Justin M.

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OK…well so it’s now been a little over two weeks since I’ve last updated. For awhile there it seems liked I hit a plateau…my weight loss was staying stuck at 73 lbs. Finally it passed and I hit the 80 lb. mark. I was like WOW!! Tomorrow 3/27 I have my 3 month post-op check up. My personal training sessions have been going well…my trainer is really cool and does his best to be patient with me. I haven’t really been up to much here, just busy with work. I did go to Fremont last week and was able to visit Laura A. at Kaiser the day after her surgery. I am glad to see that she was doing good. We had our support group meeting at Perko’s on 3/14 and it was a lot of fun. It good to see Tairie whom I haven’t seen in over a month. I was glad that Carrie, Lee, Sara, and Bridget made it as well. That night I had my first salad and I felt like such a pig, I ate most of it. My friend Benita is in the process of getting her surgery date through Kaiser so I am excited for her. I hung out with her this last Wednesday. Other than that not much new here. I will update after my doctor’s visit. TTFN

325 This picture was taken at work back in July 2005 weighing around 325 lbs.

248 This is a pic of me taken on 3/23/2006...I am 3 months post-op weighing in at 248 lbs.

OK so I’ve been so bad about updating…I promise to keep on top of things. Now I am down a total of 71 lbs. I weigh in at 257 lbs. On 2/20 I had my get together at Starbucks in Lathrop and it was a blast!! It was good to see my OH friends. We had it there because they decided to cancel the Manteca support group and I felt the we needed to still get together for the month. Jill looks great!!! WOW how she has changed since the beginning of January. Lee also looks good! Actually I must say all of my friends looked good!! I am praying for Miss Tairie to get her approval for the surgery. Also on 2/20 I cancelled my membership at 24 Hour Fitness because they discriminate against the sizably challenged. I went into get weighed on the special Tanita scale and Jeremy, the PT made a scene in front of everybody saying that I come into get weighed every day…which is a f**kin’ lie!!! The asst. sales manager allowed him to continue to berate me. I went back and talked to the operations manager about it and she was like “Well Jeremy wasn’t talking to you.” Well I would like to know who the hell he was talking to since he was directing his voice at me and making eye contact with me. Then the District Manager called me back and let me tell you, she must have been one of those “skinny bytches” that Monique talks about in her book “Skinny Woman are Evil.” The DM pacified Jeremy’s behavior and had the nerve to try and make him the victim. I told her that she must be a skinny bytch and that I can see that this conversation is going no where…so have a great day…click!!! I did this while I was on the bus and these 2 girls who overhead my conversation said they liked the way that I handled that situation by being assertive. I’ve started to realize that I need to be more assertive in situations and quit holding back inside how I feel. So I called and talked with Fernando, the manager of InShape in downtown Stockton and he hooked me up with a membership there. I’ve talked to him before and he seems like a nice guy. His girlfriend has also had the surgery so he understands. I haven’t really been up to a lot…just living my normal life. After the incident at 24 Hour Fitness, I went to Sears and bought my own Tanita body scale so now I can weigh at home. I spent some time last week with my friend Benita, she is trying to have the surgery…she has been through a lot…she attended Dr. Coates’ seminar and has been through the post-op class and psych eval but her evil boss changed insurance in November to Kaiser so now she has to start all over. Luckily for her Kaiser has taken into consideration what she has done so it seems like everything is being accelerated for her. I hadn’t seen her since before my surgery. She was amazed by my transformation. Saturday 3/4 I took the day off of work to go to a Starbucks gathering that Jill put together in Turlock…it was lot of fun…I was surrounded by a gang of fly lookin women!! I finally got to meet Neici…we were supposed to meet while I was in the hospital but we missed each other, she came to see me after I had already went home. I finally got to meet Ms. Question of the Day, Kristin, herself along with Sara R. from Chowchillla (Wow…she looks like a supermodel and she’s super sweet too). It was a lot of fun…Thanks Karen for taking me. Sunday 3/5 was my birthday I didn’t do too much, I went to work today. Monday 3/6 we had support group in Modesto and Karen took me…I finally meet Deb Stone. Wow what a hottie!!! She really has transformed since her surgery…I’ve only seen pics of her prior to that day…what a transformation! Sara R. also was there since she and Deb came together. I was glad to see that Deborah Wolfington was doing good since I had just found out that weekend the she had been in the hospital due to issues with her gallbladder. It’s amazing how much Lee has shrunk in the 2 weeks since I’ve seen him last. I was glad to see him. I read on OH that Jimita (Scale Ho) was there and that she saw me, I was sad that we didn’t get to meet. This last week I hired a personal trainer at InShape and started getting session. I’ve signed up for 7 sessions. My trainers name is Tony and he’s 22…wow somebody younger than me is going to instruct me. It was funny the first time we met he thought that I was around his age…he was surprised to find out that I had just turned 28. They went ahead took body fat measurements on me. The first session we worked on lower body exercise and then on Thursday we did some upper body exercise. I have 3 sessions this next week. I’m sore but it will be well worth it. I’m doing good, work is going ok…I’m thankful to my angel Dave for giving me his old pants so that will save me some money since I started to outgrow my existing clothes. It was good to see him and Bev at the Turlock gathering, I haven’t seen them since the day after I came home from the hospital, they were amazed by my transformation. I promise to keep more update on my journal. I’m amazed that people actually are inspired by me. That makes me feel good!! TTFN

325 This picture was taken at work back in July 2005 weighing around 325 lbs.

260 This is a pic of me taken on 3/3/2006...I am 9 weeks post-op weighing in at 260 lbs.

OK…well lets see…it’s been 9 days since I’ve last been on here to update. I found out on Friday 2/10 that they are canceling the Manteca support group. I think this is a bunch of fukkin shyt but hey. So since we didn’t have our Manteca support group this month I put together a get together tomorrow, Monday 2/20 at Starbucks in Lathrop. I’m looking forward to seeing people from all over tomorrow. I feel empowered that I was able to pull this off. Man Saturdays have been strange days at work because I longer sit there feeding my face all day. This last week has been pretty uneventful. Well Monday I had an issue…I went to Chipotle at Weberstown Mall in Stockton to get something for dinner and they people were difficult. The heifa that made my food was a bytch for real!! I ordered a chicken burrito bowl…she got pissed off because I told her that I didn’t want no rice or beans in it, then I asked for the salsa on the side…well evidently is deaf as she is dumb because she kept insisting on putting it on my food, she then got pissed because I told that she was going to have to make me a new bowl and had attitude, bytch if u cleaned the ear wax out of your ears or got a miracle ear you wouldn’t have had this issue. So the other girl was hella cool and gave me my salsa, guacamole, cheese, and sour cream on the side. Now the manager girl was kinda a bytch too til I put her on blast. I was trying to explain why did I have to pay full price for a burrito bowl when I didn’t get 2 of the main components of it. I asked how each item was individually and it was cheaper that way. She kept insisting on charging me for a burrito. She looked like she didn’t believe me that I had gastric bypass surgery…so I shut her up rite quick by pulling and my shirt and counting all my scars for them…yes I know that I’m ghetto but then she felt hella stupid and made the rite choice and charged me the cheaper of the two. She was hella nice after that. Tuesday I went to Vintage Faire Mall in Modesto and just walked around and went to Circuit City and got a Bluetooth headset for my new phone. I got my mom some flowers and chocolates along with a card for Valentine’s Day. My Valentine’s Day was nothing spectacular since I don’t have anybody to share it with. I also took my Sidekick 2 back to T-Mobile today. For $356.00 it should do way more than what it does. Wednesday I didn’t really do to much. Thursday I had a WOW moment, for the first time in over 5 years I was able to purchase a pair of pants from Old Navy. I’ve gone for like a size 52-54 to a size 44. I was hella happy. I bought the pants and 2 polo shirts there, then at Dillard’s I purchased a pair of corduroys for work. I also bought a pair of mid-top black/white Air Force 1’s today. I felt hella good today…I also got weighed at the gym on the special Tanita scale and lost 4 more lbs…bring my weight loss down to 55 lbs (273.2 lbs). Friday and Saturday I spent the days and work…nothing exciting happened. Overall I’m feeling good. I still have issues every now and then eating. I threw up Saturday night from some chicken and green beans. After I threw up my dumb ass tried to have a popsicle and that made things worse. I finally felt better after awhile and then went to bed. I will update on Monday to let everybody know how my event turned out. TTFN.

Well it’s been awhile since I’ve last updated. I finally went back to work on Thursday, February 2. If I would have known that my taxes were going to come back this day and that my disability check was going to come the very next day I would haven’t gone back this soon…I was kind of stressing over money. But in reality it was good to finally go back to work. I got a lot of attention when I went back, it felt kind of strange. It does feel good though to finally get back to the old grindstone. I work Thursday-Sunday so during these days it’s hard for me to find time to hit the gym. So I measured the distance of the parking lot at my job and 1 lap around it is 3/10 of a mile. So last Friday I walked 4 laps (1.2 miles), Saturday I walked 6 laps (1.8 miles) and Sunday I walked 7 laps (2.1 miles). So I am able to squeeze in exercise time at work. It feels good to get away from my desk and do something active. Saturday was a weird day at work. This is the day where I really just sit there and do nothing. So to pass the time away I would always be feeding my face. It felt weird not to be doing that this week. I did take a nap though on Saturday because I felt a little tired I woke up early that morning. I’m at work from morning until late evening. Sunday I was going to go to the gym but my boss called into work early so that scrapped the plans for that but I was able to make up my exercise at work. Monday I went to support group in Modesto . Karen W. took me. She is such a sweetheart. Nutrition was the topic tonight. It was a little boring. I did get an applause because I knew that trans fats usually come from partially hydrogenated oils. It was good to see Lee Smith…wow he has lost like over 40 lbs in two weeks. It’s taken me a month to lose that. I’m happy for him. He looks really good. Tuesday I went for a scenic tour in the foothills and went to Angels Camp and San Andreas. Wednesday I got weighed on the Tanita Body Scale at 24-Hr. Fitness and I now weigh 277.2 lbs. That brings my weight lost to 51 lbs. YA BABY!!! I also ate McDonald’s today because I was hungry. I had a plain cheeseburger with no bun. Just meat and cheese. It was good. Thursday, I worked graveyard and then came home and took a nap and then went out shopping. Didn’t buy anything but just basically went to get exercise in addition to the 1.5 miles I walked at work in the morning. I ate at Baja Fresh and it was good. I had a side of Charbroiled Chicken which had no carbs and 48 gms. of protein per serving with a little guacamole, sour cream and cheese. This made for 2 meals. I ate part there and ate the rest like 3 hours later. So everything seems to being going good. It was nice to actually get a paycheck from my employer. The funny thing is that since I was off I had never actually missed a paycheck from them. They were just smaller than what I was used to. Well I talk to everybody later. TTFN

325 This picture was taken at work back in July 2005 weighing around 325 lbs.

277 This is a pic of me taken on 2/10/2006...I am 6 weeks post-op weighing in at 277 lbs.

Wow it’s been a long while since I’ve posted last. Not much has changed with me. I went and saw Big Momma’s House 2 this last Friday…this $hit was hilarious; it had me laughing out loud. I’ve done basically the usual this last week or so, just chill and try to pass time until I can go back to work. Last Thursday, I went to see Lee Smith in the hospital, he just had his surgery. He was doing well; it was good to see him. He came to see me when I had my surgery. Man I can’t believe it has already been a month. I went for my 1-mo. Post-op visit yesterday and I have now officially lost 40 lbs. I met with Diane and she was very nice. She said my labs were good and that my protein levels were high, that might be a sign of dehydration, but she did say that prior to surgery I had high protein levels. She also said that if I continue the way that I am going that I can be to goal hopefully by the end of spring…oh mah fukkin god!!!! Never in my wildest dreams did I think that….no longer will I be the fat guy, the big daddy…but rather this new improved sexy biatch!!! LOL =D Also I was excited yesterday because Diane released me to go back to work this Thursday, so I am going back 11 days early. Finally I can get back into my normal routine. I started my journey at 328 lbs and now am down to 288 lbs. We went shopping yesterday and I started to blank out and feel light headed like I was going to pass out, probably because I hadn’t eaten all day, all I had was a protein shake, some water, and a sugar free Iced Vanilla Latte from Starbucks. So I went to Save Mart on Pelandale in Modesto to get some lunch meat and cheese and got nothing but issues in the deli when I went to ask for a portion cup of mayo for my meat. I explained to them that I just had WLS and that I couldn’t have a sandwich, they were like well our Deli Manager doesn’t allow this. I’m like I’ve never had a problem at any other Save Mart and that I work and behalf of Save Mart and would contact the appropriate person in corporate about this. They gave me the mayo. I also got some yogurt and string cheese. I ate that when we went to Costco and I felt better. I worked on my Myspace page last night and then went to bed. Today I’m going to get my haircut. I will talk to everybody later.

OK so it’s been a week since I have last updated. Thursday night, my mom made some stew so I picked out some little pieces of meat from it and ate it, I had an issue, I threw up for the first time). I don’t think that I chewed well enough because I felt some sharp pains in my chest. I then started coughing and up came the meat, it didn’t taste bad, and I know that this sounds gross, but now you don’t have all the acids the come back up, so it was just the food. Last Friday I went to the movies and saw Last Holiday with Queen Latifah and LL Cool J and it was good. It wasn’t as funny as I thought it would be (I was expecting it to be hella funny like Bringing Down the House). Nevertheless it was still good. On Saturday I threw up again. I started coughing when I was eating a scrambled egg and I think a little piece went down the wrong way and I puked it back up. Also today I went to a birthday party at my cousin’s house in San Andreas. It was a little trying. Everybody was eating hot dogs, hamburgers, and birthday cake and here I am sitting there eating my little bit of deli roast beef and cheese and reading a magazine for distraction. The birthday cake looked so good I wanted to stick my finger in the icing and just lick a little bit but I didn’t because I didn’t want to dump. I didn’t do too much on Sunday, just spent the day relaxing. Monday I spent the day cleaning up around the house and just relaxing again. Tuesday I went to 24 Hour Fitness and got weighed on the special Tanita body scale that they have the weighs you and gives you your BMI and I weighed 296.8, finally under 300 lbs. Today I also just chilled and kicked it with one of my friends. I did have some tri-tip for dinner tonight that I got from Safeway, OMG it was so good, I took small little bites and chewed really well. I did go to 24 Hour Fitness again later that night and walked about 30 minutes on the treadmill, the weather had been kind of bad so I couldn’t really walk outside. Wednesday, I hung out again with one of my friends, didn’t really do much. I started to feel like I was coming down with a cold and started to feel real miserable. I got some Zicam spray at the story and this $hit is nasty. It literally made me want to vomit. Since I can’t take Nyquil anymore to help me sleep, I took some of the Lortab that I had leftover to help with the aches and pains I had. It put me out. I slept well. Thursday, I just relaxed all day and took care of myself. I didn’t get all my protein in, but the doctor’s office said that was OK as I long as I kept myself hydrated. I did eat half a ham and cheese omelet that I made though. I took some Lortab again before bedtime and slept well.

Wow I haven’t updated in almost a week. Not a whole lot has gone on. I didn’t do much this past weekend. I went out and walked. On Sunday I walked to Kmart. Monday, I went to the movies and saw Hostel…what a nasty, gory a$$ movie. It’s not a movie I would recommend. Tuesday, I went and got a haircut, just relaxed…didn’t do too much, went to the Manteca support group for the 1st time. They gave a presentation about plastic surgery, it was kind of a gross porno show…it showed a lot T&A. It was amazing to see what plastic surgery can do. At this meeting, Dr. Coirin announced that he and Dr. Coates would be separating in the next few months. I think that when this happens, I will be following Dr. Coirin, even though he didn’t perform my surgery, I prefer him over Dr. Coates. I think Dr. Coirin is more involved in patient care. Everybody was surprised by this announcement. Wednesday, I attended my 2-week post op class. Arun oversaw the class which was mostly about nutrition…here I got my personalized protein goal which really helped me realize that I wasn’t getting in enough protein. My mom went to the class with me and it helped her realize things. It seemed like I was the only one in the class with answers about the questions being asked. Once the meeting was over, I went back into the Health Center to get weighed on the special Tanita BMI scale, it showed that I have lost an additional 7 lbs bring my weight down to 301 lbs. After that we went to Costco. I did good, I only bought some paper towels for the house and some orange juice for my dad.

Let me say this, the pureed diet sucks!!! I hate pureed food…I don’t like the texture and using the blender constantly is a pain in the ass. On Tuesday, I said F-IT and went to Food-4-Less and got a rotisserie chicken and ate some….damn it was good!!! I loved it. I took little pieces and chewed the hell out of it and ate it. I haven’t had pureed food since. I’ve had some turkey deli meat with some white American cheese, some chicken deli meat. It is so good. I’ve made sure that I’ve chewed my food well. I haven’t had no issues. My fluid intakes have been good. So everything seems to have been going well.

Today, I went to an appreciation luncheon at work so I could visit with my co-workers. They were amazed by how I look. They all said that I look like I lost weight. It was good to see them. Man I am bored and want to go back to work. I thought that being home would be fun, but I’m getting bored. This afternoon I went to say my PCP for a follow up. She was amazed by the results. She has been really supportive 100% of my surgery. I really love my doctor she is the greatest!!!! I guess that is all for now…I will try to keep better updated. TTFN

Today was my first day on pureed food. Everything seemed to have gone OK. I was able to consume all of my protein. For breakfast I had a scrambled egg with a little bit of cheese, I put ½ a scoop of unflavored Unjury protein in my egg for a boost. I then had a glass of Lactaid FF milk with some Torani S/F vanilla syrup in it to make it taste better (I hate the way milk tastes). I went for a walk this afternoon which was only supposed to be around the block and before I knew it I walked to Save Mart which is like a mile from me and then I walked all the way back, it seems like I have a lot of energy. For my mid-morning snack which I had in the afternoon before lunch, I had ½ a bottle of Isopure Zero Carb Pineapple/Orange/Banana. This alone gave me 20 grams of protein. For lunch I had 1.5 oz of some chicken salad I made alone with 1 oz. of some mashed cauliflower. I didn’t have the afternoon snack because I went and took a nap from 5-6 pm and then got up. I needed some stuff from Target so I walked from my house there which is like a mile. I went into TJ Maxx and got some awesome S/F chocolate syrup that has no calories or carbs!!! It tastes so good. I got it to put in my milk so now I have chocolate milk…yummy!!! TJ Maxx has all kinds of sugar free syrups, who would have thought a store like that would carry such things (Cost Plus has a big variety of Torani S/F syrups). I’m still trying to find a cup warmer so I can put my little saucer plate on to keep my food warm, this morning my eggs got cold quick. I got back and I then made dinner. I took 2 turkey meatballs with some ricotta cheese and Carb Option pasta sauce (Thanks Bev and Dave for this recipe) and pureed that and had it with some mashed cauliflower. This was really good…I liked it. I did some stuff around the house and some web-surfing and then I had my late night snack. I had a can of high-protein Sylvester Stallone vanilla pudding. Lee Smith brought this to me when I was in the hospital and I can finally have it (Thanks Lee!!). It was really good for only having 2 grams of carbs. It had 20 grams of protein in it. So all in all I have gotten in all of my protein and fluid for the day…not bad for the first day. I am going to bed, it’s about midnight and am calling it a day!! TTFN

Today was a great day!!! I went for my 1-week post-op visit day and got the good news that I have lost 20 lbs. Can you believe that???? I was shocked…I only anticipated myself losing 10 lbs. to be on the safe side so that way I wouldn’t disappoint myself. I met with Don, one of the PA’s in the office and he took my steri-strips off today. He said that my incisions are healing nicely…they are hella itchy!! It feels good to have them off. Man the incision holes are hella small…it looks like somebody just went into my stomach and made 6 small razor slits. Also I asked Don about my liquid intake, because I have no problem putting away liquid, I demonstrated for him how I sip from a bottle and he said that was no problem as long as I don’t glug glug from the bottle, so I’ve had no issues with liquid intake. While at the Dr’s office I also got my B12 shot since I start my vitamins. I was told by their office that in addition to the shot that I would also need to take the sublingual B12 so that way I’m not dependent upon shots. I’m a little confused here, because I thought that the shot was supposed to make life simpler, anyways. Tomorrow I start my pureed diet. I went with my mom to do some shopping after she took me to the doctor, I had some awesome Mambo Tazo herbal tea at Border’s. I’m glad that I asked the girl before she put in some sugar free vanilla syrup in my tea, because their syrup had 4 grams of carbs vs. Starbucks 0 grams. I got home took a nap for about 2 hours, then got online and called and talked with Bev about some recipes for my new diet. She said that Dave liked a turkey meatball with some pasta sauce and ricotta cheese. She also advised me to puree the $hit out my food. Bev and Dave are great I can’t say enough about them…poor Dave wasn’t feeling well (I hope he gets better). Well after talking with Bev I went to the grocery store to do some shopping. Man I had an episode in the store…I felt depressed. I remember reaching for a can of spinach and feeling like crying. I saw all this stuff in the store that seemed to be screaming out my name….like “Justin…you know want me, put me in the cart!!!” It was hard shopping. Well now food is no longer my friend. I made it out with no junk in the cart for once!!! That was a first for me. I’m gonna try and put together my new Cuisinart Food Processor/Blender so that way it is ready for tomorrow. I did have a little bite of Carb Freedom yogurt tonight…It was good. I also had a BM today for the first time in a week. So I guess everything is functioning normally with me. This is all I’m typing tonite. I will type at you soon!!!

Today was a good day. I went to the bank and Target this morning. Got the OK to take Gas-X so I went and got some. I called Dr. Coates’ office today and spoke with Sonja to find out about bowel movements. The nurse at the hospital told me that if I hadn’t had one by today to contact Dr. Coates’ office. Sonja said don’t worry if I don’t have one for a week to a week and a half and that if I feel stopped up to take some Colax. I had to find out about my diabetes too. When I woke up today my blood sugar was at 79. Then later in the day it was at 75, then at 5 PM it was 71. Since Sonja didn’t call me back I called the medical exchange and they had Dr. Coirin call me back. He told that if it got in the 60’s or that if it was symptomatic then I am going to need to take half a glucose pill and that it will probably cause me to dump. I hope I don’t have to go through this already. I walked around the block today so I walked for about 20 minutes. Took a nap this afternoon after I watched Rebound with Martin Lawrence. I went to Longs and got some Cherry flavored Xtra Strength Tylenol and some glucose tablets. Then went next door to Save Mart and got me some cherry jello cups and some s/f tropical popsicles. These popsicles are good. So today has been a good day.