2 years post op

Sep 26, 2012

Well, it is now 2 years since I had the surgery.  I have gained some weight back in the last few months which is my own fault.  I am still net 200 lb loss but it is annoying that I weigh more today than I did a year ago.  Some of the reasons are that I haven't worked out as much since the gym at my company has been closed since May.  That and I have had too many oreo cookies.  I still work out 2 to 3 times a week and walk a lot the other days I don't work out but I really miss that.  I am curtailing the cookies and trying to reduce the whole wheat bread consumption as well.  I rarely feel discomfort from eating unless it is a bread. 

On the positive end is my wife and I had a third child this past May.  We had an 11 1/2 year old boy and a 9 year old girl and we were blessed with a healthy boy.  It is much easier taking care of the third one but three in varying stages of childhood can be challenging at times. 

I prided myself on not looking to leave my wife.  In saying that I had this desire for women to fawn over me.  Years of being morbidy obese women just not look at me or looked in disgust.  I understood why.  But I thought I would get some flirting at least.  Well that has not happened.  I am bummed out about that.  I had thought I was a good looking guy in a morbid obese body.  Well I guess I am wrong on that. 

This past June I ran in a Spartan Race (obstacle course race).  It was extremely strenuous and was a tremendous feet to complete it.  Especially for the person I use to be.  I continue to run and will be doing a local mudder race and a 5k in the Animal Kingdom in November.  My next goal is to increase my mileage so I can run further distances in 2013. 

I look forward to dropping 10 pounds over the next year. 

Life is a tremendous blessing and I am so happy that I did have this surgery. 

0 comments

2012 Adjusting to ????

Jan 11, 2012

Well my weight loss plateaued at 202 and has since risen to where I way between 205-210.  I eat a good amount of food each day.  I have introduced carbs on occasion but still strongly follow the protein way of life.  I work out still which is why I believe I am maintaining my weight.  Without that it I feel that I would have gained more weight.  So with the weight loss over it is difficult to set up goals around weight.  I have decided to allow a 7 lb range to live in and never adjust.  I mean never. 

My wife and I have an excellent relationship.  She is my love and best friend.  The weight loss improved our marriage tremendously.  She is good about prepping food for me.  We are also welcoming our 3rd child this upcoming May.  We already have an 11 year old boy and an 8 year old girl who will be turning 9 around the birth. 

I have been promoted and will be moving to a new position in my company starting next week.  It is an exciting time for me and I wouldn't be where I am if I didn't have the surgery, exercise and changed my eating habits.

0 comments

A year of working out

Nov 21, 2011

Well I have spent the last 12 months regularly working out at the gym.  I love the time and effort that I put in there.  I was able to run my first 5k on Disney's private island Castaway Cay in early November.  I did it in 31:25.  I had been training for it for the previous month.  Weight loss has been minimal over the past few months but my body is leaner and stronger.  I recently purchased a medium sized sweat jacket.  Medium?  I was a 5 x size 15 months ago.  Hey sometimes I feel like the m.o. I was for so long in my life.  It really is the best to be who I am today.  I am achieving more than I possibly could have imagined.  I just went parasailing for the first time in my life.  Parasailing!!!! 


If you have any doubt, don't.  You can make this a wonderful life and I am making it up for all of the years of misery being so large.  I hope my words can help out.

0 comments

One year post surgery

Sep 21, 2011

Well I have passed the one year anniversary of my gastric bypass.  I have visited my surgeon for my 12 month check up.  I am proud to say that my weight loss and blood work were excellent.  I have lost a total of 232 lbs since I started this change in life style.  I am currently working out 5 times a week.  My surgeon says that it is a 5 year plan of maintaining the weight.  I am ready for the next phase of this new life style.  I have had two glasses of wine about 7 weeks ago.  Nothing since.  I have become more adventurous food and beverage wise.  I have a decaffineted coffee with skim milk and one splenda three times a week.  Before I just had my protein shake and water the rest of the day.  My marriage is awesome these days.  It is a lot more enjoyable being a smaller weight and improved flexibility if you know what I mean.  Anyhow my next goal is to run in a 5 k.  I need to start training for that this fall.  I am so thankful that I had the courage to finally have this surgery and have the resolve to maintain for the rest of my life on this planet.  Good luck to all of you.  Life is excellent a year post surgery.

0 comments

What a difference since August 2010

Apr 14, 2011

Well I have never blogged here so this will be a major recap over my first 7-8 months on this journey.  I was an individual that felt he was invincible.  I felt that no matter what I ate or how heavy I would get that everything would be fine.  Well I spent the vast majority of my 30's north of 350 and the second half in the 400 region.  I was somebody that had tried atkins and various other diets.  I would lose 55-70 pounds and then gain it back.  Then I stopped those diets and pushed well into the 400 category.  I turned 40 March 2010 and I finally realized that I had to do something about the massive amount that I weighed.  I had always been obese as an adult, but I was athletic in my twenties.  I missed that life.   I began to fear that I would become immobile and I didn't want my children to see me in that condition.  It was bad enough they had such a heavy father.  I had never had diabetes or high blood pressure. So I decided it was time for a change before those things happened.  No more fast food eating, no more rich desserts.  No more sneaking of those foods either.  Goodbye to sugar related drinks.  

In 2005 and 2007, I had considered weight loss surgery.  Both times I did not follow through as I was too afraid to die.  Well I gained approximately 86 pounds in the time before I decided to do this surgery in May 2010.  I went to Advanced Laprascopy in Florham Park, NJ.  I had not weighed myself in a while because all the scales I ever used were below 400.  Well in early June 2010 I found out that I was 437 pounds.  I had guessed 450 but I certainly was not happy with the number.  I asked the doctor which surgery should I have, lapband or roux-en-Y?  He felt that I would loose 100-150 on a lap band but I would never change my eating habits.  He recommended that I would have the RNY.  He said I could loose up to 200 lbs.  In having the RNY it would force me to change my eating habits.  He also mentioned by the time my appetitie would come back that I would have the ability to eat differently going forward.  I agreed and worked on having the surgery.   I also went for two sleep studies and found out I had sleep apnea.  I had a cpap machine thereafter and it was fantastic.   

Well I decided to develop a game plan, there were certain things that I ate that were very bad.  I realized that cold turkey would not be the right answer for me.  I decided to remove the bad things I ate and drank over the next few months prior to the surgery.  At my July appointment, I gained one pound to 438.  Ugh.  Really, I was upset.  My next time I was in the office was early September and I had finally lost 19 lbs.  Man that had been a while where I had lost weight by watching what I ate.  My surgery date was scheduled for September 20th.  I had gotten down to 404 the morning of my surgery.  Nervous, nah it was time to move on to a new life. 

The surgery happended sometime in the afternoon.  I was out of it until 9 pm that night.  I just remembered having painful gas.  When I came to my wife had just left.  I couldn't sleep to long as the iv made me have to go to the bathroom constantly.  I finally dosed off for a few hours in the early morning.  The next day I felt great.  I was walking up and down the hallway.  It felt like nothing was that different except for the ports in my abdomen.  In less than 48 hours I was on my way home.  Well the night of my first day home the sharp pain on the left started kicking in.  That continued for the next 4 days.  Eating was minimal and it was very hard to get the protein in and the water amounts they wanted me to hit.  The pouch makes you feel like a baby.  A rebirth on how to live life.  When I went for my first week appointment I was told to start eating some soft foods.  That was oatmeal and the like.  Things were going well at this point.  I was out walking for 30 minutes a day and the weight was dropping off.  Something went wrong though towards the end of the second week post op.  I had bleeding from the backend of the body.  My wife took me to the hospital.  They identified that I had bleeding at the incinsion of the pouch and the small intestine.  They performed an endoscopy and stopped the bleeding.  After three days, I was sent home but the bleeding had not completely stopped.  In fact my second day home the bleeding picked up and I was back in the hospital.  This time they performed a more extensive endoscopy and found a few more spots that bleeding was occuring.  After a few more days in the hosptial they sent me home.  The worst thing of all was being heavy and the difficulty they had finding my veins to draw blood.   Well at least the bleeding stopped but now I was anemic. 

Well after being out of work for a total of 5 weeks, I went back to work.  Boy that was a challenge as I could barely move around even the first two weeks.  After that I got into the swing of things.  The one thing I was lacking was the exercise that I should have been following.  So I joined the gym at work.  What a great thing to have at your office.  I started on the treadmill and after a week and got a sports injury, achilles tendonitis.  Thanksgiving was a nightmare.  I could barely walk.  More like hobbling.  The good thing through all the early drama post surgery was the weight was coming off.  I had already lost 100 lbs by the time I joined the gym.   I finally started to see the benefits of all of this as December rolled around.

Luckily I had kept some old clothes (3x).  I had grown out of my 5x and 4x clothing.  I had gone back to the gym and started using the eliptical machines.  They are awesome.  Now pain to the joints but yet you can get a great workout.  The amount of food had now increased to 3 ounces but I was not eating a lot.  Christmas was great, I ate some filet mignon and dropped three pounds the next day.  I was stronger by the end of December.

As January rolled around I started going to the gym 5 times a week and increased my workouts to include cardio and then upper body weights.    This has led me to where I am today.  I have lost at this point 198 pounds in total.  It is tremendous to say that.  I have a much better life with my wife and my children.  The compliments I get from coworkers, family and friends is awesome.  It is a new and different world for me.  No longer do I have interest in Big Macs, Coke, french fries, yankee doodles or nacho cheeze doritos.  That might be the best feeling of all.  I currently am wearing XL sized clothes and wondering how much further I will go down in weight. 

The keys to success are to get your protein and water in.  Take your vitamins.  Don't forget those top three ever.  Exercise a minimum 30 minutes a day, at least three times a week. 

It has been 16 plus years since I was this weight.

1 comment

About Me
31.5
BMI
RNY
Surgery
09/20/2010
Surgery Date
Sep 04, 2010
Member Since

Friends 11

Latest Blog 5

×