Jackie's Birthday

Yesterday was Jackie’s birthday. She is now over 40 years old…well maybe a little older than that. But to my old eyes she is just as beautiful as she was when I first met her. Not only is she a beautiful woman on the outside, she is a strong and beautiful person in spirit. She has always supported me and gave me encouragement in every aspect of my life. Even considering that I looked a lot like an overstuffed pillow most of my life, she never gave up on me and always did what she could to help me through the many problems of weight I have had most of our married life. 

The picture here was taken at Christmas time in 1967. We were telling Jackie’s parents that we were going to have a baby. That baby became our first daughter Tawni. As you can see I had already started to gain a lot of weight. She, as she has been most of her life, is slim. I thank God for her and she was a gift from him, and without her, I am sure I would not be still alive. 

We went to Applebee’s last night and had a real nice dinner. The folks there were kind to us and bent over backwards to make sure what I got to eat was the way I wanted it so that I could enjoy Jackie’s birthday. I took my scale with me, had them just make a house steak for me, which was just wonderful, I cut off 2.5oz and ate it. It was very tender and cooked just the way I wanted it. They also made me a nice salad with the dressing on the side. I was able to eat much of it and did not get sick and felt very satisfied. Jackie was able to have a regular steak but she also only ate about 4oz of it and half of her baked potato. They gave her a small hot fudge sundae which she ate and loved. I had a small lick of it, but I don’t care for chocolate so it was no big deal for me not to have.  

Bless you Jackie and Happy Birthday

Why Do We Obsess Over Weight?

Why do so many of us obsess over our weight loss? I have spent most of my life watching the scale, and spending a lot of my time, finances, and energy trying to control my weight. I have been on all the popular weight loss programs that you see advertised. All were successful for me in getting the weight off, but most did not have long lasting effects on me. I was able after the last big weight loss on Jenny Craig to keep my weight  down for about 8 years. It did go up and down, but I was able to keep my weight between 175 and about 225lbs for all that time. But suddenly I got on the scale and I was over 250lbs and the failure was on again and I got all the way up to over 345lbs but lost down to a little over 307 on the day I was approved for weight loss surgery.  I think one of the reasons or maybe it is just rationalization is that I hurt my knees running up to 6 miles a day on a road and track and had to have surgery. I just kind of gave up as I had so many times before. People would say to me things like, “you are not THAT fat” and I think comments like that kept me going on that trail. I would also see guys much heaver than I was and think, well I am a little over weight but that guy is fat, I am just big. NO I was fat. 

I am trying my best now to just develop a life style that will become a habit to eat the way I am supposed to eat. I measuer everything so a slow creep on the amounts I eat will not happen and the modification of my body will mean that I will have pain if I over eat at any one meal. I could still eat all day long and gain weight, but I have never done that so I really think I can avoid that big problem for me. The experts say I will be able to eat more later on, but they are talking about maybe a cup of food at a meal not a pig trough at a time like I used to eat. 

I am exercising now in a more moderate way. I know my body limits now at my age and will not push my joints and bones like I did before. I ride my new bike up to 15 miles a day. I swim or do water aerobics 3 times a week. I also take walks with Jackie. All these things are not that hard on my body but do give me exercise and the fact is that I don’t do them just to lose weight, but I enjoy doing them.

I really think that one of the ways you have to keep your mind off the scale and weight loss in general is to do other things every day. When I worked I was busy and did not think about food then, except when the people around me were eating all the time. Now that I am retired it is just Jackie and me most of the time, so that is not a problem. But unless I find something to do, I can have my mind go to thinking about food and thinking, am I going to lose weight this week. So I have to do things like work on the computer or do other hobbies that I do like ham radio and genealogy. When I get involved in those things I never really think about food. I may need to drink something but food is not even a problem during those times.  

Well anyway I do set goals for myself and I have a big one coming up soon. I am close to losing 100lbs from this past April. I will let you all know when I get there and I hope it is this next weigh-in. 

Outlook Change

I got a posting from my grandson Saul the other day. He is doing very well at school and sent me a photo of him doing some work there at the school. I am so proud of how well he is doing. He is a very nice young man and is well on his way of making his life successful. 

I have noticed lately that my body and my mind have started to change slightly. I feel my body is really over the shock of the surgery. I am reacting to things more normally to me. I still can not eat very much of solid food and I think that is a good thing because my weight problem was always that I over ate not that I ate bad things. After all the fat on my body is low fat sugarless fat, the best kind. 

I am also getting much more at ease on riding my bike on a regular basis. I finally found a safe way to go from my house to some of the biking trails around here. I am pretty much able to do a 15 mile ride now without problems. I have to have my bike professionally adjusted so that I can use all gears. My bike seems to not want to stay in the highest gear and so my speed is not up to what I want it to be. 

Next week is Jackie’s 70th birthday and we are going to have a little party for her at the house. We had planned on going to Canada and spending the weekend, but Jackie did not want to spend the money as we are trying to save for next years 50th anniversary trip to the British Isles. We will pay cash for the guided trip so we will need to put away as much as possible. 

I am feeling great, my weight is coming off quite regularly and things are looking up for the old goat. Now if I could just figure out how to get hair again on my head things would be perfect. 

We Went to the Fair

Went to the grand old Western Washington Fair in Puyallup Washington yesterday for the first time in a couple of years. I was raised in Puyallup and the fair was always a big deal to me and most of my family. 

Yesterday us seniors could get in free if we brought something for the local food bank so Jackie and I got up early and drove from our home to the fair and got there about 9:30 in the morning. We had a normal breakfast here at our home, took extra water and a couple of protein bars to eat for lunch. The weather was beautiful but a little warm later in the day. It got close to 90 and that is hot here in western Washington during September. 

This is some of the older building that have been remodeled.

The fair these days is way to commercial. I think they are trying to bring back some of the old flavor, but with all the product hocking and such and commercial booths and such it is just not the same. I know things never stay the same, but there is a large grandstand there and just one stage in front of the main section where they bring in NAME entertainment. The same folks generally that you can see at any Indian casino these days except at the fair you do not have to buy a dinner but the tickets are just as expensive in the end. 

As the fair looked in late 40s and 50s

In the good old days, yes I know I am talking like and old man because I am, but anyway. They had horse racing around a track. Really some of the best jockeys on the west coast rode there and some got their start there. The track is gone. At each fair performance there were three races and it was exciting to make a bet with your girlfriend or whomever to just see  who would win. There was a rodeo each night. They would have the main rodeo events, like bronco busting, roping, and bull riding. My Dad even enter events there.  Between these events they had high wire acts, and other circus type things even clowns. It was just more fun and unique not just like everything else you can see on TV these days. They still have a small rodeo on a couple of days but it is nothing compared to what they used to have. 

The building on the right is like
 most of the many new buildings

Dahlia display

Like I said the track is long gone, and the fair has been  remodeled and built up in such a way I doubt it could ever be brought back to the way it was. Even some of the things Jackie and I loved like the flower exhibit and Jackie’s favorite tole painting is no more. We used to get our Dahlia bulbs there each year, but no more.  Plenty of junk food places with all kinds of crap to eat. Nothing that I saw was really good for a person. And look at the people there. I used to be one and so I should not be so critical, but really there were people there who could  hardly walk and were using devices to help them get around because they were so damn fat. I bet one woman I saw in kind of a cart being pushing by some guy weighed over 500lbs and was in the scone line to get some of those fattening things. I felt like stopping and telling her about WLS but I kept my mouth shut. And the little buggies that others were driving around. There were actual traffic jams of these battery operated things. Seems like there were hundreds of them. Couple them with the baby strollers and you could hardly get around the grounds. Some of the folks in the scooters would have benefited from walking, maybe some of the fat would have been walked off. 

I got this photo off the Internet

I do not want to make fun of this

man, I use it to show you the type 

of scooters used not to disrespect

this person, I would not do that.

Anyway we did the “PUYALLUP”. That is what folks here call it. I did not eat anything that was not on my plan and to tell you the truth I didn't want to. The smell of some it made me kind of sick. We stayed until about 1:30 because we had other things to do that day. All in all we had a good time, but probably will not go back for a few years because in our minds it is not getting more fun just getting like going to a mall to buy and eat junk. We have moved past that stage in our lives. 

Something Strange

I just found out something strange that happened during or shortly after my RNY. Yesterday I was at my swimming session and the wife of one of my friends who came to the hospital with my wife and saw me come out of recovery and put in my room, told me she is starting to try to have an RNY herself but is scared to death after watching what I went through in my room when they brought me back after the surgery. I said it was fine. I was not in pain and not sick and resting peacefully. My wife then said to me, “honey that is not actually quite true”. I said what? That is how I remember it. She said, “No you were having much difficulty breathing and were in a kind of panic mode thrashing round in the bed it was very scary and I was not sure what was going to happen”. She told me my friends in the room where shocked and the nurses were rushing around as if they were trying to save my life. My wife said, I eventually calmed down and with the help of oxygen, I started to breath fine again.  

Boy I do not remember this at all. Isn’t that kind of odd. I understand that the medications they give you these days makes you forget what is going on, but is that a good idea? I mean with the problems of people and dementia and such isn’t this kind of playing with fire? They are purposefully making you forget things? I am not sure I like this, how about you? It scares me to think my brain has been forced to forget things. I forget enough already at my age on my own.  

Went to a Nice Restaurant

Yesterday we went to a real nice restaurant, really the best restaurant in our town. We were celebrating my youngest daughter’s divorce and the temporary return home for Saul my oldest grandson from military school. 

All of Sundee’s (my daughter) kids where there and Sundee’s boy friend Eric. We had a great dinner and I am proud to say that even though it was kind of embarrassing, to have to take my scale out of Jackie’s purse and weigh my food, I got it done and was able to enjoy a great meal without getting sick. I have problems eating sea food these days so I had a steak. It was about 7oz so I had to cut off a 
.5oz piece, put it on the scale and then on 

to my regular plate and enjoy. They gave us a nice spinach salad, with dressing on the side, but I could not eat it, because by the time I had my steak, I was full and the spinach was too big and hard to cut into small pieces. I was afraid also that the dressing that was on the side would make me sick so I didn’t eat that. Also there was a big nice baked potato with sour cream, which I gave to the boys. They were glad to have it. We took what was left of Jackie and my steak and we are going to have it for lunch today. There were also some steamed green beans and I had one or two but did not have room to eat that much so Jackie at a few. 


So I feel proud that I could go to a restaurant and enjoy a great meal with family and friends. It kind of felt like I was a regular guy eating like a regular guy. And one of the best parts is that Eric paid for everything. Thanks you Eric. He seems to be a great guy and my daughter is happy with him and that makes me happy.