warrior68

Every since my Dog Sampson was 12 weeks old I have taken him to the dog park every day, he is almost three years old now. I do not miss a day at the park, I get a lot of walking miles in every day while Sampson plays. Being a park regular obviously you get to know the other park regulars, we all walk laps together while the wonder mutts wrestle, play chase and swim. There is this one lady that used to be a semi regular, she hasn't been around for months, the last time she saw me was before winter, lets call her missy . Yesterday when I got to the park all the dog walkers were standing under a large tree hiding from the sun, so I walked up and said hello. Before I even got to group I noticed that "Missy" was there, I always notice when Missy is there, she is wicked hot, the kind of lady that you can tell works hard to take care of herself. I walked up and said hello to everyone, everyone else said hello, and Missy looked at me kind of puzzled, as I said hello to her, and used her name, I thought, how odd, she seemed confused or something. As the group walked and talked every time I looked in Missy's direction she had that same puzzled look on her face. At one point more people showed up, and my dog ran over to greet them, of course I followed him, and then walked a while with that group. When the two groups met up again, Missy walked right up to me in front of everyone and said " Oh my God Tom I really have to apologize to you!" I was like, what? why? And says out loud with like 20 people there, "I wasn't sure who you were! I thought maybe someone else was Walking Sampson for you!" "I Honestly did not recognize you at all." "You look amazing!" " You're literally half the size you were!" " And so damn Handsome too!" At this point I was blushing and kind of embarrassed. Missy goes on to state that if she hadn't asked one of the other dog walkers, she would have never guessed it was me, She went on to say how I am " A shadow of my former self". Mind you, although Missy is Happily married, and was not hitting on me in any way, it felt so good to hear her say those things. Missy is one of the ladies at the park that if she wasn't married, well it would probably insight riots with all the guys trying to chase her, she really is HOT! and as I said you can tell she works very hard to stay in shape. After the whole OM I cant believe it you, her and I talked about our workouts, and compared gyms and so on. he whole time we were talking I was thinking "wow, did this beautiful lady just really say all that stuff to me?!!" I was really blown away, and felt great all day!

I was sleeved on 3/1/11, and I have been doing awesome, I'm down over 115 lbs so far! I could not be happier! This weekend I noticed that I have some thinning spots in my hair, one spot on each side of my head, I guess near/ above my ears, needless to say I am not happy about this! I keep my hair short, I call it the #2 hairdo (a buzz cut with the #2 clipper every 4 to 6 weeks), needless to say these spots are very noticeable to me, so others must be seeing them too. Not a lot of people know I had the sleeve, so If others are noticing the thinning spots I can only Imagine what they are thinking, or saying behind my back. People that dont know about my surgery must be thinking, Hmm major weight loss, now he is losing his hair, does he have Cancer, or the hivs? Maybe I'm making to much of this, but it has me very concerned. What causes hair loss? Is it Vitamin deficiencies? Lack of Nutrition? I take my Vitamins, I have missed a few days, but for the most part I'm very good about my vitamins. I have been getting at least 70 grams of Protein on most days, My morning Protein shake has 50 grams on protein, so I cant see how I would be defiant there? Is this I temporary thing? Do I need to call my Surgeon, or Just go to my Primary doc and have him run some blood test? Holy crap, I'm tweaking here! Worse part is I do not work a job that wearing a hat is acceptable, so even if people haven't noticed yet, they will soon!

I will be ordering my Fitbit on the first of the month, unfortunately this pay period all goes to banks, I will keep you all posted. I like the smaller size and less noticeable design of the fitbit just from the photos I saw. The body bug is a bit of a pain the ass, as a guy in the summer I often wear sleeveless shirts to work or go for my walks, I hate heavig everyone ask what it is, does it work? how does it work? and so on.

I have a body bug, like the ones on the biggest loser, and until I read this post, and checked out the fitbit website I loved my body bug. This fit bit seems to use different technology than the body body bug, and I am not sure if it would be as accurate as the body bug. The free website, and cheaper price make the fit bit much more attractive than the body bug. Needless to say I am thinking about switching up and going with the fit bit, the free website tools are the kicker for me, even the premium membership at fitbit is cheaper than the body bug website. I may run a side by side comparison for a week or so and see which one works best.

That is so frigging Awesome! A mini Triathlon is one of my goals, I have no problem with the bike ride, I am decent with swiming, but I suck at the running! I so badly want to like running / jogging, and I really want to be better at it, problem is I just flat out hate it!

I absolutley love the Chocolate Peanut butter Whey Isolate protein by Sci-Fit, it is in my opinion the best protein powder ever! 50 grams of protein per serving.

I been wearing clothes that are kind baggy on me, its an old habit, I'm sure you can all relate to. Anyways I have been working my way through my closet from 5X shirts to 4X to 3X to 2X, and giving away (donating) the stuff that is WAY to BIG on me. The past few days I tried on some of my tighter fitting 2x shirts, ones that had shrank to more of a XL and they fit, they fit well!! Today I went to JC penny's because they were having a huge sale, Saint Johns bay polo shirts for 9.99, Nike dry polo shirts, and so on. well to my surprise I fit in every single XL shirt I tried on even the Nike and Adidas ones that are known to run small. I was trying on pants and shorts, I'm down to the point where any cut or style of pants or shorts in a 38 fits, some of them are loose! As I walking out of the store it hit me, I just went to a store and bought clothes off the clearance rack, got great deals, and never once had to walk in to the fat kid section of the store! As I walked past the big and tall section I laughed to myself and thought, no more fat kid section for me! No more over paying for extended sizes!! No more limited selection on clothing, I can wear the same clothes as anyone else now! Everyone kept telling me I was getting smaller, I knew I was, I just didn't see it as much until my niece took my pic yesterday. I am so happy right now I could just, well I dont know what I could do, but I'm really frigging happy! To show the difference the clothes make in how I look, the one in the red shirt was on fathers day, and the one in the grey sleeveless Adidas shirt was yesterday, july 3rd, I only lost about 8 lbs maybe ten between the two. The ones in the grey sweatshirt are at my all tie high or 326, the black shirt was a couple months ago. I am down to 213 lbs and well within reach of my next mini goal which is to be under 200lbs at my next visit with the surgeon in mid August.

Jut starting my 5th month, I was sleeved 3/01/11 I have lost 115 lbs. I followed the doctors orders exactly, and I work out like a mad man.

Isnt that a great feeling!! I had a similar situation a couple weeks ago, I've been on cloud nine ever since!

I would let her know just once that you now weigh less than her, or are smaller than her, and then take the high road.

They will check you for leaks at the hospital, follow your doctors orders when you get home.... Absolutely nothing to worry about.

Thanks for the kind words, they are truly appreciated! As far as what I eat, and what I do for work outs I posted all that further back in the thread, scroll back up a bit and you can read it there. There is nothing that I can not eat, never felt sick (with the exception of the first two days), I have been "going" regularly, and i definitely drink liquids all day. I think the single biggest thing I did or do is that I told myself I was not getting this surgery to be lazy and let the weight come off slowly, I knew from long before my surgery date that I was going to bust my ass from day one until I get down to my goal weight! I Promised myself I would not piss, moan, complain, or make excuses any more once I had the surgery. I really do work very hard at this, I had a lot of major health problems that stemmed from being obese, which all 100% gone now. Health was a big motivator, but an even bigger motivator, although I know its not supposed to be the big motivator, is I really wanted to get out and start dating again! I knew that losing the weight would make me look better, feel better, and have a ton more confidence with women than being heavy did. Follow your doctors diet to the letter until he tells you to go ahead and eat whatever you want, and even at that point make good, healthy, well thought out choices. If you feel weak about wanting a candy bar, slice of pizza, or chicken wing, weigh out the options, make a choice that you will be able to be happy with, not one you will regret. Sometimes I chose the candy bar, pizza or chicken wing, but I think it through first, sometimes for hours or days before giving in. before making that bad choice think about how long it takes to burn those calories off at the gym, what will it do to your calorie deficit? Sometimes the couple minutes of pure satisfaction we get form a tasty treat may be worth it, but most times it is not. Sorry to have rambled on and on, I tend to get very passionate about the whole weight loss, working out, and sleeve things these days.

WOW!! You look awesome!!

Congratulations! I cant wait till I get there, I'm at 213 right now, I should be under two hundred in few weeks, I hope!

My food plan is simple, I follow the rules, Protein first, then veggies if I feel like it, Breakfast is a Protein shake 53 grams of protein, that hold me till lunch or snack which can be just a chobani yogurt, or a cheese stick, sometimes both, for a snack I will have 5 or 6 cherries, or a small handful of almonds, dinner is chicken, fish, or beef, and I have a mint chocolate skiny cow ice cream sandwich every night. I have made some mistakes along the way, the occasional candy bar, or slice of pizza with the guys, but for the most part I try to be very good about what I eat. My work outs are pretty harsh, but here is a typical week for me. Every day without fail I walk 3 to 8 miles with the dog, I do not miss a day, EVER! Three or four days a week I do CrossFit, its insane, and it hurts, it hurts a lot! the other three or four days I go to the gym and walk, jog, run on the tread mill. I get on the airdyne bike I do 90 second sprints on the bike followed by 60 seconds of slower rest type pedaling, I do this as long as I possibly can, I mean until it hurts. I try to row at least two if not three 500 meter runs on the rowing machine, then I attempt that damn Jacobs ladder three or four times until failure. I also do a couple nautilus circuits every week. When I have the time and weather is nice I ride my bike to the gym rather than driving to get in more exercise. Thats pretty much my evening workout, I also do some sit ups, push ups, and assisted chin ups in the mornings. To work out like this takes a lot of time, and effort, I have cut back on my internet surfing, cancelled all my movie channels, and missed out on some social events. Its is so worth it to me, I have caught women checking me out, I have had two girls in a car at stop light chat me up, and on top of all that my health is great now, and i feel great!

I was sleeved back on 3/1/11 and have had better than average results, I could not be happier with this surgery. The results I have had are due to the surgery, plus that fact that I have been working out very hard, going to the gym 4 days a week, and CrossFit 3 days a week, not to mention the daily walking. I am down a little over 100 lbs at this point, and could not be happier, but a few weeks ago I hit a stall, and was stuck there in spite of how hard I worked out, and how perfect I ate. So at the end of last week the scale did finally start to move again, wow was I happy, but that's not the victory I'm taking about, but its the lead in to it. Yesterday after leaving CrossFit, I was driving down a busy four lane rd, I was whooped, my whole body physically shaking from the workout, I was covered in sweat, I mean my shirt was soaked, and I was burnt out I could hardly process information(This is how I feel each time I leave CrossFit). As I am driving down the rd out of the corner of my eye I see a silver car that keep pulling up next to me, then dropping back, and pulling up next to me again. Being so wiped out form my workout I wasn't paying much attention at all. Being that it was a awesome summer evening I had all the windows in the car down for some fresh air. I came up to red light and get in the turn only lane, the silver car pulls up next to me, and of course I'm still not paying attention, after a few seconds I hear soemone scream "HEY!" really loud, so loud it kinda scared me at first. I look over and in the silver car there are two chicks, maybe in there late twenty's, hard for me to really tell how old they were. Anyways as I look over the passenger points to the driver who is hiding her face in her hands, and looking embarrassed, and says, "she thinks you're really cute!". I was shocked, this is like the kind of stuff that goes on in high school, and I am 42 years old, I was at a loss for words, no clue at all as to what to say. I'm such a geek I all I could think to say was "thanks" then the damn green arrow came on, and the cars behind me were beeping so I had to drive away. In hindsight I should have asked for her number, but I was so shocked that It was all I could do to even get the word thanks out of my mouth. I was smiling the rest of the ride home, all the way though dinner, when I went to sleep, and I'm still smiling right now! That was exactly the type of motivation I needed to keep me moving forward on my journey! I cant even explain what a HUGE boost of confidence it was, especaily after just breaking through a two week stall. I honestly think from this day forward I will remember that few seconds at that traffic light as the Hell Yeah moment in post surgery life!

Congratulations! That must be such an awesome feeling!

Nope, once I took the patch off and swore up and down that I was good to go, they said ok, and I had surgery the following Monday.

I smoked for over 20 years, told the surgeon I had quit, got busted on the pre op labs the week b4 my surgery. When I went in for the appointment 3 days prior the PA told me we found nicotine traces in your lab work. Fortunatly for me I had put on a nicotine patch that morning because I did not want the doctor or PA to smell the smoke on me. I told her that I had quit, and that some days I wear a patch if I am having a tough day. She asked me to take the patch off, and I did. I did not smoke again until 2 moths post surgery, I cant even tell you why I started again, I just did. I will say that for the time that I wasn't smoking it really didn't bother me, I wanted the surgery more than the cigarettes. Its not that hard to quit with the patch, my suggestion would be to by the walmart house brand patches at a fraction of the cost compared to nicorette patches.

Congratulations on getting it done! Its funny that you said you felt like you got hit by a truck when you woke up... When I woke up after the surgery the surgeon, the P.A and all the nurses were there, they asked how I was feeling, I didn't answer them for a few seconds I just kept looking around, the P.A finally said "what are you looking for?: Me " the truck" P.A, " what truck?" Me " the one that ran me over while I was asleep!" They all got a little chuckle out of it. Just know that each day you will feel better, and stronger! Best of luck!

Thank you everyone for the kind replies! I finally broke through and lost one whole pound! LOL. Now that my weight loss has slowed so much I'm wondering if hitting my goal of being under 200 at my next follow up with my surgeon in August is even possible? I work out, I walk, I run, I eat right, I work out more, I walk more, I run more, and I get one stinking pound! Oh well, I'm just happy to have had the fast loss that I had for the first 4 months or so.

]!00 pounds down since starting the pre op liquid diet on Febuary 23rd of 2011, sleeved on March 1st 2011, 10,5 inches off my waist.... Still have at least 50 more to lose, but so far so good! There have been ups and downs during the past 4 months, a couple small food accidents, but I have been 100% on the work outs! I started CrossFit a couple weeks ago, all I can say is Holy Frigging CrossFit Batman! Crossfit is expensive, but oh so worth it! I leave there shaking each and every time I go, its insane! Now for the bad part, I have finally hit that stall everyone talks about, and Its not making me very happy at all. My initial thought was to work out more, work out harder. I Cant really lower my calories, I'm only taking in between 600 and 1000 a day, so what else is there to do besides work out more, and harder. Well my CrossFit instructor told me tonight that I need to rest on my days off from cross fit, not go workout in the gym, He said sometimes more is less, and my body may be going through a shock of some kind. Long story short the Crossfit coach knows his stuff, he is always reading healthy eating books, and going to training seminars, I have no reason to not believe him, but it makes no sense to me. He did say If I Felt like I HAD to do something on off days to ride the Schwinn air-dyne exercise bike, but nothing else. Anyone who has been through this stall please chime in and let me know how you got past it?

4 moths and down 100lbs, but I work out like a mad man! Weight loss and the amount of time it takes will be different for everyone, but I think everyone will agree, if you are sleeved, you will lose weight if you follow the rules.

Congratulations!! I just hit the 100lb mark too, its such a great feeling!

Im not doctor, although I have played Doctor before, so my opinion not only counts, it is 100% non factual. That being said I was under the assumption that the only way to lose weight was to have a calorie deficit? I wear a body bug 24/7 and I know I eat between 600 to 1000 calories depending on the day. Each day When I plug in my body bug to down load the info I look at the calorie deficit, for some reason this is the number I find most important, I get very upset with myself if I am not at least at a 1500 calorie deficit, on days that I do my CrossFit workouts I am closer to a 2500 calorie deficit and sometimes higher. Now I will say that the body bug counts every calorie I burn, all of them, when I sleeping, working, sitting here typing, and working out. My daily goal is a calorie deficit of 2000, but I'm kinda ok with 1500 on some days. I'm not sure that I am right, but I like to think that the more of a calorie deficit you have each day, the faster the weight comes off. I have not had problems with feeling week, or getting dizzy while running these deficits, so I gotta think its ok, right?