Category: weight loss surgery

We Didn’t Win

The bad news is we didn’t win 1.2 billion dollars in the Powerball lottery last night. The good news is no one else did either. I guess we just have to wait until Saturday for all of our financial fantasies to start coming true. That’s fine with me.

I weighed in yesterday morning, as usual for Wednesdays. I said I was going to weigh in on Friday (tomorrow) as well, as usually for the 4th of each month. Why then did I weigh in today as well?

Jen has this really cool Bluetooth enabled scale. She steps on the scale and it sends the result to an app on her iPhone, which then calculates a bunch of values including BMI, and then updates the Apple Health app. When all of this surgical fun started I had to buy a second scale because the groovy Bluetooth scale didn’t read anything above 350 pounds and I was over 450. I bought a scale that went up to 500 and I’ve used it ever since. Yesterday after I stepped on my scale, Jen asked me why I am not using the groovy Bluetooth scale. I didn’t have an answer.

Last night before bed I setup the app on my iPhone and used Jen’s scale for the first time. It told me I was up 0.8 pounds. Nope. No thank you. This morning when I woke up I stepped on the scale right away, which is how I do things on Wednesdays. It had me down 0.4 from my official weigh in yesterday. That’s better. From this point on, I am using the groovy Bluetooth scale. Tomorrow I will step on the scale again to celebrate the monthiversary and I will use that number to update my spreadsheet. Today’s number will not go on the spreadsheet. Today’s number is unofficial. This is the way. I have spoken.

While doing my morning trotting in place today I finished the forth and final Pierce Brosnan Bond movie, Die Another Day. It’s not awful, but it did feel a little too… Austin Powers-ish for comfort. The good news is, the next movie in line is Casino Royale, and that’s the single best non-Sean Connery Bond movie that exists. I’ll start that one at some point tonight and hopefully finish it in the morning. The Daniel Craig era is imminent.

My father is in the hospital. He went to the ER yesterday and was admitted last night. I don’t have any news. I’m seriously worried about him even though the rational part of me knows he’s going to be fine. My brother and sister were with him yesterday and will be with him today. If he’s still in the hospital tomorrow I’ll take over. I just let my boss know that I might need to be out. I should be all set. Now I just need some news, and I need to stop worrying.

For now though, back to work with you!

Week 26 Weigh In

For the second week in a row I was worried that my great big increase in my protein goal which resulted in a great big increase in food intake would lead to an underwhelming loss this week, or maybe even a gain. I was seriously nervy when I stepped on the scale this morning.

Nope, I lost almost as much this week as last week. I am down 4.6 pounds, which brings me to 273.4. Epic.

No weight loss milestones this week, but I’m nearly in position to hit a few next week, assuming this pace continues. Total weight loss since surgery is now 158 pounds exactly. Total weight loss since the first check in at the clinic is now 178.6. My BMI has dropped from 33.8 last week to 33.3 today.

I guess my change in exercise helped out this week. I have gone from ~45 minutes of walking, or a walk/jog hybrid, to jogging in place for ~40 minutes. For the second day in a row my exercise and calorie goals (as set on my Apple Watch, not by a doctor) were both closed before I started my work day. That’s ridiculous.

This is just me speculating right now, it’s not anything like a goal or anything. We are scheduled to leave for Disney World on January 4th. I am 21.4 pounds away from hitting the 200 mark since the first weigh in. Am I going to be able to hit 200 pounds by Disney? I’m exactly 42 pounds away from 200 since the surgery. I don’t see that happening, but the trip starts 10 weeks from today. If I average four pounds a week… it maybe could happen. Holy shit!

The next weigh in will be the six month weigh in on Friday 11/4. I don’t expect to be down four pounds again, but if I am down anything at all, 0.01 pounds even, then I will consider it a successful two days. Maybe I’ll do an extra 40 minute run tonight, just for fun. Or more accurately, just for “fun”.

Down the Tubes Day

I overslept a bit and threw off my schedule for my day off today. Then, as I was trying to get back on track, my scrambled eggs breakfast disagreed with my stomach and threw me off more.

I am punting on the haircut, and probably the guitar playing too. Early voting, grocery shopping, and pumpkin carving are still on the table. Some Bond movie silliness too. I don’t know if Moonraker is the worst Bond movie, but it’s sure the dumbest so far.

Okay, time to see if I can get through those scrambled eggs in one piece. Wish me and my rebuilt digestive system luck.

Week 25 Weigh In

Was this morning’s weigh in good?

Oh yeah, this morning’s weigh in was good.

I’ve been doing this for almost six months and I am still losing weight like crazy. Today gave me another five pounds. Five. Pounds.

Milestones galore, babie. The 10’s columns all changed. Like… all of them. I went from 283 pounds to 278 pounds. I weigh less than 280 pounds for the first time since… infancy? Something like that. Seems that way, at least. The amount lost since the surgery has topped 150 pounds, coming in at 153.4. The total lost since January has topped a colossal 170 pounds, reaching exactly 174 pounds.

One hundred seventy-four pounds. My brain might literally explode. That would increase the total weight loss by about three pounds, but I don’t think I want to lose those particular pounds.

My BMI has dropped from 34.4 to 33.8. That means I am 3.8 away from not being obese anymore. Wouldn’t that be nice?

I thought that having a week or so where I am trying to increase my daily protein intake by 20 grams a day might have some effect on my weight loss for the week, but nope. Things went well this week. I am pretty stoked. I have to admit that I did step on the scale once over the weekend. I really wanted to see if I went below 280. I was at 280.4 or something like that. I didn’t mark it down, but I did break my only-weigh-myself-once-a-week pledge. I figured it was okay. I just don’t want to make a habit out of it, you know?

Happy week 25. Next Wednesday marks week 26, and two days later will mark Six months. Should I weigh in on both days? Should I only mark the month? Should I not mark the month and only mark the week? We’ll see.

Busy Morning

Lots of meetings this morning. Busy busy. Lots of projects. Busy busy.

I have a day off on Thursday. A use it or lose it vacation time kinda thing. I just need to get there. It’s gonna be tough. I have a lot of things on my to do list for that day. A haircut*, early voting**, guitar playing***, maybe some photo walk stuff around town****. Stuff like that. There is also Bond movies. They are leaving Amazon Prime Video in 10 days and I am still only half way through Diamonds are Forever. I am half a movie away from Roger Moore.

Okay, breakfast is almost done, I’ve plowed through last night’s email. Let’s get crackin’ for really reals now. Have a good Tuesday, everyone.

*A side effect of weight loss surgery is hair loss. They told me it starts between three and six months (I’m nearly at six months) and it lasts for 3-4 months (it started about two months ago). Fortunately it will grow back… in theory. I am 51 years old. Maybe it’s just my time. I mean my hair hasn’t gone grey yet, which is miraculous in itself. Maybe my run of good hair luck is coming to an end. For now though, I have been too afraid of losing it to get it cut and it’s long enough to actually look long in the back and it hangs in my eyes. It’s time. It’s time to get it cut.

One other note, when I was a little little pre-school kid my hair was super curly. Somehow as it started to fall out it has also started to get a little curly again. How weird is that?

**I am pretty sure Methuen’s early voting is open on Thursday, I just don’t know where or what time. I think it’s at city hall this time, but I need to figure that out.

***Jen is scheduled to go into the office that day so I should be able to make noise without bothering her.

****I said no film until November but… maybe?

Another Bad Dinner

I got about a third of the way through my tiny main course tonight and my stomach started feeling like some bad times were coming. I stopped eating in the hopes that I could avoid it. After about 30 minutes I tried another bite and it was the same. Okay, dinner is over.

I am drastically under both my protein and liquid goals. I was thinking I would have a protein shake to help catch up on both fronts so I waited an hour after my last bite. Unfortunately my blender was in the dishwasher, dirty. I could mix the shake another way, but it’s just not that good unless I blend the holy hell our of it. Now I am having a protein bar that I haven’t tried before. Experimenting, you know? Does it taste good? Nope.

Just winning left and right tonight, aren’t I. Ugh.

On the upside, the Bruins won, the Riverhawks won, the Yankees lost, and the Padres are winning. Good night for sports around here.

How about windows? Not the computer kind, but the kind you look through. We’re getting a bunch of new ones. We have a few windows in the house that open via cranks and they are all falling apart. The cranks, not the windows themselves. Jen made an appointment with the folks at Anderson and their rep came today and inspected our situation and ended up selling us a bunch of new windows, including a replacement for our big bay window in the living room. It’s going to be six months or so before they come and install everything, but i can’t wait to see the results.

The Bond rewatch continues. I’m halfway through Goldfinger. I know the last time I said From Russia with Love was my favorite, and I stand by that statement, but you can’t deny that Goldfinger is the best. It’s just the perfect Bond movie. I desperately want that Aston Martin DB5. Best car ever.

Okay, I finished the protein bar. In 30 minutes or so I will have a high protein snack, and that should take care of the 80 gram goal. Then I will have to drink as much water as I can handle before bed. I think it’s going to be a tough night.

Tomorrow I try to replace the dryer’s exhaust vent. Wish me luck.

Really Bad Day

When it comes to food and eating food, the last 24 hours have been seriously shitty.

Dinner last night made me sick. Breakfast today was okay but both lunch and dinner made me sick. I’m thinking of going full liquid diet tomorrow just to give myself a break. I need to go grocery shopping tonight but I’m really nauseous right now. It will pass, it always does, but what the hell, bro?

Nope

I tried to goad myself into playing the guitar at lunch today. I even took a picture for the photo a day thing.

Nope. I had a bad reaction to a piece of chicken instead. I guess it was just too big of a bite. It took me three hours to get through 4.4 oz of chicken, but one hour of that was just dealing with stomach pain and nausea and another hour was spent in a meeting at work. You know how it is.

51/365
51/365

Speaking of problems eating that stem from my gastric bypass surgery, the organization that determines the rules for qualifying for weight loss surgery has just rewritten those rules. They lowered the BMI requirement from 35 to 30. According to that I still qualify. My BMI is 34.4 even after losing 169 pounds. Can they bypass more of my stomach? WOOHOO!

Week 24 Weigh In

At my check in yesterday it was suggested that my daily protein goal should not be 60 grams, it should be 80. Ironically, on Monday night I actually hit 80 grams without trying. Last night I needed to push it a little to get there, but I did. That plus the scale at the clinic being much higher than last week’s weigh in had me nervous. Would week 24 be the first week that did not show a weight loss? Might the increased diet lead me to actually gaining weight this week?

Nope.

Today’s weigh in is down 4.2 pounds. Sigh of relief. My current weight is 283 pounds on the dot. My doctor asked me yesterday if I have a goal. I said my first goal was to get below 400 pounds. Then when I did that my goal became getting under 300 pounds. I’ve done that too. Now? I think it might be BMI related (down from 35 to 34.4 this week). In order to get to a healthy BMI I need to drop to about 190 pounds. I think that might be the goal. I have less than 100 pounds to go. The losses are going to level out at some point. The doctor suggested it’s probably already started. Getting to 190 is going to be harder than getting below 300 was, but it’s something to shoot for.

Speaking of BMI, I had a moment of duh last week. Somehow I got it into my head that the point that separates “overweight” from “obese” was a BMI value of 35. I was really excited to be able to say that I was no longer obese. Nope. Duh. The border between the two labels is actually 30, not 35. We’ll get there.

No milestones this week as far as the totals are concerned. My weight loss since surgery is 148.4 and the total since the first office visit is 169. If I do well this coming week we could have a lot of 10’s column changes next Wednesday. Milestones galore.

The Waiting Room

You should listen to the Genesis song called The Waiting Room while you read this post. Actually, maybe you shouldn’t. It’s an atonal noise-fest and it might scare you off. Listen to Firth of Fifth instead. It’s not related at all, it’s just magic.

My weight on the scale here was 291.6. About four pounds higher than last week’s weigh in at home. I blame my shoes and my wallet and my keys and my phone. Yup. They also said my blood pressure was a smidge low. We will have to keep an eye on that, I think.