Tag: weight loss surgery

Positive Progress

Happy Weigh In Wednesday, boys and girls! I woke up, earned myself a stand hour on the activity app, and stepped on the scale. I lost 5.2 pounds in the last week. Excellent. As my meals have been getting steadily bigger I have been expecting a big drop off in the weight loss pace, but nope. Five pounds is awesome.

There aren’t any milestones this week. Usually there’s at least one area where the 10’s column changes, but not this time. The 10’s column in my weight, my weight lost since the surgery, my weight lost since the first appointment, and my BMI are all the same as last week. If this coming week is good they might all change at next Wednesday’s weigh in. That would be pretty epic.

There is actually one thing to note this week. There are two weigh ins from the long distant past that have been sort of sticking in my head. First, my weight on my wedding day in 2009. Second, my weight at the physical I had in order to go back to UMass Lowell in 2000. I can’t remember the wedding weight. It was either X, or X-25. I’m pretty sure it was X-25, but I am positive that the weight at that physical was X-25 so maybe I am just getting confused.

Here’s the thing, my current weight is X-27. That means all speculation can now end. I am without question at a lower weight than I was at our wedding. That is amazing. I am also at a lower weight than when I started back at UMass Lowell. That is unbelievable. I never thought I’d get to this point again. That physical happened in August of 2000. Almost exactly 22 years ago. How is that even possible? I am lighter today than I was 22 years ago today. It also means that I don’t have any past weigh in sign posts left. The wedding and UMass were the only things that had lodged themselves in my tiny little brain. Now it’s all new-ish territory. That’s crazy.

On a slightly related topic, after I weighed in I did my morning walkies. I mentioned yesterday that for the 30th minute I ran in place instead of walking in place. This morning I stretched that one minute to two minutes. I am wondering… should I just do a separate workout where I just run for five minutes and see how that goes? Walk for 30, run for five. Maybe. I am also doing a little bit of weight lifting and stretching every day. I wonder… am I going to turn into a gym rat lunk? I kinda hope not, but at the same time the idea of actually feeling almost healthy is sort of appealing. I mean, I wouldn’t have done the surgery otherwise, right?

Happy weigh in day. Until next week…

Fails Galore

Yesterday I said I was going to do car music today before work. Did I? Of course not. Fail. Tomorrow seems unlikely because I’ll be all jazzed up to weigh in and won’t want to go out. Thursday? Maybe. We’ll see.

I said yesterday I wanted to try and take some pictures of stars. I couldn’t last night because of the clouds, but I am still thinking I might pass. I won’t be able to keep the shutter open long enough to get a really good star trail and I really don’t have the energy to learn how to stack pictures. I don’t know. Also, I live in light pollution central. It’s not as bad as a big city around here, but it’s really bad. I don’t know. We’ll see.

Last night I watched a video of a group of folks going on a photowalk together in Cambridge, MA. It wasn’t anyplace I recognized, but that’s not the point. I think that would be fun. Just get together with a few nerdy folks, pick a neighborhood and just be camera geeks together. I think the group in the video was actually a photography class, and I don’t want that. Just some friends going for a dorky walk. I wonder if I need to subtly convince Jen and Harry that they want new cameras. Insert maniacal laughter here. Heh heh heh.

I just ate some scrambled eggs for breakfast. I ate it too fast. My stomach is a little disappointed with me at the moment. I expect lots of loud, powerful burping in the near future. I really need to stop doing this to myself.

I did something completely insane this morning. I was doing my 30 minute walk, which I now call my walkies, and instead of just walking in place for half an hour, I made a small change. When the timer hit 29 minutes I… prepare to be shocked… ran in place for one minute. Me. Robert. Ran. I am still alive. I wonder if I should try two minutes tomorrow.

My insanity is reminiscent of hulkamania… It’s running wild.*

*No, I am not a wrestling fan. I dabbled when I was like 12 years old, but that’s it. I also grew up in the 80’s, so even if I had never given wrestling even a minute of my time, I’d still know what hulkamania was. You kinda couldn’t avoid it. The dude even hosted Saturday Night Live once, I mean come on. I think they even had a Saturday morning cartoon. So don’t come at me with wrestling stuff, it was a historical reference not a fake sports reference. End rant.

Another Milestone

I am hitting a weight loss milestone as we speak.

I am wearing a t-shirt that I bought at a Rush concert in 2004. It is one size smaller than all of the t-shirts I’ve been wearing for years.

It fits.

It fits well. Not perfectly (it feels a little short), but it fits well.

I think I can officially wear smaller shirts now.

Tick off that box, kids.

Also, it’s a Rush R30 shirt. How awesome is that? I had an R40 shirt but I put it through the dryer by accident and it shrunk. Now it’s Jen’s R40 shirt. After I lose a little more I might go to the official Rush merch store and look for another R40 shirt. Or a Hold Your Fire shirt, because that was the first tour I saw.

I miss Rush.

200%

While I was waiting for people to show up at my parents house in Tewksbury this morning, after taking all the pictures, I had nothing to do so I started doing my morning walkies. I had two minutes left to go in the 30 minute walk when the first person arrived. That put me in a bit of a pickle. My exercise ring was closed (I had a couple of minutes logged from walking up and down stairs) but I did not make the full 30 minutes. I’ve mentioned before that I have a bit of a streak of 30 minute workouts going.

Would today be the day that I break the streak?

Nope.

I started another 30 minutes in the 34 minutes before the start of my work shift. It wasn’t even 9:00am yet and my exercise ring was already over 200%. Now that is dedication for you. It’s also stupidity because now my legs feel like dead weight. Oh good!

Happy Friday, everyone!

Fun With Weigh Ins

Today is Wednesday and I have stepped on the scale… even though the last two weeks have made today’s number kinda irrelevant.

I am down 1.4 pounds since the last weigh in, which was four days ago. It looks like a crappy number, but when you add in the previous weigh in, which was six days ago, it comes to 4.2 pounds which is pretty good and it is still missing a day. Even though 1.4 looks like a super small number compared to all of the other check in numbers on my spreadsheet, I am still very pleased.

Progress is progress and if I hadn’t fudged up my weigh in schedule it would look like a really good week’s results. So there you have it.

The total amount since the surgery is now 103.2 and the total since the first appointment is 123.8. I am also 28.2 pounds (approximately) away from the sleep apnea experiment I mentioned last night. Suddenly I am really excited about the idea of not having an alien face hugger stuck to me head every night. Finally, it’s a big moment from the BMI perspective. The value is only down 0.2 but the digit in the 10’s column changed. That’s worthy of celebration, right?

One of the reasons I am happy with today’s results is I have been eating more at each meal. Instead of capping myself at about five ounces of food I am letting it creep up to six or seven or, like two nights ago, eight ounces. I’ve been trying to not be afraid of between meal snacks as well. Mostly I want snacks to be fruit, but sometimes sugar free pudding is hard to ignore. That was the case last night. If I had avoided that 3.5 ounce cup of pudding at 8:50pm last night I might have been down 10 pounds today. Who knows. I am not worrying about it though. I am happy with how things are going. Very happy.

So now I am going to stay on schedule and not even think about the scale (yeah, right) until next week. Wednesday August 17, 2022: The next weigh in day.

Until then, my readers and only friends.

100

Two days ago I weighed myself and my weight loss since the Gastric Bypass surgery was at 99 pounds on the dot. I was positive that I would not be able to wait a full week to weigh myself again because I would not be able to handle waiting for that number to tip over 100.

I weighed myself today. I have lost 100 pounds since the surgery.

I HAVE LOST 100 POUNDS SINCE THE SURGERY!

Three months and two days and I am down 101.8 pounds. Queue up the marching band and the parade and the circus animals and the fireworks, babie! I’ve lost 100 pounds!

WOOHOOO!!!!!

Clown Costume

I only own two pairs of pants right now. One was in the laundry waiting for the next wash and the other was on me. Then I took out the trash. The trash bag had some really, seriously, major league gross semi-liquid something in it that just so happened to leak onto my jeans. Gross.

I am supposed to leave to visit my mother in 90 minutes. What to do?

I took the jeans that were in the hamper and put them into the washing machine on quick-wash mode. 25 minutes and they’ll be cleaner. Clean completely? Maybe. Clean-ish? Yeah, sure. Quick wash time plus a round in the dryer means they should be finished at just about the time I need to leave.

The freshly grossed jeans will go into the washing machine on the heavy duty wash setting because ick. That needs to wait for the quickie to finish first though. So what do I do while I wait for the quickie wash/dry to finish?

When I was bagging up all of my too-big clothes to donate somewhere, Jen suggested I save one pair of jeans. That way a year from now I can put them on and see how big they look and we can all have a good laugh. That sounded like a plan.

I am wearing that pair of jeans right now. They are probably 5-6 sizes too big. I feel like a hobbo. I look like a clown. It’s pretty funny today, just think of how funny I will look in nine more months.

I’m pretty sad about the whole gross experience though so I just threw on some Rush (Signals, to be precise) to cheer me up. It’s working.

You move me
You move me
With your buildings and your eyes
Autumn woods and winter skies
You move me
You move me
Open sea and city lights
Busy streets and dizzy heights
You call me
You call me

Three Months

Today’s a big day for me. Three months ago today I had my Gastric Bypass surgery. Three months. One quarter of a year. Let’s check in, shall we?

When I left the hospital on May 5th I was given four prescriptions. One was a pain killer and I never even opened the bottle. Another was a pain killer that I took for the first few days but (with the doctor’s approval) I stopped taking because it was making me really light headed. Another was an anti-nausea med and I never opened the bottle. The fourth and final med was an antacid. I took that one. They gave me two refills and I filled them both. This morning, I took the last pill from the last refill. I am officially done with post-surgical medication. From now on I will just be taking vitamins by the fist full. Happy no more prescriptions day!

I weighed myself this morning and I am a little ticked off about it. Wednesday is my “official” weigh in day, but I waited one extra day this week so that I could celebrate the monthiversary. Last week I weighed in a day early, so it has been nine days since I stepped on the scale. I lost 7.4 pounds. That is awesome. Seven and four tenths pounds. Epic. I was actually a little nervous that the number was going to be lower than normal. Since my last nutritionist appointment I have been eating more with each meal, and I have been having occasional snacks. I figured with the intake increasing a little, the weight loss would be down. Nope. This week’s results are really great.

If the numbers looked good, why am I a little ticked off? Well I’ll tell you. My total weight lost since the first check in is up to a gigantic 119.6 pounds. Wow. Just… Wow. My total weight lost since (four days before) the surgery is… ugh… 99 pounds on the nose. Ninety-nine. So close. So very close to 100 pounds. Ugh. You know what this means? It means I am going to have to weigh myself every day until I hit 100. Maybe every other day. I don’t know. I am definitely not going to be able to wait until next Wednesday to weigh in again. I am going to need to have that third digit.

Overall, the update is about the same as last time. I feel great. My back is starting to act up a little. I need to do some back strengthening exercises to combat that. My legs are feeling tired more often these days too. I need to do some more exercise there as well. My arms are looking flabby. It is definitely time to start lifting weights. I have a weight set and a weight bench and all that goes with it, but I haven’t set any of it up yet and I am still not sure what to do with it when it is set up. Google and YouTube will point me toward something, I am sure. I just have to do it.

Here’s hoping that month four feels as good as month three. I am really looking forward to it. Happy days, folks. Happy days.

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.