Journey to the Center of Me!

I know it has been awhile since I have been on here, but everything is going good.  Had a great summer.  Went to Oregon to my girlfriends daughter graduation, and to the beach.  The beach was amazing and I was able to do things there that I have not done on the other trips we have taken there. I was on the beach everyday.  The last time I was there, we went to to the water just once.  I also walked the beach almost everyday.  On one of my walks I did over 2 miles.  And I even went boggy boarding. My walks have gotten longer.  I am now walking over 2 miles on my long walks and about a mile on the short walks.  In doing this, we have noticed that it takes me longer to burn fat and that my resting heart beat is about 25 beats lower than it was about 2 years ago. Here is to keep on moving forward.

Every so often I will be walking through the halls at work, and someone will stop me and ask me if I have lost weight.  I tell them that I have lost a lot of weight and they tell me how great I look and to keep it up.   One of the things that I have not really talked about before, is that since 2016 I have been working with I life coach.  I had just gotten out of the hospital, and needed help getting my life back on track.  I was told after I got out, that I needed to change my lifestyle or I was not going to get any better.  With his help, I started eating right and walking to get of oxygen, just 6 months after being in the hospital.  With his help and my girlfriends, I am where I am today. So on our weekly talks we talk about everything.  So a few weeks back I was talking about how I am down to the weight I was when I was racing and playing softball.  So he challenged me to go get my racing gear out of storage and try it on.  So t...

Can not believe how long it has been since I last post on my blog.  But is has been over three months, and a lot has happen in that time. When I was last here, I was in the process of moving out.  I finished that on the 27 of January.  After living in Mesa for 40 years, I move just south to Chandler.  Never thought I would ever move out of Mesa, but I did.  I  am about 10 minutes closer to work. February, was a month of new adventures.  On the 22 of February, we took a trip to Hawaii for a 7 day Hawaiian cruise of the Pride of America.  This was truly a incredible trip.  I was able to do things that I have not done in years.  Being on a ship, you either have to take an elevator or stairs to get anywhere.  If I want to be with my girlfriend when she smoked, I had to climb stairs to be with her, since there was no elevator on that level.  One night we came out, of something, there was a long line for the elevator.  So...

I know it has been two weeks since I did a update, so I will give you two weeks worth.  On the 17th I went to the doctors and they are happy with my progress.  I was given the go ahead to start eating soft food.  So my first meal was 4 oz of Freddy's Steak Burger.  It tasted so great! On Saturday we started the process of moving, by cleaning out my storage lockers.  We got a lot of stuff out and donated a lot of stuff to.  Throw out 3 big tvs.  My treat for the day was 4 oz of a Arby's Sandwich.  Weekly weight loss for the week of the 2oth of Jan:  3.9 lbs lost! 

The 12th was one month after surgery.  My girlfriend about a week or two after the surgery, ask if I was happy I if it?  At the time I really could not answer her, which did not really make her to happy.  But after a month I can say, I am happy to have done it!  I can already see the health benefits that the doctors told me I would see.  I sleep a lot better, I don't go to the bathroom a million times a night, and my breathing is much much better.  I know I am already down a size, in my clothes.    I now live in the world of one mile and more with my walking.  I was doing a mile or more a few years ago, but now it is almost  a everyday thing.  As I am walking I know I am getting close and waiting for my app to say I have reached a mile.  The question after that is how much or how far am I from home.   Weekly weight Loss:  0.9 lbs lost!

Happy New Year!!!  And with the start of the New Year, I can say I am some what starting my journey to a new me.  This week was a lot of first.  I left my girlfriends home and finally went back to mine.  With that being said, I went back to work on the 2nd. It was weird being back.  But as soon as I walked in, everyone could notice the change.  I had a little pain, because of the belt I was wearing, but that is because for 2 weeks I wore gym shorts. I am lucky that my job offers voluntary time off, so my first day back was just a few hours.  But I am back to working full time again.    Being back at my place, I have to find the schedule to eat my food and drink my water.  With the surgery I have to stop drinking water about 15 to 30 minutes be eating, then take 30 minutes to eat and then wait 30 minutes after that to take a drink. This is so the new stomach can digest the food.  This is the hardest to so at work, because I...

My Shadow looks thinner! Two weeks after surgery, and I am discovering new things.  For the first time in a long time I can bend over and tie my shoes.  I first did this last week on one of my long walks.  Normally, when I am walking and my shoe comes untied, I just continue walking until till I get home.  This time I stopped, put my foot on the curb, and bent over and tied my shoe.  Normally I have  to sit on the end of my bed and bring my feet up and tie them. I had a doctors appoint this week, which was my two week check up after surgery.  Everything is going good.  My weight loss is above average.  They took the stripes off the 5 areas they did surgery at, and they glued them together.  The first night of not having them covered, they did hurt a little.  Still on the pureed diet until my next doctors visit on the 17th of January. Also I was told I could eat food until I feel full.    I have been eating onl...

It has been over a week since the surgery.  Doing good!  I have had a little pain in the area that they did the surgery, but nothing that I can not handle.  Been walking almost everyday, trying to build myself back up to what I was doing pre-surgery.  Going and see the Doctor the day after Christmas, and hope to go back to work!  Sorry this is so short, but there will be more to talk about next week! Weekly Weight loss:  15.8 lbs loss. 

So this was the week I had been working for the last 5 months.   Surgery was not scheduled till 2:30 in the afternoon, so we did not have to be at the hospital until 12:30.  My dad came down and gave me a blessing (Yes I am LDS or Mormon).  We got to the hospital and checked in and waited, and waited.  My surgery was delayed because the forgot that I was scheduled that day.  So an hour later, I was in surgery, and an hour later I was out.   After Surgery picture.  Bottom right is where they took the stomach out! I don't remember being in much pain.  I went for two walks around the floor that night.  The nurse did ask me if I wanted pain meds and how strong did I want them.  I went for the weak ones, and was fine.  Was woken up at 3 by a vampire (Blood Work).  I was woken again, by Brandon, who works with Dr. Graf, to see how I was.  Him and Dr. Graf  said I could stay another night, but also said I co...

Well nothing really to report this week.  Have finished off 11 days of the liquid diet.  Just two more days to go until surgery. Will try to update you all on how that goes next week.   Weekly Weight loss:  10.3

This week was the end of regular food and the start of the liquid diet.  So last Sunday, was the last day that I could eat anything that I wanted.  So for lunch I chose to go to the Olive Garden.  Haven't had anything that was pasta based for a while, so I thought this would be a good choice.  We sat down and opened the menu and I got anxiety, that I have not experienced since we started the diet back in May, when we went to Chili's to eat.  What to eat and not over it eat was the worry.  So we talked it  over and we split the tour of Italy.  This ended up being the right choice because it was portioned out to where it was the right amount of food for both of use.   For dinner I had a salad, wings, and pizza.  Again, not really over doing it.  Only 4 wings, and two pieces of pizza.  This would have been different 7 months ago.  All the wings I could eat and 3 or 4 pieces of pizza.   On Wednesday, we sta...

Well I survived Thanksgiving.  OK, I did have 4 rolls.  But I was surprised at how well I did.  One of the thinks I love about Thanksgiving is the Stuffing and Mash Potatoes.  Who does not love to make a gravy lake out of the mash potatoes?  But the thing that surprised me the most was, is that I got full with small portions.  OK I had two helpings, but both were small.  And I did not over do it on the mash potatoes.   17 days till surgery, and in three days I start the liquid diet.  To be honest I am a little scared of surgery.  The thought did cross my mind last night, do I really want to do this?  Can I really do everything that is expected of me after the surgery?  I am afraid of the pain, but I live with pain every day.  And I am afraid of being sick.    All of this has not changed me mind. Weekly Net Weight Loss:  1.7 lbs.

Well, we will talk about Thanksgiving later, but on Wednesday I stopped by Walgreen's to get my Girlfriend a Birthday Card.  I can go in there and pick out the right card in bout a minute.  As I found the right card, I had to walk through the candy section.  Walgreen's always have 2 for 1 or 3 for 1 specials on candy.  I looked and turned around to find a healthier snack.  It is funny, how they market thing healthy, but once you read the label, it is not. I am on a low carb diet, so I was looking for something that was low carb.  I picked up a packet of almonds and pistachios, that had the right mix of carbs and protein.  I kept looking and found a packet of mixed nuts.  I love mixed nuts.  All the different favors.  But it had 7 serving in it, and I know I could not just stop at one serving, so I put it down.   Next I was thinking I would get me some cranberry juice.  I love cranberry juice, but as I look, the carbs ...

Everything that I have been working for the past 6 months, has come to pass.  I have a surgery date of December 12.  Earlier in the week I had gotten a call from the doctors office, telling me that first, all of the test of I have done the past few weeks, they don't have them.  Then she tells me, that the surgery can not be done until January 7th.  I was not to happy to hear this news.  My thought went from, all the work I had done was for nothing, and I was not going to have the surgery, to delaying the surgery until we get back from Hawaii.   So my doctor's appointment was for Thursday.  So we went in there with a lot of questions.  So we see the PA, who says he will send in the scheduler.  She comes in and says that we can get me in on the 12th, and they have everything but my chest x-ray.  As we are driving home, I remember that I had a chest x-ray on the 17th of October.  I called back in and gave them the date, and the...

Sorry this it a little late, but it was some what of a busy week.  I worked a few hours on Sunday, so that kind of through my day off.  Nothing really happened this week, until Thursday.  I went and got my stomach scoped.  For something that only took about 5 minutes to do, I was in the hospital for almost 3 hours.  So since Thursday, my stomach has been upset since then.  I have medication for it, but I still have not felt good since.   Saturday was my 30th Class reunion.  It was good to catch up with some old faces.  Was able to catch up with Amy, a classmate that had the surgery a few years ago.  She gave me advice of some dos and don'ts that I may go through during this process.  I also saw a friend who is a doctor, who told me my life would be so much better after the surgery.   Sunday besides work, we meet with one of my girlfriends clients, Moe.  she told what she went through have the surgery.  Telling a ...

Welcome to November!  It has been an interesting week and I don't know were to start, so lets start at the beginning.  I fought off the demons of Halloween.  No Halloween candy at all.  No going to get cheap candy after Halloween.  This is a big win.  Four times at work, I had Supervisors come around with candy, and I declined.  Last year, I bought a big bag of candy some days after Halloween, and limited myself to 2 pieces a day.  The bag lasted over a month.   Went to my lung doctor on Thursday, and got the clearance I need from him for the weight loss surgery.  There was no word if the oxygen stuff is going, because I just sent the test back on Monday.  He said if come back good, then he will put in the order to have it removed.  He also said, that he would order a new sleep study 2 months after the surgery to see how we needed to adjust the CPAP machine.   Also on Thursday, was an appointment with the nu...

The last update for the Month of October.  And I have been doing this blog for three full months.  It has been a busy week of doctor's appointments and test.  That being said, that has thrown off my walking and workout schedule for this week.  Finally broke a mile in my walking on Monday.  It has been a long time, since I have walked a mile on one of my walks.  First time since I really started the walking back up again.  So I have not walked the rest of the week, until Saturday.  On Saturdays, I usually do a short walk and then go to the gym.  My short walk Saturday was a half mile walk.  And it felt good to get out there and walk.   Went to my last weigh in for the weight loss surgery.  Everything looks good and they are going to summit the paperwork to the insurance, and then schedule the surgery.  This is going to happen!!  So with that being said, they require a EKG and blood work.  So After the appo...

As we were driving to lunch today, my thoughts went to food.  Why don't I just cheat and have a pizza, have a regular coke, oh potato chips or a hamburger with the bun.  Yes this is my life now.  I have done pretty good since we started this diet back in May.  But they are only thought.  Not really temptations.  

Another good week.  Was able to get in all my walks and go to the gym 3 times.  Also went and saw the lung doctor this week, to try to get clearance for the surgery.  I thought I was going to go there, and he was going to see how good I have been doing in the  past two years, and just sign me off.  Well, he wants a new chest x-ray, and a breathing test.  So the chest x-ray is done, and the breathing test is scheduled for this week. One of the things I talked to him about was finally getting the oxygen tanks and the oxygen machine out of my life.  I really have not used the tanks for the past two years, and I had to use the oxygen machine when I got pneumonia and bronchitis earlier this year.  I have used a CPAP machine for this time as well, and he told me my sleep apnea is now in a good range.  So lets see if the breathing test goes well, and I can get these things out of my world.  Weekly net weight lose:  2.1 lbs.

This week was some what a normal week for me.  Got to get back to my work out schedule this week with not interruptions.  The only difference this week was, on Saturday, I normally do a short  walk and then go to the gym.  But it was raining really hard, so I skipped the walk. I had two interesting things happen to me this week.  The first was, on Friday, I woke up with my right leg and foot in a lot of pain.  I have been have problems with my foot for a while now, but on Wednesday as I was finishing up my walk, I pulled the muscle in my left calf.  So I resigned myself that I was going to take it easy today, and not walk.  But as I am sitting there, my mind is telling me that I need to get up and walk, that I can not skip today.  So I got up, got ready, and took it easy.  I felt much better for getting it done. The second was, I get asked a lot why I am doing the weight lose surgery.  Last night, I somewhat saw my future....