Tag: weight loss surgery

Spider Hunt

Spiders in the cellar: 0
Robert: 3

Our cellar is, traditionally, the spider kingdom of North America. This isn’t our house, it’s theirs and they just let us stay.

Yesterday, while doing my morning walking-in-place-thing, I started to fight back. There were some serious webs in the ceiling in between the joists. I grabbed a towel and removed them. Forced relocation, if you will. Today, while doing my morning walking-in-place-thing, I found three spiders trying to rebuild along the wall next to one of the floor lamps. I went on the spider hunt, without breaking my walking-in-place-thing stride (though my watch did register it as a drastic slowing of the pace) I grabbed some Kleenex and terminated the arachnids with extreme prejudice. I went all Rambo on their eight legged asses.

Good night, sweet spiders. May you rest in creepy, squished, peace.

Thoughts on this week’s weigh in. Hmmm…

Two weeks ago I weighed in two days early, on Monday instead of Wednesday. Last week I weighed in one day early, on Tuesday instead of Wednesday. This week I am on track to weigh in on Wednesday, the way the universe wants me to.

But…

I think I might wait until Thursday and weigh in one day late. Why? Because Thursday is August 4th, the third monthiversary* of the surgery. I think it would make sense to wait an extra day and celebrate the month rather than go on Wednesday and celebrate the week (the 13th week, to be exact).

Now while that does seem like a good idea, I don’t know if the curiosity is going to let me wait an extra day. We will have to see what tomorrow morning brings. As of right now though, the weigh in will be on Thursday.

*I just want to acknowledge that my browser’s spell check no longer views monthiversary as a spelling error. I have taught you well, young spell checking Padawan.

Huh… it doesn’t flag Padawan as a spelling error either. Oh how the Star Wars have taken over our popular culture. Finally!

Nutritionist Day

I have an appointment with the Nutritionist today. Not exactly sure what we’re going to talk about. Can I eat green veggies at will now? Can I eat bread yet? Should I change up my meal planning? Are there any more restrictions to think about? How’s my exercise routine working out? Should I start counting calories? All sorts of things like that.

I am working a half day. If the appointment ends early I might have some time for errands. I need to pick up a small order at the store I call Tall and Fat, I need to drop off a bag full of clothes for donation, I need to stop at the post office, stuff like that.

(Pause while I remove a small spider from the ecosystem)

I still have to put together the weight bench we bought a couple of weeks ago, along with a box of free weights. I’ve never been into lifting weights before so I am not sure what I should do with all of this stuff. Youtube will probably help me out.

Last night we watched the first episode of Stranger Things 4. I got some real Evil Dead 2 vibes and I am all for it. We also saw Thor: Love and Thunder in our first trip to a movie theater since the pandemic started. There were only four or five groups in the theater and we were all spread out. The only health issue we had was with Harry’s insulin pump, but that worked out fine and wasn’t really a problem.

The movie was good. It wasn’t as good as Thor: Ragnarok, but it was good. The laughs were genuine, the action was cool. My only beef was that it moved too fast. They cut it down to two hours, but it felt like another 30-40 minutes would have improved the story.

Okay then. Wish me luck on the Nutritionist appointment. Fingers crossed for low-fat Ritz crackers and quinoa, though not at the same time.

12 Weeks

My Gastric Bypass surgery was 12 weeks ago today. I still feel great. I still weigh a ton, but it’s about half a ton less than it was 12 weeks ago. I will take that.

I am still eating tiny meals. Weirdly, over the last couple of days I have found myself feeling hungry after these tiny meals. That hasn’t really happened before. Is that a part of the recovery process? Is that my brain revolting? I don’t know. I have an appointment with the nutritionist tomorrow. I will likely bring up that topic then.

My clothes are all way to big for me now, even the clothes I’ve bought post-surgery. That’s a new experience for me. I’m still doing at least 30 minutes of exercise each day, and I am still doing a full 30 minutes in one shot. Most days I am doing more like 45-60 minutes of exercise. I do the 30 minute walk in the morning and then ride the bike for 15 minutes at lunch. Not every day, but when I can fit it into the schedule. I’m also trotting up and down the cellar stairs all day long and that adds to the fun. In other words, my energy level is kinda through the roof. I’m pretty curious how that will continue to change if I continue to lose weight at this rate. Will I be training for the marathon 12 weeks from now? Could be.

I still screw up now and then. Not often, but there have been a couple of nausea events. Nothing world rocking, but definitely unpleasant. I am often taking too much food in each bite (including the bite of scrambled eggs that I just shoveled into my maw before typing this sentence). I am still probably going too fast, though I still keep a stop-watch running to force myself to wait 30 seconds between bites. I have drastically cut down on the amount of puree/soft foods I’ve been eating, but there are still some things in the diet (see the scrambled eggs reference above). Mostly I am eating real food now. Still almost all protein, but I’ve snuck some fruits and veggies in here and there. I need to do more of that, but I also need to check in with the nutritionist tomorrow before I go too crazy.

Still no bread/rice/crackers/pasta/quinoa. Jen had some French bread with dinner a couple of nights ago and I was so jealous. Maybe that restraint will be removed tomorrow? Will Wednesdays become Prince Spaghetti day again? Here’s hoping.

Happy 12 weeks, everyone. Here’s to a successful week 13. I’ll let you know.

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.

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.

Come Home Already

I made it home from the office pretty easily. There was a little traffic jam in Waltham, but nothing too bad. It took me about an hour to get home.

I had dinner. 4.6 oz of roast beef. After 2.6 ounces I stopped. I’m not sure why. I was still hungry, I wasn’t feeling any nausea, it tasted good. I just needed to stop. I had a little sugar free pudding to try and fill my tiny new stomach, but I’m still a little hungry. I am not sure what happened. We’ll keep an eye out for any future occurances.

Bellana went to her dad’s house for a bit this evening. We are waiting for her to come home so we can watch the 1st season finale of Stranger Things. Bellana has seen all of season four so far. I was going to start watching it over the weekend, but Jen had never seen any of it and Bellana talked her into giving it a try. So Jen and I are watching it together. We burned through the first seven episodes in two sittings. I think my beautiful bride might be enjoying the show.

Okay, Bellana is almost home. Time to watch some tube.

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.

Another Week Down

The pill caddy has been filled once again. If you could only see the fascinated looks on all of your faces. Gold! Another week down with only the rest of my life left to go.

DSC_0003
One prescription anti-acid and four separate vitamin supplements.