Plateaus & Victories...

I know I am a bit behind after saying I would try and do a post each week, sorry.  I said there may be some posts that were shorter due to not a lot to report, this may be one of them.

Last time I  posted I spoke about plateaus and how they are inevitable in any weight loss situation.  Well on that front not much has changed, I am still hovering right around 340 pounds.  I did learn however that the average time for plateaus is usually around a month so I should hopefully start loosing again soon.

I have had plateaus on other diet attempts and usually they are the beginning of the end for me because I usually am not able to power thru them and I slowly come off the diet.  I can definitely say that this time is different and I think that part of the difference is that I know more about the process and what to expect.  Before I would get frustrated and try and force myself to loose (thru more exercise or more strenuous diet) for a week and nothing would happen and I would get discouraged.

This time I know more, I know it may take 4-5 weeks to come out of it and I know that exercise is important but will not automatically kick me out of it.  I also know that the main reason it is happening  is because my body is trying to reshuffle and re-balance to take into account the fat loss and the change in lifestyle and when my body figures it out I will start loosing again.

I also find that this plateau, like everything else since getting married is easier with April here to help and support me. Even though the scale is not changing I still am and she reminds me of this fact every day as she notices different parts of me that are still changing (upper belly last week,  my back this week).

I had my 6 week follow-up appointment and along with saying the plateau is pretty normal at this point they also said I seem to be healing extremely well.. I was also able to graduate to the next (and last) phase of the structured diet .  This phase is pretty simple, the mail rules are pretty much the same as before, protein first, then complex carbs.  The difference is that now I can eat normal stuff regardless of toughness or texture.  I still have to eat very small (1-1.5 oz) portions and I still want to avoid anything carbonated, any thing really high in carbs and anything high in sugar (less than 15 grams of carbs or 5 grams of sugars  per serving).   The other big change is that from here on I have to separate my eating and drinking so that I cant drink for 15 minutes before and 30-45 minutes after each meal.

I mentioned last time that I had started C25k and that it was a hard not not agonizing workout.  Well...that happens when you do it wrong.  I am primarily doing it on a treadmill for now (although I do plan on moving to running with some friends at some point) and that first day I did 1 minute of running and 4 minutes of walking (was doing it from memory and hadn't looked close enough) when in reality the start is supposed to be 1 minute of running and only 1 and a half to 2 minutes of walking.  Well after making that change I can say it was pretty rough and my joints still haven't fully forgiven me.  So I am still planning to continue with it but at a slightly slower pace and try to focus more on lifting and strengthening my legs more (as my sports therapist has recommended).

NSV's (Non-Scale Victories) is another concept I introduced here last time.  I had a few more today.  I had to finally break down and but a new belt today because my old one had extra belt holes drilled into it and I was on the last hole and the tail of my belt was getting ridiculously long.  I also bought a new shirt today and was shocked when I tried a 3x and it seemed to be too big so I had to go down to a 2x.  For a guy that has been wearing 3x and 4x for years and even flirted with 5x a year ago at my heaviest this was a big deal.

I also seem to have had a psychological NSV today. I know I have lost a lot and come a long way but I my head it never felt that different.  I can't really put my finger on what exactly changed but I have mentally felt smaller today for some reason.

I have to thank all of you for all the support you are providing me with in this journey.  I am constantly shocked when I post something on Facebook about my progress and get dozens of supportive comments or when I learn about people that I never expected to read this who are following it closely.  I cannot tell you how much all the support means to me and how thankful I am for all of you.

Along those lines I want to send a special thanks to my buddy at work, Justin.  I work with A LOT of really great people and they really care for each other.  Well for Valentines Day candy was given out to everyone by some people in the office.  Including some on my desk.  Don't get me wrong I appreciate the sentiment but the last thing a gastric bypass patient wants to see on his desk when he comes back to work is a lot of candy.  Justin though of this and got rid of all of it.  I mention this now because I just found out about him getting rid of it this week.  I just want to say thanks buddy, it meant a lot.

Not much else to report, My wife is doing a lot better with the pregnancy and we are getting more excited as the birth gets closer.  I said at the top that this post may be a short one but as always I ended up being more verbose than I expected.

As always thanks for reading and thanks for the prayers and support.