Tag: gastric bypass

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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Harry is Home

Harry is home and it’s glorious!

Not sure what we have on the agenda today. Jen and Harry are going to go shopping for desserts for tomorrow’s mini-thanksgiving. I am going to make short visits to both parents. Also, in film camera news, there are train tracks running behind the rehab facility that Dad is currently visiting and I have black and white film in the camera… cliche, anyone?

I did 30 minutes of faux running today already. My sort of plan these days is 45 minutes on weekdays and 30 on weekends to give my feet a little bit of a break. I haven’t closed my calorie/move ring, but it’s 2/3 closed. I’ll close it today, no sweat.

What else? I want to play some guitar today, but I want to hang around doin’ nuttin’ with Harry and Jen more so… National Solo Album Month may be dying on the vine this year. I might try to get up stupidly early this week and spend an hour or so recording using DI and amp sims rather than my Deluxe Reverb. That feels like cheating after all these years of only using a real amp, but what can you do.

I mentioned yesterday that I had a really bad time with lunch. The same thing happened with dinner. I dished out a little less than four ounces of food, took 2-3 bites, and hit the pain/nausea failure point. I ended up pausing dinner for an hour or so and then I was okay. I was nervous about breakfast today after two bad experiences in a row, but I am almost finished an I feel okay. Here’s hoping lunch and dinner go okay too.

All right, kids. Time to go get my shit together and go visit a couple of parents. We’ll talk later, m’kay? M’kay.

Socials

I mentioned yesterday that I signed up to be a beta tester for Bluesky social. I also said I was pretty much done with social networks but I forgot about Instagram, which I use pretty regularly these days. I guess it just doesn’t register that way for me. I guess.

Today I Googled “twitter alternatives” because I feel kinda gross using an Elon Musk owned product. I signed up for two of them. Mastodon and I haven’t really connected yet. Counter Social and I pretty much have. Like the twit-ter, my user name is RobJ_. Maybe I will be able to automagically cross post from here to there? We’ll have to see.

One more item of note from this evening… I am trying Buffalo Wings for dinner. Well… one Buffalo Wing. The one piece weighs three ounces, and that’s all I can handle tonight. So far so good. I had to Google whether there is sugar in Buffalo sauce or not. According to the couple of links I checked, the answer is no. I should be safe. I just need to take my time.

I probably shouldn’t write a blog post while eating something new… oh well.

Enjoy your dinner, folks!

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.

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!

Milestone Achieved

Last night, as expected, I achieved another post-weight loss surgery milestone.

I ate pasta.

Oh the glory! I only ate a tiny bit. 1.5 ounces to be exact. There was a little red sauce and about four ounces of meatballs as well. Protein, dontchaknow. No stomach issues. No nausea. No anything but happiness. Tiny amounts of pasta are back on the menu, boys!

In today’s episode of That Pedal Show, which was almost exactly the length of time I needed for my morning walkies, Dan buys a new Telecaster and gets it refretted, rewired, and has a pickup respun.

Oh, has that lit me up or what. Both of my 70’s Gibsons needs to be refretted, one needs to be rewired, and one is in line to get new pickups. I want to sell my USA Stratocaster to pay for some, if not all, of this work but I’ve been afraid to actually list the guitar anywhere. After watching today’s show… the guitar might go up for sale this weekend. We’ll have to see. There’s a distinct possibility that today’s photo-a-day submission might be for-sale pics of the Strat. I am equal parts excited about this and really scared to do it. I honestly have no clue how much I should ask for.

Speaking of this coming weekend (eight hours and 11 minutes to go!), the agenda includes hanging new curtains in the living room and getting a flu shot and the new Covid booster. I expect to be wiped out for at least some of the weekend. We’re trying to arrange things so that the worst of the vaccine push back will happen over night while we’re sleeping… or at least trying to sleep. I’ll let you know how that goes. My first three shots didn’t really affect me. The fourth did. It wasn’t terrible, but I definitely felt ill the next day. Fingers crossed.

Happy Five Months

Today is October 4th. Five months ago today I had gastric bypass surgery. In honor of the monthaversary, let’s weigh in. Yes, weigh ins are supposed to be Wednesdays and today is Tuesday, but the 4th of the month is a special occasion, right?

My weigh in last week was good but a little underwhelming. I lost 1.6 pounds. This week is a little more like it. Five pounds exactly. From 295.8 to 290.8, Sooooo very close to flipping that 10’s digit. Yesterday I said I might skip this week’s Wednesday weigh in. Now that I know I am less than a pound away from the 280’s, I might actually do it. You know, just in case.

The 10’s column did flip on the totals. My total weight loss since the surgery is now 140.6 pounds. My total weight loss since the first appointment back in January is now 161.2. Sweet Christmas, that’s a lot of weight. I’ve lost the equivalent of an adult human. I googled “weight loss equivalence” and found two sites that compare your weight loss total to something relatable. Neither had a value for 160. They both had the same value for 150 that wasn’t all that relatable. They both said the complete Oxford English Dictionary. Eh. One of them had an entry for 185 that was Hugh Jackman. I guess I have a goal now. It also had an entry for 235 that was Arnold Schwarzenegger. Again, goals.

This morning before work I did my daily walkies. I watched last Friday’s episode of The Rings of Power. I was planning on going the equivalent of 3.2 miles (about five kilometers). I was so into the show that I wasn’t paying attention to the data on my watch and I was over 3.8 miles before I realized I could stop. I thought about pushing it up to four miles, but I think that would have stretched a little beyond 9:00am so I stopped. Maybe we’ll do that tomorrow. Maybe going a little extra today will shave off that 0.9 pounds and get me into the 280’s by tomorrow. Who knows. I just feel silly with this whole thing now. Hugh Jackman, here I come.

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

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.

I Gave In to The Facebook

I had a rough afternoon today. My stomach was feeling off all day and when it came time for lunch it went bad. Not to get into TMI territory, but there was a small amount of vomit involved. I was trying to have three ounces of turkey and I only got through 1.7 ounces. I did much better with dinner. Jen made beef stew and it smelled so good. I needed to get over whatever was wrong so that I could have some and fortunately I did. It was delicious.

Before dinner though I did something I don’t want to do anymore. I spent a little time on the Facebook. I got today’s Wordle in two tries. If I get it in three tires I post it to Twitter. If I get it in two I post it to the Facebook. So I logged on and posted my success story. Then I checked notifications. Then I joined a couple of Nikon camera groups. Then I vented my food frustrations on a Bariatric Surgery group. Then I perused my timeline a little. Then I came to my senses.

I went to the Nikon groups to ask for suggestions on what the next camera should be. I went to the surgery group to say that my stomach revolted but that I will get through it. I also saw someone who was afraid that he weighed too much and let him know that when I started I weighed even more. I don’t know if it helped at all, but I hope it did. Hell, I’ve lost 140 pounds. If my dumb ass can do it then his can too.

So I cheated on my Facebook ban. Sorry about that. I’ll do better. I just had a tough day but I’m better now.