Mattymatt

After a good rest day yesterday, I tore up the elliptical at 30 minutes and I be very happy! Well, except for not reading the food label on Greek Yogurt drink and a first experience with dumping syndrome. Ah the lessons we learn ....

Being on this high protein diet has the pleasant added bonus of recovering quickly from a workout. I feel pretty good this morning after yesterday afternoon's first gym session in 4 years. I expected to be feeling pretty tired but I feel I could do some stationary bicycle stuff today.

Exhaustion finally got the better of me and I took a long nap. Only problem with being that tired was I had a very lucid nightmare. The basic theme was all of my setbacks and failures over the past 15 years in brief and vivid snapshots. The most vivid of these snapshots was of my ex-girlfriend, the one I thought I would marry. We were doing karaoke night on a cruise and she sang Paula Abdul's Forever Your Girl while looking right at me with an unforgettable sparkle in her eye.

Well, I woke up feeling predictably like garbage and then I vaguely remembered a few people posting about how fast weight loss can release hormones stored in fat. I don't know what prompted me to step on the scale but I did and lo and behold, I am down 6 pounds in only 5 days (maybe more because it is best to weigh at the beginning of the day.) This was a faster rate than I had ever lost before. Ironically, this did not make me feel any better. My hazy mind just said, "Okay, now time to shower and clean the incisions" Jaysus! I don't cry easily but the damn burst once the hot water hit me. A good cry is an underrated experience for feeling better. So I am now well along my journey and down 26 pounds from my heaviest last September.

Getting back to work has been really good for me! I am so busy I hardly have time to think about food or eat much and the scale and pants really show. I am either going to need a smaller belt or new jeans. A new belt is cheaper so I'll try this first. My tee shirts hang on me now.

Good morning, everyone. I know I've been gone for a bit but I am doing so much better now. It seems as if I am healing right up. The nausea is completely gone and the only time I get an upset stomach is if I eat too quickly. Alas, this is still something of a learning curve. On the upshot, I am ready to return to work and I am going back to tractor trailer driving because it's the best path to make a decent living given my skill set. On July 3rd, I will be starting for Schneider. It's been a few years since I've been behind the wheel of such a big vehicle so I chose the free training (and I don't have to sign an agreement either) offered by Schneider. The particular driving that I got hired for is all Mid-West lanes dedicated to Home Depot so there is no East Coast and no West Coast. In fact, just four states ... CO, NE, MO, and KS. The job is 3 weeks on/1 week off and they fly me between my home in Philadelphia and Kansas City. All in all not a bad deal.

Hello to everyone. Hope all is well! I am still battling the nausea and trying to figure out what is causing it but at least I feel cheerful, not despondent.

Hello! I hope everyone is doing well today! I had a nice little NSV. My jeans went from a size 48 relaxed fit to a size 44. Just remember that inches matter as much as the scale, if not more. :-)

I actually got into a pair of 44 Relaxed Fit Wrangler jeans today. They fit perfectly. My old pair are 48s. The relaxed fit stretch a little so I lost some mega inches off of my waist.

I am reminded today that gaining one's health is not a linear progression. Meaning we have days and setbacks. I had my protein-rich breakfast and I am nauseous as a mofo. I didn't feel like my protein-fortified oatmeal so I had two protein-fortified, zero-sugar hot chocolates. All told 30g of protein but I am feeling super crappy. Hoping this wave will pass.

I am starting to really like physical activity! Just did a 30 minute hi-intensity cycle ride at LA Fitness. Yeah it was tough but it sure feels great afterwards. I feel like a completely new and different person; like the depression is starting to lift and I feel a renewed sense of motivation. I actually feel like getting my performance bicycle out of mothballs. I haven't ridden it in 5 years and right now I am so glad I did not get rid of it. I am going to get it over to the bike shop, tune it up, and get ready to ride. There is an event on August 25th, almost exactly 5 years to the day that I rode my first ever century ride, 100 miles. I marked it on my calendar and the training begins now! I need something to keep me on the straight and narrow, something to focus on. Even if I am the last rider at the finish line, I will be a winner.

I am sure some of you are wondering about my date with the 3rd year med student. It's a one and done and I am honestly relieved. I was almost headed down a road I swore I would never go down again: dating a type. I would honestly rather find someone less ambitious and more on my wavelength of living simply with less material things. I reject the consumerist lifestyle and would rather live simply instead of being in the buy, borrow, and spend cycle. The stress of living this way was one contributor to becoming 366 pounds and profoundly diabetic. 

I can tell today is just going to be a tough day. I woke up nauseous and constipated and feeling a bit down. Soldiering on.

I did manage to get to the gym yesterday for a 15 minute workout. I think the best attitude towards the gym is to have both the desire to get physical activity and just to keep coming back. I am happy about the 15 minutes. Today, I am headed back. :-D Once I see the nurse practitioner at the beginning of next month, I will ask to see if I am cleared for weight training as this is equally important.

I get to tick off another morning at the gym. Make it a good start to the new week. I want to try a spin class but I don't know if I can handle that just yet.

I had a setback yesterday. I went to the ER in severe stomach pain and nausea. It turns out that I had a stricture so the ER stabilized me and then I was transported to Wilmington Hospital, where I had the surgery to begin with. They did some emergent repairs. I am doing okay but in too much pain to get around. Anyhow, the surgeon emphasized rest and not getting up and moving. I will be discharged on Friday morning as they want to keep me for observation. Life happens but we keep moving, right-o?

I had some mad energy today because I spaced out while doing my favorite exercise, the elliptical machine. I only intended to do about 20-25 minutes and looked down at the timer and it read 40. Ooops! Then I looked at the calories burned and it was at 560 and I sighed because it means I am going to have to eat that much more to keep from getting nauseous or sick. Well, I guess this is a good problem to have.

I seem to be in one helluva stall. I thought it had broken, but alas, I was wrong. Although to be honest, I think this one is my fault as I got away from careful tracking so today I am getting back up on the horse. Need to watch calories as well as make certain that I am getting 100g of high quality protein.

I tried to create a ticker today but gave up because, according to my account, I have already reached my goal weight. I have no idea how this setting got so fugazied up but whatever. If someone wants to take a stab at helping me fix this, I am all ears ... er, eyes.

I went to the gym this morning feeling surprisingly strong. I think it must be the 100 something grams of protein intake a day. I was aiming for 15 minutes of cardio and blew that goal out of the water. By the time I looked at the clock it was at 28 minutes and I am like, "Okay, 2 minutes and I am done." So I hopped off the elliptical at 30 minutes feeling really good. I don't want to overdo it because I want to make the gym a daily habit. Still this is every reason to feel good!

I've noticed that another bad behavior has crept back into my life. I've started not giving a full half hour between food and drink. Today I put the kibosh on that. It's back to waiting the appropriate amount of time. On the other hand, I've been really good about getting a minimum of 64oz of liquid in per day. Often, I am above the minimum. Post-op food lifestyle is a constant balancing act and the trick is catching things when they start to go out of balance.

Last night was my first night home and it wasn't an easy one. I have a low bed so getting into and out of it was unpleasant. Before I went to sleep, I forgot to take a dose of Tylenol and didn't want to get back up because of the discomfort. Well, that was probably not the best decision in the world. So, sleep wasn't the best and I awoke several times. Each time I awoke, I had to get to the bathroom to pee. Since I am really afraid of dehydration putting me back in the hospital, I didn't go back to bed. I went to the kitchen for an 8oz bottle of water. It takes me about 20 minutes to drink that water. But better to hydrate than to be at too much of a deficit by morning. 

LOL! I've lost so much weight that I can feel the muscles at the base of my neck. Fat no longer covers that area. Whodathunkit!?

Saddness .... some labs came back and my A1C is 6.4%. I was hoping that it would be in the normal range. Well, we'll see what it is like in 3 more months. The nurse practitioner at the hospital said that it is good progress. However, if in 3 months it does not get into a normal range, I'll need to go back on an oral medicine. When it rains it poors. At least, I finally got some sleep and I feel like getting up and walking around again. Anyone that thinks surgery is the easy way out is just plain ignorant. Le sigh!

Saw the head doc again today because I am feeling so mentally out of sorts. You cannot put a price on a good psychiatrist. A little med adjustment and she thinks I'll be on the up and up. Sleep has been terrible post-surgery so I am hoping this non-narcotic sleep aid she prescribed works well.

So how's everyone doing? Hope all is well. It's good to be finally back to work. Once I became healthy enough to go back to work, it was a bit challenging to find a job that wouldn't require me being away from home for a week or two at a time. I landed something temporary moving cars between Carmax dealerships. It keeps me so busy that I sometimes forget to eat because I am not hungry. Now that I am not quite so bored, I don't reach mindlessly for food to fill up time. LOL! Hoping to maybe get 7 pounds more off by August 4th for my brother's wedding. Matty has his eye on a bride's maid .... LOL! At least the scale is starting to move again. I think if I lose another 7 pounds, my size 48 loose fit jeans won't even stay up with a cinched belt anymore.