Tag: weight loss surgery

One Year Anniversary Weigh In

I think I may have mentioned that today is the first anniversary of my gastric bypass surgery. Have I dropped that factoid onto the blog yet today? I think I have.

To summarize the results of yesterday’s weigh in (again), my most recent goal was to get below 205 pounds because that would put my BMI below 25. A BMI of 25 and up means you are overweight. A BMI of less than 25 means you are at a normal weight. I haven’t been at a healthy weight at any moment during my adult life, and possibly at any moment in my entire life as a whole.

Last week’s weigh in (week 51) had me at 205.6 pounds. So very close to that overweight/healthy weight line. Yesterday’s weigh in (week 52) messed up that good vibe by coming in at 206.6. I joked in the post about maybe magically losing 1.7 pounds in one day and hitting that goal on my first anniversary. It really was a joke. I promise.

Guess what happened. Go on and guess.

I got up at a little before 6:00am and stepped on the scale. The number made me laugh. I stepped off, reset the scale to zero and stepped back on and got exactly the same result.

204.8. Down 1.8 pounds from yesterday. From yesterday. Ladies and gentlemen… for the first time in my adult life… and coincidently on the anniversary of my weight loss surgery… My BMI is below 25, implying that I am at a healthy weight.

How friggin’ hysterical is that? I joked about it yesterday and it actually happened today. Who writes this shit, right?

I have lost 226.6 pounds in the last year, and 247.2 pounds since the first weigh in on January 19, 2022. I can’t even believe it. My mind is blown. Totally.

So now what? I’ve tracked my weight pretty religiously every Wednesday and the 4th of every month for a full year. Can I stop now? I don’t know. Does the weekly weigh in count as part of my routine in such a way that I should keep doing it because I am a creature of habit and sticking to the routine has worked for me this far so I should do it? Should I stop the Wednesdays and just do the monthlies? I don’t know. I might wait until Wednesday morning before making a decision and just see what happens.

As far as goals are concerned, my general goal was just to feel healthier and not feel like I was dying 24 hours a day. That’s how I felt back in January of 2022 when this started. More specific goals didn’t really exist at first. I wanted to be under 400 pounds. I achieved that on May 16, 2022. That changed my goal to being under 300 pounds. I achieved that on September 21, 2022. I think it was in October or November when I publicly said my new goal was to have my BMI under 25, but I did the math wrong (like an idiot) and thought I had to get down to 190 pounds. The BMI goal superseded the sub 200 goal because the idea of hitting either one was so absurd that they didn’t seem realistic.

Now? I guess the goal is to stay below 205 pounds. Beyond that, hitting “Onederland” is the next pie in the sky goal. Onederland being what folks on the bariatric surgery Facebook groups call the magical moment when you drop below 200 pounds. I’m less than five pounds away, but it’s taken me months to get to 205 from the point where I first leveled off, around 216. It could take a while… or not. Who the hell knows?

For now though, let’s just focus on the happy anniversary of it all. 365 days and 220+ pounds. It’s so unbelievable I kinda want to throw up. This is beyond my wildest dreams. Thanks for hanging out with me and reading my stupid weight loss posts. I appreciate you coming along for the ride.

Patch Rabbit

One year ago today, my beloved wife Jennifer without whom I never would have been able to get through any of the challenges of the past year brought me a cute little stuffed bunny to keep me company on my overnight in the hospital. It was the same color as our cat Patches, and she named it Patch Rabbit.

Patch Rabbit sat with me through the entire month of recovery that followed the surgery, and since then she has been sitting on the window sill next to my desk in the cellar office. I just thought I should include my bunny friend in the anniversary celebration by using her for today’s photo-a-day challenge.

246/365
246/365

Before and After

Before (May 4, 2022):

After (May 4, 2023):

I still have the pair of jeans you see in the before photo. I might put them on and take a bonus mirror selfie, just for laughs. I mean, that is literally the reason I never got rid of those pants.

These pics are screen shots from one of two selfie-a-day apps I have been using. The plan was to take a selfie a day for the first year, then upgrade the apps to the paid versions and save off a video of all of the pictures. I will do that today and upload the videos here. I failed to take a shot a day. Failed miserably in fact. I think I have around 300 pics in both apps. We’ll see how they look.

In closing, when I typed the title of this post the song of the same name from the very first Rush album, released 49 years ago, popped into my head and I am hoping it will stay there for a while.

One Year

I can’t believe it’s been a year since I went under the knife.

My head is spinning a little today. In most fitting fashion, I woke up with a bit of a queasy stomach. Hopefully breakfast will clear that up. It’s just fitting, that’s all.

I weighed myself. I’ll share that later. It was really good. I’m also planning on a before and after selfie because why not, right? It’s been a year and I haven’t died of any weird complications. That’s worth celebrating, right?

May the 4th be with you, friends and neighbors. Maybe I’ll watch Empire Strikes Back while I exercise today. No, I’ll just continue the epic X Files binge. Maybe I’ll watch an episode of a Disney+ show. Andor maybe?

What a crazy day in this completely crazy new world.

Week 52 Weigh In

It is Wednesday today so it’s time for a weekly weigh in. After being way down last week I figured I would probably creep back up a smidge this week and sure enough I did.

Last week I was 205.6 and today I am 206.6, up one full pound. Oh well. I was hoping I would get below 205 by tomorrow’s one year anniversary but now that seems incredibly unlikely. I’m sure I will dip below 205 at some point, meaning my BMI will dip below 25 and I will go from being overweight to being normal weight. It’s a goal, but who said I had to get there in the first year. I mean, sure it would be nice but I’m not stressing over it.

Weight loss since surgery (approximate) is 224.8. Weight loss since the first weigh in is 245.4. Current BMI is 25.1. It was about 52.5 on the surgery date and 55 on the first weigh in date.

Tomorrow is the actual one year anniversary so I will step on the scale again and I will likely be up again. No worries. No complaints. I am so thankful that I’ve had this experience, even when it’s been painful and difficult. I’ll probably reiterate this tomorrow, but I could not have done this without the support and love of my amazing wife Jen. She’s my rock. She’s my heart and soul. I love her so much and I am so thankful for all she’s done for me through all of this insanity and upheaval. She’s incredible.

Who knows, maybe I’ll magically lose 1.7 pounds over night tonight. Stranger things have happened, right?

One Year Ago Today

Every now and then I use this blog to play “this day in history” by looking back at past posts from today’s date. I did that a few minutes ago and the posts from last year were all about the upcoming surgery. At midnight on May 3rd, 2022 I switched to a liquid diet for a day and then had to fast the following day so my stomach would be empty during the actual procedure.

My last meal was a glorious piece of chicken and a huge pile of quinoa. I posted a picture. It looked so freakin’ delicious.

It was my last supper. Everything since has been tiny and simple. The plate I dished out for myself on this date last year would feed me for days now.

I’ve had a few weird moments food wise recently. Jen and I were in a store on Saturday and they had candy next to the check out. I very nearly, impulsively, grabbed a bag of Reece’s Pieces. I couldn’t believe I almost did it. One year ago I would have and I never would have thought twice. I expected that after a year of this new lifestyle I wouldn’t be relapsing anymore like that. I guess I was wrong. Weird.

The anniversary is two days away. I wonder what will happen next?

Stuck

At 7:10pm I took a bite of chicken and either didn’t chew it enough or ate it too quickly and my stomach became very unhappy. It felt like it was stuck outside, waiting for the digestive doorman to let it into my stomach pouch thingie.

It’s 9:40, 2.5 hours later, and it still hasn’t cleared. The fuck, chicken?

At least I didn’t set the NHL record for wins in a season and then blow a three games to one lead and get bounced from the first round of the playoffs though, right? I’ve got that going for me.

Fuckin’ Bruins.

Choke

Friggin’ Bruins. One minute left in the third period and I was starting to think of what to write in the blog post when they snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, only to have the whole season get pissed down the drain. So much for me being cautiously optimistic. Choke. Epic choke. Not as bad as blowing the three games to none lead in 2010, but setting all of the standings records in the regular season and then blowing a three games to one lead in the first round is pretty friggin’ close.

Changing the subject to health news, because of my total schedule screw up combined with all of my stomach problems last week I ended up taking off six straight days from exercise. I am writing this post right now as I procrastinate over starting this morning’s jog (yog). I’m also on a steady streak of having stomach problems every other night. Last night I slept through the night. The night before I woke up with stomach pain. The night before slept fine. The night before woke up twice with stomach pain. Ect, ect. Here’s hoping getting back into the exercise stuff will straighten all of that out, somehow. Magically. Maybe?

One final note. I took out some trash last night and while I was out there (during a lull in the pouring rain) I checked on one of the bird houses and there was something there! There was a twig sticking out of the opening! This morning I took a look through the window and there was a bird perched outside of it! One of our bird houses appears to have a tenant! WOOHOO!

That doesn’t make up for the epic choke though. Epic friggin’ choke.

Twice Over Night

My last post was me saying a stomach ache woke me up around 1:30am and having a small snack made me feel better so that I could go back to bed. Truth. I didn’t get to sleep until about 2:30, but that had more to do with playing with cats than stomach issues.

No, the stomach didn’t become a thing again until about 4:30 when the second stomach ache woke me up. Ugh. Same deal. I went out to the living room so I wouldn’t disturb my beautiful bride’s sleep (though she did wake up with me the first time around. Sorry, my love) and had another small protein snack. It didn’t fix me quite as clearly as the first one did, but I did feel a lot better, and I was 14 grams into my 80 gram goal before the sun came up.

I missed both my liquid and protein goals yesterday. I missed them both three times this week. Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Not good. I was trying to cap off the liquid last night, and I was only eight ounces away. I was down to 12 ounces left in the water bottle I was drinking from. I wanted to finish the bottle, wait 15 minutes, and then have a protein bar to put me over the 80 grams of protein for the day. Unfortunately, by 10:00 or so I was having trouble drinking. My body just didn’t want to do it anymore. On top of that, I was dead tired and couldn’t stay awake. I called it a night and gave up.

That means I hadn’t had anything to eat after dinner, which was probably why my stomach was empty enough to hurt so much when I woke up the first time, and the one small thing I ate wasn’t enough to hold me over until morning. So I guess maybe the solution to the problem is to actually make sure I eat too much before bed? That seems counter intuitive. I was actually worried about how much I was eating after dinner/before bed over the last couple of months. Based on the past week, maybe I had nothing to worry about. We’ll see how it goes tonight.

Once I got up and started my day today I tried to get some liquid in, like I always do at the start of the day, but it was still weird. I was having the same problem I had before bed last night. My body just doesn’t want to drink anything. Does that have anything to do with the mostly empty stomach? There was a mild stomach ache that kicked in after I took a few sips, but nothing near as bad as last night. I just didn’t want to drink anything. It took me almost two hours to get through the last 12 ounces from last night. Once I did, I waited the required 15 minutes and then had some actual, real, non-protein bar food. I feel a little better after that.

So in summation, this week has been pretty bad stomach/food/drink wise. I am hoping I have it all figured out, and not having to drive to Foxborough and back each day will get me back to my sort of normal routine. Wish me luck kids.

I asked chatgpt to write a one page essay on dealing with the side effects of gastric bypass surgery. What did it come up with?

Gastric bypass surgery is a weight loss surgery that has become increasingly popular over the years. It is a highly effective way of helping individuals who are struggling with obesity to lose weight and improve their overall health. However, like any other surgery, gastric bypass surgery also comes with its side effects.

One of the most common side effects of gastric bypass surgery is nausea and vomiting. This is usually experienced by patients during the first few days or weeks after surgery. It can be caused by the body’s adjustment to the reduced food intake or by the changes made to the digestive system during the surgery. To manage this side effect, patients are advised to take their time when eating, take smaller bites, and chew their food thoroughly. They may also be given medication to help alleviate nausea.

Another common side effect of gastric bypass surgery is dumping syndrome. This occurs when food moves too quickly from the stomach to the small intestine, causing symptoms such as abdominal cramps, diarrhea, and dizziness. Patients can manage this side effect by avoiding foods that are high in sugar or fat, eating smaller and more frequent meals, and avoiding drinking liquids with meals.

Some patients may also experience hair loss, which is usually temporary and can be attributed to the body’s nutritional changes following surgery. To manage this, patients are advised to take supplements such as biotin and to consume a protein-rich diet.

In addition, gastric bypass surgery can increase the risk of developing nutritional deficiencies, particularly in vitamins and minerals such as iron, calcium, and vitamin D. To avoid this, patients are advised to take supplements as prescribed by their doctor and to follow a balanced and nutritious diet.

Overall, gastric bypass surgery can be a life-changing procedure for individuals struggling with obesity. However, it is important to understand and manage the potential side effects to ensure a successful and healthy recovery. Patients should work closely with their medical team to monitor their progress and address any concerns they may have.