Travis_S.

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I have been waiting to write until after this weekend.  As some know I have been training for seven months now not only for the half marathon I was in in May, but also for the Tough Mudder competition that was this weekend.  For those who don't know it's an extreme challenge course built on a ski slope that consists of 10 miles and 25 obstacles designed by the British special ops. on average only 72% finish the course. There was climbing 12 foot walls with no ropes or anything to aid you besides your fellow "mudders" running up and down black diamond ski slopes multiple times, running through fire and at the end running through an obstacle that is 30 feet long and 10 foot wide with electrical wire hanging from it like spaghetti and they are charged with 10,000 volts, it won't kill but will drop you to the ground.  I got zapped three times.

Yes, I was one of the 72%.  It was hard, grueling, I was wet and muddy by the end on mile one, the temp on Saturday there was 95 degrees.  I would do it again in a second.(trying to find the funds to run the one in Arizona in January)  Just as soon as my scrapes, bruises and sore muscles heal. 

I do this for on big reason, to show me and only me what I can do with this new life I was given.  After being obese most of my life I want to know what my new limits are.  After surviving this weekend, in my opinion with flying colors, and have a blast doing it I now know there are no limits as long as I plan, train and follow the rules.  Now the question is... Who wants to join me on the next one???   There is one in Minneapolis June 23, 2012.

OK, so it's been a long time since I posted.  Life has been busy with kids having choir, swimming, piano lessons, and dance lessons.  Not to mention the recitals for all of those, having any time before 8pm is nearly impossible.  For that reason I now get up at 3am most days to exercise, six out of seven to be exact. 

I have decided to do the "gofar challenge" in the Fargo Marathon.  That is doing the 5k, which I will be running with my 7 year old daughter and then the next day doing the half marathon.  I have a goal of finishing the half in under 2 hours so I am training hard to make sure I reach that goal.  A friend of mine and myself have also entered a "Tough Mudder" competition that is in Wisconsin on July 23rd.  If you don't know what this is just google it, basically what it is is a 8 mile long obstacle course designed by British special ops.  There is fire, mud, and electrocution involved for starters.  Once you see what that is you will know why I am training six days a week, failure is not an option in my world any more.  Thanks also to this training I am way below my goal of 200. I am at 180 with only 13% body fat, not bad since only 11 months ago I was 320 with 40+% fat.

Busy life, busy world, but with the new me I would have it no other way.  Life is definitely good.

This Saturday I ran in my second 5k.  This was the first year for it and I thought it went very well organization wise.  It went spectacularly for me. According to their timer I finished in 36:32, 3 minutes faster than the one I was in a month ago. At the same time I had my GPS on me and it said I ran 3.41 miles, not the 3.1, and I did it in the same time.  That gave me a 10:47 minute per mile.  My goal was to run the 5k at 11 minute mile.  So if I go by my GPS that I use every run, I DID IT!!!  Either way I am getting faster and look forward to my next 5k in July.

I decided to wait a little while to write again because I just had my 3 month surgervisary last week and my birthday was yesterday.  I can't believe how much things have changed, I've changed.  All for the better. So far I have only bought a couple of new shirts and pants so I still wear the old fat clothes.  It is getting harder and harder to wear these big clothes. I went from a 42-44 pant to a 36 (which is getting loose on me already!) and a 3XL shirt to an XL.  I now have to tuck in my shirts to make them look somewhat presentable or it looks like I am wearing a sheet.  The pants I fold over at the waist so they don't bunch when I tighten the belt.  This whole process is amazing, absolutely amazing to me.

I waited until after my birthday to write because one of my original goals was to lose 50 pounds by my birthday.  I surpassed that a month ago.  I have now lost 71 pounds since surgery, 88 pounds since my liquid diet and I am 103 pounds down from my highest!!!  I have no regrets about this surgery at all.  Sure there are some things I miss, but I don't miss my 100 pounds and that makes up for everything else.

I feel great, I have so much energy I am wearing out my two kids and wife.  Who knew I would get antsy and need to go for a run or workout because I have so much energy!!  Not me five months ago. I still don't actually like to run, but I feel the need to run. It's weird but all I can think about is what other stuff I want to do while I'm running.  Need to find some people to run with to make it more enjoyable. 

New goal: get to my goal weight of 185-190 by November. Only 54 or so pounds to go.  I know I've been losing faster than that, but I will slow at some point (hope I am wrong, but expect the worst, hope for the best)

Yesterday I ran the 5k in Fargo.  I did pretty well, ran most of it.  Didn't do as well as I was hoping.  I did it in 39:17. I was hoping for 33-35 so I was a little slower, but I had a great time.  Running with all the other WLS people was great.  I think they said there was about 50 of us that were participating in the 5k so that was really great to see.  I know there are more 5k in my area this year and plan to do some more and get to my goal time. 

I would have never thought about doing this even 4 months ago. To have lost 77 total pounds since middle of February is absolutely amazing. To run 95% of a 5k only two and a half months after surgery is beyond what I had hoped for.  Now to get to my goal time of finishing in 33 minutes and I will be elated.

Wow, two months already.  How the time and pounds have gone by!  I am still training for the 5k coming up the end of May, can't believe that I am actually thinking of trying to run it.  Even a month ago I would have never thought that was possible.  I can definitely see and tell that the pound are coming off.  I have not broken down and bought new clothes yet so I am having to wear a belt and I used to wear the pants below the belly, now I have them hiked up to where I am told they belong all that just to keep them up.  I feel good (as long as I keep up with vitamins and eating enough) and have been getting more compliments that I look thinner.  I did find I have one slight problem, I went out to Subway for the first time and got a 6" turkey sub. I ate half of it, all went well, then about an hour later I sat down on the couch and conked out for two hours with the kids playing around me.  I am thinking it was my first case of carb coma.  The second half I ate the next day with no bread.

I have an original goal of losing 50 pounds by my birthday, which is still a month away, and to date I have lost 47 pounds.  New goal I think will be 60 by my birthday.  With my two week diet I have lost 64 pounds! I am about the same weight as I was in high school. Only 68 pounds to my surgeons goal. 

Well one month ago I had my life changed for the better.  I couldn't be happier with it all so far, granted it has only been a month, I have had no problems eating at all, no dumping, nothing. I have finally noticed that some shirts are baggy on me and a pair a jeans that were too tight on me a couple months ago are actually looking a little baggy themselves.

I have been thinking it over for awhile and wanted to see how I felt, now that I know I feel great.  I plan to run the 5k here in May so I am starting to get ready for that, I don't just want to walk it I am hoping to jog a good portion of it, we'll see how it goes.  Maybe half marathon next year??

The only issues I have are with being around the "bad" foods.  I have had to endure people eating pizza and McDonald's around me lately. It was Easter and had family in town. But I did not give in and cheat, I went out to my car and ate my deli turkey and cheese stick.  It did make me crabby the rest of the day, but when I step on the scale and see my clothes getting too big it is definitely all worth it.

The best part for me is that as of my one month I am at 287!  That is 58 pounds lighter than my highest weight, 45 pounds lighter than my liquid diet weight and 28 pounds lighter than my surgery weight.  I had put a goal for myself to lose 50 pounds before my birthday in June (from a starting weight of 332) I should definitely make that, even with some hiccups along the way.

Finally!!  It was only a little over a week my weight didn't change, but I did still notice my fat percentage going down so that kept my hopes up.  When I lost again it was big!  I am now under 300 for the first time in 7 or so years, 298 to be exact.  That also means that I have lost 34 pounds since the start of my liquid diet only a month ago.  200 here I come!  Also had a couple of tests this weekend that I successfully passed.  Went to the local bike show on Saturday and even though there was good smelling fried food, free shots of Jack Daniels and some free beer.  (Those are things that I loved to partake in my last life) I did not.  Also on Sunday went to the circus and we all know the yummy cotton candy, hot dogs, soft pretzels they have there.  I snuck in my bottle of water and my cheese stick and ate those.  Again stuck to the plan and the circus was still fun. 

Well so far I have lost exactly 30 pounds. Along with that I have lost 3-4 inches total from neck to ankles. I am very happy with that. Looks like I might be hitting my first stall, it's been about 4 days since the scale has moved. I see the doctor next monday so if it hasn't changed I will have a lot more questions for him to make sure I really am doing what I am supposed to.  Stall I know are normal, hopefully it isn't a real stall or a very short one.  Eating is going well, I get about 600-650 calories in a day and my my protein is between 60-70 so I'm eating exactly what I'm supposed to right now.  Other than that I feel good, no pain or anything anymore and still have not found anything that upsets the pouch.  Not that I am trying to though either.

My surgery was march 3rd and all went well.  I was released the next day and I am happily at home.  The only problem I had was the gas pains.  I did expect them, just not like that, they were like a dagger going into my ribs.  Thank God for pain meds.  When I got home I was almost seven pounds heavier from all the fluids, by the next day I had lost it all.  So I'm back to my pre-surgery weight and ready to start losing.  As soon as I take some more pain meds and take a nap.