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I have never been a runner, but since the surgery I have taken up jogging and the other day I ran a mile in seven minutes and thirty seconds.  That is better than I did in highschool!  It is strange to be 32 years old and in the best shape of my life when just a year ago I was morbidly obese.  My skin seems to be coming back into shape and my body seems to be repositioning the excess skin and remaining fat.  WHen I was at the the same weight 4 months ago, I had this tereble spare tire but now it it almost gone and I can tuck in my shirts with out the pooch sticking out.  I guess it is the skin retracting .  I am also starting to gane some more muscle tone so I dont look so out of porportion. 

Well,  Thursday I had my 6 month post op checkup with my surgeon and I mentioned how we never talked about a goal weight.  He looked at me and said "You're there!"  

I have to tell you that I had a strange feeling.  I must admit that watching that scale move every week has been very rewarding over the last six months.  It is going to be hard to not have that motivation.

I feel I must now set exercise goals as I move into my maintenance stage.  In all I have lost 135 pounds and I still think of myself as a "heavy" person until I see a photo.  I guess this is something that will change over time.  

I want to thank you all for the support I have gotten from this site and I wish you all the best of luck on each of your journeys.  Especially those that are batteling insurance companies for approval.  That is the worse part for sure!!  

I had a new experience the other day.  I was on a work trip and met with three people from my agency to do an evaulation of a station.  Anyway, I hadnt met them in person before so none of them knew me as someone that use to be morbidly obese.  We were eating  lunch in a food court when one of the people commented on how heavy everyone was getting.  He told about how he went out to eat the other night with his wife and they noticed they were the only ones in the resturant that were not obese.

OK,  you can all imagine how I felt.  At first I thought he was talking about me becasue I still see myself as BIG even though I am closer to "normal" now.  I wondered if this is what people talked about everytime I walked by their lunch table when I was heavy.  My next impulse was to defend the people or ask why he would say such a thing.  Instead I calmly said, "Why do you think others' apperances bother you so much?" Well, what he said shocked me.  He said "Becasue I care and I am worried about them.  Especially the chldren that are obese and will be teased and have major health problems as they get older."

This made me think about my own children.  I had WLS to get my life back in check, but what can I do as a parent to keep them from having to use WLS as a tool for weight control?  What initialy offended me lead me to think about the second part of my WLS journey.  Now that I have the tool to eat better I now need to sharpen the tool and teach my family how to eat healthy so they dont have to go through what I did. 

I just got back from my "mancation" with all my buddies in Montana.  I had been running and getting in shape and I decided to push it while hiking in Glacier National Park.  My friend and I hiked 18 miles with elevation change of 5,000 feet!!!   I had plenty of energy, but my knee gave out about half through the hike.  I have never had knee problems and basically I couldn’t raise or lower my knee without intense pain.  It didn’t hurt to put weight on it; just the outside of my right leg (parallel to the knee) is where the pain was.  My guess is that the tendons or ligaments became inflamed from being too loose after my weight loss.  It doesn’t hurt unless I go up and down stairs.

Anyway, the great part was the trip out and back.  On the plane I was able to sit comfortably in my seat AND put down my tray to set my drink on!!!  How cool is that??

And, I went to a cookout where they had those plastic lawn chairs and I was able to sit in those without the fear of breaking one.  

Since before my surgery, I have been waiting for my annual fishing trip to Montana with all my buddies.  Well, I leave this Friday and I am making some last minute changes.

You see, this is a typical boys weekend where we all try to out do everyone with the contributions to camp.  One guy will bring imported cigars, another will show up with aged and very expensive whiskey, and someone else will bring porterhouses as thick as a brick. 

I made a deal with myself that if I was good post surgery that I would treat myself with a few drinks and a couple of cigars on this trip.  This weekend puts me right at 5 months post op and I have lost 117 pounds. 

Part of me thinks that I deserve the award and the other half thinks my firs half is an idiot.  I'm not worried about the steak.  I can eat a little of that with some grilled veggies and still consider it healthy.  What I am worried about is the cigars and whiskey.  

I have never had a problem with addiction to alcohol or tobacco, but seeing as how I have recently kicked my biggest addiction (food) I am worried about cross addiction.

Well, I finally told my best friend that I was a little worried about the effect alcohol and tobacco would have on me and at first he just laughed and said I was crazy.  However, after a couple of days he called me back and said he could never forgive himself if he caused me to fall off the wagon and start eating unhealthy or smoking and drinking.  

I told him that I am responsible for my own actions, but I also told him how much his concern for my well being meant to me.  So I have decided for my friend's conscience and my own health, I am not going to touch either of two new potential vices next week.  And I am posting this here to keep me accountable.  

Thank you all for reading this!

I have a couple of very close and intelligent freinds that keep asking me, "How are you going to stop losing weight once you reach your goal."  Everytime I chuckle and try to explain what the surgery really is and how I could easily not lose weight if I stoped running and eating right, but they dont beleive me.  

I get the impresion that they view GNY as a re-routing of food from your mouth directly out your butt.  They are truly concerned that I am not going to be able to ever stop losing.  And I DO NOT BLAIM THEM. If I hadnt researched it, I would probaly be asking the same question!!

I just feel that the media has done a great disservice to the procedure in giving everyone the impression that not only is this the easy way out, but it is uncontrolable weight loss regardless of what you do.

I dont know about the rest of you, but I am working my butt off to lose weight!! I have never eaten so well and exercised so hard.  Why?  Becasue I beleive this TOOL I have been given will help me keep off the weight if I follow the plan.  Whenever I lost weight before, a little voice in my head would say "How long before I gain it back this time?"  I dont hear that voice anymore.  All I hear is my wife saying "See ya soon" when I walk out the door for a run.  I hear myself saying "No thank you" when I'm offered seconds, and I hear myself beleiving that I can do this because I have hope for long term success.  
But what I dont want to hear anymore is "weight loss is automatic and easy once you have had GNY."

100 pounds are gone forever!!!  I finally lost the last two pounds to get to the 100 pound lost mark.  I feel so much better and when I look at old pics of myself,  I think back to what it was like to be that big and I feel like I am having a dream!!!  I HOPE I NEVER WAKE UP!!!

Food has lost its hold on me and I think more about when I can excersice vrs when I will eat next.  I look forward to a nice cystal light lemonade more than a burger and fries!!  

This expereice can be described as nothing short as a miracle!!  
 

I went to the River Festival in Little Rock today and yesterday.  My wife and kids and I got a hotel room right next to the fair and had a great time.  And of course, the fair food was everywhere!!  Southern style fair food that is!!   I was wondering how I would survive, but there is actually alot of things I could eat that I never thought about before.  I had a curry chiken Kabob for lunch and was going to get boiled crawfish for supper, but I honestly wasnt craving it enough to pay ten bucks for it.  I actually went back to the car and got a protein bar instead!!  My wife and kids had all the usual goodies, but it didnt even phase me.  I guess my food adiction is starting to break!!

When the family went to sleep, I crept back out and watched Montgomery Gentry and sipped a bottle of water.  WIth beer being 5$ a can, this surgery saved me a fortune last night as I just hit the free water stations instead.  

I just hope all goes well with the state fair too!

I was at work today and a visitor came in with a friend and when they were ready to leave one of the ladies walked up to the counter and said she lost something and she was leaving me her number in case I found it.  I said "What did you lose?"  SHe said, you will know when you find it.  Not being very smart I asked "What type of object, is it valuable?"  She said, "it could be."  I said, So you dont know what you lost and your not sure if it is valuable?

To that she said "dude, you are really not getting this, are you?"  SHe then set the piece of paper down without writting anything and walked away.  I went and told one of the secrataries what happened and she just laughed at me.  She said, "She was trying to give you her number in case you were interested in her."  

OHHHHHHH!!!!  Well, it doesnt matter because I am happily married but I guess she decided I was so dumb that she wanted nothing to do with me anyway!!! 

In my defense,,,,it has been many years since I was flirted with and I no longer recognize the signs.  

But,,,,,it is pretty funny, isnt it? 

It has been 14 days since my wife took my scale hostage (per my request).  I got it back today and I have lost 9 pounds since my last weigh in.  This means that I am only 3.5 pounds away from a weight loss of 100 pounds!!!!
I told myself that once I lost 100 pounds, the pressrue would be off and I would no longer worry about the scale and jsut focus on exercise and eating a healthy diet.  But, it has all happened so fast that it is surreal.  I dont feel like I have lost even half that.  I mean, I look at the pictures and I can see it, but it just feels like a dream.  Last week on my trip we went to some famous barbequee places and I bought some neat T-shirts because I will be able to wear regural sizes again.  I bought an XL shirt and it "fits" but I want to wait another 10 pounds so it doesnt excentuate my remaining excess.  I will take of picture of me in it when I am wearing it.  Maybe sometime in June....or maybe not.  I could not lose another pound and it would still be worth everything I went through with the surgery.  I would like to lose more,,,,,but, I feel this is already a victory!