Category: weight loss surgery

Week 43 Weigh In

I had my nine month check in with my surgeon yesterday. Everything is going great. I mentioned that I’ve been having a tough time eating over the last month or so and she said that’s common. I guess when you’re this far along you just start getting cocky. It was good to know there isn’t some surprise in my stomach that is making things go south. I asked about leveling off the weight loss. She assured me it’s going to happen, and that I’ll probably gain a little back too. She said I need to keep doing the exercises I’m doing but also do more for building muscle, and that will be part of slowing down the weight loss.

So I have some things to think about and some things to work on going forward. For today at least, it is Wednesday and Wednesday is weigh in day. How did I do? Last week I was at 220.60. Today the scale had me at 217.40. That’s a loss of 3.2 pounds. So much for leveling off, eh? Part of that is likely due to not hitting my food goal yesterday, especially given that over the last few weeks I haven’t just hit the 80 gram protein goal, I’ve been obliterating it. I’ve been topping 100 grams regularly, and often topping 110. The doctor said that’s fine. I’m 6’4″ tall. I’m half the man I used to be, but I’m still a big person. I can handle a little extra and still lose weight.

Dropping below 220 is the only milestone this week. My BMI went from 26.8 to 26.5. My weight loss since the surgery is now at an amazing 214 and the weight loss since the first check in is at an astounding 234.6. I’ve lost 17.2 more pounds than I currently am. It’s insane.

So that’s the latest on the weight loss. The next weigh in will be early this week. The monthly weigh in will be on Saturday. I am not expecting a lot, but hopefully I’ll creep down a little by then. We will see. I am having a bad day so far today. I have a stomach ache and I’m not sure why. It might be a case of being hungry and not really knowing what that feels like anymore. I have an hour to go before I break for lunch. Maybe I’ll have a small snack and see if I feel better.

Week 42 Weigh In

It’s Wednesday and Wednesday is Weigh In Day. My gastric bypass surgery happened 42 weeks ago today. What’s the latest news? We’ll, I’ll tell ya.

It feels like things might be leveling off. I am still down this week, but for the second week in a row the loss isn’t that different than what I was seeing years ago when I was on Weight Watchers, or WW as it’s now known. About a pound a week. In the old days the hope was half a pound each week. Last week I was down 1.8 pounds. This week it’s 1.4. So better than the WW days, but not that much better. I have mentioned a few times this week that I have been eating a lot more since my mother went into the hospital at the end of January. I am trying to cut back a little but results have been slightly less than successful.

So I am down 1.4 pounds. I haven’t broken 220, but I am right on the edge. The scale read 220.6 this morning. So close. Hopefully next week that 10’s column will flip. There were milestones elsewhere though. My BMI went from 27 to 26.8, inching closer to the magical 25. My weight lost since the surgery flipped the 10’s column and hit 210.8. The total weight lost since the first weigh in flipped the 10’s column last week and now stands at 231.4. I suspect it will be a while before I flip the 10’s columns on the totals again. We’ll see. I have an appointment with my surgeon next week so I will be sure to ask what comes next as far as leveling off is concerned.

So that’s the latest on the weight loss front. Now I just have to get my ass in gear on the RPM Challenge stuff. So much to do and almost no time left to do it. This weekend needs to be uber productive. Fingers crossed.

Week 41 Weigh In

I am pleasantly surprised and rather pleased. I mentioned before that I have been eating a lot more than usual. I’ve been eating things that aren’t necessarily good for me too. I’ve been handling it all okay for the most part, though the couple of ounces of peanuts I tried to eat last night gave me the worst bought of nausea I’ve experienced since the start of this whole thing.

I expected minimal weight loss at best, and realistically with all the stress eating and difficulties of the last week I expected to gain a little weight. I did not. I lost 1.8 pounds, which under the circumstances feels like a ton. I now weight 222 even. My BMI dropped 0.2 points to 27 even. I’m inching closer to that mythical, magical 25 mark. My weight loss since the surgery is now at 209.4, and my weight loss since the first check in moved the 10’s column and reached 230.4.

At the wake Monday night I lost track of the number of times someone came through the receiving line and didn’t recognize me. While it was life affirming every single time, I also got a little tired of it. I get it, I am thinner. Can we focus on the topic at hand please? I don’t know. I felt guilty about feeling good about my health while my mother was 10 feet away in a casket.

On an unrelated note, I am watching the last few minutes of The Mandalorian season two, episode six. I just watched Boba Fett kick the crap out of a drop ship full of stormtroopers. If only the Book of Boba Fett season had followed suit. Oh well. I think I am going to include that show in my Mandalorian pre-season three prep binge anyway. It was good, it just wasn’t great. Except for the episodes with Mando and Baby Yoda, of course. Those episodes were stellar.

On another unrelated note, I took today off to recover from the wake and the funeral. It might be the best move I’ve ever made, career wise. I need a decompression day. Jen is working though so I am not going to play guitar through an amp all day. I am going to play guitar through an amp sim though. I have eight songs to put rhythm guitars on before I sleep tonight. I will get The RPM Challenge on track today, even if it kills me.

Hungry

The last few days have been weird, weight loss surgery wise. I assume it’s stress over the upcoming services for my mother, or something along those lines at least, but I could be wrong. I’ve been hungry. A lot. Like, all the time. I’m not going too far overboard, but I am snacking between meals way more than normal and the meals themselves have been much larger than usual. When I say “much larger” what I really mean is instead of 4-5 ounces at a time I’m like 5-6 ounces. When I say I’m snacking I mean 1-2 ounces of peanuts or two little sugar free pudding cups instead of one. I stepped on the scale this morning out of fear that I was screwing things up and I was down a little since Wednesday. Not much, just a little. So I don’t appear to be ruining previous progress but… what the hell, Robert?

On a weight loss related note, I am finding myself oddly aware of my physical structure. I have bones I didn’t know I had. There’s one in my chest that I first became aware of a few months after the surgery and I thought it was a growth or a tumor or something. I told the doctor. She checked it out. No, nothing to worry about. That’s just your sternum. Duh. Now it’s my rib cage and my shoulders. I can actually feel the space between my ribs. I have no padding on my shoulders anymore so when I played my guitar the other day it actually hurt.

I added a new discovery to the list last night. I haven’t shaved in a couple of weeks. That’s going to change later today, but I was sort of rubbing the stubble on my neck and I felt something. Apparently Robert, your humble narrator, has an adam’s apple. I mean, I always assumed it was there but I never actually found any evidence to support the assumption. Now I can feel it.

Who knew, right?

Now if I could just shake what my mother used to call “the hungry horrors” and start eating better again. That would be aces.

As I type this I am watching season one episode three of The Mandalorian. The tribe of Mandalorians just came out of the covert to help Din Djarin and Grogu (we don’t actually know their names yet) escape the guild. Absolutely epic.

Getting Through the Prep Work

My brother and sister and I met last night to work on the planning for the funeral. We picked music and readings and started asking cousins to play the various parts. We have one reader but still need one more. We have three pall bearers but still need three more. We have offers out for the remaining parts and are just waiting to hear back.

Jen and I were a little late getting out of the house. I called my father to let him know we’d be late for the planned suit fitting and he said he was tired and asked if we could reschedule to tomorrow, which is now today. I put in for a couple of hours at the end of the day so that we can head over earlier. Jen is off today so it should all work out. That still gives us the weekend to replace anything we bought that doesn’t fit him. We’re still in good shape.

I’ve been really hungry the last couple of days. My meals have gotten significantly larger and I’ve had more between meal snacks. I have to assume it’s an emotional thing. The good news is that yesterday I had actual food with every meal. I had protein supplements along with each meal, but that was just to make sure I hit my goal. Eggs for breakfast and chicken for lunch and dinner. I also had peanuts as snacks instead of protein bars. It wasn’t a lot of snack-level protein intake, but it felt pretty good to do it that way.

No music last night. Not sure if tonight will be any different. I am 2/5 of the way through Star Trek Picard season 1 episode 6 though. I’m more than 25% of the way through the two season rewatch with season three kicking off in six days. Probably not going to make it unless I do an alarmingly intense binge over the weekend. Of course The Mandalorian season three kicks off on March 1st. Can I follow the two season Picard rewatch with a 2+ season Mandalorian rewatch by 3/1? (2+ seasons due to the two episodes where The Mandalorian hijacked The Book of Boba Fett, right?)

Right then. Time to start getting ready for work. Talk to you later. Parents, tell your kids you love them. Kids, tell your parents you love them.

Week 40 Weigh In

Week 40? Are you serious? We’re only 12 weeks away from capping off the first year? How is that possible? How does time move so quickly without all of us falling down dizzy all the time?

I weighed myself this morning through a hale* of technological cock ups. Well, one technological cock up. The scale in the bedroom is Bluetooth and connects to my iPhone. It’s nice. The app on my phone calculates my BMI and updates the Health app so I don’t have to do either thing manually. When I got out of bed this morning I tapped my phone to wake it up and nothing… it was off. I tried to turn it on again and nothing… it was dead. I plugged it in and tried again and nothing… it was bricked. The fuck?

I stepped on the scale and started my day without my phone. Eventually Google gave me a tip for tricking it into restarting and it worked. She’s been A-Okay ever since. I haven’t updated the Health app though. I still need to do that, but I have updated my Google Spreadsheet and I have all the numbers I need.

There are numbers, but there aren’t a whole lot too them. I am down this week, but only 0.6 pounds. I will chalk that up to already having a mid-week weigh in on Saturday so it’s not a full week. Also, yesterday was Jen’s birthday and I hit the snacks a lot harder than usual while celebrating. I’m not concerned. 0.6 pounds is a positive step in my book. I’m happy.

On Saturday when I did the nine month weigh in I was at 224.4. Today I am at 223.8. I will take it. Gleefully. The total since the surgery is now 207.6 and the total since the start is 228.2. My BMI went from 27.3 to 27.2. Again, all good stuff. Not world rocking stuff, but good stuff. I am pleased.

The next weigh in will be February 15th. That’s the day after Valentines Day as well as the day after something painful that I haven’t mentioned yet but probably isn’t hard to figure out based on the last couple of weeks worth of posts. That event includes a luncheon but I doubt I will be willing or able to eat anything there. I’m likely going to have a full day of protein supplements instead of actual food on the 14th. We’ll see how the diet shakes out that day.

*Is that the correct usage of “hale”? Should it be “hail”?

ADDENDUM: It just dawned on me… I weigh 223.8 and I have lost 228.2 since 1/19/22. That means I have lost more weight than I actually weigh. Holy shit Snacks! I am literally half the man I used to be! Queue that Stone Temple Pilots song!

Nine Month Weigh In

I got to the hospice facility at around 10:00am on Friday morning and didn’t leave until after 8:00am on Saturday morning. I can’t take that again. I just can’t handle it. My body and my brain are starting to rebel against the idea.

Fortunately it did not affect today’s monthiversary weigh in. You know it. Today is February 4th, my step son’s 20th birthday and my nephew’s 12th birthday, so it’s time for the monthly weigh in. On Wednesday for the weekly I weighed 226.8 pounds. Today, just three days later, I weigh 224.4. A difference of 2.4 pounds in three days. Yikes.

Total weight lost since the surgery nine months ago, 207 pounds. Total weight lost since the first check in on January 19, 2022, 227.6 pounds. My BMI went from 27.6 to 27.3.

Initially after the surgery my weigh loss goal was to weigh less than 400 pounds. When I achieved that my goal became weigh less than 300 pounds. When I achieved that my goal became lose 200 pounds since surgery. When I achieved that… what? I guess the goal now is to enter what the folks in the bariatric surgery facebook groups call Onederland. That is drop below 200 pounds and enter the 100 pound universe. I still have a ways to go before I get there. After that the goal is going to be get my BMI below 25. That will hit at about 190 pounds.

I’m optimistic I can reach those lofty goals. Onederland, here I come.

Week 39 Weigh In

After last week’s huge weekly loss I was expecting to be up a little this week in a sort of universe-correcting-itself way. Nope. I am down. I’m not down a lot, but that’s sort of a universe correcting itself thing too. Last week I was 227.8. This week I am 226.8. A difference of one, beautiful, glorious pound. I will take it. A small loss is better than even the tiniest of gains, right?

My BMI went from 27.7 to 27.6. My weight lost since the surgery is now 204.6. My weight lost since the first weigh in is now 225.2. None of those numbers are milestones, but I have to say that for some reason that 225 looks like a really happy thing. I can live with that.

Given the chaos surrounding my mother’s situation right now I am not sure if I am going to be eating terribly healthy over the next few days at least. That could lead to a gain next week due to overdoing it, or another huge loss due to seriously under doing it. We’re going to have to wait and see.

Until then, I am going to enjoy this week’s single pound while it lasts.

Week 38 Weigh In

Well this one is going to be weird.

I’ve been sick for about three days. I haven’t been eating on a regular schedule, I haven’t been hitting all of my goals, I had two days without exercise, and I even missed my two doses of calcium yesterday. I woke up feeling okay this morning, which was a really nice change, and I expected to be down a little but I wasn’t hoping for much.

Way to read the room, Robert.

I was down A TON.

Last Wednesday’s weigh in was 235 pounds. Today was 227.8 pounds. A one week loss of 7.2 pounds. That is absurd. Utterly ridiculous. I expect to be up next week because 7.2 pounds is not normal or sustainable or good.

It is, from the tunnel vision point of view of weight loss, awesome though. Not because it’s a good thing, but because IT PUT ME OVER 200 POUNDS SINCE THE SURGERY! 203.6 pounds to be exact. YES YES YES YES YES!!!!!

Hitting 200 pounds since the first check in was amazing. Hitting 200 pounds since the surgery is so much better. I don’t know why that is, but it is. You’re just going to have to trust me on this one. TWO HUNDRED POUNDS SINCE SURGERY, BABIE!

So the 10’s column changed for my current weight, the hundreds column changed for loss since surgery, the 10’s column changed for total since first appointment, it’s now 224.2 pounds, and the BMI dropped almost a full point, from 28.6 to 27.7.

I mean… holy shit, boys and girls! Two hundred pounds in 38 weeks. I never even dreamed of this. Two hundred freakin’ pounds!