A life in flux...

     Hi y'all I'm back...well most of me, some more of me has disappeared forever.  I am thinking I shouldn't have a problem getting back on my weekly schedule.

The last 14 days have been a whirlwind and the diet has taken some interesting turns but the scale has continued to move in the right direction.

I find that I do pretty well as far as water intake is concerned during the week (or at least when I am in a structured work environment).  I didn't do so well when My wife and I were staying in the hospital for Evren's birth.  The sad part is that it should have been easy, I was being sent down to get apple juice for April every few hours and I could have been grabbing water for me (I did some times, just didn't drink as much as I should).  Now that I am back at work I am doing far better, especially on workout days where I sometimes approach 100oz of water in a day.

One of the top questions I get asked is "Don't you get hungry with those small meals?", going into that I wondered if I would as well.  I had heard from several people that had gastric bypass that not only did they not get hungry but they sometimes had to set an alarm to remember to eat because they never feel hungry at all.  The morning of Evren's birth I had 2 turkey breakfast sausage links at about 6:30 in the morning.  I was so distracted for the day and the events that around 3:00 I realized I hadn't had anything else to eat.  I was just starting to feel hungry, mostly because I finally had a chance to sit and relax and reflect for a little bit.

I continue to shrink out of my clothing, I also continue to be a big customer of Savers, especially this last weekend when everything was 50% off their already dirt cheap prices.  I have lost a foot in jean sizes (from a whopping 58" waist down to a 46" waist).  Most of my shirts are still 3x's but most of them are starting to get really baggy and I am getting more and more 2x shirts into my wardrobe and they are fitting me pretty well.  I have a few 'small' 2x's that are a bit tight but I should be fitting into them in a few weeks.

I find it weird how different parts of my body will start to shrink and then stop at different times.  Early on it was my head and fingers, a few weeks ago it was my feet, and at one time my wife noticed my back.  Recently I have been seeing the changes in my legs, especially just above the knee.

So, as i mentioned earlier the scale is still moving in the right direction.  Last week was a big jump, I went from 314 pounds to 306 pounds... that's right, I lost 8 pounds in a week.  This week has been a little less dramatic I dropped another 4 pounds  down to 302.  So as you can see I should cross one of those BIG DEAL milestones this week and that is the 300 pound mark. and I should be pretty close to 295 so I will probably have some more pics in probably 2 weeks.

I do have a few pictures that I will put up tonight, One being another comparison pic, a couple of others are just some event pics that show my progress in a different context...and of course I will put some pictures of our little boy Evren.

Which of course brings me to his birth.  I am sure most of y'all already know but my son Evren Ryder was born Wednesday, May 16th at 10:57 am.  He was 5 lbs, 14 oz and was 19 3/4 inches long.  Mommy, Baby and Daddy are all doing well other than being really tired.  I knew I would, but I am absolutely loving fatherhood, it's not exactly what I expected (actually wasn't sure what to expect) but it is wonderful.

With that it is time to draw this to an end.  Thanks for reading and as always thanks for the prayers, thoughts and encouragement, they really mean a lot.

Preparing for a new challenge...

Hi y'all, this is definitely going to be a short one tonight.

As I mentioned last week I am wanting to start doing some competitions and races as I get more fit and had specifically mentioned sprint triathlons.  I know I am going to need a lot more training specifically in running and swimming.  I decided to start on that this week, and got a pretty good idea of just how far I have to go, and that is a long ways (and boy was I sore over the last few days).  Luckily I have 3 and a half months to prepare and am confident I will be able to handle the race come race day.

I am down to 314 pounds this week, that is another 4 pounds this week.  That brings my total to 101 pounds, which of course means pictures. Head on over to my pictures page to check those out.  I may get creative and do some comparison picture compilations later this week but for now I am just going to put up the new pictures.

Now, of course to the baby.  April and I are scheduled for a Cesarean tomorrow at 9:30 in the morning.  I am a little bit nervous but more than anything I am excited, I can't wait to actually meet my son Evren.

Once we notify family and put something out on facebook I will try and come here and put some sort of post.

Thanks again for reading, and as always thanks for the thoughts, prayers and support.

Old habits die hard....

   This  weekend was interesting and a bit of a step backwards for me.  I found myself in two challenging situations and  could have handled them far better.  The first one was a 'couples' baby shower for April and me (that is to say that it was intended to be a couples shower and only one 'couple' actually attended and that was April and me), the second was a get-together  with our bible study group.

The problem was the same at both events and that is 'grazing'. At both events there was an abundance of snack and finger food and while I behaved myself as far as what I ate I didn't behave myself as far as how much I ate.  The problem being that since it was over a long period of time  my pouch was able to empty some of the food so I never got to that point of feeling full so I just absentmindedly kept snacking until April finally rescued me and moved the food out of my reach.

I have wanted to loose weight for a very long time and have tried many times, and it is so exciting to finally be seeing success and in a big way.  As some of you might recall from earlier posts I started gaining weight around 4th grade so I have been overweight for roughly 27 years.  I have said before that I don't want to get to a point of just not being fat but I actually want to reach a point of being fit.

Towards that end I have been thinking about some sort of fitness challenge or competition to get involved.  I have come up with two that I think look exciting and fun. The first is sprint triathlons.  Sprint triathlons have the same 3 parts as normal triathlons except shorter distances, usually a 750 to 1000 meter swim, 12 to 15 mile bike ride and a 5k run (Which is significantly easier than the Ironman  Triathlons that my friend and fellow gastric bypass patient, Richard, now does).  The other event that I think looks really fun is an event called the Rugged Maniac 5K obstacle race.  It is exactly what it sounds like, it is a 5k race with obstacles that were actually designed with the help of Navy Seals (crawling thru mud under wires, swinging over holes filled with water, etc) along the way.  My wife thinks I am nuts but I think it looks like a blast.

Now to the numbers, I am somewhat bummed to announce that the pictures will have to wait another week but I am down under 320 to 318.  Which for those of you keeping track is a total of 97 pounds or 63 since surgery.

That of course brings me to the baby front.  As I mentioned last week Evren was in a butt down breach position and we has an appointment to try and manually manipulate him into the correct position.  As my wife would attest this attempt to move him was neither a pleasant thing to experience or for me to watch, and unfortunately the attempt was unsuccessful, his butt was just too stuck in the pelvis an they couldn't get him to move at all.  So now we have a Cesarean scheduled for next Wednesday the 16th.  Of course he could still turn on his own (the OB doesn't think this  is likely) or April could go into labor before then.  In any case I will be a new daddy by this time next week.  Am I Excited, you better believe it, am I nervous, not really although the reality of it is starting to sink in a little more now.

Given our plans for next week I will try an get a blog post up Tuesday night (with new pics) but I hope y'all will forgive me if I don't get anything posted next week  other that a 2 line post announcing the event.

So I thing that wraps it  up for this week, thanks for reading, and as always thanks for the thoughts, prayers and support.

Adjusting to the changes…

Hello all, I know I am a few days later than normal but at least it is this week.

One of the neatest things about losing this much weight is that you lose weight in parts of your body that you never pictured as fat or had thought of as a place to lose weight.  I mentioned a few weeks back about having to get a spacer for my wedding ring because my fingers were getting to skinny.  I also mentioned that the side of my head, just above the ears seems to be thinner now.  Well this week I have noticed that my feet are shrinking.  I had read about that happening and knew it eventually would but now watching it happen is strange. 

I find I have to re-tie my laces and tighten them down more every few days and for some reason they seem to be coming untied more than normal right now, not sure why.  Luckily I have lost enough that bending over to retie them isn’t as much as a chore as it used to be (that’s right, I was so fat that tying my shoes without sitting down to do it used to be challenging).

I can’t put into words how great I feel (and I know it will only get better as I continue to lose).  However I recently have been given reminders by my body that I am still big and fat and out of shape.  I have been working out a lot recently and while most of me feels great after a good workout (I don’t even really get sore much after a good lifting workout). My ankles, However, which have been under massive amounts of stress for years, seem to always be sore from the added stress of a lot of walking, jogging and working on elipticals.  I am working on strengthening my ankles and I know they will get better as I continue to lose but right now having just this one part continually feeling achy when everything else feels great is really frustrating.

I am finally at the point where I am experiencing the inevitable “problem” that all successful gastric bypass patients eventually experience, that being that I am running out of some categories of clothes.  In this case it is dress pants and jeans.  The thing is that I need to get new pants but don’t want to buy (or pay) for “new” when it will also not fit in just a few months.  So the other day we to the first of what  I am sure will be many trips to Savers and found a good pair of dress pants and a good pair of jeans (I would have been set if I had a 29 inch inseam). 

My closet continues to empty out.  I also continue to add some smaller clothes that I bought a few years back when I tried a traditional diet, lost some, bought clothes I figured I would be shrinking into and then gained weight back before fitting into.

The scale continues to move in the right direction (although I know I will have to deal with another plateau at some point) and I am down to 322, another 4 pounds gone forever. I am thinking I should hit 315 in the next week or so which will be 100 pounds lost (can't believe I have nearly lost a hundred pounds), which of course means more pictures so be looking for those shortly.

I said I would try and update this blog every week and I do intend to try.  However, as I am sure you can imagine, becoming a parent for the first time could mess that up a bit. So I will try and stay current but hope y’all understand and don’t miss me too much if I miss a week or two in the next few weeks.

Which of course, brings me to the pregnancy update.  Mother and baby seem to be doing ok and Evren is still moving a lot.  One complication is that Evren is currently in a butt down breach position.  They are going to try and manually manipulate him into a head down position on Friday and if they can’t they will schedule us for a cesarean the following week. 

That brings this post to an end.  Thanks for reading, and of course, thanks for the prayers, thoughts and support.