Day 49: Monday Weigh In!

Woke up and got on the scale this morning and my weight was 332 lbs. 6 lbs down from last week, and 61 lbs down since the surgery. 61 lbs in 7 weeks. I'm feeling a bit like I'm back in the Ranger Battalion and I want to give a big old "HOOOAHHH!!!!!"

People at work are really noticing the weight loss and some people that have seen me there for the last 3 years have to look twice before they recognize me. One person even said that I looked 20 years younger from the weight loss. That's really amazing to me. I'm wondering how much different I'm going to look when I get to my goal weight. Things that make you go hmmmmm....

Had a light workout tonight, just the treadmill for 35 minutes. I have a support group meeting tomorrow at 6, so I don't know if I'll work out or not. I'll probably use tomorrow as one of my off days. I'm going to try again to get up early and get up to the gym in the morning to get some strength training in. Didn't get there this morning because of mandatory overtime at work. I really hate overtime. Anymore we refer to mandatory overtime as Mike Oscar (Military Phoenetic Alphabet for MO). To which we have one response: Foxtrot Yankee (I'll let you figure that one out on your own).

In the spirit of the Rangers...

DISMISSED!

Day 48: Sunday, a day of rest? [HAH!]

I woke up at 630 this morning and had some yogurt and a half shot of protein and then went up to the workout room for a good, solid workout to start my Sunday. It was nice. No kids, nobody else to have to work around. Just me and the machines. It felt good to just workout and jam to my songs. I kept my weights on the strength training low, but I added additional exercises to the routine and worked out all of the muscle groups.

Went home and did some laundry and the dishes and then had to go to the mall to take care of a credit card and pick up some things. Finally got home and had a long conversation on the phone with my oldest friend in the world. He's always there for me, but sometimes his manner isn't conducive to helping me. But he is always there when I need him. I know some people don't care for his brashness, but I don't care. He's my friend. That's all that matters.

I have to do OT tomorrow thanks to the weather, so I'm probably going to get an early night in and try to get up early tomorrow and go to the workout room before work. I probably won't succeed, but I'm going to try. If I don't succeed, I'll go after work. As long as I get it in, the rest does not matter. Weigh in will be tomorrow as well. I want to see it, but I don't at the same time. As long as I don't gain, everything else is ok.

Adios!

Day 47: I'm late I'm late I'm late!!!

I know I'm late posting this, but it's been busy and a humbler of a day all around. The morning was ok, I got some exercise in and all my protein and water, so that's all good, but the events of the day made me feel like God was saying, "Time to rein it in a little, cowboy."

I went to a party this afternoon that I was hoping to have a lot of fun at. Didn't happen. The party was pretty dullsville and blah. No cute girls to talk to and no one to have a lively conversation with except the host and he was of course hosting. A humbler of an experience.

Then I had a date to go see a movie, "The Eagle". The movie was too drawn out and the energy between me and my date felt more like old friends hanging out rather than a possible romantic encounter. On top of that, the theater was all the way across town, a good half hour from my condo. Humbler #2.

After that, I decided to go to the karaoke bar and try to salvage some fun tonight. I ordered a bottle of water, a glass of orange juice and some cheese sticks to fill that empty feeling in my sleeve. Turns out Bobo does not like OJ at all. Pain almost as soon as I swallowed and it hit Bobo. Not pleasant. Well, I'm still in a little pain when the Karaoke Jock calls me up to do my first song, "It's a Sin". My pitch and tone were all over the place on that song. I normally hammer that one home, but not this week. Humbler number three. My second and last song, "Bad to the Bone" was much better and had the audience screaming, cheering and clapping. I decided to quit while I was ahead and I came home to write my blog.

Guess all the weekends aren't going to be stellar. I should have listened to that nagging feeling in my head that said "Just stay home and relax."

Oh well.

Do Svidanja!

Day 46: Friday, finally...

This has been a long week. I only skipped working out one night (Thursday) and that was because I was getting my hair cut. I did a light workout tonight plus my morning walks, so I feel like I did get out and do something. I've also noticed other changes in my body. There is more definition in my arms now, with veins and tendons becoming more visible. Also, the chin family is moving out of my face and neck area, so that's a good thing. The size 50 jeans I've been wearing the last couple of weekends are getting loose now. The changes are just happening so fast now that it's amazing to me.

Mentally, the changes aren't quite so obvious, but they are there. I'm starting to enjoy the workouts and physical activity. Also, I'm becoming more observant than I was. Maybe that's because I'm getting out and interacting with the world instead of sitting and watching it go by.

Emotionally...That's a problem because right now they are all over the place. I have way more good days than bad, but the bad days can be real killers. I figure it's going to be 6 months to a year before that's anywhere near stabilized. It's probably best that events happened the way they did, I suppose. At least I don't have to worry about someone breaking up with me because I changed or worse, I lose interest in them because I changed or they changed. Anyone that's been reading this blog for a while knows what I'm referring to and I'm not going to lie and say that I'm glad for what happened but maybe, just maybe, the changes will make things better in the end if things get unconflicted.

A boy can dream, can't he?

Adieu.

Day 45: Thursday (Where the hell is Friday?)

Wow. I had a very emotional day today. I was severely down for a big part of the day. I didn't know if it was a side effect from the surgery, or if I was being brought down by my relationship woes, or if I was losing my mind. All I know is that I was down. My friend saw a post of mine on Facebook and she asked me if I was ok. I answered no, and she asked if she could help. I told her that I didn't know, that I didn't know why I was so down, if it was surgery or something else. I really didn't want to burden her with it, so I told her thanks for caring, but I needed to work it out on my own.

Well, after lunch, I had to waste almost an hour in a useless meeting at work and I went from down to just pissed off at the waste of time. That change told me what was wrong. I'm not down because of relationship woes or surgery, I'm just having an ill day of it. Just a general bad mood and it's going to be tainted by what ever is foremost on my mind. If it's my relationship woes, I'm going to be depressed. If I'm pissed off at wasting time, I'm going to be seriously pissed off.

Having this sleeve has made me appreciate that I need to slow down and make certain of what's really going on in my head. Before, I might have taken it out on whoever I think is responsible for my woes without wondering what's really going on. Now I make sure what's really going on inside before I go into attack mode. That might have saved me from making a huge, irreparable mistake today. Say or do the wrong thing and all bets are off.

Honestly, there are times when I wish they would just revisit the Code Duello so if someone chooses to offend me or step in where they don't belong, I would have a recourse to call them out and take them down. But I have to wait for a self-defense scenario to pop up, and I don't think anyone is stupid enough to really want to challenge me.

Adios!

Day 44: Wednesday (whiskey tango foxtrot)

[sigh] Exercise has been good today. Water is proving to be a problem, as is protein today for some reason. Part of that has been because I forgot to carry my protein shot with me this morning so I had to do it when I got home and I try not to do it all at once. Too much protein at once tends to make my heart race.

Work today was pretty meh, but I had a couple of incidents that caught my attention and not in a good way. The first was that HR has disapproved a new shirt I bought recently, so I can't wear it at work. It is a black T-shirt with my old unit insignia on it. When I got out of the Army, I was with the 2nd Armor Division, better known as "Hell on Wheels" and the insignia says precisely that. It's obvious to even the most casual onlooker that this is a unit insignia and stands for something other than the language below it. The HR reaction to it is rabidly PC and they said, "If you have to explain it, you better not wear it."

Are you [FOXTROT]ing kidding me? They let people wear football jerseys on Fridays. Glorifying an intrinsically violent game that serves no purpose other than the entertainment of the masses. That crap is ok, but I can't show pride in my former unit and my support with my brothers and sisters that are serving now because of one word on the insignia? How hypocritical.

The second incident was a customer that started screaming at me and threatening to leave the company, report me to my supervisors, etc when I couldn't do what he wanted me to do because of the company policy. When I tried to help him get the problem taken care of so I could fix his issue, he just yelled louder and wouldn't listen. I finally had to start yelling back to get him to listen to me. If he had just calmed his ass down, I could have had the problem resolved faster and neither one of us would have had a spike in our blood pressure.

The topper to my Wednesday was in the workout room. I like having the place to myself so I can plug in my earphones and jam along as I workout. About 10 minutes into my treadmill routine, this young couple walks in. She was clearly wanting to use the treadmill, but I had another 25 minutes to go. She could see it was no good talking to me since I had my earphones in, so she didn't. What did she do? She turned on the TV and set the volume high enough to be heard over the sound of the machines she and her significant other were using. This also meant that it was drowning out my music and guess where the treadmill is placed. Right under the [FOXTROT]ing TV. I had to kick my music up about 6 steps higher than normal so I didn't have to listen to whatever banal TV show they were watching. I finished the treadmill and then did my strength training and bolted for home.

On the bright side, over on Facebook, a friend of mine posted one of those "post this on your profile and see what you get" things. So I did,and she was the first to respond and she said I was cute, sexy, spectacular, funny and that she would date me. Not bad for the first go. She's cute too. Too bad she lives so far away. Not that it really matters, I suppose.

Ciao.

Day 43: It's Tuesday

And like most Tuesdays, there's not a whole lot happening. Work was a typical day of putting out communications fires and dealing with customers' crap. I will say that more and more people are starting to notice the changes in me at work, which is a good thing, I suppose. On an ego boosting note I should have mentioned yesterday, I was talking with someone and she was checking me out. And I mean CHECKING me out, with her eyes drifting along my chest and arms and then lingering below the belt line. Major ego boost. Didn't do the team down below any harm either. Talk about your evil grin time...

Anyway, back to today. I got all of my protein in and I'm working on my water now. Not easy, especially when I'm having an iffy stomach day. It happens with almost all sleevers, we can have one day where everything goes smoothly, with no issues and then the next, everything makes you a little queasy. It's a journey with hills and valleys and there's nothing for it but to press on to the next step. Some days you'll be on a smooth, level road with no issues, others it's a steep mountain path filled with kinks and turnbacks, and still others are a slippery slope and one wrong step sends you tumbling. You have to keep on and focus on the next point on the path. The one thing you have to remember is that this path doesn't have an end. We don't stop. We keep on the path.

Emotionally...more ups and downs. I'm giving serious consideration to staying solo and avoiding dating for the next year while I continue to lose weight and adjust both mentally and spiritually to everything happening. Maybe after that things will have come to some sort of equilibrium overall and I'll be better set to let someone into my life. I suppose it's time to call on the Zen Spider.

Workouts...that was tough tonight. I started on the treadmill. After 15 minutes I was ready to call it quits. I told myself "Get to 20 minutes and you can stop." At 20 minutes I was close to a mileage point, so I told myself "Get to that mileage point and you can stop." After the Mileage point I was close to a calorie point so I said, "Get to the Calorie point and you can stop." After I got there I was close to my 30 so I just stuck it out and completed the 30 minutes on the tread and the 5 minute cool down. Little mental tricks can work wonders if you let them. Then I went ahead and did my strength training and then headed back to the condo. Believe me, I had to use every one of those mental tricks on myself tonight. It worked.

Adieu-sias!

Day 42: Weigh in

I got up this morning, took care of business and stepped on the scale. Before I stepped on the scale, I looked in the mirror and said to myself, "Any loss is good, a stall is acceptable, gain is not acceptable." I then stepped on the scale and took a look. My weight went from 346 last week to 338 this week. 8 pounds gone, hopefully never to return! My total weight loss to date is 55 pounds.

Love you, Bobo!

I also had my 6 week follow up with the surgeon. They were very impressed with my loss so far. Of course by their scale I'm only down 50 pounds, but I was fully dressed at their office, so some difference is to be expected. I can deal with that. That is such a non-issue that there's no point in going further with it.

Had two walks at work, that felt good to do. I'm discovering that I feel better after any sort of workout than I do eating anymore. I'm going up to the workout room here in a few minutes and putting in my hour on the machines. Time to get this week off to a good start!

Bihar Arte!

Day 41: My Saturday

As I posted yesterday, I was up at 543 in the morning. Kind of a short sleep when you get home at 2 am. But the way my internal clock works, I don't really have a choice unless I take a sleeping pill. So I got up, started some laundry and went to workout. It was a good workout and I felt the burn and I was sweating when I was done. I got back to the condo and rested a bit, watched one of my favorite movies (High Plains Drifter) and got ready to go out to a party I had been invited to earlier in the week.

I'm getting out and doing, meeting new people and having fun, which I think is important not only for my new life, but for my mental well being. Not sitting around and feeling sorry for myself or worse, waiting for something that might never come.

I went to the party for a few hours, then went home and had some dinner and relaxed for a couple of hours and crashed at 9 oclock. Hit the pillow and fell deep asleep. Gone.

Tomorrow is my weigh in both at home and at the surgeon's office, and I'll probably be posting after I get home tomorrow night.

Lehit!

Day 40: After Action Report on Friday

So Friday turned out to be a pretty good day after all. No overtime, customers were sensible and sane and I got my walks in at the office. Then I went straight home, changed my clothes and worked out. Instead of doing the heavier weights which really killed my workout routine, I went back to my original weights and did more reps and sets for a longer, more productive workout. I did 5 sets of 15-20 reps for each exercise and I was definitely feeling the burn when I was done. I really had to push through on the last set to complete the set. Then I did 30 minutes on the treadmill, hill profile, level 3 starting at 3.3 miles per hour. I increased speed every 10 minutes so by the time I completed the program, I was doing 3.5 miles per hour. 5 minute cooldown and I felt great after that.

I went back to the condo and had some soup for dinner and then relaxed for a while before I got ready to go out to the Karaoke bar. It was pretty dead last night. I sang two of my original 3 songs within an hour of the shows starting and I nailed those songs. Bad to the Bone and It's a Sin are always good crowd pleasers. My third one, Here I go again, that needs some work. God sent me another humbler on that one. My last one, though, Enter Sandman, that had a bunch of pretty women dancing on the floor and (what was left of) the small crowd screaming. It tore up my throat something fierce, though. I think my throat is gonna be sore for at least another day. I was going to do Weekend in New England as well, but it was late after my fourth song and I decided to call it quits and head for home. It was after 2 when I got to bed.

Final thought on yesterday: I got all of my protein and water in yesterday, which felt pretty good.

I woke up at 543 this morning and could not get back to sleep no matter what. So I decided to get an early start on cleaning my place up after I wrote the blog today. Later this morning I'll be going to workout, maybe a little longer than usual since it is a weekend and I have a day to make up for from earlier in the week.

One quick observation: I've seen where uninformed people think that Weight Loss Surgery is the "easy way" out for weight loss. They ask, "Why don't you just exercise more and eat less?" blah blah blah. For the record, this surgery is not easy. This is a permanent change and you have to change everything permanently. It can't be reversed, we still have to watch what we eat, and we still have to exercise. We lose time from work because of the surgery, we are weakened after the surgery until we heal, and some people have gotten sick from the surgery and their recovery is very difficult. I count myself very lucky that I had such a successful surgery. In some ways, it's actually much harder after having the surgery, because we have to carefully monitor what we eat and how much of it we eat, we have to hydrate constantly to get the necessary water we need, and we have to be careful not to over do our exercise, especially the first six months after surgery. We have to be more disciplined after surgery than someone who hasn't had the surgery. I defy anyone to say that this surgery is an easy way out. It's not easy, but the results are definitely worth it.

I'm going to step off my soapbox now and say...

Tioraidh!

Day 39: Sometimes I think Bobo is too d**m picky...

Yesterday was a typical overtime day. Up at 530, shower, etc. Drink my protein shake, get mine and my daughters lunches ready and get her to school. Then I'm off to work for 10 hours, go and get my daughter and go home. Normally I would eat my dinner and go work out. Well, yesterday she wanted some Del Taco for dinner. I said ok and ordered myself a single soft taco, no lettuce. We got home and ate and Bobo did NOT like that soft taco. I didn't get sick, but Bobo made it known that he didn't like it and my stomach felt so gross I could not make myself get up and go workout. Again, not going to beat myself up, I'm going to go home tonight, go workout, have a little dinner and then I'm out to my favorite night venue for some Karaoke.

Still trying to find a karaoke version of "Porn Star Dancing", though. I'll probably have to build it myself and hand it to the KJ.

I'm staying to my plan of getting out and doing, not just sitting around lazing about. I'm going out and having fun when I can. I need to come up with a plan for tomorrow...

In the spirit of the soft taco I had for dinner last night...

Adios!

Day 38: It looks like Wednesdays are going to be my no-workout days...

What a day. I had to pull a 10 hour shift at work, go get my daughter, go over to her mom's house to get her music stuff and then go home. By the time all that was done, all I wanted to do is just relax and have some dinner. I made sure my daughter got some dinner and then I had to walk up to the mailbox. The thought of working out last night was just too much to deal with so I decided not to deal with it at all. I refuse to harangue myself about it, either. If I don't workout on a given day, that that's the day that week that I don't work out. Easy Peasey, lemon squeezy. Done.

I did get all my water and protein in last night, so that is a good thing. The only issue I had were my multivitamins. I forgot to take them with lunch or dinner, so I tried to take them before bed. Bad call. The biotin and iron stayed in place, but the actual multivitamins would not stay down. Oh well, another lesson learned. Moving on.

So I will workout tonight in addition to my regular walking (I do that every day). 4 laps at work during my breaks plus the walk to the mailbox. I'll also make sure to get my multivitamins in during lunch.

I've noticed that some people I talk to that have had the same surgery are having trouble getting the necessary protein in on a daily basis. I have a simple, easy to follow way to get my protein in. I start my day with a protein shake that's good for 40 grams of protein right off the bat. About half way through the morning I'll take half of a 50g profect protein shot for another 25g. Then I'll have my lunch, which is usually good for 18-21g of protein, depending on what I have. Then about half through the afternoon I have the other half of the protein shot for another 25g. So before dinner, I've gotten 108-111g of protein for the day. Dinner is good for another 15-20g and then I have a yogurt dessert at about 8 pm that's usually good for another 5g of protein. Water is a constant through the day, so I'm usually at 72-80 oz. of water when I go to bed.

This has been a public service announcement from Digitarii on behalf of the VSG.

See y'all later!

Day 37: OWOWOWOWOW!

My water and protein intake for yesterday were right where I wanted them, I got 3 sets of laps done at work and I did a harder workout on the treadmill. My strength training...well, remember how I said that I upped the weight I was doing? Well, when I went to duplicate that effort, my muscles failed to cooperate with the intention. I started at the higher weight and couldn't do it. I tried my regular workout weight. Couldn't do that either. I over worked those muscle groups and subsequently I will have to wait a couple of days to try again. That threw me off so badly that it didn't occur to me to work the other muscle groups, which I will do tonight.

Odd thing was, I had no pain or stiffness when I woke up yesterday and didn't feel any pain until I tried to do the exercises and my muscles just said, "We'll push this weight up when we damn well feel good and ready to and that's not right now, hero."

Ah well, that's what I get for not doing it slow and sure and increasing the weight a little at a time. Lesson learned.

Tschuss!

Day 36: the journey continues

I guess I wasn't the only resident to complain about the teenagers using the workout room in the complex. I got in there last night and there were some new signs up pointing out that you had to be 18 to use the workout facility. So I got in there and that work out felt really good. I boosted my speed on the tread mill and the weight on my strength training. I actually boosted the weight by 30 pounds on each of the exercises. I had to tone down the number of reps, but I definitely felt the burn last night. Like I said, it really felt good.

Got all of my protein in yesterday and 72 ounces of water as well, so I feel good about that.

My official weigh in for yesterday was 346 pounds, and I'm down another three pounds for a grand total of 47 pounds weight lost. Never to return. That felt great, considering my workouts last week were seriously curtailed.

I talked to someone last night and there was a tone in their voice that I hadn't heard in a long time. Tenderness, a tenderness that hasn't been there in a long time. Maybe things are changing again. Only time will tell.

Nothing more to say, so I'm going to close with...

Auf Wiedersehen!

Day 35: Starting the workout regimen anew come Monday.

Let's see. Cleaning, doing laundry, getting my daughter ready to go to her mom's and every other thing you can think of to do today and I never got to the workout room. So I'm going to start over come tomorrow with my workouts.

Had a good, quick conversation with my Sister's boyfriend this morning. He really helped me get my head in a better place regarding some things I have going on and now I think I would would be proud to call him my brother in law if it ever gets to that point with them.

I will weigh in tomorrow morning. Never again will I check my weight at night after my last debacle. I got all my protein in and I'm working on my water right now. Workout tomorrow night even if I have to commit several acts of mayhem on teenagers.

Not a whole lot more to say other than...

Sayonara!!!

Day 34: Just not going to be a week to workout...

[sigh] Missed again. This time, I waited until almost 8 to go to the workout room and this time it was closed because some of the machines had been damaged (wonder how that happened) and it will probably be Sunday before anything is ready. I'm going to check Sunday morning and if they are open, I'm doing at least 2 hours in the workout room.

On a lighter note, a certain somebody did communicate with me during the day on Friday and that was the one thing I would need to make it a good day. What was discussed was unimportant. The fact that we talked was enough to make my day. My customers were for the most part sane and sensible, so work was good enough. I went and picked up my daughter and we went home and watched a movie and she made herself some macaroni for dinner. I had some polska kielbasa (about 2oz.) and just sat back to watch "Wanted". Good movie, BTW.

So I'm going to try to get in some make up work in the workout room tomorrow and give my place a good cleaning for the week.

BTW, remember that Valentine's day is Monday, and try to tell the people you love that you do love them.

Day 33: Friday's here

My bad mood from yesterday kept getting extended by the actions of others. At work, it seemed like every other customer I had to deal with had an extra helping of asshole for breakfast. That never helps my mood. Then when I went to work out, those kids I spoke of a couple of days ago were ALL in the workout room and not one of them would give up a machine so I could workout properly. I even asked politely and they just looked at me like a dog that has just been shown a card trick, like what right did I have to ask them to move from their hangout place? That was the topper to my day. I went home and just let myself steam about it and listened to some music online. I did find a great new favorite song called "Porn Star Dancing" by My Darkest Days. The last thing that ruined my mood (and I knew better than to do this) I decided to weigh myself before bed and I had put a pound back on over the last 3 days. So not happy!

So today, I'm hoping that things will get better. I did check my weight again and not only is the extra pound gone, I'm down to 348 pounds now, so my weight loss is 45 pounds as of today. That's the last time I'm going to weigh myself until Monday, though. No more of breaking that discipline. Now if work is nice and smooth and my customers are sane and sensible, today could be a pretty good day. There's only one other thing that could brighten my day beyond that.

Friday and the weekend is here. Let's all have some fun.

Ciao!

Day 32: It's been one month since I was sleeved

Today is my official one month Sleeve-aversary. Not going to weigh in today, as that would break my pattern of one weigh in per week. I was completely pissed off last night because the workout room was closed for carpet cleaning last night and I couldn't get my workout in. I was very unhappy. Not being able to workout also killed my mood and my ability to get to sleep last night. I'm really unhappy this morning.

Bobo of late hasn't been very tolerant of much of anything. He keeps things down, but not much of solids. I'm hoping that's because I'm still healing and as I get more healing in, He'll be more tolerant of solids. I cooked up a 4 ounce chicken breast last night but could only get 2 ounces down. Again, not happy with this.

I did get all my walking and water in last night, but I think my protein intake was low. I really need to work on that today.

I guess I'm just in a bad mood overall. I hope it passes quickly.

Do svidanja.

Day 31: It's Wednesday

You know, I hate it when teenagers use the workout room as a hangout. They don't really workout and they tie up the machines not doing anything. Some of us are actually in there to workout properly not just hang around and bullshit with our buddies. The teenagers are also the most likely to make fun of those of us that don't fit into the societal norms for height and weight. That's happened to me twice in the last two nights. I can't hear them, thanks to my earphones, but I can see them clearly in the reflection of the windows in front of me. Monday it was a bunch of boys, Last night it was a couple of girls. It's thoroughly annoying.

I got my workouts in without any issues, though and I definitely got all my protein in yesterday. I decided to start taking the protein shots straight rather than mix it into anything else. Disgusting, but I did it. That allowed me to get 72 ounces of water in yesterday as well to help with possible dehydration issues. It will take a couple of days to see if that's going to help. Time will tell.

As far as the workouts themselves, I'm pushing the strength training to the burn point and almost to failure. Not quite to failure, just to the point where I have to really push to get out the last few reps. I hope it's doing the job. The treadmill is pretty simple, I just increase the speed a little and increase the workout level. By the end of the workout, I'm sweating and ready to stop. Overall, its a good feeling.

A quick reminder for my readers: Remember that Monday is Valentine's day. If you have anything to mail, get it in the mail no later than tomorrow. For the guys, invest a few minutes and actually read the cards and pick something that is appropriate for your lady love. For the ladies, remember that while we don't really show it often, we like getting a romantic card from you as well. And for both sexes: If your significant other has had the Sleeve, you might want to stay away from chocolates as a gift. Just saying...

Au revoir!

Day 30: Tuesday and 2 days from my one month sleeve-aversary

No real change to my workout and protein intake yesterday. I decided to go ahead and add solid foods in for dinner last night. I had a 2.5 oz piece of chicken and I got about half of that down before my stomach gave me stop signals. I think I need to chew it up more and slow down a little on the solids right now. I'm going to try again tonight and cut the chicken into smaller bites and chew it up more.

I'm going to shoot to get in 64 ounces of water today. More if I can. I think I'm a little dehydrated and I need to fix that. Some things just aren't feeling right over the last couple of days and I think my water intake is directly related.

Not much else to say, so I'm out for now.

Adios!

Day 29: A new week begins

It's Monday and it's prior to 6am. I woke up and did the necessary and stepped on the scale. Deep breath and...my body weight is now 349 pounds. I'm down by 6 pounds from last week and a total weight loss of 44 pounds since my surgery date. If it weren't so early in the morning, I would start dancing.

I worked out 6 days this last week, Wednesday being the only day I didn't work out. I feel really good about that. I'm going to continue the workouts and try today to boost them a little. Yesterday, when everyone else was gathering around the TVs to watch the Super Bowl, I was busting my ass in the gym. I figured I would be the only one in there and I was right, so I worked a little longer and a little harder than I have been.

I'm going to be getting ready for work here shortly, and I'm feeling great to start my week. Two walks at work and my workout after work and sticking with what I know I have to eat. I'm shooting to get all of my protein and water in today (not that easy when you can only hold 4 ounces at a time).

See Y'all later!

Day 28: After action report on my Saturday.

I did a good job of getting my protein and workout in yesterday. Felt really good after the workout. I got a last minute invite to a party yesterday afternoon and I decided to go ahead and go, as part of my new determination to change things for the better. More activity and maybe make some new friends. I had fun doing that. Then I went home, took a rest and then went out to my favorite Karaoke Bar to just have some fun which I did.

My first song, "In the End"...well, that didn't work out as well as I hoped. I need to work on that one. But my second and third selections, "Bad to the Bone" and "It's a Sin" respectively were huge hits with the crowd and had people whooping and hollering after I was done. It felt good to be up there like that and I felt like I was in my element.

I had a couple of cuties flirting with me too, and that felt really good. It really boosted my ego. I didn't get names or numbers or anything like that. It's not what I was out for last night. Besides that, something inside has changed. I know what I want, and it wasn't either of them. I guess some things are stronger than basic urges.

Zen Spider time...

Vi ses snart!

Day 27: Interesting...

Yesterday I kept on top of keeping up my protein intake and it made a huge difference in my energy and strength levels. I was able to do all my walking at work plus I had enough energy and strength to not only do my workout, but push it a little further than before, so it's all good right now. Odd thing I finally noticed is that if my stomach feels a little upset from the whey protein, if I go work out, I feel better.

So I have to take my daughter to her CRT camp this morning, but her mom will be picking her up and taking her to her music lessons today, so I'll be going to workout this morning after I drop her off. I could come up with lots of excuses to not go workout, but I can come up with a more compelling reason to workout, and that's my goal weight. Every day I don't workout puts me one day further away from my goal weight. I'm not trying to rush it, but I don't want to delay it either. So I'm going to workout today and tomorrow. Well, today for sure.

Later tonight I'm going to go out and have some fun and just try to enjoy where I am and who I'm with. Whoever that might be. Old friends, new friends, someone entirely new. Whoever it may be, I'm just going to enjoy myself. If anybody tries to bring me down with their drama, I will just move on to someone else. I don't want anyone else's drama in my life, I have enough of my own, TYVM!

Adios!

Day 26: Must just be having a bad week of it...

I had a real bad day getting all my protein in yesterday. My protein juice tasted awful and I couldn't get it all down during work yesterday and then left it in the fridge at work. I went home and went to work out, but after 15 minutes my strength dropped to nothing and I had to stop. I went home and had another protein shake to get my protein where it is supposed to be. I did get in a total of 110g of protein yesterday, so that's ok, I suppose.

I'll have to be more focussed on making sure I get my protein in today. Just remember we're going to have great days, good days, average days, poor days and awful days. Press on through the bads and you will get to great days as well. Listen to your body and remember why you had the sleeve done. To help you lose weight. As long as you don't gain weight, anything else is acceptable. Stalls or slow weight loss are fine. I get the feeling this week is going to be a slow weight loss week. That's ok, as long as I don't gain any weight and I keep trying and exercising.

Do svidanja!

Day 25: Bobo sure doesn't like...

I found out the extremely hard way yesterday that Bobo does not like some of the supplements I used to take. I took a Zinc tablet at about 11am yesterday and I became violently ill within half an hour. Problem was, the zinc was too far gone and wouldn't come out. My stomach was upset for the rest of the day and my body was sending me urgent rest signals so I didn't even go work out.

I know, exercise every day, etc., but you have to listen to your body very closely after this surgery. You don't want to overdo it and if you push yourself too far, you'll know it. Listening to your body is the most important skill you can learn for this. A lot of guys especially will ignore the signals and try to macho it out. Don't do it.

I did make sure I got all my protein in, so that was good. I will probably workout tonight and I'm going to try to walk during my breaks at work today since I did nothing yesterday.

Still a week away from solid foods, and I'm hoping that Bobo can tolerate things better than he has been. Picky little s**t. But I love him!

Ciao!

Day 24: not looking like a day really conducive to working out..

Yesterday wasn't really any different from Monday. Today, however, we're looking at temps in the 20s and 30s with winds into the 40s. Those gusts make it hard to walk outside. I can still go to my workout room, but my morning and afternoon walks might get delayed. I guess I might have to do extra time on the treadmill tonight...

I must have really worked it yesterday, because by the time I finished at the workout room, it was an effort to walk back to the condo. The stairs were a real effort last night. I got inside, got out of my sweats and changed into my jammies. Then I ate dinner and just relaxed for the rest of the night. Stumbled across "Taken" on HBO last night, and I recommend anyone who likes thrillers, action flicks, or Liam Neeson to watch this movie.

Well, that's all I can think of for now, so I hope all my readers have a great day wherever you are. If you're in the blizzard zones, stay in and warm as much as you can.

Da pabaczenia!

Day 23: After Action Report on my day back to work.

Returning to work itself was mostly a "Same Stuff, Different Day" as far as the work was concerned, but my co-workers reactions were pretty much universal. Almost everyone was asking, "How do you feel? How much weight have you lost? Was the surgery painful?"

The only other constant was everyone was mentioning how much different I looked with my weight loss. How good I was looking and that it was really noticeable in my face and the way my clothes were fitting. A couple of them mentioned that I looked a lot happier than I had in a long time.

Let me tell you, I am very happy with this weight loss. Some people might ask, "Don't you miss certain foods" That's when I have to educate them that I can eat anything I want once I'm fully healed, but that the weight loss makes me far happier than any food ever could. There's only one thing that could make me happier, but it's not weight loss related so I'm not going to discuss it here.

I spent my two breaks at work walking at a good brisk pace, making sure my heart rate was elevated while I was doing it. After work I went home, changed and went to work out. Since this is a new week, I ramped up my workout. I took the treadmill workout and went up one level with it and my strength training I added 10 pounds to all of the exercises except the leg exercise to which I added 20 pounds. I also added an extra set to all of the strength training exercises. By the time I got home, I was tired. Climbing those 19 steps to my condo was an effort, let me tell you.

So today will be a repeat of yesterday for the most part, and I'll write about it tomorrow.

Apunno oka yan!