Comments from old saggy butt

As far as my life after weight loss surgery (WLS), goes things are going along quite well. I have been at goal now for almost 2 months and feeling great. I have more energy and can work around the house so much better than I could before WLS. But, because I feel so great, it is easy to over do a lot of things and the old bones and muscles start to hurt and the day after doing some great big task I am reminded that even if I look younger and feel younger my body knows my age and I feel it.

I am still swimming 3 times a week and I would love to be riding my bike more but when the weather is good enough it seems like there is something in my life that MUST be done and I do not get to go, It also seems like on days that I have nothing better to do, it rains and I end up not going. Today is a day like that. It may clear up but right now it looks pretty bad.

The weight was going down and I am currently 6 pounds under my goal. My goal was to be at a normal BMI and for me that was 168 pounds. I am currently 162 in my shorts and at the last doctors visit I was 167 with my shoes on and dressed. I go up a pound or so some days and then lose it again in the week. I weigh officially once a week and so far there has been no real change each week. I was up .7 pounds a couple of week ago, but this past two weeks I was exactly the same.

Many people have commented on how I look TOO thin and sickly. That does not make me feel good, but others have told me that is normal in that people were more used to seeing me heavy and it is strange for them to see me now and they think I am sick, which I guess is a normal reaction. Also I am told by some old timers that my baggy skin will tighten up a LITTLE over the years and I hope so, as my butt looks like the craters of the moon now.

That is it for now from old saggy butt.

A Tribute To My Dad

Dad really never had much of a chance in life to be really successful financially. He was the oldest son in a hard working farming family in North Dakota. Times were hard then and it was difficult for a family to educate children then as they were needed to help on the farm.

My Grandfather was injured in an accident and was not able to work to his full capacity so my dad being just a teenager took over much of the farming hard tasks. He never had the opportunity to go past the 8th grade in school. This hampered him all his life. He was not a stupid man just educated via the school of hard knocks. I was watching him.

He worked hard all his life. He tried many things to make a living. He loved farming and tried to work a construction job and run a farm he rented at the same time. I learned the value of hard work as he had me beside him all the time. I was watching him.

He loved my mom with all his heart. He never told off color jokes or did I ever hear him say a bad word about mom or my grandmothers. He never cheated. I was watching him.

He went to church when he could and prayed to God for help. Shortly before he died he was taking a bible study course and enjoying it very much. I was watching him.

My Dad was born with a defect in his heart and he had an attack when he was only 41. He smoked and should have quite. But he didn’t and he had another heart attack when he was 51. He never wanted me to smoke and even though I did for a short time, I learned form him what could happen. I was watching him.

The evening before he died in the hospital I was influenced by something to go to the hospital and shave him. We talked about the future and what we wanted to do together. I hugged him and told him I loved him and he said I love you too Larry and I am proud to be your dad. I was so proud to be his son. Because all my life I was watching him and I knew how to be a man because of him.
God Bless you dad and I hope you finally can rest and find peace now. You deserve it so much. And I know now for sure….YOU are watching ME.

Time Marches On

Well I have not posted for awhile, like a lot of others who blog, I am using the excuse that I have been very busy with other things. Well it is true. Now that I am able to do work around the house without feeling like I am about to die, I can get some of the things around the house and yard that have been slipping over the past couple of years. So that and other family stuff have kept me busy.

My yearly checkup with my surgeon went well and I am now formally graduated to the status of post surgery and do not have to go back for a checkup for a year. All lab tests are great and they don’t feel I need to make any changes in anything. They did say I should up my calories and to do my best not to lose any more weight. I have upped my calories per day and hope that does it. I never in my life thought I would have any doctor tell me to eat more. What a change.

As many may know, we are celebrating our 50^th wedding anniversary this month on the 21^st. We plan on going to England sometime this summer to mark that great event for us and to have fun in a place we both have always wanted to go. To get ready we need to get a few things for the trip especially a few new things to wear over there. I needed a new pair of jeans. The size 34 are kind of baggy in the butt area so as a lark I tried on a pair of 32 and could you believe it, the fit just great. 32s for crying out laud, I have not been that small from the time I was in high school even Jr. high.

The only thing that I am going to have to work on besides not losing anymore weight is that lately I have been upchucking acid when I am sleeping and almost chocking on it. I have started taking antacid pills before I go to bed, but I am going to check with my doctor to see if I need to do anything else.

That is it for now, I am going back to catching up on all the things I still need to do around the house. What a good feeling to know I have the energy to actually work and get things done. I love my WLS.

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. 

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 9^th 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.  

Busy, Busy, Busy

I have not posted for awhile not because nothing is happening in my life, but because I have been so very busy. As many of you know Jackie and I are celebrating our 50^th wedding anniversary this June 21^st.

We will be going to England to have a good time and see some things we both have wanted to see. We are not what you would call world travelers. Other than Canada and Mexico we have only gone to Honduras on a cruise so that is not many places. This will be for sure the farthest we have ventured from home. We already have our reservations and are madly getting thing ready.

We want to have the house and yard all spiffied up so that we can go and not worry about what it will be like when we get home. These efforts have taken much of our time. Last year because of my WLS I did not do much on the yard and, well to say things went to the dumps would be an understatement. Now I have to do things like re-planting some of the grass and restore the flower beds just to name a few things.

Now that I am at goal, actually a little under, I and Jackie our working on staying on maintenance  and not gaining weight but also not lose any more. It is hard to do mentally, as I am afraid to eat more to stop the loss, but I am afraid that I will start myself back on the road to getting fat again. So we are taking it a week at a time. I am eating a little more and I will see what effect that has on my weight. If I gain much, I will have to again adjust what I am eating. I am also working in the yard so much that I may be not eating enough to keep from losing.

This is for sure going to be the hard part of the process. I am happy for the weight loss but scared that somehow I will fail again as I have so many other times. My mind tells me that I will be just fine, but the fear is always there in my mind. I know I can still not eat very much at a time, but when I have a snack I feel like I am cheating but know I am supposed to eat a little more now.

I will try to do a better job of updating this blog now that much of the ground work on the house is done. Stay tuned. 

Looking Back At My Weight

Great Great Grandfather
George

Now that I am at my goal weight the real fight begins. I have never gotten down to what I consider a goal weight in the many attempts I have made over the years, but I set a goal of being in a normal BMI and I have done it now. In looking back I may have made a mistake going down that far because when I look at my body I may be too thin. But I am going to try my best to stay within a 5 pound at most, with a swing either way up or down for the rest of my life. I will weigh myself each week and record it and continue to record my daily eating on My Fitness Pal web site to make sure I am not eating more calories than I should eat only a daily basis.

I have had time now during my weight loss, to look back at my life, and a few things really bother me and I really think I have found some things in my own family that seem to make sense as far as how we are getting more obese as a society over the years. Especially over the past few decades.

Great Grandfather
Warren

As a hobby I am very involved in genealogical research and have traced my family back hundreds of years. I am even fortunate to have photos of many of my grandparents, great grandparents and in a few cases great, great grandparents. What strikes me, is that looking at them, none are obese or even overweight. I understand that one of my great grandmothers who I do not have a photo of was over weight, and I know that my paternal grandmother Wassmann was overweight, but these people were an exception. My mother and father were thin, most of my dad’s brothers and sisters were thin all their lives. Uncles and aunts were all thin. Even my brother was extremely thin. On all sides my ancestors are thin people. Where did I get my weight problem. From my one grandmother and great grandmother??? Well maybe I guess. All my heavy grandmother’s brothers and sisters were thin all their lives just grandma was heavy and I never saw her eating a lot of food or foods that would be considered bad foods, other than people back then fried a lot of foods, that are now considered bad for your heart.

These days my kids all have some weight issues. Some worse than others. One is currently waiting for WLS which is scheduled soon. Another one should have it, in my opinion and the third one is not overweight but has to watch it very closely. My wife eats the same thing as I do and she has never been over weight. Well maybe a few pounds she did not want, but never even close to obese. I don’t think my family is that much different from others I have talked to about how their family is doing as far as weight problems. Many report to me that they have weight problems and that their kids are well on the way to being morbidly obese. What is the difference?

Great Grandmother

One thing I can confirm is the eating habits of my ancestors. My mother and father, and grandparents on all sides did not eat what we call today FAST FOOD. They would buy things in the store to make meals or grow their on foods. No overly processed foods. If they wanted a cake or pastries, they made them from scratch. I know my grandmothers never bought a cake mix in their lives. And another thing and I know this makes people mad at me, is that they NEVER go to places like McDonald’s, or Wendy’s or places like that EVER.  My mother who is still alive at 95 would have to be dragged into one of these places. They also never drank things like soda.

Now days I have to admit that we in the past and I suspect most families go to the store and buy some prepackaged fast food. A bag of something or go to a place where a take out meal can be put in containers and bring it home for the family. Places like Boston Market, and oriental places come to mind.  How many folks go to the store and buy a roster chicken and Jo Jo’s? Or stop buy one of the chain of fast food places and bring bags of stuff home for the family. Do I have to tell you how fattening this stuff is. Just look it up and see how many calories there are in them. They are also very easy to over eat these types of foods. They are full of salt and other preservatives that are really harmful to us all. I bet our ancestors did not eat these things as my family didn’t. Doesn’t it make sense, that maybe, these things are a major cause of our weight problems today???

My Father

I know you who are reading this, have the same excuses. I am too busy, or don’t have the time, or that the kids and the rest of your family, beg me to take them to these places as ALL their friends parents take them there. Guilt, Guilt.

I am going to do my best to stay away from these things in the future. I have not had a soda in a year now. I have not had anything from a fast food chain in the same year and I have lost with the help of WLS over 140 pounds. I have been happy with the food I eat now and enjoy my menu selections. I do not feel I am deprived at all and I really don’t miss that stuff. Will I ever have some fast food again, of course I will, but it will not be a regular thing I have daily or even weekly. Just occasionally or when I am away from home and do not know where to shop for good foods. I know many people disagree with what I say here but I would appreciate anyone who disagrees contacting me and telling me where I am going wrong.