John W.

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I can't believe that I lost 22 pounds in the past 6 weeks. During that time I hit the century 100 pound mark, all since the first part of January. One of my recent little secrets was to use the old trick from Weight Watchers by making cabbage soup. The oil and the cabbage itself seems to have an impact on the weight loss process. Described below is the approach that I took.

I make my soups a bit different each time, but they are pretty simple. I use one head of cabbage and 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil (I learned years ago in Weight Watchers that oil/fat is a MAJOR ingredient to steady weight losses and I truly believe this principle). Also, I use about 5-6 chicken boulion cubes. Then I season with spices to taste..I like basil, thyme, oregano and also a couple of bay leaves which I remove after cooking. Then I blend it up in the blender and eat from that for a few days.

I measure everything and run a calorie count on fitday and divide by the cup serving. This is not all that pretty as far as soups go, but I do enjoy it for my afternoon or evening snack. I did use it with some unflavored Unjury protein and it was just "okay". I suppose one could add some chicken chunks in after cooking to give it that extra protein.

Also, when I get an idea of something I would like to try, I search at recipesource.com and I always find 5-10 recipies that have the base ingredients around what I'm trying to build. Then I print off my favorite one and jot a few ingredients down from the other recipes and attack the kitchen. The best thing about this approach is that everything always turns out and I'm assured that I won't put in too much of any one ingredient.

The beginning of school is very busy, as it is every year. I'm not able to spend as much time as I would like here at OH. Maybe as things settle down, I can slip back more often.

Thank you for taking the time to visit.

John

I've been fortunate that I rarely get sick. Early on I discovered what many people do, and it has worked so well for me that I thought I would share a few of my thoughts. These thoughts, while very practical, may be TMI for some...so be forwarned. This is not a pretty topic, but a necessary part of the WLS process.

I view our new pouch somewhat like a miniature sausage stuffing machine. We put the food in and we feel full. If we eat more than we need, it is jammed into the intestine and then we have consumed several (hundred?) more calories than what are actually necessary. I track my calories using the purchased version of fitday.com ($20 well spent in my book) that helps me go to bed at night knowing that I stayed within my personal targets for the day. I choose to stay in the 800-1000 calorie range (for right now anyway) so that I can get this weight off as fast as is reasonably possible.

I have a friend here at OH (listed as John Hoffman on my profile friends list - great story BTW) that I met before I had surgery that had lost around 200 pounds in 9 months. Since I was doing the research, I asked him what his biggest secret was. He said that he only ate 6-8 oz maximum at any one meal. I have also adopted that philosophy and it has so far worked very well for me. I always plan what I eat and eat what I plan. If I have trouble getting down what I had planned, I slow down and listen. You post-opers know that little gurgle sound when the pouch is saying "I'm full, but if you give me a minute or two, I'll send some of this extra food on into the intestine"? You hear the gurgle at the same time when the pouch gives you that wonderful feeling of instant relief from that tight chest sensation??? You know what I mean...right?

One of the best ways to avoid getting sick is to always lubricate coarser foods with the right foods. My personal favorites are cottage cheese or vegetables. When I was newly post op I thought using bananas was a good lubricant. It was great on the front end, but was a real problem on the other end. There is a fine line between using the right amount of lubricant and being on either end of this pendulum. If you use too much, then the food just flows into the intestine with no fight and you can easily consume too many calories and not feel full as long.  If you use too little, then you will likely be sick. Of course, you want to feel full and comfortable for that hour or two after eating. This is accomplished by getting just the right texture and consistancy of your food.

I also notice that I also got sick from getting upset just before eating and then eating too fast. The kids actually know if I'm upset and actually warn me...and they have saved me on an occasion or two.

I also chew my food until it flows down along the teeth (sorry if TMI). I also have been eating foods like roast beef since about 2 months out with no problem. The thing that I do is chew, chew, chew and then get rid of that last bit of gristle that would serve as a plug  for my pouch. I make my personal favorite food...."Pullman Poppers" with Deli Roast Beef, FF Cream Cheese, Jalapeno Peppers, and/or Pickles all rolled up....mmmm....yummy.

These are a few of my thoughts on the topic of avoiding the dreaded foamies and becoming sick.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

John

Tonight my topic is going to be about clothing. While I was pre-op I was making plans for the big surgery. I had been approved for my RNY in February and I decided to wait until school was out (b/c I'm a teacher) in May. So, I had plenty of time to start to buy clothes. I went to Goodwill and many garage sales. One large sale really stood out. Christine and I went into the building and they had clothes all over the place. The deal was that you could have all the clothes you wanted as long as you made a donation of canned goods. We didn't know this before we went in so I had to run to the grocery store and buy $10 worth of canned goods. I was shopping and low and behold, almost every size of pants that I would need was there on the racks. I stuffed the sacks with about 10 pairs of pants and several shirts. 

Once I had the surgery I decided to go through each piece of clothing and kind of line it up on an assembly line...each one waiting its turn to serve me. The stuff I needed first was the closest and the items way down the road were a bit deeper. The thing that has shocked me the most is that sometimes I try something on and it doesn't fit, so I don't like it anymore. Then when I go back a few weeks later, it has grown too big. It really is hard to remember which items fit and which ones don't because it changes so fast.

I was teasing my dad this summer. He was about 25 pounds lighter than I was when I was visiting him with our family. He had a baggy pair of pants on and and I asked him what size those pants were. He let me know that they were 42's. I said, "Wow, those are nice pants. If those come up missing, you know it will be me that took them." That sure struck a chord with him and he sure got a kick out of it.

I had special moment occur this summer while out shopping with my wife. We were at a major department store. I'm usually bored when I'm with her because if they don't have a "big and tall" section, then that is not my store. Well, I was wandering around and I went to the men's section and I found a pair of 44 inch pants. It suddenly dawned on me that I was able to buy clothes in some of the normal stores. That was an exciting day. I don't know why that never crossed my mind, the fact that I would buy clothes at a normal store, but it sure made my day. My dear wife must have thought I had lost my mind with how excited I was. When I began this jouney I was a 54 inch waist and really needed to be thinking about 56's.

Well, I guess I've about talked the clothes topic to death. If you are reading this, thank you for taking the time to catch up with me. I'm almost 3 months post-op and I hope to have lost a total of 100 pounds in the very near future. I lost 36 pounds before starting the WLS experience.

John

It was great to return to Kansas and then the heatwave hit hard. I was walking 8 miles a day on vacation and now I have a hard time getting in my minimum of 4. I did see people I had not seen for several months and they wouldn't even wave to me. At first I thought I had upset them...and then I realized it...they didn't even recognize me. Several came up to me with stories like that afterwards with an apology. 

At a store, I ran into one of the mom's of a student from last year. I said "hello Mrs. X", and as she walked past me put her head down and gave a small, almost inaudible, "hi". As she walked away I was trying to remember if I had done anything in the classroom involving her son that would be cause for such an icy response. Then as I went up to the checkout counter, she said, "Mr. Wurm, is that you? I recognized the voice but I didn't know it was you". She was embarrased, but quickly she was back to herself with happy conversation.

School starts here the day after Labor Day. Being a small private school, we have no air conditioning, and until last year even no fans. I am more recharged than I have ever returned from vacation. I'm ready to hit the floor running.

I am so glad that I finally broke my stall last week. I had that 10 pound weight loss and then only a 1 pound loss this Monday. I was just happy not to have a gain after that 10 pound week. My grand total lost since January is 94; just to hear that number seems so amazing. I used the old trick that I learned in Weight Watchers; I made up some cabbage soup and put it through the blender. That stuff really has helped....and the side effect is that I have no need for Benefiber...yep, the ships sail regularly.

I did decide to bump up my calories to 900 for the time being. I'm reading things on the boards that indicate that it won't make that much of a difference to stay at 700 or 800. Many folks seem to be having great success just exercising and taking in more calories at the 900-1000 mark. I want this weather to break so I can consistantly go back to my 8 miles.

Okay, thanks for taking the time to check in on me.

John

I was away for several weeks vacationing and now I'm back. I can't believe how fast the summer is flying by. I've been walking about 6-8 miles per day and the weight seems to keep falling off. I just went through all of the pictures and it just seems so sureal. I've had very few problems and I've only had some early food issues surface three times. Those three times that I lost my cookies I was either eating too fast or I was upset before my meal. I've learned to be sure that I'm ultra calm before a meal and to eat and chew slowly. Now I have hardly any issues. I also learned a trick to eat slowly until I hear and feel a little gurgle of some of the food leaving the pouch and entering the intestine. Once I hear that I know that I can begin to eat again. You post op folks probably know what I'm talking about and can relate.

I hit a stall about mid July and I could still tell that I was losing. I finally had it catch up with me with a 10 pound loss last Monday. That brings my total loss up to 93 pounds. I'm hoping to get to the century mark by the time school starts. I've noticed that I have loads more energy and I've been cleaning my office over the past couple of days. I let my office go all year while I was researching this process. Then, in addition to starting a new grade, I felt pretty overwhelmed this year. Now I just seem so totally at peace and I'm enjoying the process. I learned from when I got my weight off in the 1980's not to wait until the weight came off to begin enjoying the new life. I feel like I have it all off again since I'm enjoying life. I'm running my kids' tails off compared to previous summers.

I'm very happy that Christine has decided to join in on the fun. She lost 30 pounds last year and now she has lost almost another 30 pounds again this summer. Between the two of us, we have lost a 150 pound person. I'm just so pleased that she is a part of the process and that she is also successful. She still tells me that she won't be the fat one in the relationship. Perhaps neither one of us will be the fat one. When it is all said and done, I don't mind being the heavier of the two...just not the fat one.

I had heard people rave about the Wendy's chili. Now that I'm post op, I know why. That new pouchy just loves that chili. I read somewhere to freeze it into ice cube trays and so that's what I did. It was handy to have as a quick meal. I also loved the chicken meatballs that Sam's club has. The only problem was that they changed the flavor from Italian to a summer flavor that is just not as good. I hope they bring the other ones back. I can eat salads with no trouble. As long as I put enough stuff on it to make it moist, I have no issues. In fact I have no issues with any foods and I've been introducing way more than I really should since I'm only 2 months post op. I may be trying everything, but I am still very faithful to weighing everthing and logging it into Fitday.com. Instead of the free program, I have the program for a $20 investment. To me is is just so valuable to know at the end of the day that I hit my personal target of 800-900 calories and 70-90 grams of protein.

Well, I'm going to close for now. I'm back and I'll try to do a better job of updating. Thank you for taking the time to read about this part of my journey.

John

I've been fortunate to have a textbook case. I was off pain meds by day 5 and walking 3-4 miles within the week. I did notice that I was starting to feel very weak on 200 calories a day during that first week. I called the doc and got the green light to shorten my clear liquids by a day and my full liquid diet by a week (noramlly my doc likes 1 week on clear and 2 weeks on full liquids). This Thursday I go into the world of pureed foods and I'm looking forward to it. I find it pretty easy to get in my target of 700 calories per day and 70 grams of protein. Overall I'm so pleased to be among the chosen ones for this surgery...it really is something we need to cherish since so many people sit on the outside looking in (with major insurance issues - at least here in Kansas).

I'm taking the year off from my normal summer job to treat this weight loss like my job...only walk, walk, walk for me. When the summer is over I want to have made significant progress. 

I've lost 19 pounds since the start of my liquid diet. My total with the pre op loss is 55 pounds, which I'm very happy about. I feel that I have a pretty good jump on this and I'm glad I started back in January to make the modifications to this new life.

Thanks again for your interest.

John

I closing in on being one week post-op and I'm so glad the surgery is behind me. I've been drinking my clear liquids all week and tomorrow I can start of full liquids. At this point things like pudding, yogurt and apple sauce seem like a feast fit for a king. I've been walking pretty faithfully up until today. I have had no protein to speak of. I was getting weak yesterday, so I decided to back off in the walking area. With me walking 3-5 miles a day and eating less than 100-200 calories, I'm actually in negative territory. I told several people who had early May surgeries to just hang in there because the first month is always rough; now I'm the one in that boat.

It is going rather well, and I drink about 12 cups of water a day on average. I've been off my pain meds since Monday. There are times that I wished I would have continued the pain meds and walked through instead of being so tired. I'm not one to take more drugs than necessary, so I guess I'm still feeling I took the correct path. 

I took my first trip to Topeka since the surgery. I did some shopping and then Christine and I met for coffee at Starbucks. I had to do the Wal-Mart thing and get all of my "full liquids" foods. I rode around in one of those little carts....wow do those things ever go S-L-O-W. Another observation from driving one of those is that everyone makes distant eye contact with you and then as you approach, they pretend you don't exist. Tend to think of it, I think I used to do the same thing. I promise to change that from this point on.

Anyway, I'm feeling like I'm progressing well.

Thank you for your interest.

John

The night before the surgery I went out with Christine. After she was finished with her errands, we decided to go over to Starbucks where I had a black coffee with some sugarfree flavoring. We just sat and visited before she had to go to work. Poor Christine was very stressed out as the weight of this certainly seemed to be causing her more anxiety than I was experiencing. The thought is always in the back of your mind that this may be the last time you get to sit and have coffee together. Anyone who doesn't have those thoughts is just fooling themselves. I knew that I had worked hard to increase my odds of survival, but the hard reality was that it was totally in God's hands once I had done my part.

It was Thursday morning, the day of surgery, and I found that I still wasn't very nervous. My brother Dale had flown in that morning at about 1 am. I purposly asked him to come in late like that so that we could have as few disruptions as possible. We woke up that morning and got the kids up and went to 7:30 am Mass. We had a big crisis that morning as my middle daughter woke up with a very bad case of poison ivy. So, after Mass, I took her over to the clinic and had my youngest son and oldest daughter stay with her until she could get her shot. While I was there I weighed in at an even 300 pounds. I had not lost any additional weight, but I was pleased with the 11 pound loss from the week before and had no expectations of further loss. So I said good-bye to the kids and Dale and I headed off to Topeka to meet Christine after work. We met at Starbucks and Dale bought Christine a sweet cookie that never did end up getting eaten. Christine joked that she wasn't going to eat it because there was no way she was going to be the fat one in the relationship. 

We then headed off to the hospital. We were going to let Christine sleep in the car, but they came to get me so quickly. Dale went back to the car to get her before they summoned me to the holding area. I still was not too nervous, but I could see that Dale was very nervous and this was far worse on Christine and Dale than it was on me. We were joking and having fun. The nurses were just great and even went out of their way to find a place for Christine to sleep which was a great comfort to me presonally. The time in the holding room seemed to drag, since I had declined my dose of "pre" happy juice. Once they called me, then it all happened so fast. I said bye to Christine and Dale and the medicine must have been taking effect, because I don't remember much after that.

After surgery, Dr. Steward kind of laughed as he came up to Dale (Christine was trying to rest back in my room) and said that I had already asked to get up and walk. That first hour in the recovery room was the longest. It is quite painful as the pain stayed in the area of 7-8 on a scale of 1-10 for most of that hour. I remember seeing Dr. Steward and I was a basketcase. I was so overwhelmed with joy that tears were running down my face and just thanked him so deeply.

I finally got up into the room and again, I was unprepared for how totally overwhelmed with joy I would be. I just kept thanking Christine for her support of my decision and for the sacrifices she had made to help me get this surgery. Dale had been so supportive that I can't begin to thank him for all of his support. I was pretty doped up on morphine, but I feel that my emotions were very real and sincere.

Chistine stayed for some time but the reality was that she had functioned on no sleep and still had to go to work that night. She was not able to get any time off work for the surgery because we decided that we would rather have her come to Michigan for 3 weeks to our summer home. So anyway, Dale stayed with me and I was off and walking in no time. I had a quick reputation of "the walker" (the total was to be around 50-60 laps for a total of 5-6 miles before I left the hospital).  I just had walked so much prior to surgery that I only felt good when I was up and walking around. The first night my main job to urinate. With the morphine, the muscle that controls that was not cooperating. After waiting and waiting, the final solution came when I looked out the window. I was looking out at a stoplight and when it turned green, my muscle turned on and the trickle began. Ahh, at least the threat of a urinary catheter was passing. 

The next day was one of recovery. I was thinking that I had to go to some tests that day and was happy to hear that it was one of total recovery. I was very comfortable when they switched me over to the oral pain meds from the morphine. The only problem that I had was the last hour of the 6 hour period was pretty rough. Then a couple of times the pain medication time became more like 6 1/2 hours and then I was in pain. For the first 4 hours I was at a pain level of 1 or 2 and very comfortable. Then hour 5 it was 3-5 and by hour 6 it was up in the 6-8 range. So, overall the pain management was pretty good, except those few hours. I will admit that the high pain level I was experiencing could have been due to the fact that I was walking so much whenever my pain level was low.

So anyway, I was able to come home on Saturday and I elected to stay and get a nap while Dale took the kids to a putt-putt golf course. We came home and I had some chicken broth. Since the kids had not been fed yet, Christine mentioned that she wanted to take them out for a local pizza & salad place. She was shocked when I said, "okay, let's go". She was worried that it would bother me to be at a restaurant. They ate their salads while I sipped on my water. Again, I had this strong emotion that I had won the lottery and had just won a 20 year extension on my life expectancy. 

Another major comfort through the process was all of my friends at OH. I had Dale call them and keep everyone posted on my progress. I feel like I'm at the starting gate and I'm ready to take off. I also met Carmen, who had the same surgery as I did on the same day. Linda came a day later with the same surgery. It will be fun to watch all of the progress of my new friends as the months progress. I can honestly say that I not waiting for my life to become great - it already is.

Thanks for your interest and for reading this.

John

Well, I'm wrapping up my 10 day liquid diet and it really has not been as bad as I thought. Most of the people at the support group had said that it was a very rough time for them. The exciting news is that after 8 days of liquids I've lost 11 pounds. That brings my total loss to 47 pounds and I'm right at 300 pounds exactly as of this morning. I have not been this trim (imagine calling myself trim at 300 pounds) in almost 20 years. 

I am so relieved that school is out for the summer. I have had so much energy that I've been doing some projects here around the house. I put the kids' ceiling fans up and finished the girls' room. I also find myself wanting to get out and walk. I'm up to over 4 miles a day.

I went to St. Francis Hospital to have the rest of my testing taken care of. The really shocking thing was a blood pressure of 95/69. The nurse acted like she had never seen numbers like those...at least in a bariatric kind of way.

I know that I should be nervous, but I am so much at peace with this. I can honestly say that I've done everything possible to be among the healthiest of us as a group of unhealthy people. Of course I'm referring to those in line to have the surgery and not the group that has had WLS. I had a spell in the previous post, but so far I've been very calm. Oh, I'll admit that when a guy came to the counter at the hospital to check in and said, "Where do the people go who have surgery scheduled today?", I got a inkling of nervousness. I'm sure as the day gets closer, it will hit me a bit harder. I did find myself wanting to buy flowers for my wife, Christine. She usually says no, but this time I felt that I needed to splurge. I am so respectful of the fact that without her, I would not be in a situation where I could ever have such an operation. She has gone to work after 16 years at home (making the sacrifice to raise the kids until the youngest one was in school) and was able to secure the health insurance that my job was unable to provide. Not only do we have insurance, but we have some of the very best insurance in all of Kansas. Oh, what a lucky man I am. So to my dear wife, my hat goes off to you. I plan to be the man you once knew, so full of energy.

My brother Dale will be in town to keep the kids focus off my surgery. He is always a lot of fun for them, and I know that they will be very greatly preoccupied.

I also have so many friends here at Obesity Help that I need to thank. It has been a long road waiting for school to finish. I've made friends that I believe that I'll have for many years. May God bless each of you. I hope that anyone who reads this finds it half as inspiring as so many stories I've read along the way. I pledge to be a good student with my new tool once I'm marching down my new road.

Thank you for taking the time to let me share my thoughts with you.

John (only about 44 hours to go)

P.S. Well, I always think that I have nothing to say, and then I go back a read and find that I'm a regular chatterbox...LOL

I haven't updated my profile like I thought I would. It has been busy with the end of school and I'm starting to understand why people update their profiles so faithfully and eventually drift away from it. I think that people start doing things they never did while they were really heavy.

I'm 10 days away from surgery and can't believe that my turn is getting so close. I have My meeting with Dr. Steward in the morning and have several questions for him that I've gathered over the past few weeks. I reduced by another 2 pounds this week for a total of 36 pounds gone. I am determined to be one of the healthiest of the unhealthy people to have this surgery (if that makes any sense). 

I walk everyday now and I even climb the big hill in town. I'm huffing and puffing by the time I get to the top, but I do not stop. I figure that if I was going to have anything happen, it would be while climbing that hill. My youngest 8 year old daughter and I were out walking the other night when we climbed that hill together. Before we got to the hill I kept telling her that she was going to be tired in a few minutes. When I rounded that corner, she said, "Dad, that is the big hill". Then she proceeded to hold my hand and try to pull me up the hill. I told her that I needed to climb the hill without any help which she obliged. Then whe we got to the top of the hill, I asked her if she was tired. She told me "no", so I said, "well, then why don't you run down and try to RUN all the way back up". The little whipper snapper ran all the way down and about 3/4 of the way up before she rested. THEN she said she was tired.

I had my last dinner out last night. We went to Texas Roadhouse and shared a 32 oz steak. I finished my half off and Christine almost finished hers. I had thought that we were going out one more time the following night (tonight), but that was not to be the case. On the way home I started thinking  about how I wouldn't be having anymore pre-op meals together as a family. I actually became a bit emotional as my eyes started welling up. Christine never even noticed the episode, but it passed. The reality was that I wanted my last pre-op meal to be together as a family. So, this evening I boiled 4 pounds of shrimp, a pound of crab legs and two t-bone steaks, mashed potatoes, and salad with ranch dressing. With five kids, this is not how we usually eat. This was a feast and we brought out the fine china (just the plates to make it a bit more memorable). I ate one of the t-bones, a couple of crab legs, and a good serving of shrimp. I don't think I ate that much, but compared to what my diet has been, this was a major and final feast. After we were done, Christine and I went to visit in the living room. Chistine asked me if I was mouning the loss of food and I said that I was ready to start the liquid diet and was at peace with it. I may have some cheese popcorn tonight and then I'm good to go.

I've certainly made many friends here at OH and I've found this to be a major help toward my journey. As you may know, I was approved in February and I feel like a jet that couldn't get clearance to land. Now I feel like I've been able to taxi down the runway and I'm waiting to take that turn and hear those engines roar. I think that surgery is acutally liftoff from the ground. I have had this visual image in my mind and I can't believe I'm acutally here now. It has been so long in coming and now it seems like I'm on a dead run for the finish line.

I've enjoyed the chats that we have had with the Maysters on Sunday evenings. We all have that May WLS date in common and it seems to be a pretty good bond. Last evening we chatted and almost all of us have had our surgery except  another lady and myself. The rest were a bit frustrated as many people are the first week or two. About 4 weeks into it is when most people seem to simmer down and really begin to appreciate their new tool. Here I was ready to talk about the food I'd just had and all these people were still on basic liquids. It made sense not to discuss too strongly the foods as even hotdogs were sounding like gourmet food to them at their stage of the process. I told them that they will be getting me back when I am where they are and they get to talk about all the foods that are being re-introduced. What goes around comes around I guess. 

Well, I think I'll wrap it up for this evening and get Christine off to work. She is such a hero in my book since it is her work that has allowed me to even consider this surgery. Her employer is a fortune 500 company and the benefits are really just outstanding. If I had Blue Cross of Kansas instead of BC of California, I know that I would be on the outside looking in on this process.

I know the thoughts are a bit random, but I really try to put feeling behind what I'm saying. I will try to update much better from here on out. Anyway, thank you so much for taking the time to read this. 

John