On The Road Again

Well, not exactly the road…

They finally sent me the replacement piece for the elliptical (yay!), and the first thing I did when I got home (despite being starving for dinner) was fix the machine.  Then I had a small yogurt.  And then I finally got back on.

What really sucks is that right when it broke, I was in a really great place, with a really great momentum.  Last night, I was clearly a little out of it.  Now I’ll have to work myself back to where I was (and past, hopefully).

Getting Adjusted

I had my first adjustment today.  I had 1/4 of my band filled (2.5cc/10cc) in the doctor’s office during my three-month checkup.

Despite my bad month/Passover, I managed to lose a pound from my last visit.  I told the doctor about my eating escapades, and he didn’t really chastise me.  I mentioned my wife’s worry that I had stretched my stomach out, and he said if that was case, I would vomit.  As long as I wasn’t vomiting, I wasn’t really in danger of doing significant damage.

But, since I wasn’t really feeling restricted, and had an increased capacity, we decided that a fill at this point would be good.  So I got some saline injected into my port.

Now, I’m back to Phase 1 Liquids for the next 36 hours, and then slowly easing back into eating food again after that.

We shall see what happens to the capacity and weight after that.  Now I just need to get my elliptical fixed so I can exercise again.

Setback?

So I was all ready to write a post about my setback over the Passover holiday (where I’ve been for the last week and a half, in Orlando with family).  But the fact that I wasn’t set back as much as I’d thought when I weighed in this morning forced me to put a question mark on that title.

For those that aren’t very familiar with Passover, let me give you a brief, food-themed orientation.

Passover is a holiday that is very food-intensive.  Whether by rule or by practice, there is a LOT of food consumed over the course of this holiday.  And most of it is not healthy food.  Because of the myriad rules and restrictions on that may and may not be eaten during the holiday (all stemming from the prohibition of leaven), you end up with a TON of bad-for-WLS-patients food.

Let’s start with the most elemntally basic problem: matza.  Matza is dry, thin and cracker-like, and is pure 100% carbs.  But you have to eat it.  Then there’s the fact that there are, over the course of the holiday, including two seders, 10 meals that are “Yom Tov Meals,” which in most Orthodox houses are prepared like a Thanksgiving dinner (I mean, two or three different main dishes, including some red meat variety, three or four side dishes, many of which are carb-heavy because they are made with matza, and a soup or other appetizer).  Ten thanksgiving dinners in 8 days.

Mix that with the relative difficulty of finding low-fat and fat-free dairy and other food options (especially when one is away from home and packing food to go to Disney parks every day with kids) and eating “right” just becomes exceedingly difficult.  (I’m hesitant to say impossible, because I’m sure someone could do it.  Just not me, evidently).

So, after all this, I was sure that I had gained between 5-10 pounds.  I felt heavier and bloated.  I felt gross.

And yet, when I got home, I was only up 1 pound from my pre-Passover weight.  I look forward to dropping that by the end of the week, and going to the Doctor for my three-month checkup even with my last weight or down 1 (I can’t remember where I was a month ago, exactly).  Which is what I expected, since I had plateaued already.

I guess all that walking I did around Disney really did help (according to the pedometer I bought for the occassion, about 2-3 miles a day, depending on the park), not to mention the run/walk I did around the condo complex we stayed at.

My wife worried I did some interior damage to my pouch/band/stomach, but I don’t think so.  I think that would hurt more.  So for the next couple of days, I might be a little more hungry as I go back to eating and snacking much less, and shrink my stomach back to post-op capacity.  But at least I didn’t have a serious weight setback.

Sure, maybe I missed an opportunity to lose another few pounds with all that walking (I did drink a lot of water during the day, it was very hot), but that’s an absttract concept.  The concrete truth is at least I don’t have to see a bad number in front of me.

Exercise

I’ve really been focusing on my exercise lately, and trying to maintain my interest.  As has always been my MO throughout my life, I start off with gusto, and then tend to wane, partly because of boredom.  So I’ve been trying things to stave off the boredom.

Among those, I’ve picked up watching Lost, a show I never got into before.  With my NetFlix subscription (and absolute life-saver, exercise-wise), I get the DVD’s from all teh way back to Season 1, and watch an episode with each time I get on the elliptical.  It’s great.  Since the surgery, I’ve gotten through all of Seasons 1 and 2 and 1/3 of the way through Season 3.  (In the first weeks after the surgery, before I could really exercise, I watched every episode of The Office from start to current).

I encountered a couple of issues with this.  First, next week I will be going away for Passover, so I won’t have my elliptical or a DVD player to exercise with.  I didn’t want to forgo exercise completely for almost 2 weeks, so I decided I would go walk/run/jog outside.  I bought myself an iPod (I called it a 40 lbs present) and a new pair of running sneakers (my old ones are really crappy for real road running) and a new system called Nike+, which connects a sensor in the shoes to the iPod and gives you a readout on your ipod of how far, fast and long you’ve been running.  You can then upload the data to the Nike+ website, and track your progress.  It’s really cool.  I decided to try it out last week, and do a couple of walks outside.  Aside from the fact that it is waaaaaaay too cold for outside exercise right now, I really couldn’t run as fast as I thought, and had to settle for more of a walk.  I was still happy to have gotten through 2 miles, but I was damn sore afterward.

The other problem is that the foot pedal on my elliptical broke.  Snapped right off.  So I haven’t exercised in a couple of days (and I feel slow and bloated for it).  I called the company, and they are rushing out a replacement piece, but between the cold and the soreness, I really have a tough time getting outside.

I never thought I would say this, but I am really longing to get back on my machine.

Also, something I would never do before: I bought a pedometer, so I can see how many miles I walk in DisneyWorld.  Just out of curiosity.

Belt Tightening

One of the pleasant consequences of losing a lot of weight is the change in the way clothing fits.  One recent instance: I had to have new holes punched in my belt.   My belt originally had 7 holes, and I was on the middle one.  I’ve now tightened it down to the second new hole (five holes away).

My mother-in-law told me I should get a new belt.  I said I didn’t want to spend money on new clothing until I got to my goal, but I realized this morning, when I pulled my belt closed, and it literally reached 90 degrees around me for the second time, that maybe some things I can treat myself to.

So while I won’t buy any new suits, I may have to splurge for some slacks and belts and maybe some shirts that I can wear to work without looking silly.

A nice problem to have, indeed.

Holding Steady

So bad day turned into bad weekend.  My in-laws came over because Sataurday was my father-in-law’s birthday.  Of course, there was a nice meal, which I partook of.  Certainly not the extent I might have before, but also certainly more than I should have.  And, there was cake, which I should have had none of, but I had some of.

I guess there will always be slips in the diet plan.

The good news is, that I forced myself to exercise this week, and I was able to maintain my weight from last Wednesday (my weigh-in morning) unchanged.  Which, given my indulgences this past week, was a really good thing.

That, coupled with my consistent belt-tightening (in the literal sense, not the fiscal sense) – I had to have new holes punched in my belt, that was a sick-awesome feeling – is making me feel really good.  I’m eager to go for a checkup to my regular doctor and see what my blood work’s looking like.  Between the better food choices and the exercise, I really feel so much better about myself.  As long as I can keep that up, in the long term, the weight will take care of itself.  I really believe that.

There’s nothing wrong if it takes me two years to lose the 100 lbs I want to lose.  Because the longer the journey, the more hard work I put in, the better.  I didn’t get a band for an instant fix.  I got it as a tool in my arsenal after my decision to change my life (and hopefully extend it).

Weight Loss After 8 Weeks: 40 lbs.

Bad Day

Today was a  bad day, food wise.

First, I tried something new for breakfast.  The consistency turned out to be very tough and hard to swallow, and it hurt a lot going down (getting stuck).  Before I felt the need to vomit it up, which would hurt, I drank it down with some orange juice.  Real shame, too, because it’s a low fat, non-animal protein source (Morningstar Farms Sausage Patties).  I chewed it really well, but apparently not well enough.  With the juice and a cup of coffee afterward, that subsided kind of quickly.

Then I made a bad mistake.  I went to a fundraiser luncheon with a few associates and a couple of partners at the firm.  There was a chicken breast, with a side of some rice dish and some sugar snap peas.  Now, I know from experience, that sugar snap peas are very tough and fibrous, and aren’t easy going down.  What did I do?  Ate a few of them.  I also ate the chicken and the rice.  More food than I should have had.  I also ate it faster than I should have.  Problem is, I also drank some soda to wash down some of the food, which really wasn’t smart.  Washing down food that’s hurting with bubbly drinks just made it hurt more.  For the first time since the band was put in, I really thought I was going to throw up.  I couldn’t get the stuff that was pressing against the band to go down, and the gassy bubbles in the soda that I tried to wash it down with were just exacerbating the situation.  Not good times.  And not good timing for my first vomit.  Finally, the food went down.  And, not learning my lesson, I kept eating.  And it happened again.

Then they served dessert.  Coffee and some awesome looking little chocolate thing.  Well, my stomach had settled a little, so I ate about half of it.  Ugh.  That’s the worst.  The pain I can deal with.  I’ll learn more and more how to go about eating solid foods.  That’ll come with time and experience.  But there’s really no excuse for eating that crappy, extremely fattening dessert.  That’s just not something I should be doing anymore.

I’m not gonna beat myself up about it (more than I just did).  I’m just going to cut out my afternoon snack (not that I have an appetite to eat; i’m still full from all that lunch, and still hurting a little, like residual soreness) and get back on track for dinner.  And then run, run, run to an episode of Lost.  But I really should know better.

Here’s the thing, though.  My surgeon told me he put in a “jumbo” band, which is essentially a band with a wider opening (which gives more leeway for adjestment, if necessary).  But it hasn’t been tightened yet, so I think the food that I eat is passing through quicker than expected.  I can certainly see my first band tightening coming up soon.  My doctor says after the weight loss has plateaued (which I can’t really say has happened, I keep losing about 2 lbs/week, which is a good pace) and at least one month after going on solid foods (which I’ve done a little earlier than he told me, but I got antsy on the purees, and he said to stay on purees “as long as I can” and I just can’t anymore), and I’m not gonna get adjusted until after Passover, so likely sometime in early May might be my first adjustment.  If I can get to (or past) 50 lbs lost before that (meaning I’ll be half-way to my goal before the first adjustment) I’ll be ecstatic.

As for now, I just need to lie down and hope my back pain (which is clearly band pain) goes away.

Weight Loss After 7 Weeks: 40 lbs.

Riders and Walkers

In the subway, there’s a distinct and easily identifyable anthropological phenomenon.  I noticed it the first time I saw it.  When leaving the subway during rush hour, two lanes form on the escalator.  The right lane is for riders (ie: people who ride the escalator while standing in place) and the left lane is for walkers (people who walk up the escalator, to speed the effect).  This, of course, notwithstanding the group of people who eschew the escalator completely and walk up the stairs.

The trip up the escalator in my subway station is a long one.  For the entirety of my working career, I’ve been a rider, always in the right lane.

Yesterday, I changed.  I became a walker.  Into the left lane, walking up the stairs as I ride the escalator.

This was a very exciting day for me.

Weight Loss Tools

Everything is progressing well, thank god.  I’m still hungry, but my surgeon told me I can start integrating some salads and other solid foods as I feel ready for them, so that will help.  I’ve fallen into an exercise routine, which is good, and the weight loss is steady, which is good and healthy.

I saw on Kim’s blog this cute little ticker that I thought maybe I would add to my own blog. Check out the new widget.

Weight Loss After 6 Weeks: 38 lbs.

Picture Day

I got an email last week asking me to sign up for new pictures (to be used on the firm website, etc.).  Since I hadn’t had my picture taken since I joined the firm last June, I signed up.  We were instructed to wear business attire (usually, we are business casual).

This morning, I put on a suit I hadn’r worn in months, maybe even a year or two.  It fit perfectly.  The pants weren’t baggy, not were they tight.  The jacket closed, didn’t pull, and sat where it was supposed to.

It’s been a really long time since I’ve had such joy getting dressed and looking in the mirror.  Just thought I’d share that.