400 miles and 50 pounds

Photo Credit: Snap Man via Compfight cc

During the final 2 weeks before gastric surgery, you are supposed to be gentle with yourself. Your liquid diet leaves you operating under a pretty severe caloric restriction, having to be careful to maintain your 60 grams of protein (to avoid malnutrition) and 64 ounces of water a day (to avoid dehydration) to make sure you do not damage yourself while undergoing the crash weight-loss that will reduce the size of your liver, giving your surgeon more room to operate. Caution is key.

So, in the name of caution, we have now driven 450 miles to engage in 3 days worth of household moving for a friend of ours. Not just to anywhere - to Tucson, Arizona, where it is so hot that you can literally fry an egg on a manhole cover. (Look it up - it is on YouTube.) 

Today is actually not that bad, so far. A rainstorm showed up last night and brought the previously miserable heat down to a tolerable temperature. And, as a reward for my interstate moving efforts, I had a surprise waiting for me this morning.

Today, I am finally down 50 pounds.

I had actually not expected to hit this marker until next week sometime, after I leave the hospital. (7 days to go!) But, it turns out driving and then moving heavy objects around are fairly significant calorie burners. Who knew? Accordingly, I have arrived at the half-century mark a full week earlier than I expected.

I want to be able to minimize it, and blow it off as no great accomplishment, but that isn't really how I feel about it. It is a major accomplishment, and an excellent start on where I eventually want to wind up. This is not part of a post-surgical honeymoon period. Getting this far required work, and sacrifice, and a whole lot of discomfort, It is the hardest thing I have done since I developed Epilepsy, and it is probably right up there in my personal list of "hardest things ever done." I am proud that I have made it this far - it encourages me to believe that I will be able to maintain this focus and discipline after my surgery and for the rest of my life. After all, after next Monday I will have the tool of the Sleeve to assist me.

I know that many of you that follow the blog have questions about your own weight loss. But the fact is simple - if I can do this, anyone can. There is no reason for anyone to remain shackled to obesity - whether by making lifestyle changes, or by the more extreme measure of going through surgery to support those changes. You, too, can do this.

The household is waking up around me, so it is time to get back to moving heavy objects. I hope the heat does not descend today like yesterday - it was like working in an oven.

Praying For Rain,

- Hawkwind 

The Century Mark

I have said many times within the pages of Misdirected that weight is not important to Lor and I. That it is only a number, that the importance of weight loss comes from improved health, enhanced mobility and energy, and a better quality of life.

Please allow me to step away from that well-reasoned thinking for a moment, to make an announcement.

Ahem.

"100 FREAKING POUNDS!!!!"

You read that right - as a couple, Lor and I have lost one hundred pounds as of our weigh-in today.

When we began this process, added together, our total weight was over 550 pounds. No wonder our bed creaked at night, even lying perfectly still. We were carrying the weight of an extra (tall) adult male between the two of us.

Lor's weight loss was already remarkable, even before the surgery. Since the surgery, she managed to average an additional pound of weight loss a day. I, of course, had a bit of a step back last week, but reclaimed that weight and lost another pound on top of that in the last week. 

Our Nutritionist warned us that those who lose quite a bit of weight before surgery might experience a dramatic slow-down in weight loss post-surgery. But, even if that should occur, I am already within 10 pounds of my original goal of losing "around 50 pounds". Lor has not needed a single dose of insulin since leaving the hospital. I feel better than I have in years. Lor will too, once the holes in her stomach finish healing up and she can re-graduate back to soft foods. (I have never seen a person crave refried beans more.) She has already gained back her mobility, and just needs to start working on her stamina.

I am not sure what to expect from here, honestly. Another 100 pounds of joint weight loss would put us into uncharted waters - Lor would weigh right around what she weighed at 17 years old. I would be somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 pounds. I have never been at a stable weight of 200 pounds, having gone from around 160 to 225 somewhere in my early twenties, the weight arriving as I also grew about 4 inches taller. (Can you say late bloomer?)

Lor and I make sure to keep telling each other: "Now comes the hard part." Losing weight has never been an issue for either of us. Keeping the weight off - now that is where the rubber meets the road. But we have each other to keep us both honest, to enforce workouts, to police one another's dietary habits. Unless we collectively decide to give up on this, I have faith in our success.

Wishing I Could Hug Lor Without Injuring Her,

- Hawkwind

PS - 28 days till my surgery. Not that I am counting, or anything.

Not Statistically Significant

Sad to think I am hitting 285 pounds on the way DOWN.

Despite my dislike for "pounds lost" as the only factor of interest to many people who are going through the Gastric Sleeve, weekly logging is a required part of the whole process. And there was a whole lot of interest in what my numbers were for yesterday's weigh-in after my disaster of a week last week. But the numbers don't lie - yesterday I was at 285 again, representing a loss of 1.6 pounds from the previous week.

The odd thing is, I was at 285 and some change three weeks ago, too. Last week's weigh-in (without any major dietary disasters preceding it) I had gained a pound, and was up to 286! I was very disgusted with myself and happened to mention it to my father. Wise retired biologist that he is, he told me to dismiss the week's weight gain entirely: "Starting from over 300 pounds, son, 1 pound is about a third of a percent. It is not statistically significant."

I knew I should've paid more attention in biology class back in high school.

So, another not statistically significant weight loss for this week, then. Even my total weight loss since the start of this process is just on the edge of "real", with our diet changes having resulted in just over a 5% change in my weight since we started (285/302 = .943). Now, 17 pounds is nothing to sneeze at, admittedly - I have basically reduced the load on my body by the weight of a bowling ball or so. But my body still hurts, it is still really easy to re-injure my bad knee (they are both bad, but the one I had surgery on can go out at a moment's notice), and I look like crap. What once was a solid mass of fat all over my body has collapsed - I no longer look like I am carrying a beach ball under my shirt, I instead look like a candle that has been put in a hot oven for a few minutes. Not pretty.

It isn't all bad, of course. On Sunday, I was able to get into (and wear comfortably) a pair of 46-inch jeans that my mother-in-law bought me years ago, my first new jeans in years, and my first time in a 46-inch waistline since 2005 or so. I can now walk a whole mile without being ready to die. I even managed to get through 50 ounces of water yesterday, which may not sound like a mighty achievement to many of you, but my fellow bariatric patients are all nodding at the significance. Drinking that much fluid while only taking single sips at a time is amazingly difficult. Try it some day, if you are curious.  We should all be drinking 64 ounces a day anyway, right?

The struggle continues. This is the final week of relative calm, then the weeks of April 3 through the 23rd are filled with surgery-related appointments, 2 - 3 a week for 3 weeks straight. We are only 6 weeks out from Lor's final dietary consult at this point, where her surgery will be submitted to insurance, then scheduled. We do not have far to go here if we can just stay sane, keep encouraging each other, and keep moving forward. By Labor Day, this should all be over.

Well, except for the weight loss part.

Visualizing No Longer Shopping in Fatlandia,

- Hawkwind