John W.
My Weigh Loss Journey - by weight
1-4-07 347
1-12-07 336
1-19-07 335
1-26-07 334.5
2-2-07 336
2-9-07 332
2-16-07 330
2-23-07 329
3-2-07 330
3-9-07 325
3-16-07 323.5
3-23-07 325
3-30-07 319
4-6-07 318
4-13-07 319
4-20-07 317
4-27-07 315
5-4-07 313
5-14-07 313
5-21-07 311 (begin liquid preop diet)
5-29-07 300 (surgery weight)
6-08-07 293
6-13-07 292
6-18-07 285
6-25-07 277
7-1-07 272
7-9-07 269
7-16-07 268
7-23-07 264
7-30-07 264
8-6-07 254 (finally this stall has broken)
8-13-07 253
8-20-07 252
8-27-07 247 (the 100 pound century mark - and my birthday to boot - what a nice gift)
9-4-07 246
9-10-07 242
9-17-07 242 (finally, the stall I was expecting has arrived)
9-24-07 237
10-01-07 233
10-8-07 232
10-15-07 227 (this marks the end of obesity...now I'm just plain overweight)
10-22-07 223
10-29-07 224 (I'm not calling it a gain - it's a temporary fluxuation - still 8 pounds in 2 weeks is good)
11-05-07 222
11-12-07 220 (I'm above my target of 1200 cals on most days)
11-19-07 220
11-26-07 220 (OUCH...MY first REAL stall)
12-03-07 215 (Hey...I was still losing...it just wasn't showing up on the scale)
1-7-08 216 (I really enjoyed the Christmas season and ate reasonably for the first time)
1-14-08 212
1-21-08 211
1-28-08 206 (focusing on doing most things right makes a difference)
2-4-08 206
2-11-08 205
2-18-08 205
2-25-08 205 (what??, I only lost a single pound in February??)
3-3-08 203 (I've already lost twice as much as in all of February)
3-10-08 203
3-18-08 198 (I made it to Onederland - never saw it in the 1990's nor 21st century)
3-24-08 198
3-31-08 198
4-7-08 198
4-14-08 198
4-21-08 198
4-28-08 199
5-5-08 200 (ouch...I don't like the looks of this...back to work)
5-12-08 197
5-19-08 198
5-26-08 198
6-2-08 197
6-9-08 197
6-16-08 196 (Christine's liquid diet - makes is easier for me - working it more now)
6-23-08 195
My journey began around Thanksgiving 2006. My brother Dale has met two people who have had the surgery and they seem to be so genuinely happy that he wanted that for me. He really helped me look at this as a realistic option. I attended one the meetings that my doctor recommended and that seemed to make good sense to me. Now I teach school, so doing this before school is out is out of the question. I'm planning to have my surgery around the end of May or early June. The insurance we have is the best and it looks like this will not end up costing too much.
A bit about my weight loss history involves Weight Watchers. When I was in college I was 130 pounds overweight and decided to join WW. It took me over 2 years, but I lost all of my weight and was down to 169 lbs with a height of 6 feet. I wrote my story and submitted it to Weight Watchers Magazine and they accepted my article. What made it so fascinating was that it involved the weight loss of both of my parents and also my high school brother. Only my mom was on WW and my dad and brother just followed the WW program and dropped the pounds. I graduated from college and then traveled to Australia for 8 months. I stayed with 28 different host families and managed to keep my weight off for several years.
Then I met Christine through my work for Michigan State University. She is just the most wonderful person I have ever met. She is a lot of fun and she is like a magnet to me as well as the people around her. We got married and by that time my weight was up 90 pounds from my lowest. We tried WW together again and managed to drop a few pounds. We've had 5 kids together and they are just a fantastic bunch of kids. Once again, I'm so lucky to have this great life. Over the next 3-4 years I gained an additional 60 pounds and end up staying at that weight for almost 10 years. In 2000 we moved from Michigan to NE Kansas so I could take a job with a telecom company. I worked with them for a year when the telecom bubble began to burst. They ended up laying off 85% of the people. I was devastated since I always prided myself on doing my very best at whatever I did. I then took a teaching job where my kids go to school and that has been my life since.
Now in April of 2005, I was diagnosed with diabetes. Since that time I've gained about 15-20 pounds. Since I have diabetes, my doctor recently put me on a drug called Byetta. I was a bit reluctant to try it because it is in a shot format, and I just hate shots. Besides, my diabetes was being kept in check without the added shot. Then he told me that if I took it, it would not only help control my blood sugar, but help me lose weight. Yeah, right doc...just like the metformin was supposed to help me lose weight. Well, I tried it and by that evening I could tell the difference. My wife and I went out to dinner and I was half way though my steak when I said that I was full and would take the rest home. Now that never happens to me....food and me...we are on a first name basis...hey food. It was at that point that my wife became suspicious that this stuff was working. I've been on it for 3 weeks and have already lost 7 pounds and backed off on the metformin. I am amazed because I never feel hungry on this stuff so far. Maybe I can drop some of this weight before my surgery??
The rest of my story will be in the blog portion of this profile. I intend to update it so that others can follow my progress. I know how helpful some of the other stories have been to me, so maybe I can help someone too.
If you are considering the surgery, may your journey be a great one.
