people who read this page are among the finest people on the Earth? You are all kind hearted, generous, strong, good looking folks who are respected and looked up to by all who meet you. Given that, I hope I didn’t gross you out.

In other news, Jen is in the office today and it sucks. She’s going to be in the office tomorrow too and that is going to suck. Suck for me, at least. I miss her. She also has an after work, work function tonight and she won’t be home until late. I’m on my own for dinner, which isn’t a big deal, but I am going to be sad without her around.

I’m thinking of taking the camera into Boston tonight. Maybe I could get some pics of all the signs and lights in the theater district. That little area has been on my photo-to-do list for a while. Unfortunately there are thunderstorms in the forecast. We’ll have to see how it goes this evening. It would be nice, and I’ve already started researching how high I can set my ISO before the digital noise gets too obnoxious.

Here’s hoping the weather forecast changes and things clear up.

Visit

Visiting my mother. She’s asleep in the dining room. That’s not uncommon. It makes me sad, but as dad once said, if she’s sleeping she’s not in pain. That’s some bright side thinking right there.

I’m hitting the grocery store on the way home and might (if weather and population allow) stop at The Park and snap a pic or two. As always, we will see.

Working from Home

I’m working from home today. Back where I belong. After a day and a half in the office it feels good to be back at my desk in the cellar.

Not that a day and a half in the office is so awful, it’s just that after two and a half years of working at home I am really settled and used to it now and just don’t want to stop.

I had two nights in a row of really shitty sleep. Tuesday and Wednesday nights were just plain bad. I don’t know why. Well… Tuesday I just couldn’t sleep and was awake until almost 2:00am. Wednesday I don’t know what the problem was, it was just bad. Last night I was out like a light before 10:00pm and ended up with almost nine hours of sleep. I feel a little better today, but damn was I sleepy last night.

The last three days, including today, I have been pushing myself a little extra during my morning walkies. I’ve been trying to pick up the pace of the pacing, and also keeping it going for longer. My exercise goal is 30 minutes and I’ve gone for closer to 45. I’m doing the faux 5k thing again. I am trying to keep up the faster pace for 3.2 miles, which usually comes out to 44-45 minutes. The main goal here is to burn more calories early in the day so that I can close my move ring earlier. My goal there is 1000 calories. I’ve had a few days recently where bed time came around and I still had about 100 calories left to go. An extra 15 minutes of exercise each day should take care of that. I might change my goals one of these days, but I want to see if my ankles start hurting from the extra walkies first. We’ll see.

I watched yesterday’s episode of She-Hulk during today’s walk. On two occasions, my walkie pace synced up with a song playing in the background perfectly. My steps were eighth notes. It made me wonder if the audio folks working on the show try to match up the beats per minute of the songs they use for an episode. That’s something that really no one would ever really notice, but if that were true I think it would be incredibly cool. That’s just me.

Okay, 8.5 hours left in the work day. We have a pre-fab furniture item coming tonight and we’re donating a couple of furniture items tomorrow. I have to have all of that ready to go. There’s a chance we might see the kids very briefly tomorrow but that’s still very much up in the air. Outside of all of that the questions remain: Will I be able to do some music this weekend, and where do I go for my just-after-sunrise pics tomorrow and Sunday? Very important questions.

Right, back to work with you!

It is Wednesday Again

Yesterday was Tuesday, so you know what that means… It’s weigh in day. The numbers were excellent. I am down 5.4 pounds. Can you dig that crazy sound, or what? I am 4.2 pounds away from flipping my total weight’s hundreds column. If next week is as good as this week was… then we could be a week away from that wonderful moment. To quote Clark W Griswald, “Hallelujah. Holy shit. Where’s the Tylenol?”

It’s been a tough week food wise. I wrote about the stomach problems I had on Monday. Yesterday I was okay on that front, mostly, but I came up super short of my protein goal. I need 60 grams a day and I only got to 50. I will remedy that today, thank you very much.

I am working in the office for the second half of the day. My new hire lives in the mid-west and he is in town so we’re going to meet up with him after work and actually exist in person. That means I am going to a public place where people are. I’m okay with this even through my nervous Covid-19 paranoia. It just means I will have to deal with my Covid-19 paranoia, you know? We’re going to get some dinner and that means I will have to order something and then not eat most of it. I plan to bring my little digital scale and not over do it. I’ll have the stop watch on my phone too. They are all going to laugh at me, but I’m okay with it because I lost five and four tenths pounds this week.