Sunday, May 19, 2013

Yearly Exam


Well next week I have to have my yearly blood tests and go see my WLS surgery team. Hard to believe it has been a year now. I am feeling very good about it all. I am still losing weight, but I think I have it under control.

Yesterday Jackie had a big shin dig at church and I helped her and the others get thing set up and cleaned up afterwards. The work was Friday night and Saturday most of the day. Today, I didn't even go to church as my body was just to tired to sit there during the serves so I stayed home and recovered.

However I was able to work both days and kept up with other men 10 to 15 years younger than me and out worked many who were much younger. While I was working I felt strong, not like it would have been a year ago. Then I would have had to stop and take a break ever 10 minutes or so and I would have been sick a week after the event. That is so great to me to know I can do things like this and not kill myself.  

Some people there who had not seen me for awhile came up to me and said. Larry I am sorry I had to ask someone  who that was, I did not recognize you after all these years. You are looking fantastic. Comments like that make me feel great of course, but really I just hope everyone just forgets about the old fat Larry and gets to know me now as I intend to be for the rest of my life.

Jackie says I look, walk and act like my grandfather George. Well that would not be bad as he was almost 100 when he died and he was sickness free for the most part of his life and enjoyed doing all kinds of activities until just be for he died. It would be nice to walk down the path with Jackie for a lot longer time. 

Friday, May 10, 2013

One Year Out From Surgery


Now that I am at my goal weight a new world of challenges is upon me. I am still watching what I eat each day. I weigh or measure and log everything I put in my mouth each day. I only weigh every two weeks now so that daily fluctuations don’t upset me or drive me to do some modifications on what I eat just because of a strange scale reading.

I think that is a big problem for many in that they look at the scale all the time and make decisions based on what it is saying, like not eating correctly because of it or rewarding themselves for doing so good or what ever. It is just a bad idea to have your life driven by the scale so much. Yes we have to know where we are headed and a scale can be used for that, but weighing so often can have bad consequences in my opinion.  

Now I have been told I can eat more each day, and I have upped what I have on a daily basis, from 900 calories per day to about 1200. My NUT feels I can have more than that, but it is kind of a physiological thing with me. To be blunt about it, I am scared to death to eat more. I have a fear of gaining my weight back as has happened so many times before and I am real apprehensive about it. I know I can not eat much more than about a cup for any one meal and I do not graze on things during the day, so I should be safe but if you know me, you know I worry about everything.

Another problem I am having is that now after the surgery, I am quite acidy. I have never had a lot of problems with heartburn or things like that, but now I wake up with what I have been told is acid reflex and it is very uncomfortable. I have a meeting with my surgery team later this month and will be talking to them about this. I know it could be the start of an ulcer as I had to take medications before surgery because some tests said I was prone to get ulcers. My brother had them that went to cancer and spread to his esophagus that eventually caused his death, so I want to get it under control ASAP

May 9th was the anniversary of my surgery. What a change my life has taken in just one year. I am down more than 145 pounds and other than the things I have talked about feel great. I can do so many other things now that I could never do a year ago. Now I have to learn to live like this the rest of my life. Stay tuned.