Finally...pictures.

So I finally got a couple of pictures added on here.

Among them you will see my official "before" picture.  My plan is to add comparison shots in the same outfit (probably new shorts at some point when they won't stay up anymore, nobody wants to see that) every 20 pounds lost and on other significant days (day before surgery, one year after, etc),

I will also just post some other pictures of other significant events along the way in this journey.

anyway...enjoy!

My Diet History...

A friend asked about the different diets I have been on and my opinions on them.  I thought it sounded like a good idea for a post so here goes. (I just finished and was surprised at how long it was, so just be aware it’s not a short post)

As is the case with most obese people I have tried a lot of different diets, some good, and some bad. Some I tried for months and had quite a bit of success, others only lasted a few weeks before deciding they were not for me, and at least one barely made it out of the box. So in no particular order…

I’ll start with the one that barely made it out of the box. Michael Thurmond’s six week body makeover, in fairness I really didn’t give this one a fair try.  Their big selling point is that it is a program is that it is supposed to be custom tailored to fit your exact body part.  Sounds pretty cool, right, you can target the areas that need the most help, or somehow address your eating issue so that in their words you can “Eat more, exercise less, and still lose weight.”  So, I don’t really know exactly what I was expecting but it was basically these cards with upper, middle, and lower body sections on them and sort of small, medium, or large. Once finding your body type they had a diet plan for you, in my case since I was pretty much big everywhere it focused…on everything. I probably should have at least tried it but thought at the time it was a letdown , didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know and I just lost interest in it almost from the get go.  The only cool part was it also included an exercise program with big rubber resistance bands that I have actually used quite a bit.

Next on the list is Jared’s “Subway diet”, you all know the drill, six inch sub with no fattening things on it for lunch same for dinner plus a bag of baked Lay’s. I think if you could stay on this one it would probably work for you, as long as you exercise with it.  I could not do this one, within about 3 weeks I was so burnt out on having subway all the time and being limited to their “6 grams of fat or less” subs that when I stopped I didn’t go back to Subway for about 6 months and avoided all of the “6 grams” variety sub until a couple of weeks ago (about 8 years).

I tried Slim-Fast for about 2 weeks; this one didn’t work for me because for some reason the shakes made me sick.  I thought the shakes actually tasted pretty good but I think I would have become bored with it pretty quick had they not made me sick.

I’ve noticed a pattern here, I said earlier “in no particular order”, but so far it has been  the diets that worked the least for me…oh well.  I’ll go to one that worked pretty well for me, Atkins.

Atkins worked really well for me, at first, but I think it has a flaw.  I am your stereotypical “steak and potatoes” carnivore, and really I can pretty much drop the potatoes with little or no problem and just be a carnivore.  I think I can safely say that I will never adopt the vegan lifestyle because my 2 favorite food groups are meat and dairy.  This is also a bad combo for the traditional diet but for Atkins it was great.  No pasta, no rice, no potatoes, and no bread.  What does that leave, some fruits and veggies but lots of meat and cheese.  It was great…bacon double cheeseburger, 2-3 carbs, sure why not…big ribeye steak, ok…sausages, sure give me 3 and forget the bun…you could even go to Carl’s  Jr. and get a bug juicy, messy burger wrapped in lettuce, it was great.  And I did lose weight, about 50 pounds, but…there was a problem, after a few months I started having cravings for food high in carbs, at first I could handle them and on occasion try and have a really low carb day so I could have more carbs at night, eventually the cravings got worse and I crumbled.  In the back of my mind I also constantly fought with the idea that I was losing weight but ingesting massive amounts of fat and figured in the long run that couldn’t be good for me.  I know that the Atkins diet and some other ‘low carb, high protein” diets have been modified  to take into account “good carbs” and “bad carbs”, I haven’t tried this one but I imagine it is a lot more balances and not so meat and dairy centric and probably better for you than the original version.

Next on my list I am gonna combine 2 diets and that is Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers.  These are both well known diets and probably the most used diets in the world. I actually like a lot about both programs, I like that they both focus on accountability and needing the support of others to succeed.  I also like the idea of the Weight Watchers points system, it’s essentially calorie counting but simplified to smaller numbers and easier to track. My problem with these were more accountable to timing and how I viewed the image of these diets at the time, I was going to the meetings or weigh-ins with my mom and when I would go not only was I the only teenager there most of the time but was also the only male and it made it uncomfortable for me.  I think now with all the online tools and services, it would be easier for me but I am convinces that even then I wouldn’t stay on them long enough to attain my goal.

I have tried several different diet pills (Metabolife, Hydroxycut, Apex Fat burner 2, Leptopril), none of them really worked for me…or they worked but had unpleasant side effects.  Diet pills come in basically 3 forms appetite suppression, metabolism booster, and fat absorption inhibitors (these are the ones with unpleasant side effects).  If these pills worked as good as they claim we could wipe out obesity, but they don’t, probably the most effective is the variety that limit the amount of fat you absorb (I haven’t tried Alli, but that is how it works too), the problem is if the fat is not being absorbed it has to be removed from your body somehow and it does (use your imagination).

My last one here I will address is the tried and true, plain and simple, straight forward “cut calories and work out” method, I have done this one both on my own and at one time under a doctor’s care.  This one is easy to understand but hard to do, decrease you calorie intake and increase your calories burned thru exercise to a point where you burn more than you take in and you lose weight. As long as you have the discipline to go to the gym a few times a week and count all those calories this one does work.  This one used to be a lot harder, you would have to carry a book that showed the calories and record them in a notebook.  Now days with technology and smartphones it’s a lot easier, I even have a calorie counting program on my phone that has a barcode reader,  a huge database of food and excercises, does all the math and since I am under a nutritionists care leading up to the surgery I can even share my food diary with her with this program (MyFitnessPal.com)

So, which would I recommend…we’ll if your situation is similar to mine…none of them.  The fact of the matter is that none of these are really designed for me or people who have a lot to lose (I would call a lot 80 pounds or more).  Statistically, none of them work long term. One study found that for the morbidly obese, regardless of what type of diet they try less than 10% get down to their goal weight, and regardless of how much they may have initially lost 95-98% had gained it all back and usually more after 5 years.  If however you need to lose 50 – 60 pounds or less, my advice and recommendation would be the “cut calories and exercise” method, this one will not only help you lose the weight but also get more healthy in general.

First appointment with nutritionist.

So, even though my initial appointment with the Surgeon isn’t for another month I was able to schedule an appointment with the Nutritionist to get the ball rolling on the six months of medically supervised diet.
My first appointment was today. I actually started dieting about a week ago and have done pretty well so far but since to day is my first appointment I am going to consider it day one, my starting point  My starting point weight 412.4 pounds (BMI 59.2).
An interesting thing about fat people, even though they don’t tend to follow sound nutritional concepts with their diet, most of them, including me know an awful lot about nutrition. This comes from trying several diets and getting a nutritional indoctrination when starting each one.  And while each one is different most of the nutrition info they provide is similar.
I thought I knew for the most part what I was going to hear today, and I did hear a lot of what I expected but the appointment in general was not exactly what I expected.
I expected it to just be all about being on a diet for weight loss, which they did cover some of that but it was primarily geared towards starting to make some changes to my diet now that will be necessary changes after the surgery.
This actually made a lot of sense because one of the reasons for having bariatric surgery is that regular diets don’t work long term for the morbidly obese.  This is actually one of the points Dr. Snyder drove home at the seminar.
So they work with you to form some better nutritional habits.  Their focus, however, is on changes that will make the transition after surgery easier. Stuff like cutting your food smaller and chewing it a lot more before swallowing, drinking a lot of water but not with your meals, eating multiple small meals and not “drinking your calories” (This one is gonna be tough because it includes not drinking milk and I am a big milk drinker).
We also covered the vitamin supplements I will need to be taking since my ability to absorb some vitamins will be limited.
So, nutrition appointment #1 down, relatively painless. Only five more to go.

The Seminar

I went to the Bariatric surgery seminar back on July 7th, glad I did, it was a really good experience.

I am really impressed with the Dr (Dr. Snyder).  He comes across as being exceedingly intelligent, very confident (some might say cocky but he has the numbers to back up his confidence) and really seems to care for his patients.

Skinny people will find this somewhat strange but I liked being in a crowd with other overweight people and knowing they could relate to some things I go thru. Dr. Snyder mentioned some of these and it was like he had read my mind (like avoiding booths in restaurants with fixed tables because they are too tight or tying your shoes so the knot is right on the inside edge).

I also loved hearing from a panel of people who have had one type of gastric bypass or another, and how it has improved their lives (and some of the negatives).  I found it assuring that they all were able to say what they thought was the worst thing about the surgery but that even with the negative things they all said they would undoubtedly do it again if given the chance to make the decision again; in fact some said their biggest regret was not doing it sooner.

I had already pretty much decided that I wanted to have the Roux-en-y surgery but this seminar definitely re-enforced that choice.  It may be the most significant surgery (at least it is done laparoscopically instead of open like it used to be) but it also has the highest average amount of weight loss after it and I figure with wanting to lose more than 200 pounds it is the best choice.

At the end of the Seminar we were able to set up our first appointment with the surgeon, mine is in mid August, I wish I could speed it up.  I am hoping to be able to get an appointment with the dietician sooner than that so I can at least get started on the 6 month diet.

I will try and get some pictures up here soon and then will hopefully be posting more pictures to show my progress after the Surgery.

I appreciate you coming and reading my story…so far.  I would ask that you keep me in your thoughts and prayers going forward, especially when I get to the point of the actual surgery.

God bless.

My Motivation…

So I got married just over a year ago, and I couldn’t be happier.  Only problem is my health is clearly deteriorating and the overarching cause is easy.   I am getting older and my body is breaking down or developing complications from having to carry a lot of extra weight.  I really want to have a LOT of time with my wife and any future children we may have. So I decided to try going to a doctor again, get some of my treatable conditions treated and float the idea of gastric bypass.

I was diagnosed with high blood pressure, and, after a sleep study, with obstructive sleep apnea. I mentioned gastric bypass and finally hallelujah, she says she thinks it is a great idea (I had tried it before with other doctors and they had been against it).  I knew from my research that some insurance plans specifically exclude these procedures and others allow it but with clear guidelines and a process to go thru first. I checked mine and was covered but required, among other things, six moths medically supervised diet and a psych eval, they also require that they be contacted before proceeding and tracking your progress.

I contacted my insurance and got the ball rolling.

My insurance requires that the surgery be done at what they call “Center’s of Excellence”, luckily they have 3 in the Denver area.  I decided to look into “The Denver center for Bariatric Surgery” at Rose Medical Center.

My Story...

Technically, I haven’t been overweight my entire life, in fact between me and my siblings I had the lowest birth weight.  That didn’t last long, my sister has always done a pretty good job of taking care of herself and my brother is one of those beanpole skinny types with a metabolism blessed by the gods. 

I have, however, been overweight all of my adult life. I don’t know what changed but beginning of third grade I was skinny and one of the fastest runners in my grade, by the end of fourth grade I was one of the slowest 

and the brunt of many “chubby’ jokes (children can be so mean).

To be honest, while I have been overweight all my adult life, I have only been “morbidly obese” for about 12 years, in fact my senior year of high school I briefly got down to what was almost a healthy weight.

I have been on a bunch of different diets (like most obese people) I have tried Weight watchers, Jenny Craig, Atkins, Jared’s Subway diet, Metabolife, Slimfast, (and several others), I was even under a doctor’s care for weight loss for about a year and a half (calorie counting and exercise).

As far as the science goes for each of them; they all work to some degree and I usually lost weight on them.  The science has almost never been the problem (except maybe Slimfast, which made me sick). The problem with them is that none of them are really designed for the morbidly obese who need to lose over 100 pounds.  Sure every diet program has its success stories, and they end up being the poster children of each diet.  Statistically none of them really work unless you need to lose 20-50 pounds, in fact they have done studies and in the morbidly obese over a 5 year period 95-99% end up losing less than 50 pounds and gain all of it (usually more) by the end of the five years.

That is what happened to me time after time I would lose 40-50 pounds (65 once) then gain it all back and then some and the cycle would start over.

Now here I am 36 years old, 420 pounds, and several co morbidities, including nearly constant sore knees and ankles, lower back pain, obstructive sleep apnea, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

I also have a lot to live for. I got married just over a year ago to the love of my life and want to have a long happy life with her.  We also plan on having children and I want to be around for them as well. So I have decided to do something about it.

I have decided to have bariatric surgery, specifically a roux en-y gastric bypass…

Obviously I have also decided to do a blog to share my experiences as I get ready for , go thru, and adjust to life after my gastric bypass surgery...stay tuned!