my pockets!  Yes, it's true - the smaller my pants get, the smaller pokcets they seem to have.  This is clearly logical, but I hadn't thougth about it.

When I was wearing 56 inch waist pants, I could put my money clip, change, cell phone, I-pod, hankerchief, keys, and wallet all in my pockets and barely notice.  Now that my pants are rougly 10 inches smaller, I'm having issues with carrying everything around...I have to take my keys and cell phone out for sure before I sit at my desk.

This whole pocket thing reminded me of Big George.  When I was a kid, Big George was the gypsy who ran the local pool hall / domino parlor.  Big George was really a Gypsy, and he was also really big - probably pushing 550 or so.  Big George evidently had a very reliable belt, because he did actually carry around a whole rack full of pool balls in his front pockets - 16 plus the cue ball...  I always thought that was funny, but now that I've been pushing 400 myself, I don't see much funny about it any more, and I feel a little sorry for Big George as I think back on him.  It's too bad WLS was never an option for him.  He was seemingly a fairly warm caring guy who was always segregated due to his size.

Along that same topic, I saw a version of my former self at the grocery store last weekend.  She was roughly my height, and probably pushing 400 pounds, same as I was before I got my shit together.  She was also pushing a cart full of pop, chips, ice cream, and other assorted junk food.  She was clearly in pain from the effort of traversing the store.  Sweat beads were running down her temples, and her legs and ankles were swollen to bursting out of her shorts and shoes.   I wanted to pull out my drivers license and say - "Look - less than 1 mile away from here there are people who can change your life if you'll just work with them!" but of course I didn't.  I doubt that I would have taken something like that very well when I was at that place in my life, and I expect she wouldn't have either, but I really felt so sorry for her.... she looked miserable, a look that I was all too familiar with until this year...  Sometimes I want to wear a sticker or badge that says "I lost it with a VSG - You can, too - Ask me how!"  but I probably won't - unless they are available at the next support group meeting... 

John

Well, I've been stuck at basically the same weight for the last three weeks - again...  It's frustrating that my body is taking so long to adjust to all the changes.  I know that my calories taken in are still far less than my calories expended (even though I'm not doing a good job of keeping up with my exercise.)  My schedule is from hell right now... my days are going at least 18 hours each....  I'm hopeful that soon my body will give in and let go of some more pounds.  I feel like if I can get to 250 or below, I will feel like that is a weight that belongs to a "normal" person.  I know that won't give me a "normal" or even "overweight" BMI according to the charts, but somewhere inside, 250 seems like a weight for a normal man.  I can't explain it, and once I get there I don't expect to be satisfied, but it is definitely a significant milestone in my head.

Here's hoping that I can provide some help to others on their journey...keep the faith and work with your Doctors... you, too, can make your life soooooo much better!

John

That is what I've been putting in my body the last few days - garbage...  It's traditional that I take the days before school starts off work to spend with my oldest son.  We go for school information day, get school supplies, go to the movies, etc.   This year we went to the movies, Frontier City (I fit in all the rides - YEAH!!!), and the OKC Museum of Art (the Ancient Rome exhibit is incredible) - BUT, in between all of this activity, we ate and ate.  We had Cattleman's for lunch (chicken fried steak!), we even stopped an got ice cream one day (Cold Stone Creamery).  We even ate at Macaroni Grill one day (Penne Rustica - yummmm - I did steer away from the pasta, but the sauce had to be thousands of fat grams.)  I haven't been on my treadmill in over a week.... good grief.

Anyhow - my scale was up two pounds this morning  - I know it has to be water that I'm carrying because I haven't been getting in enough fluids while I've been out playing around and eating all this garbage.  So - today the kids went back to school and I went back to work and I'm already on my second 50 ounce bottle of Crystal Light (just barely noon.)  I'm going back on plan - protein, water, exercise, and no more junk food!  I don't want to be wasting my "honeymoon" days... they won't last long enough.  I am generally pleased with my losses to date, and thanks to the new pictures I got back last week (and the new avatar pick from GlitterGal Kim) I can see the difference.  I just don't want the current pictures to be "afters."  They are great for "during" but I still have a long way to go to get to "after." 

Well, confession over - now the real work begins.  I'll be back on the plan and hopefully I'll be losing again in the next few days.