NNicholas
My reply a post today
Feb 23, 2009
I am having my morning Sunrise Crystal Lite. Morning everyone. How is everyone doing. Randy I have no bugs to complain about with my RNY. Yes there are things that are different in life now, but so many are for the better and all the others I was prepared for and knew about before my decision to have my RNY. The Beaumont Weight Loss Center does a wonderful job of providing pre-surgery and post-surgery support. It even includes a workout program in their own gym. All the medical support and even psych support is under one roof so I have it easy. I was so blessed to have this new life I just can't stop wanting to share my with others in hopes of helping them attain my success. I am just shy of a year out and already I have to work at staying on track, but I don't see me having near the struggles staying in line with keeping weight off as I did all those years before my surgery.
Nick
Greek Yogurt Recipe
Feb 20, 2009
OK I promised this so here it is:
How to make Greek Yogurt (Yaorti)
Heat 8 cups of milk to in a double boiler (so as not to burn the milk) and stir occasionally. Preheat your oven to 100 degrees or the coolest it can heat then turn it off. The yogurt needs to incubate at about 100 degrees after its mixed. Set out on your counter a container of at least 4 tablespoons of existing Greek yogurt to warm to room temperature. This will provide the yeast culture and you want a culture that's makes a good yogurt to strain. As in all things Greek this too is all in the culture. When the milk starts to froth replace the water in the bottom of the double boiler with cold water to cool the milk to luke warm or body (ours) temperature about 100 degrees. You can add a cup nonfat dry milk to up the protein. Add the 4 tablespoons of existing yogurt. Pour it into a clean container and cover with a tight lid. Place container in oven for 7 to 9 hrs depending on how sour you like your yogurt. The longer the sourer. Keep the door to oven shut, if your oven is gas with a pilot it will remain about 100 degrees, if not once and a while turn it on for a min then back off. If you have a thermometer then you can make sure it stays about 100 degrees. Most ovens will get too hot if left on all the time and kill the yeast. After 7 or 8 hrs check the mixture. It will be thick and have a cheese odor. Now you've made regular yogurt. Place in refrigerator over night.
To make into Greek Yogurt you will need a large square piece of a heavy cheese cloth. Drape cheese cloth over a pot that is large enough to hold more than the volume of the yogurt. The cheese cloth has to be big enough to wrap around all the yogurt that you are making. Push the cloth down into the pot draping the corners over the edge. Skim off any light fluid on the top of the yogurt. Pour your yogurt into the cheese cloth and then lift all four corners of the cloth and wring the ends down to enclose the yogurt into a ball at the bottom. Lift and squeeze out all the moisture that you can into the pot holding the cloth ball out of the liquid. Tie the cloth closed with a string and place in a strainer over a dish or pan and let drain over night in the refrigerator. Remove the next day and squeeze out any more moisture that you can. Empty the now Greek yogurt from the cheese cloth into a container and it is ready to eat or store in your fridge.* Wash and save the cheese cloth for making another batch.
Now for the last bit of Greek yogurt fact, I hate yogurt! I will eat it cause it's good for me but I hate it.
*As a child my recommendation would have been to then throw out the yogurt do not wash the strain cloth just hang it outside the house door to keep unwanted salesmen and guests away.
Nice Guy?
Feb 19, 2009
Nick
Some people have written me about this post believing that I am beating my self up over my past. I am quite proud of my past for the most part. Not that I haven't made mistakes in life, I once bough Euro-Disney stock, but I am not ridden with guilt. I am a barbarian. I am proud to be a Barbarian as well. I am true to what I am and make no apologies for it.
Nick
Hair Loss: I answered a blog with this today. Please share it.
Feb 08, 2009
So, OK, It's about time I said this. Too many people are so preoccupied with their hair loss.
LOOK AT MY PICTURE!
In fact look at all of the pictures of me!
Your hair will come back, mine won't. I had to adjust to it for a life time. It's temporary after WLS and if it weren't it would be a very small price to pay for your life. I suffer from alopecia areata beginning when I was 12 years old, when my hair started falling out in patches. It was devastating. My school, fearing I had something contagious, wanted me removed. It is a genetic immune disorder. Try and imagine being 12 years old and experiencing that. For years I endured thousands of painful steroid injections, hundreds per treatment every month, just under the skin, on my arms, legs, scalp and face to keep my hair. My Alopecia Areata became Alopecia Totalis over 10 years ago leaving me with virtually no hair on my body. That meant hundreds of more injections, everywhere. Finally the epidermal steroid injections stopped working and I was facing systemic steroids to keep my hair. Its just hair, systemic steroids will damage your body over time. When you lose even your eye lashes and eyebrows its traumatic, but if it's that or losing your life prematurely, well then, it's a no brainier to me. I chose and will always choose life! If someone said you can either shave your head or die, I hope that you would shave your head. It will grow back, but you only get one life, live it. Your hair will never matter to those who are really important in your life and your life will always be important to them. I am adding this to my blog in hope that others will read it too. Please share this with anyone with hair loss concerns.
Nick
Learning the hard way
Jan 12, 2009
For some time before that I was NOT watching my fluids and not diligent at taking my supplement regularly. Nor was I keeping good track of my proteins. I wanted to keep losing weight fast, and eating every meal or getting every ounce of water down of water in each day didn't seem that important to me at the time. I was OK skipping a meal or a bottle of water if I stayed on course to losing weight or so I thought. Then I began having problems holding food and liquids down and that's what got me into serious problems. Even my personality and sense of reality were affected by the lack of fluids and nutrients. I had no idea the severity of the situation, nor did I realize that I was putting my life in jeopardy.
After several days in the hospital and what seemed like every medical test known to man, including being scoped again, I got it. I have to keep up with my medications, vitamins, protein and water! I am doing well now and am back on track, but not rushing it! It was truly a learning experience, but not one I recommend.
New old experiences
Dec 01, 2008
I went to the local store and bought a sweater off the rack, size large! not 6xl or even xl just plain large. I felt so good I bought a home bathroom scale and I could use it! I am not too heavy for a household scale. I sat down and crossed my legs, yup I did. Wow like normal folks. Funny how you don't realize how much you couldn't do until you catch yourself doing something.
My Journey to back to life
Nov 22, 2008
The journey getting here was full of challenges and pitfalls. I began this journey, actually in 2003, with the protein weigh loss program at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, MI. After originally losing 90 lbs I gained it all back and then some. Shakes alone were not for me it seems. I just couldn't do it. The hunger was always there.
I have lost and gained weight all my life, even as a child. In grew up always being the last kid picked for a team of street baseball, the last child to finish any race. While I did lose weight in high school and was on the swim team, I dove into hard workouts fearing the day that the fat boy would jump back out from within me. By college it did. There were no real dates in high school and no prom for me, I was always fat and thought I would always be. The struggle to be normal in weight had consumed my life and limited my happiness. All the things that I had always wanted to do were tempered by the limitations of my size.
In 2005. back over 400 lbs I nearly died, My life was saved by an old friend from my boyhood, a fellow boy scout, and now surgeon Dr. Rob Jury when my gall bladder filled with stones while camping in a remote part of Wyoming. Only a miracle can describe the incredible chain of coincidences that led to the saving of my life and the events since. Coincidences that led me to depart the remote camp early, and return home. When my old boy scouting friend Dr. Jury told me that I was "the worse case" he had ever seen with a failing liver and kidneys I knew I was blessed to be alive. Dr. Jury recommended to me that I see his partner, Dr. Krause about gastric bypass surgery. Thank you Rob! First you saved my life then you and Dr. Krause gave me a life. God bless you both.
The hunger is no longer there, Dr Krause put out the fire.
I have had very few problems along the way. Today Is Nov.23, 2008 and I weigh 293 lbs, down 166 lbs in 8 months. I bought a pair of size 40 jeans today, Starting at a size 66 that's a long way. I have kept wearing my size 66 belt and punched new holes into it. It now raps beyond half way again around me. I will keep wearing it until the day it surpasses twice around me.
Through the support of the Beaumont Weight Loss Center and the blessing of friends I am not only alive but living life today. If you are considering the RNY surgery and have questions email me at [email protected] I will reply. If you have had RNY surgery and have problems or questions feel free to email me also.
