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Wow, I have been waiting a long time for this day.  I do NOT weigh 300 pounds!  298 this morning.  I have been stuck at 300 to 304 for the last few weeks.  The big difference is exercise .  My hip is feeling great and we bought a stationary recumbent bike.  It is awesome to be able to exercise without pain.  Funny, for the first time in a long time, me weight matches my drivers license.  I could not get myselt to say I weighed over 300 pounds when I renewed my license.  It is a good day.

I had the hip resurfacing proceedure on Monday!  I got home Wednesday evening.  Check it out here.  I am doing very well.  I hurt bad but it is a whole new kinda hurt that gets better every day and the old pain is gone.  Not really sure of my weight as I broke my scale trying to move it with crutches (oops).  I will update soon but I was right at 300 when I checked into the hospital.  I have three year old brand new skis and bindings (never used) that I am going to get the chance to try and wear out this winter.  It has been years since I have been able to ski moguls but bumps here I come.  No stamina yet but I will update again next week.

OK, this was my summer conference season and my oldest sons wedding, I have been on the road for four of the last five weeks.  Very tough social situations.  It was a win however, as I still list four pounds.  I am pretty happy about that.  Meeting with the orthopedic surgeon next week to schedule the hip surgery.  I cannot wait to get the damn thing done.  I want my life back!  My son's wedding was awesome.  It was in Chattanooga TN.  I also got the chance to make the pilgrimage to Lynchburg (Jack Daniels Distillery).  First time in three years we have had the whole family together as my middle son fishes in Alaska and is always out on the boat during holidays.  I cannot wait to take the "3" off the front of my weight.

313 pounds this morning!  This would all be so easy if I could just stay home.  I do not have to eat with clients, I get all of my protien and I can have a smoothie whenever I want.  I have lost 5 pounds over the last 4 days and I have not been hungry at all.  OK, side note.  I have gotten so lazy in my typing that I am having to proof-read everything I write.  Both MSWord and my Treo fix all of my mistakes for me, so I have quit capitalizing "i".  Typing on here I have had to go back and fix that issue five times.  Kinda funny.  Also kinda funny looking at this that I misspelled "proof-read" and had to fix it.  
Anyway, back on topic.  I leave Wednesday for a week and a half.  The first four days are with my Mother at my Nieces' graduation.  My Mom really likes to manage everything and everybody!  It is hard to stop and relax.  She is the warmest, most caring person I have ever met and it is truly all out of love.  She quotes her personal panel of experts constantly.  She starts almost every bit of advice with "They say" (then add anything you want)....how can you argue with nameless experts????  She has constant diet advice and it is tough to be firm but loving with her.  The one thing I have learned in 47 years is to let go.  It is OK if Mom thinks I am listening :)  I don't need any advice here, just letting you all know the challenge that awaits me in Oshkosh Wisconsin:)  
But....I have lost 60 freaking pounds, how cool is that?  I was on TickerFactory updating my ticker and they have a graph that shows a constant, steady decline in my weight.  It is hard to describe the emotional impact it had to see that displayed graphically.  I mean, I have moved in four notches on my belt and all of my pants are falling off me.  I am wearing a very expensive suit to my sons wedding that has a dry cleaning tag on it from 2003 (and it was tight then) and that little graph hit me like a ton of bricks.  Life is pretty good.

After a week in New York City entertaining clients and eating every meal out, I lost 3 pounds.  I need to get very serious now if I really want to get to 299 by the 4th of July (and my son's wedding)

Great day.  321 this morning.  I am perfect with the band right now.  No hunger issues and great control.  I want it to stay just like this!

Had another fill this morning to 6cc's.  I am now at 327.  Not bad after a 12 day vacation to China.  The trip was amazing and it was so nice to spend the time alone with my two youngest kids.  I feel a lot of restriction with this fill and it is finally forcing me to eat small portions and very slowly.  I will update again soon as I think the pounds are about to fall off.

Second fill yesterday.  Current weight 333.   I am losing about 2 - 3 pounds a week.  The major change I have seen after the first fill is that I really have to slow down when I eat.  The doctor brought me back up to 4 cc's since I am not having hunger issues.  I have been eating too fast every so often, and when that happens I get bad heartburn and I have to throw up.  This is happening about two times a week and it is always when I am distracted while eating.  My doctors main concern is that I don't give up on solid food, especially protien.  If I were to revert to liquids, I would get hungry quicker.  Hense, the decision to keep me at 4 cc's for the next two weeks.  This is all starting to make sense to me.  The gave me a prescription for a patch to put on my hip that is a strong anesthetic.  Along with my low dose of Vicodin, this may do the trick with my hip to get me through the China trip.  Everything is going very well.

First fill last Thursday and it went great.  For some weird reason, I was nervous about it.  After all I have been through, it is strange that I was concerned.  They put in 4 cc's and I certainly feel the difference.  I have had a couple of times over the weekend where I have eaten to quickly and the food got stuck.  Pretty unconfortable but really the first time that I have had to start making the changes I have been expecting.  I am very glad this is happening.  (Does that make sense to anyone but me?)  I guess I go back every two weeks for the next couple of months as they adjust it.  I am really noticing the change now.  All of my clothes are starting to feel loose.  I love it.  A long way to go but I feel like I am in charge now.  On another note, I had a great weekend, it is spring break for the kids and my wife took them to visit her parents in Palm Springs for four days.  We were all goiing to go last month but she was picked to go to Antarctica so we had to change plans.  I stayed home as my father had planned to come visit this month.  We had an awesome weekend together.  It was in the mid 70's all weekend and we kept finding reasons to go somewhere in my mustang convertable.  I will have to post a picture of my car as (I know this sounds stupid) it kind of defines who I am.  Just worked in the yard a lot and spent a lot of time on the deck.  I know how lucky I am to still have both of my parents.  They celebrate their 48th wedding anniversary this July and they are a true blessing in my life.  Less than six weeks until my China trip and I want to loose 25 more pounds by then, pretty agressive but I think I can do it.

Well, it has been a challenge on staying with the diet as I have traveled for work part of all three weeks since my surgery.  It is going well however, I am at 340 lbs.  That is 12 pounds down from surgery and 33 pounds less then when I started.  My suits are getting loose and I took in a knotch in my belt.  The first step (Well, maybe third step) on a long road down.  I am still letting my mind make portion size decisions and not my new stomach size.  I am working on it and feel very confident I can make this switch.  I do get full very fast on much smaller portions so it is working, I am looking forward to my first fill to help on this issue.  Eating is easy at home as I have a regimin, but the road is a struggle.