Category: health

Belt

For the first time in a few days, I don’t feel like my jeans are about to fall off.

I picked up a new belt at Casual Male XL* today. It’s two sizes smaller than my old belt and the difference is epic. I had the old belt as tight as it would go and it was like I wasn’t wearing it at all. Add that to my jeans being at least one size too big and you have a recipe for an America’s Funniest Home Video winner.

The new belt has some room to grow. At this rate I will probably have to replace it in 3-4 weeks, but I’m okay with that. We knew going into the Gastric Bypass that clothing was going to be a pretty crazy expense after the fact. So far I’ve only bought two pairs of jeans (both of which are already too big), the belt, and some undies (which have not been delivered yet). There was also a few pairs of sweatpants that we got on the day of the surgery. Those are way too big at this point. Otherwise I have been making use of old clothes that were too small for me back in May, but are okay now.

I have already bagged up one pile of clothes (mostly shirts) for donation somewhere. I think I have enough to fill up a second bag. Once I do that, I just have to decide where to donate everything. Goodwill, probably. I’m not a fan of the Salvation Army in general. I’ve heard some nasty shit about Goodwill too, but it’s still the preferable option.

I hope we can last another couple of weeks before I have to go back for more clothes. It’ll be jeans again, and probably some collared shirts for work. Stay tuned, friends and neighbors.

*The name of the store is Casual Male XL, right? I always call it Tall and Fat. Remember Rodney Dangerfield in the movie Back to School? His character was a millionaire who made his fortune owning a chain of stores for oversized men that was called Tall and Fat.

At least I think it was. I haven’t seen that movie in 100 years. It had Robert Downey, Jr in it, didn’t it? He looked about 12 years old, if I remember correctly.

Want to Weigh In?

I failed to go out for car music this morning but I did not fail to lose 3.6 pounds, so I’ll take that as a fair trade.

Last week I weighed in on Monday instead of Wednesday because I am an impatient idiot. This week I weighed in on Tuesday because eight days seemed long enough and if I waited until the “official” weigh in tomorrow it would be nine days and that was just too long a wait. Next week I’ll do Wednesday and it will be eight days again and all will be right with the world.

The 10’s column of my total changed again, just barely. How to use algebra to demonstrate…

Last week’s weigh in was nx3.4 where n is a number and x is a number. This week is ny9.8 where n is the same number as before and y=x-1. Dig it? Every high school kid who took a hissy fit in algebra class because he/she would “never have to use algebra in the real world” can suck it. Boom. Math, bitches.

The total weight lost since the surgery has topped 90! It’s currently sitting at 91.6 and that is beyond amazing. The total weight lost since the first weigh in is up to an astronomical 112.2.

I can’t believe it.

I was a little bummed out over the 3.6 this week being so much less than the 7 or so from each of the last couple of weigh ins, but there have been a few weeks in the past where the weight loss was around 3 pounds. I was afraid this might have been a sign of me leveling off, but now that I analyze the data, it seems more like getting back to normal. I’m happy with that.

So let’s see if I can manage to not step on the scale for the next eight days. Wish me luck.

Monday Monday

Monday morning, back at work. The day’s exercise is done, breakfast is done, I’m punched in. All is underway.

I failed to do car music again. I think we can assume that the faux 50 songs in 90 days project ain’t happening this year. I’ll try to keep picking away at it, but there’s zero chance of me hitting 50 songs. I will try car music again tomorrow. We’ll see.

I forgot to fill my pill caddie yesterday. It’s totally empty. I had to take this morning’s vitamins/antacid pills the old fashioned way, straight from the bottle. Let’s not make a habit of that, shall we?

Okay, that’s all for this life update. I need to get busy with work now.

Until later….

Accordion Day

I went to visit my mother today. She slept the whole time I was there.

I had forgotten that Sunday morning was sing along time hosted by the son of one of the residents. He plays beginner song book kind of songs on an accordion and sings along. The residents get together and listen and some of them sing along too.

I think the experience taught me that I am seriously starving for live music. It’s pretty bad.

I wrote down the set list, in case anyone wants to make a playlist on the streaming service (not Spotify) of their choice.

Accordion Guy’s Set list:

  • My Country Tis of Thee
  • Let me call you sweetheart
  • Daisy
  • Michael Row the Boat Ashore
  • He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands
  • Doe Re Me
  • God Bless America
  • I’ve Been Working on the Railroad
  • Take Me Out to the Ballgame
  • You’re a grand old flag
  • Yankee Doodle
  • The Bible Tells Me So
  • Beautiful Heaven
  • Battle Hymn of the Republic
  • Baby Face
  • Beautiful Dreamer
  • Star Spangled Banner

Movies

We’re doing it. We’re going to the movies. Thor Love and Thunder. We’re going to mask up and go into a movie theater for the first time since the pandemic started. Sweet Christmas does this feel weird.

Am I nervous? Yes. Both Covid-Nervous and nervous that the movie won’t live up to the hype, but the real focus of this mini-discussion is the Covid-Nervous. I know it will be okay but it’s still stressful.

I did a simulated 5k walk this morning. I actually just finished. I figured if I did that then my legs would be so beat I wouldn’t be able to get up and run away if the theater fills up too much. I am kidding, of course.

Okay. Breakfast then flick. That’s the plan. Yikes!

Fun with Gatorade

I am trying something new today with the diet thing. Normally I keep track of liquids by drinking an ounce at a time. I have a little stack of one ounce cups and I just fill a cup, drink it, repeat. I write down every time I pour out an ounce, and when I am done I add the total to my spreadsheet.

Not today. Today I took a 20oz bottle of G2 (lower sugar Gatorade) and noted the time I opened it on my spreadsheet (7:58am). I have left that row on the sheet incomplete as I will just keep drinking from the bottle until it is empty. Then I’ll add the 20 ounces and the stop time. Makes sense, right? Sure, except that I have eaten two meals after opening the bottle of G2. So the spreadsheet is no longer technically in chronological order.

I don’t think I will do this again. The bottle is half empty now, but I just finished lunch (4.4 oz of chicken) and I can’t drink again for another hour. I took two Calcium Citrate pills at 12:30 or so. I have to take two more around dinner time. I don’t want to still be drinking this bottle of G2* and have to track all four Calcium pills on the same row. I want to see distinct entries for each vitamin dose.

Hmmm… maybe I’ll just close the open row and put it at 10 ounces. Yeah, I’ll do that. I don’t want to overcomplicate this stuff.

Drink up, kids!

*I just read the label of the bottle of G2 and realized the actual name is G/2, as in “G over 2″**. It’s a math problem. It says it has 1/2 the sugar of original Gatorade… Hence, G/2. I get it! I actually prefer G Free because that is supposed to have zero sugar, but G/2, or G2, or whatever doesn’t have enough sugar to make me feel sick so I think it’s okay.

I’m guessing this is one of the longest blog posts about Gatorade in the history of the internets.

**(Rush fans from the 80’s might get this reference) If you’re not wearing your 3D glasses you’ll only be seeing this in one half D! Count Floyd, 1984 or so.

Ring

I’ve written about this before, but when it comes to weight loss and the after effects of weight loss surgery, my wedding ring sort of acts as a canary in a coalmine.

The day after the wedding, while at our first honeymoon stop at a bed and breakfast in Woodstock, VT, my wedding ring fell off in the shower. I had lost a little weight since the ring fitting and my hands were soapy and pow, the ring fell to the shower floor.

For the first few months of our marriage, I would take off the ring before getting into the shower, or doing anything that involved soap and a drain. After a few months I grew into it a little and no longer needed to take it off.

By the time we get to January 2022, when I couldn’t stand the weight and the yo-yo dieting and the fluctuations and the lack of energy and the back pain and the leg pain and the general misery that my weight caused me, I really couldn’t take the ring off anymore. It wasn’t painful, but it was pretty well stuck in place.

Now, post surgery and about a hundred pounds later, it’s been slipping lately. Only when I am washing up or showering or doing something that gets me all soapy and stuff. It hasn’t fallen off yet, but it’s been close.

Close enough that when I took a shower yesterday morning, I took it off. That’s the first time since the summer of 2009. I didn’t take it off today, but only because I was in a bit of a rush and forgot to. When lunch started I went upstairs and shaved. I took it off for that. I’m reaching the point where the idea of my ring falling into a sink or shower drain is becoming real. That’s a bad thing, of course, but from a weight loss perspective it’s a good thing. It’s weird, but true.

I don’t want to resize my wedding ring. I’ll probably put a piece of tape around the back side of it to tighten it. That will work for a while at least.

Okay, kids. Lunch break and story time is over now. Get back to work.

I Lied to Myself

I told myself that I wasn’t going to weigh in today. I told myself that as I was turning on the scale. I told myself that as I was stepping onto the scale. I told myself that as I was standing there in awe of how much weight I’ve lost since Wednesday.

7.6 pounds in five days. How am I still even alive? My 10’s column changed again. I am up to 88 pounds lost since the surgery and 108.6 since the first appointment. My BMI dropped 0.9 points since Wednesday too.

Hoe

Lee

Shit.

If I can lose 3.5 pounds in the next two days my 10’s column will change again.