Where did all this energy come from…

So, I got to help my brother Matthew on a very exciting day this weekend.  My brother and his family are the deserving recipients of a Habitat for Humanity home.  This Saturday was move in day.  I have helped my brother and his family move a bunch (some might think that moving was Rachel’s favorite pastime).  In the past I would try to help out as much as I could but would get winded after a few boxes and I would try and avoid any heavy lifting of furniture or appliances if I could help it.  Frankly I was slightly more than worthless when it came to helping someone move.  I tried; I just didn’t have the stamina.

Saturday was different.  My brother and his family have accumulated a lot of stuff.  We filled his U-Haul twice, a pickup truck twice and four minivans worth (and they still have some to move).  I was energetic most of the day handling my fair share of boxes and doing my share of the heavy lifting as well.  I also helped set up some of the furniture.  Granted at the end of the day I was really beat, but it was one of those rewarding tired feelings.

My stack of clothes that I have shrunk out of continues to grow and even though I have some smaller clothes that are starting to fit I am fast approaching the point where I am going to have to buy some new clothes, especially for work.  I am hoping I can find some stuff at a thrift store that will work; I really don’t want to spend the money on new threads just to shrink out of them after a few months.

The pounds are still falling off of me at an impressive rate; I am down to 326 this week, which is another 5 pounds in a week. I am quickly approaching the 100 pounds lost milestone, closely followed by my halfway point in this journey at 110 pounds lost and the 300 pound barrier. I already have gone from having a 4 as my first digit to a 3 and I can’t wait to see a 2 as the first digit.

I have really enjoyed doing this blog.  At first I just figured I would have just a few people read it here and there but that it would mostly be a journal for me to just have a record of my journey.  I have been amazed by the response I have received from doing this.  I have had several people tell me how inspiring my story has been to them in them deciding to try and lose some weight.  One thing I am really excited about is that there are two of my coworkers have actually decided to go to the informational seminar my surgeon does and are seriously contemplating having the surgery themselves (good luck Dennis and Ursula). 

Now to my wife and soon arriving son.  April is doing better now that she is off work.  Her blood pressure still spikes from time to time when she does too much but it quickly comes back down as soon as she rests. We are one day short of 36 weeks, 4 weeks to go to the official due date but based on family history Evren could decide to show up at any time (in any case I want him to be healthy but can’t wait for him  to get here).

That about does it for this week, thanks for reading, and as always thanks for the prayers, thoughts and support.

The Restaurant Conundrum...

    My apologies to "The Big Bang Theory" and their episode naming convention for this weeks post.  I could be wrong, again, but I expect this to be a fairly short post.

As this weeks title might suggest We found ourselves in restaurants this weekend, four of them to be exact (although we only had to pay for one of them, great parents and birthdays are a great combination).  They were all very good but at least two of them  (Hacienda Colorado and Crackerbarrel) have extremely gastric bypass averse menus.  Hacienda Colorado has huge portions of typical starchy Mexican food and Crackerbarrel is kinda like eating a Paula Dean's house, butter and fat in almost everything.

I am happy to report that even with these challenges I think I did pretty good this weekend.  Had a sashimi sampler at an Asian fusion place (also proud of my mom for finally trying sushi for the first time, yay mom!).  I had half of a beef enchilada and a bite or two of beans at Hacienda Colorado (and am still enjoying leftovers from that one 6 meals later) and had just a scrambled egg and sausage patty (I know, pork is kinda fatty but I had to get some protein) at cracker barrel.

I also had a bit of an epiphany while at these restaurants.  I have a card from my doctor about my condition and instructing restaurants to allow me to order from the kids or seniors menus.  I didn't really come across a senior menu but did come across kids menus.  I am a bit of a foodie, and I have come to the conclusion, especially when cooking for myself that if I am going to only be eating a few bites  I am going to strive to make them as good as I can without cheating on my diet. Meaning really good ingredients, and rather bold flavors. (made a small tortilla pizza the other day with Italian herb chicken, caramelized shallots and roasted cherry tomatoes with fresh mozzarella that was absolutely amazing and lasted me for four meals).

I've explained this to say I noticed that for the most part all of the food on kids menus are apparently the most bland menu options they can find. I am sure that those of you with kids probably are saying "well duh", and I would have probably learned this in the next few years but as a childless adult used to eating huge portions you don't spend much time looking at kids menus.

Now down to the heart of the matter, and that is of course how the diet is going as a whole and how the scale is moving.  I lost another 5 pounds and am down to 331.2.  I have reached a point where I seem to be adding to the pile of clothes eventually going to a thrift or consignment store almost daily (including the dress pants I wore to work today).

As y'all know I can't do a post here without mentioning my wife and the fast approaching appearance of my son Evren.  This was an interesting week, we ended up in the hospital  with a Preeclampsia scare.  It turned out to not be Preeclampsia and they instead determined that the stress of work and the knowledge that she was going to be loosing her job was causing her blood pressure to be higher than it should.  So, April has started her maternity leave already and is on it until her layoff day in June.  She is also on an 80/20 version of bed rest where it is 80% rest and 20% being somewhat active including a 10-15 minute walk.  We obviously want the pregnancy to go as close to 40 weeks as possible but I will breathe a lot easier as soon as we can get to at least 36 weeks (9 more days)

Thinkin' that is it for this week.  Thanks for reading and as always thanks for the prayers, thoughts and support.

The Incredible Shrinking Man

Perseverance (finally) trumps plateau...

     Hi everyone, here is my update for the week.  I really do expect this one to be on the short side (yes I know I have said that before and I have ended up being a bit long-winded but this time I really mean it).

As I am sure you are all aware, I have been battling a really stubborn plateau. Well I am happy to announce that it seems to be over (YAY!!!).  I have finally started loosing again, although somewhat slowly.  That could be due to the fact that I have been doing a lot more lifting during my workouts the last couple of weeks or so although I don't know if just starting lifting a couple of weeks ago would make too much of an impact on the scale yet.

Which brings me to my next topic, the scale.  Ask any doctor,  nutritionist,  personal trainer or anyone who knows much about weight loss and/or psychology and they will tell you that you shouldn't look at the scale more than once a week at the most.  I am REALLY bad at this, and even worse when in the midst of a plateau,  I reached a point where I was anticipating the end of the plateau so much that I was checking the scale almost daily (if not literally daily).

The frustrating thing is I know better.  I know how plateaus work and on top of that I knew I was still doing alright because even though the scale wasn't moving my body was definitely changing.  Now that I am confident that I am finally past this plateau I will have to work on my self control and stay away from the scale except for Monday mornings.

Speaking of Monday mornings, that was today, so I jumped on the scale and it showed 336.2, which was up just a bit from Sunday morning which was 335.6 which I know for you math purists would be rounded up to 336 but I figured it was close enough to 335 to justify some new pics (not the least of which because I wanted to see them too).  So the new pics are up on the pictures page.  I got a lot of comments on the side by side face picture I did last time so I decided to throw together a couple more of them. This time I did my face again and my full body pics facing forward and I did all five update pictures since starting this last summer.  Hope you enjoy 'em.

Look, I have a neck!

I wish I could find the words to describe how great I already feel, it's amazing.  I was at Comfort Dental Amphitheater (Fiddler's Green for you purists out there) in Denver for our church's Easter service. I decided to walk up to the top to see if I could get a good picture of the venue. If I had attempted that last year I would have needed to stop to rest part way and been completely exhausted when I got to the top. Yesterday it was just a nice walk up to the top, not a big deal at all (other than being a really uplifting NSV!)

As y'all know I couldn't do a post here without mentioning my other significant change in my life and that, of course, is the fast approaching birth of my son, Evren.  Well Evren, who had been lying across mommy, using her as a hammock, has decided it was time to turn head down.  We are just entering week 34 so this turn is right on schedule.  Mommy is now getting used to kicks in new areas and pressure on new organs and as I informed her the other day is doing the stereotypical third trimester pregnancy waddle.  We are nearly done with our nursery and are getting quite the the nice stack of diapers (of course we have been told that regardless of the size of the stack we will blow thru them at a rate we can hardly believe).

Well, I think that about does it for this week, hope you enjoy the new pics.  Thanks for reading, and as always thanks for the prayers, thoughts and support.

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.

Clearing some obstacles...

      So, I had promised to try and update this once a week even if I didn't have much  to really post about, I had figured last time that this week would be kinda short as I was sort of in a holding pattern between appointments and hadn't seen much of a change recently...boy was I wrong.

It doesn't matter what kind of diet you are on or what approach you take to loosing weight if you have more than I would say 40 pounds to loose, at some point during the process you are going to have a plateau.  It didn't end up lasting very long but I had a bit of a plateau recently. I got to 347 pounds and then just hovered between 350 and 347 for about a week and a half. I had been sticking dogmattically to my diet and had been getting a lot of excercise too.

You may say "It was only a week and a half couldn't be that big of a deal." and you are right but when you go from loosing a little more than a pound a day for a month to nothing and even gaining a pound or two, especially when you have a pretty long diet history without success you still get a little depressed.

As I mentioned last post I had gone back to work last Tuesday.  Tuesday evening I started thinking something might be wrong.  I couldn't even eat the small Quantities I was supposed to be eating. I would eat maybe a third of an ounce and be full and feel full and somewhat bloated for an hour or so and I suddenly didn't have much energy.  Turns out I had what they call a stricture, and it is a complication that between a quarter and a third of people who have the surgery I had end up developing.
 
Because of the stricture, which I found out about on Wednesday but that they couldn't fix until Friday I had to revert back to the previous phase of the diet with the 5 really soft foods.  This was really discouraging because after 2 weeks of only those 5 foods I was really tired of all of them.

I will try not to get to graphic here but try and explain what a stricture is.  When I had the surgery they removed a majority of my stomach and a few feet of the small intestine and reattached the remaining stomach pouch to the small intestines. Where they make that connection scar tissue forms as the connection heals.  in several cases the scar tissue  shrinks the hole to the point where even soft or pureed food have issues passing thru the opening.  In my case the hole had shrunk to about the diamiter of the tube of ink in a Bic ink pen.

"So how do they fix it?" you may ask... and I am glad you asked.  It is actually pretty simple, really. I had to go back to the hospital where they put me under and stuck a camera and a balloon down my throat into my stomach pouch, they put the balloon into the hole and inflate it, stretching the opening until it is back to the correct size.  They say that 50-60% of those that have a stricture will develop it a second time So I may have to do that again.  Which is fine, it wasn't too bad really, I was in and out of the hospital including paperwork, prep and recovery in under 3 hours and and had no discomfort at all from the procedure.

I quickly realized that the stricture, at least in part, had been responsible for my plateau and after it was fixed I started loosing again right away.  I weighed Sunday morning and was down to 342, I am guessing I may be under 340 now but don't like to weigh too often.  I am guessing I will be near 335 next Sunday or Monday and that will be another 20 pound milestone so I should have a few new pictures next week.

I had been doing a lot of walking and slowly building up from just a few blocks at a time in the first week or so to a couple of miles a day recently but I didn't think it was enough and really wanted to get back to the gym and really drive myself.  I am still under a lifting restriction but as long as I am careful I can do cardio.  The office building I work in just underwent a pretty major remodel, in the process they put in a workout room and some locker rooms.  It's not to bad of a setup 4-5 treadmills, a few elipticals, a few stationary bikes, a universal weight machind and a couple of weight benches and some free weights.
 
I decided to give it a try, I will not be going back, it will be back to 24 Hour Fitness for me (didn't like their elipticals and the locker rooms were really poorly designed).  I really love elipticals so I tried it first and the mechanics were just not right for me and there was no way of adjusting it. So I just decided to do the treadmill.

I had never aspired to be a "runner", but I do aspire to reach a point of being fit not just skinny and I think that being a well-rounded fit person would include running so I decided to start "Couch to 5k", for those who don't know "Couch to 5k" (or "C25k) is a structured program designed to take novice beginners and get them from no running at all to being able to run 5k without walking in 2-3 months.  So today was day 1, which was basically a 5 minute warm up followed by alternating run for a minute walk for four minutes fo 30 minutes and a 5 minute cooldown.  I have never really enjoyed walking on treadmills but I really enjoyed it today and am looking forward to progressing in the program.

As many of you know I like to put a little bit in here about the other major change in my life and that is that I am gonna become a daddy in roughly 1 and a half to two months. So the update is that Aprils bursitis in her hips is finally starting to relax and April is feeling a lot better.  Little Evren seems to be doing fine, heis kicking up a storm and taking the occasional nap on mommys organs which of course is not fun.  We are expecting him to turn head down in the next few weeks , right now he is laying horizontally like he is relaxing in a hammock.  We also had a baby shower down in my hometown of Loveland this weekend and got lots of good stuff for Evren. Thank you to anyone that was there.

Well as always thanks for reading and of course thanks for the toughts and prayers and for the encouragement.  Be on the lookout for some new pics next week.  God bless.



One last thing I gotta mention just because I am so pumped (and it's still months until preseason football starts). My favorite QB since Elway retired, Peyton Manning, is the new starting QB for my beloved Broncos!!! How freakin' awesome is that!!! GO BRONCOS!! (sorry, had to do it).

"A Return to (semi) normalcy"...

      Today was my first day back at work and it was immediately made clear to me that I had not been keeping up with this blog as well as I should, for that I am sorry.  I have decided I am going to try to find something to post every week even if it ends up being a dozen lines and an update on my weight.

Well as I mentioned I had to return to work today after having a month off.  My feelings were understandably mixed.  I was really excited about seeing my friends and showing off my progress to this point.  I definitely don't get tired of having people come up and tell me how good I am doing and how proud they are...what can I say I am human and like to have my ego stroked from time to time.  It was however a bit rough getting back into the groove and I am still not entirely caught up on everything (although I did get all my email managed).

I had my 3 week followup appointment last week, everything went smoothly. My weight loss rate seems pretty normal compared to others who had surgery the same day as me ( there was one guy that was A LOT bigger than me that had already lost 45 pounds after 3 weeks).  I also got to see my friend Marie as she was there for her 6 week followup appointment.

I finally got my last drain removed, Which was by far the highlight of my day. I was really stinkin' tired of that g-tube and having to change the bandages every day and my skin getting raw from all the tape. The frustrating thing was that due to my complication I had  with the g-tube it had already slid most of the way out but they wouldn't pull it any sooner and when they finally did there was only about an inch and a half still in.

I also graduated to the next diet stage.  This stage has a lot more options.  basically if it is flaky or can easily be torn apart with a fork or your fingers you can eat it so most meat is ok as long as it is a tender cut or cooked until it falls apart or it can be pureed with a little liquid to a slightly chunky consistency (I know pureed meat sounds kinda nasty but it is actually pretty good if it is flavored well).

There are also some other limitations to the diet.  First and foremost protein comes first then complex carbs.  I can't have anything that is really sugary since that can cause dumping syndrome (I haven't had it yet and from what I have heard I don't want to), I also cant have anything really starchy (rice, pasta, bread, potatoes, etc) because starch turns to goo gets stuck together in a glob and then gets stuck trying to pass thru the small opening to my small intestines.  I am also supposed to avoid anything that is crunchy or hard to digest (onions, lettuce, corn) for a few more weeks.

My normal quantity is still one ounce of food every 2 hours.  I know that doesn't sound like much, and it's not, my wife who eats like a bird is eating several times more than me (granted she is in her third trimester and is now eating for two)  You may ask if I am ever hungry eating that small as a quantity, I can honestly say i have not been hungry once since leaving the hospital.  I have however overeaten a time or two, it feels like after Thanksgiving dinner after you have too much turkey and stuffing except somehow more acute and instead of just waiting for it to settle you usually end up throwing up a little bit (sorry for the graphic image there).  It is a lesson you learn very quickly just to avoid  that feeling.

I am amazed by how habitual how you eat is.  As part of the diet leading up to the surgery I was supposed to practice eating really small bites and as y'all know I struggled with this.  Well post surgery I have done pretty well but I have had a few slips and swallowed a few larger bites.  This is another agonizing experience that I have quickly learned to avoid.  I have also learned that eating when distracted is a bad practice because this is what has caused my overeating (by just a small bite or two) and the bites that were too large.

In the world of weight loss we have what we call "NSV's" or Non-Scale Victories, these being accomplishments or milestones due to the weight loss or getting more fit stuff like finally being able to jog a mile without stopping to walk part of it or having to buy new clothes.  My first NSV was probable the fact that I have been completely off my high blood pressure medication since the day of surgery.  I had another NSV this weekend and this one I think is pretty cool and happened far sooner than I expected.  I had to go buy a little spacer for my wedding ring because I had already reached the point where my fingers had shrunk to the point where it no longer fit.

Non-Scale Victories are really cool and all but so is seeing the scale continue to drop and as of this Monday I am at 346 pounds, if you are keeping track that is 35 pounds in 28 days which under other circumstances would be an insanely fast and unsafe rate of weight loss but following gastric bypass is considered a perfectly reasonable rate of weight loss and I am now officially under 350 for good which is awesome. Sorry, no pictures this time but I only have 10 more pounds to the next comparison pictures point so maybe a week, two at the most.

Just a quick note on the other major event in my life.  My wife's hip bursitis seems to slowly be getting better but she still has some pain.  Evren seems to be doing great every time he is measured at the doctors office his measurements and heart rate are dead center average so all is well with him.  His due date isn't until May 23rd but April's family historically has almost always come 2-3 weeks early so we are expecting Evren to be her in just under 2 months.  I know it will be a huge change and that we will be indefinitely bordering on the edge of exhaustion but I can not wait.

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

Lessons learned...

     So,  I am now 19 days post-op, and as of this morning I am 28.3 pounds down since surgery (62 pounds down since starting this journey last July). I have learned a few things over the last few weeks.

As I had mentioned in my last post I had graduated to a new diet phase consisting of one ounce every 2 hours of  5 'real' foods, those being re-fried beans, nonfat yogurt (preferably Greek), low fat or non fat cottage cheese, egg whites or egg beaters, and pudding, I am also drinking an ounce an hour of protein shake and 64 ounces a day of water.  I had mentioned how my first bite of re-fried beans was an amazing experience since it had been about 2 weeks without food.  My opinion of re-fried beans has definitely changed over the last 10 days and I am nearing the point of never wanting to eat them again (same for the rest of the five foods).

I have however found that four of the five foods  can be combined in some decent ways.  I went and bought a small 3" frying pan and have become fairly adept at making really small omelets, which are pretty good when you add a little bit of re-fried beans or cottage cheese.  have also found re-fried beans with a little bit of cottage cheese or plain Greek yogurt is pretty good. I haven't really tried combining the pudding with anything else just doesn't sound pleasant.

I found out pretty quick that even with the small quantity I feel full really quick, to the point that I have to wait a few minutes after eating to drink anything or I start feeling sick and bloated.

Yesterday I decided to try an experiment.  We brought home a small box of a strawberry protein shake from the hospital. It was slightly thicker than milk and not very high in protein so I decided to add some vanilla protein powder to it to supercharge it.  While it tasted really good it turned out really thick, sort of like cake batter and when I drank it it just got sort of stuck in my pouch and took about 20 minutes for it to finally drain.  I was miserable, it hurt a little but more than that it was a constant bloated feeling and some stomach cramping.  I will not be doing that again, ever.

I still have one tube stuck in me (and am really sick of it) but I have an appointment Wednesday and it will be pulled then.  I will also be moving on to the next phase of the diet where I can eat more soft food and puree some harder food to make it edible.  I also get to increase to 2 ounces assuming I don't feel full first.

I know most of of this post has been on the negative side but the truth is I am doing great and am really happy with my decision. My incisions are healing nicely,  I am hardly ever in any pain.  I am also NEVER hungry, even with the small amount I am eating.  One interesting change that has happened is that my body is metabolizing so much less food and generating so much less energy that I am frequently cold but I can always cover up more. I have done some research and this is actually normal after this surgery and while my food intake will increase some causing me to burn more calories and generate more heat I am also losing a really great insulator as I loose weight so. I am thinking we are gonna have to start keeping the house a little warmer now but that is ok because we were going to have to do that anyway with Evren coming in May.

Speaking of Evren, We had an appointment for him yesterday and he seems to be doing great, all the measurements seem to be spot on and his heart rate is absolutely dead center average for how far along he is.  April on the other hand has developed Bursitis in both of her hips and is in quite a bit of pain, but she is seeing a physical and massage therapist and it is getting slowly better.

So, I have hit the next 20 pound milestone so as promised I have posted some new pictures showing my progress.  I also did a side by side closeup of my face just since surgery two and a half weeks ago, I think the change is pretty dramatic.  It occurs to me I never put any other recent pictures from Evren's last ultrasound so I will throw a couple of those out there as well.

As always thanks again for reading and checking out the pictures, I hope you like them.  Once again of course thanks for the thoughts and especially for all the prayers.