behemoth350

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Well, I am a few days away from being 7 months out.  I am 159 lbs down from my heaviest, but was 166 lbs down at my lowest before starting to work to get my muscle mass up.  I am currently at 225lbs and my heaviest was 384 lbs, 374 lbs before the surgery, so I am 149 lbs down post surgery.  Confusing enough?  Pick he number that you use to gauge yourself.

I was going to update pictures at 6 months, but didn't get around to it so hopefully in the next few days I'll get updated pics up at 7 months out from surgery.  I just updated my health tracker with all my measurements and since the surgery I have lost over 5 feet in diameter, yes 5 FEET.  61 1/4 inches to be exact taking all the measurements on the health tracker with the biggest being 16 1/4 off of the waist.  I am amazed at how much has come off.

 I do want to work on getting a few measurements a little bigger with working out and that will come with time.  I just need to keep my intake in line with how hard I am able to push myself in the gym and keep that protein intake up.  Time for the balancing game, but need to put on muscle mass.  I'm still in the phase where my muscles are getting used to lifting.  I had to take time off a 2nd time because of an unrelated surgery, but now I can get back at it and its time to put on some more muscle and not have people thinking I've lost too much.  The only person who has really said that was my mom, but the funny thing is that I weigh the same weight I did before I tore my Achilles and was fighting internationally in Olympic style Tae Kwon Do.  But that guy could kick my butt right now!  As far as raw strength I am no where near when I was playing semi-pro football at 320 lbs, but I don't ever expect to have that kind of strength again or WEIGHT!!!!

Pics to follow soon to show the progress and after these pics the changes in the future should be more muscle mass.  End goal would be to weigh 230 lbs at 12% body fat.  I was at 45% bod fat and now I'm at 17.5%.  Let the next journey begin...

Exactly one day before my 5 month surgiversary I reached my surgeon's initial goal of weighing 240 lbs!!! (at 6'4" tall)  144 pounds down from my heaviest.  I know weight is just one measure of success, but one that is easily measurable and exciting to reach.  I think it is very important to set other goals to measure your success that include changes to your life and health as well.  Another big one is keeping track of your measurements so when there are times when your weight loss stops you can still see that you are still having changes occur with your body.  

I am comfortable at this weight but my goal is to drop another 20 and try to gain back the difference in muscle.  I had to take a longer time off from working out due to an unrelated surgery, but now it is time to start building muscle.  I think that has the biggest shock for me, seeing how week I am compared to before surgery in regards to strength.  I know alot of morbidly obese people are actually very weak, but that wasn't the case for me.  I would lift hard and work even harder at eating!  I know that my strength will come back but it has been a little frustrating to not be the bear that can rip through walls and stuff.  But oh well, I am so much more healthier then I have been in about 14 years,  

Another exciting thing is that my surgeon's office has asked me to come speak at their information session because I have been doing so well.  I'm excited about that, but realize that I still have a long road ahead of me and must stick to my lifestyle changes to be successful longterm.  So I'll go into the info sessions with a before picture and a pair of size 48 pants and now I'm in a 36!!!  Should be fun and I hope I am able to help others.

Also got my first blood test results. Some highlights; overall cholesterol is 103.  Yes 103!!!  Tryglycerides 81.  WHAT???  I didn't even know it could be that low.  My HDL is 43 and my LDL is 44.  I was totally pumped when I saw the blood work results.  While there is still more work to be done there are so many signs of my health changing significantly.  

I need to post some updated pics and I will do that soon.  I think last pics I was 44 pounds heavier so it should be a big difference,  And yes, I am going to post updated pics of me just in the spandex too.  Sorry ladies, its not pretty, but I think good for other guys to see what their skin might look like. You can get a false impression of the results when you see pics of people that are fully clothed.  Just want to help if I can,

And a BIG WARNING to married guys out there who wear their wedding rings all the time.  I have lost two rings because they just fell off.  I still have my original gold band. but I wore a titanium one that  didn't have to worry about messing up.  Well it disappeared about 3 months ago and I when I went to replace it my finger was two full sizes smaller, and now another one has fallen off.  So be careful with your rings, especially if it is valuable.

Blessings to all...

Just a short post.  Excited to say that when I weighed myself this morning I hit the 100 pound mark!  I normally only weigh once a week but couldn't help weighing every day the last few days because I wanted to see it hit the 100 pound mark, which is 110 pounds down from my heaviest.  

Going to keep plugging away and dropping the weight...

So I just uploaded more before pictures and progress up to 11 weeks.  I added another album that's only guys considering the surgery or or in the process of losing weight may like to see.  There are all these great photos showing before and after where everyone is obviously doing well and losing lots of weight.  But I always wonder, "What does that guys skin look like under there?", "Is he able to start getting any muscle tone?", "How are the scars looking as time goes by?", and "Does he have a big skin flap that slaps him in the face when he runs?".

So I wanted to put photos out that didn't hide that and showed what is really happening to my body.  A few others have done that and I really appreciated it.  I know it ain't pretty, but hopefully it can help some people, like others helped me.  

Just as a reference I am now working out 5 days a week with about 20 minutes of cardio and weight lifting.  I will increase intensity as I go along, but next week I have to have another surgery (unrelated to WLS) that will keep me from working out for at least two weeks.  But then I'll start pushing again.

If looking at my big ol gut is nasty for you then I'm sorry, just don't go in that album again cause it will just be me in black spandex shorts from start to wherever I end up.  The progress folder will have pics where I am fully clothed and hiding any unsightly skin,etc., showing my continual progress without seeing too much.  

Behemoth350 is an email address I have and that was the weight I was when I created it.  My weight fluctuated so much that I would have been updating the name all the time so I just left it there.  I'm happy to not be anywhere near that weight anymore at just under 11 weeks out from surgery.  I am sitting at 286 lbs as of today, which is down 88 lbs since I started this process and 98 lbs down from my heaviest! 

I'm not one to talk much, but I'll try to give some info and hopefully it will help someone.  It wasn't until about 3 weeks ago that I finally started to get energy post surgery and that is when I also started working out.  Goal is 5 days a week at the gym with 3 lifting and doing cardio on all 5.  It is going well and I am starting to get more strength back.  I wondered how lifting was going to be after surgery and I thought I would just be doing more circuit type training, but I'm already seeing that I'll be able to get back to my semi-pro football days of supersetting and making every workout into, well, a workout.  So I am happy about that and trying to maintain as much muscle mass as possible while losing all this weight.

Eating is getting better, but I currently will not eat chicken.  All those weeks of only eating chicken, turkey, and fish took its toll on me and I can't stand chicken.  I think the pureed stuff is what did it to me.  I am on the last stage of my diet before I get to maintenance and no real problems.  I have been able to eat everything I have tried.  Stuff like salad and rice, where I have heard a lot of people having problems goes down easy for me.  And NO DUMPING yet.  Hopefully never.  I'm very cautious about my sugar intake and plan on always staying that way.  The only problem I have had is that on occassion I haven't chewed enough when I'm talking and not concentrating on the food.  A few of the times I actually had to throw the food up, but don't want to get in the habit of that.  But I did find a good remedy that has really worked for me if it does feel like meat is stuck, and that is meat tenderizer.  Just swallowing a bit of that takes care of what is stuck in 2-5 minutes.  The only times I threw up is when I haven't had it with me. 

Always remembering prtein first in the meal and if something happened like when I threw up I made sure to have a protein shake to replace the protein that I just lost (and more).  I'm glad that I have been able to try foods, and I'm not talking about greasy foods or stuff that is breaded, etc, but foods thatsome have problems with that are approved foods.  But it does worry me a little that I don't have problems and I hope I don't overdo it because my body is handling everything so well.

Well next I hope to post some pictures.  Some right before surgery and some current and then every once in a while to show continued progress.  I'm going to keep pushing and I hope you will too!!!

So I had my gastric bypass done 5 days ago.  It didn't seem real until I was actually in the recovery room after the surgery and it was actually done.  Everything seems to be going fine.  Surgery on Wednesday and released from the hospital on Friday.  Now I'm just recovering at home.  The liquid diet isn't that bad.  I haven't been hungry at all.  The main thing has been focusing on continually getting liquids down to stay hydrated.  30cc every 15 minutes isn't much, but I understand the need to go through this with the size of the new stomach and the healing process.  Funny thing is that even though I am not hungry I have craved a chili dog.  Don't know why though, its something I hardly ate in the past.

Another thing that is weird is the change in my sense of smell.  Smells are stronger and bug me more now.  Seems kind of like my wife when she was pregnant.  Hopefully it won't effect me too much.  My insides are rumbling like crazy and I'm still dealing with pain.  The pain is different though with most of it being inside, so it is a deep pain.  Not too bad though.  Not really in the mood to write now....

Well, I'm through with the 1st 2 months of my 6 months of required monthly visits to the bariatritian, with a few visits with a dietitian, physical therapist and psychiatrist that is required by my insurance before I have surgery.  Everything is going well so far and I even had my first visit with the psychiatrist, which I was a little nervous about because of my experience 3 years ago and only getting conditional approval if I went through 6 months with the psychiatrist that did my review last time.  This visit went really well and was mainly getting to know me and see what my knowledge of the surgery was.

I'll keep plugging away and I am excited about surgery.  And I have made a choice on surgeries.  I'm going with the RYN and not the lap band.  With needing to lose at least 130 lbs it is more attractive and the long term tests that are now coming out on lap bands are making me shy away from that.  I don't want it to be like a car that I have to replace every 5-7 years.

Pressing on....

Well here I am at a place I don't like in my life.  But I am ready to change.  Why say again???  Because I almost had a lap band surgery a little over three years ago.  I had gone through all the consults, tests, and was approved by my insurance with a surgery date.  The only thing left was the psych consult.   After a long interview with myself and my wife, the psychiatrist issued a report saying that I was not a "adequate candidate for surgery at this time.  However, I believe that he may benefit from a trial of psychotherapy that may improve his candidacy for surgery in the future."  

Ok, this happens to many people and is something they need to work through.  My only problem was that after seeing the detailed report I saw that the psychiatrist wasn't even listening to me.  I figured he must have had a voice recorder, but he obviously didn't.  He got all the facts wrong about my history, noting things that were never said or never happened in my life.  And then to summarize the main reason I was not a good candidate was because I was driven person who likes to succeed.  What???   Because I have been successful in my career and was an athlete who liked to win I can't handle the surgery or the life changes needed afterwards???  And he did comment on how I was very well educated on the risks, expected results, and nutritional requirements.  BUT not good enough unless he comes to me for 6 months even though I was already under the care of an MD Psychiatrist.  So I was frustrated and wanted to give weight loss a try again through working out and changing my eating habits.  

Well three years later I am still about the same weight after continual yo-yoing.  The huge issue now has been that I can't exercise much at all.  I partially ruptured my achilles 13 years ago and that is where the weight gain began.  And now I have been left with a partially ruptured achilles again over the past year that has left me unable to do the most basic exercise.  If I ride a recumbent bike for 30 minutes two days in a row my left ankle locks up and yo see a bubble on my achilles about 3 inches up from the heal.  I coach my son's football team and from getting in a 3 point stance a few weeks ago I had to wrap my ankle for a week and could barely walk for the first two.

I am at the point now where I need help and hopeful that weight loss surgery is a tool to get me back to a healthy life where I get my weight down and am able to enjoy life with my wife and children.  I have to go into a surgeon to consult on my achilles to see if I need surgery first or if the weight loss will help with the stress on the achilles.  And then based on my insurance I need to wait 6 months to have the surgery and go through monthly appointments with the bariatrician.  At some point I will go in for another psych eval and it should be different this time.  I have support from my psychiatrist, family, and friends, and I am ready to go down the path of a healthy long life.

As of right now I am 6'4" and 374 lbs.  I have approximately 6 months to wait before surgery.  I am currently leaning heavily towards gastric bypass and we'll see where it goes between now and when my surgery is scheduled.  Let the fun begin.  I can tell you that I am ready right now and want to get on with, but will do whatever it takes to get that surgery date.