Journey to the Center of Me!

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...

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...

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, 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...

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.  

When I started on this weight loss journey back in May, one of the things I gave up was my Coke and Popcorn at the movies.  We had been food prepping for almost a year, but my movie time habits was off limits.  So when I went to the nutritionist, I had to ask what about popcorn?  I know there is no nutritional value in it, but going to the movies was torture.  Have to walk into the lobby and smell it really was hard.  So I asked, and got the answer.  If I wanted popcorn, no popcorn from the theater.    So I did do my research before asking.  We were at the store buying pork rhines for low carb meatloaf. As we were walking down the potato chip isle, I started looking at the different brands of popcorn being offered, everyone different on what they offer and serving size.   A few weeks ago I was at the store getting ready to maybe go to the movies that night, and found fun size offering for Skinny Pop Popcorn.  It is low car...