Just can't blog enough

Lately I've been a little better keeping up with this blog.  A little.  Like any blog I've done however it's pretty much feast or famine for me.  I'll do great awhile then go weeks or more neglecting it.

So what do I do?  Start another blog.  This one isn't so public as just available at work.  Sprint has a sort of employee blog where people can post about life our work our whatever. Some post about gaming, some get into work issues, and I decided to start posting on weight loss stuff.  But theres a bit of a slant as I want to focus on how the very technology we are providing can make an impact.

I will say that from a business and marketing sense I've been really impressed with the direction sprint is taking.  More than just focusing on the "we have the best 4g debates they've built some great relationships that focus on using the technology beyond gadgets and phones.

One example is the Bodymedia armband.  They have another relationship with a medical monitoring company that uses wireless technology to keep doctors up to date on a patients progress.  It's pretty impressive stuff.

On tp of all that are the applications available that can really make a difference.  It's stuff like this I want to focus on.  I'm hoping to be able to integrate some of the posts into here as there are some pretty cool things out there, some I just recently learned about through comments made on the two posts I've made. And it would be pretty c ool if I could do  that without having to post in two coherent places eh?

Back in the saddle again

I'm back to biking again. It feels good, being on a bike for the first time since my bike was stolen about a year or so ago. I was able to do some extra work this past month, and decided to earmark some funds for a bike. Okay, let me just say, bike shopping can be... a pain? Some places want to push you right up into a thousand dollar bike, and I hate that kind of pressure. When it was all said and done I found a nice Specialized, bright red (Go Huskers!) that I was pretty happy with. It's a mountain bike kind of hybrid, meaning it's got the mountain bike frame but smoother tires for roads and trails. I'd thought I'd get a road bike this time around, but decided that for the hills here, weight, and price, not to mention a bit of comfort, this would work out pretty nicely.

So, today was my first time using the bike to any extent at all. I rode it to the light rail, about a 4 mile ride, and then from light rail into work and back, as well as about 3-4 miles otherwise. Part of that 4 miles was because I'd missed the bus off the light rail and decided to take off chasing it to see if I could catch it. Fortunately the bus had to take a detour because of a closed street but I could get on teh bike path along the street and keep going, so I was able to pretty much catch up about 2 miles down the road.

Okay, so I have to say being 80 pounds lighter than last time I rode a bike, you can REALLY feel the difference. Hills are not nearly so killer. That feels good.

It is good that I'm keeping my activity up. Right now I'm holding steady weight wise... I'm still not as disciplined there as I need to be, it's REALLY hard to do that. My armband tells me I'm averaging 9000 to 10,000 steps a day and more than 4,000 calories a day. I'm still supposedly burning more calories than I'm eating, but I"m not losing weight as I should if that's the case, which tells me that maybe the whole MET thing that measures calories burned isn't necessarilly accurate. After all, I could stay in bed all day and still burn 2500 calories, that just doesn't seem to be right, you know?

I'm having fun with some new apps on the phone and checking all those out. I'll have to follow up with some reports on some of them... there's some pretty amazing stuff out there. But, for now, I'm a sleepy guy, so... off I go.

Yay! Mobile posting

Just yesterday my phone had a fairly major update which is a good thing, however it defaulted everything which means ask my applications were wiped out.  Not really a big deal since I can reload everything pretty easily, just takes time.  Nice thing about it is surfing through android amarket I found some nice new applications and in the process found the blogger app so now I can post more easily from my phone.  That means there will likely be shorter posts but more frequent ones, probably both good things.

I found another cool free app as well called the instant heart rate monitor.  It uses the camera of all things.  It's a lot like how an oximeter works.  It says your finger slightly changes color with each heartbeat so you put your finger over the camera lens and out notices the changes this measuring your heart rate.  Pretty clever eh?  And it beats the heck out of paying 50 to a hundred bucks on another piece of equipment

Couch 2 5K

This morning I finished week 1 of the couch to 5K program. The idea is to work up to being able to run a full 5K in about 8-10 weeks. You do it by walking/running in intervals, gradually working up the amount of time that you are running, with 3 workouts a week.

The first week, you start out with 5 minute warmup walking, then for twenty minutes you run for 60 second intervals and walk 90 second intervals, then finish with a 30 minute cool down. Monday I go to week 2 which is 90 second runs, 2 minute walks, then the next week it becomes 90 seconds running 90 seconds walking, 3 minutes running, 3 minutes walking, and then repeat that cycle once. So it gradually works up.

So far it's gone pretty good. I get a bit winded which is good for me I'm sure. And so far, no problems with knees hurting or anything, that's important and definitely something to monitor.

I mentioned getting the armband. Here's a bit of a snapshot of what it measures. Essentially it will track your activity, so it will show things like how many minutes you're active, it will count your steps, tell you how many calories you burn, etc.

So for example this one shows the calories burned through the day, so you can see what was happening during my run/walk. Now of course the one thing missing is calories consumed, as I haven't entered my meals. But it's a pretty neat tool as I can see the balance between what I've consumed and what I've burned.

And right now, being sans lap band, the key for me is to really ramp up the activity end of things. Of course somewhere along the line I have to get figured out how to handle the consumption part of things, I've been in kind of this freestyle pattern since the surgery without a plan. Hope that changes soon eh?

Can I say I'm scared?

I'm incredibly amazed at my recovery. I can pretty much eat normally now. All the plumbing is working, I can eat, and drink, all in normal volumes.

And it scares me a little.

I've come so far, and now here I am on my own and... I'm just so afraid right now of falling back to old patterns.

Okay, so... resolve! Not gonna happen. I'm never going back. NEVER!

On to another subject.... I've decided to take up the running after all. I have been saying wait til I'm under 280, well... I'm there. Two days ago I started the first day of the Couch25K program and it felt really, really good. So.... that's one way to keep the momentum going.

I got my bodymedia armband. I'll have to go into more detail on it, got a great little deal going through work that lets me play with it, and I'm quite pleased with it. It definitely provides some interesting data, so sometime I'll get into that some.

Remember, I'm not going back!

Sleep is good

It felt good to sleep through the night! First time in awhile I could sleep that long without being awakened by reflux. Woohoo!

I actually gained 10 pounds. Granted, I miss seeing that 6 being the second digit, but still, that's actually a good thing. I was seriously that dehydrated. After so many IV's and now being able to actually drink, I'm getting replenished now. Fill 'er up!

I'm trying not to dwell on how much harder it will be to keep this all off now that the band's gone. That's a bit of reality starting to sink in. =( But I've got to take the attitude instead to run (maybe even literally?) with where I am and take advantage of all this momentum!

Ohhhh, and now for some pic's. First, front shot, before my initial surgery and before I went in Thursday:

And now for the side shots.

Home and feeling better

Do you have any idea how wonderful it is to be able to drink a full glass of water?

I'm back from surgery feeling a thousand times better. Okay, still a bit tired, some obviously from the surgery and some I'm guessing from not sleeping much in the days leading up to surgery.

All went well. Ive felt good from the moment I woke up from the surgery, with 5 more little incisions in my stomach. In fact I've not been on any pain medication since coming out, and haven't really felt the need for it. Yeah, the incisions are a bit sore but not too terrible. The staff at St. Joseph hospital is pretty amazing, care was top notch. They did want to keep me over for observation due to all the nausea and vomiting I've had, but there were no problems or issues and I'm so thankful to be feeling so well.

In the end, the doctor ended up removing the band. I guess there was a fair bit of scarring on the stomach from it's little journey through the band, and that coupled with it's previous escape attempt in the form of a hiatal hernia did not really leave a good spot for the doctor to try to re-attach the band. He told me this morning that for me the lap band has run its course. If it seems necessary in the future they can always look at the other styles, either the bypass or a gastric sleeve. My hope however is to keep up with the momentum I've got going and pray I can make it a lifetime change.

I will say that there's some disappointment. Actually the disappointment's not as strong right now as it's tempered by just feeling so much better. I think I found myself feeling pretty ecstatic about feeling better and that's still there. There's tremendous anticipation to being able to get back on track with exercise and all. So all that is tempering the disappointment, but I'll have to admit that deep down there's a little apprehension, as the purpose of the band isn't all about the weight loss, but for the long term maintenance as well. All I know is, I don't ever want to go back. Ever. That will end up ahving to be my motivation for keeping the momentum going eh?

Back to square 1, but not really

So starting today, I get to go back to the whole liquid diet routine, then soft food diet, slowly working back to a regular diet. I go in at 10:30, surgery at 12:30.

This past week has been incredibly challenging. With the slippage, the exit was pretty well blocked off. Food and water in my stomach had nowhere to go. Okay, it had one place to go and that's what the challenging part of it was. Basically the last few days has been liquids only but even those could not go anywhere. The problem with that is that my body would be secreting a bunch of fluids and bile into the stomach, which led to incredibly frequent and rather forceful vomiting. On average it was probably hourly. Now when you're taking in 2-3 ounces and throwing up 16 ounces, you can imagine what it does to one's hydration level. I ended up going in last night to get an IV, they actually gave me two bags of fluid.

It is an amazing thing to watch your fingers and your face shrivel up as the fluid has been sucked out of your body, and pretty incredible how quickly they come back to normal with an IV. That was incredibly revitalizing.

Let me say this, ice chips are a good thing. Drinking much of anything would encourage more frequent vomiting, so last night after getting back I spent the night just sucking down ice chips one at a time. Having said that you have no idea how badly I'd love to gulp down a tall glass of cold water, an ice tea, or a glass of milk. Amazing how much you can miss something like that. Especially now when I'm even off ice chips, gotta stay liquid free prior to surgery. Dang how I'd love a drink!

Hard to imagine anticipating surgery, but... I really am! Getting back to a semblence of normalcy is something I so look forward to. I know some that are worried, but it's really something pretty simple. If the stomach is in a condition to allow him to do it, the doctor will move the band back to the proper position and secure it a little better. If not he'll simply remove it. I'm at peace with it either way. I'd rather have it left on, for all the reasons I had it put on. But even if it has to come off... I'm at 265 pounds! That's huge! Okay, that's less huge.... MUCH less huge. Which is HUGE. I'm 40 pounds from my goal, and that has me at a point where, it's far easier to get active, which I've been pretty active all along, but... where I've talked about maybe getting to running when I get to a safer weight for that.... I'm at a safer weight. Still not sure about running, but whatever it is, I'm so much better able to do it. So even if it has to come out... I'm okay because I know I'll be okay.

Dang I'm thirsty!

And the answer to Janiece's question... still remains an unshakable and unqualified heck yeah, I would do it again if I knew about all this misery of the past week.

Did I mentione I'm thirsty? One big difference about the previous surgery and this one: I did go into it then not looking at all forward to the liquid diet to follow. Today I'm relishing the prospect. Let's face it, I've already been on the liquid diet and to be honest not eating foods has not been a bother, fortunately. But... getting to drink liquids, some jello, some soup stock, milk... WATER!!!... and have them stay down and go where they're supposed to go again... I'm so looking forward to that.

Runaway Tummy

Okay, so let's play a game of name Ron's tummy. So far the nominees are:

Logan. Okay, this one really dates me, the old movie and eventually TV series, Logan's Run.

Richard Kimble. Okay, my choice to pick David Jannsen instead of Harrison Ford also dates me, doesn't it? But, here's one for more contemporary readers:

Micheal Schofield. From the tv series Prison Break.

Cast your votes and you get to be an amazing part of this blog!

So now I'll give you the scoop. As I mentioned I'm losing weight much too quickly and feeling a bit icky lately. You can now take off "a bit." I'm just plain icky. And weight loss? I'm at 272 this morning. That's like 21 pounds in 12 days.... wayyyyy too fast.

After a weekend of generally not keeping any food down at all and throwing up wayyyyy too much Janiece took me into the emergency room this morning. We were concerned about dehydration. They ended up doing an upper GI as part of it all (finally!) and we discovered a nice little slippage. Okay, a big slippage. It appears my stomach has migrated most of the way up through the lap band. Nothing's getting through the band now which is not a good thing. But you know, there's at least some relief knowing what it is. So we're looking at going back in for a followup surgery to fix the thing ASAP.

Now this isn't the first time the little bugger has tried something like this. A substantial portion of my stomach had tried escaping out the diaphragm in the past (thus the hiatal hernia I think I've mentioned before)... I guess the poor guy figures he's been through hell and he just wants out or something.

So.... not necessarily looking forward to another surgery but... really looking forward to getting everything feeling better.

Janiece asked, knowing what I know now, would I have done this all over again? Absolutely. (unless there's more to know about later that I really, really don't like, but I don't expect that to be the case....)

Speeding along

It's been a week. And here I am 7 pounds less already.

Not sure that's as good a thing though. I mean hey, I'll take every pound, that part I'm okay with. But this time it's a bit different, with my stomach still feeling a bit.... funny? Over all it's felt a lot better, I do think there was probably a bug going on at the same time that didn't help how I was feeling. I've been on some Prilosec but the reflux hasn't totally gone away. Now it's like an every other night kind of thing. Now maybe it's just that it keeps me up one night, so the next night I'm so tired that not even the reflux wakes me up. But the thing about it is there are days where it's just hard putting down any food because I'm not sure how it's going to end up feeling. So my weight loss is now really more about not eating much, and I have to really watch myself to make sure I'm getting enough protein and such. In about 2 weeks I'm scheduled for an upper GI where they will take a look and see if anything has changed, either that my lap band has slipped or if the old hiatal hernia is trying to reassert itself. I'll be glad to be back to feeling a bit more normal.

Having said that.... know how good it feels to be in the 280's? Wow, that's one I'm not sure I ever thoguht I'd get to. It's funny, 290's didn't seem so out of reach, so why would one more digit down make a difference? I think it's because I made the 290's before, and then stalled. But 280's, that's a totally different story. I know I've said this before, but... I haven't been here in ages. Okay, I won't beat that dead horse, but... wow. So even though the stomach is feeling different, it's definitely a different feeling.

It seems like it's been just the past couple weeks that all of a sudden everything looks different. Maybe it's a psychological thing because after all now I've crossed these milestones and I'm where I've not been in a long, long time, but... suddenly I notice the look more. Yeah, you can still see the overweight aspect of things, but... there's no longer the big gut. I don't look skinny, but... it doesn't feel like I look fat any more either, if that makes sense. And my wife can wrap her arms all the way around me... that's pretty cool stuff there.

I keep wondering whether to start trying running now, as I'm getting where I felt I needed to be before starting. That's probably one for more discussion later... but the thought is definitely playing with me.... guess we shall see eh?

Milestones reached

Okay, so here it is: I've reached a few big milestones now.

Milestone 1: I'm OBESE! Ummm, yeah, nothing new there. But as I mentioned before, there's nothing in front of it. Not morbidly, not severely, just, merely, simply... obese. Never thought I could be so happy to say obese. Okay, there's a caviat there. That's simply obese based on BMI of 34.7, but that's based on a height of 6'5 which I've always maintained I've been. However, at a doctor's visit last week they measured me at 6'4. That would put me at 35.6. I'll stick with the 6'5 for now thank you very much. Don't want to face the potential that all that weight for all those years has managed to compact my frame a bit and caused me to shrink an inch, eh?

Milestone 2: I've lost 100 pounds since the start of the blog. I'm now at 292.4 pounds. No caviats there. That's a lot of weight gone. I think I said this before but it's hard to fathom constantly lugging around 100 pounds. I do have to say I'm amazed at the human body's capacity to do something like that. So, woohoo.

Milestone 3: Okay, this one's not as wonderful but it's there... if you can call it a milestone. It's a first anyway -- first time I've had any issues since the surgery. For the last week or so I've had a lot of acid reflux at night and have felt like food was getting caught up somewhere along the way. It can be a pretty miserable feeling when you just really don't want to eat. I think it got compounded by getting a bit of a bug at the same time. Honestly I don't know which it was more, a stomach related to the lapband thing or a bug thing, i think the two together make things a bit more miserable. Good news is I'm feeling better than a couple days ago and am more prone to actually eating and stomach isn't as sour now. There's still some reflux but not as much (but that's partly because I'm not eating after 6 now). I think the doctor's going to put me on some medicine and see if that takes care of things. There's a restricted feeling which could be swelling from all the irritation from the reflux, or it could be something more serious like slippage of the band or the old hiatal hernia trying to reassert itself. But, I feel like it's getting better, so I'll hold out hope it's jsut a temporary thing. Will keep you posted...

Intriguing: BodyMedia Fit

I think I've mentioned some android apps before, but I found something that is quite definitely intriguing that goes beyond just a phone application.

I have a Samsung Epic for a phone, quite possibly the best phone ever made. (Okay, it's that or the Evo.) What I love about it when it comes to weight loss is that as it uses the Android operating system, there are a ton of applications that are pretty cool (and more amazing is how many of them are free). There are applications for tracking what you eat, your activities, etc. I use the Cardio Tracker app a lot to track certain activities such as walking, and that will post the activities to my facebook page. Now I'll have to admit that I'm probably at a point where I may quit posting all that stuff just because I hate seeing everyone else's Farmville posts, and my friends may get tired of seeing all the posts that say Ron walked 3.2 miles in 58 minutes and burned 479 calories. There is definitely an accountability thing there that is good but I can see the annoying factor as well.

I digress. Sorry.

Anyway, Sprint just announced a collaboration with Bodymedia that integrates a nifty little device called the BodyMedia Fit. (I probably should put little trademark thingies next to these, shouldn't I?) The device is a little armband that you wear pretty much all the time but it tracks what's going on in your body. It counts your steps, it calculates how many calories you're burning and when you are involved in moderate or more strenuous activity, etc. I'm guessing it figures those things based on heart rate combined with whatever movement it senses. It also measures how efficiently you are sleeping. All pretty interesting stuff.

Earlier versions of the device required you either connect it to a computer to download the information it tracks or you get a little display device that it communicates with. Now they've come up with an integration that allows it to communicate with your phone and let it pull the information and provide the reports.

Below is one of their Youtube video:

At the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this month they had an intern from Sprint who wore the device through the week and tracked his activity on his phone while doing things like skydiving, running half marathons, etc. Probably a bit more than I would ever do, but it's interesting stuff considering how much I like using the apps I have already to keep track of stuff. It definitely presents an added level of accountability. I think it's pretty close to the same thing as the Bodybug marketed by the Biggest Loser show/franchise, which to my understanding is made by the same people. Anyway, like I said, intriguing stuff.... really thinking that perhaps this is a good 300 pound reward item. Okay, that or the bike.... both would be nice really but there are budget considerations.

Hmmmm......

1 Big benchmark down, some immediately ahead

Gotta say, still on cloud 9 over the breaking 300 thing. Definitely a good thing. My wife's been saying I need to do a reward of some kind, and I'm not sure yet just what that should be. Funny though, isn't it, that food always seems to come to the top of one's mind when thinking of rewards? She is thinking clothes would be a good idea, though I'm thinking clothes will be a necessity anyway so it won't feel so much like a reward. One thing that's come to mind is a new bike, but this time a road bike. I've always had to get a mountain bike type before because that was the only kind to be able to hold my weight well. But the road bikes work well for 300 pounds and under and guess what! I'm under!!!

(See picture from previous post... snoopy dance!)

So yeah, that's one big benchmark gone. There are a couple more that are very very close, and could be hit this month still.

First is the 35 BMI benchmark. At 6'5 that comes out to 295 pounds. This to me is maybe as significant as breaking 300 because of the classifications. At 352 (time of surgery) I was at 41.7 BMI, considered morbidly obese (above 40). When I started this blog at 393 I was at 46.6 (I don't think there's a term for above 45, but.... super morbid?). And I'll tell you what, if there's anything that really makes you feel good it's being classified morbidly obese. Mmm hmmm! So severe obesity (35-40 BMI) doesn't sound quite so bad now, does it? So at 295 there's going to be a bit of celebration because there's no attachment, no additional term that adds an emphatic exclamation point to my obesity. Just simply obese. I know, even obese doesn't sound great, does it? But when you've been morbid in the past, just plain obese sounds pretty good.

That's one benchmark. The other has more to do with the start of this blog. That's at 293 pounds. Starting at 393, that makes a nice, even, cool 100 pounds gone since it all started. THAT is a party in and of itself.

Snoopy Dance Time!

Dave Ramsey calls it the Snoopy Dance. "Feet flying, nose up in the air." Okay, it looks awkward when I try it and my kids think I'm weird, but... today I dance the Snoopy Dance.

I guess it can't look any weirder than when I try the hula hoop on the Wii fit. I try to do that when no one is around to see it, could be bad for their psyche.

Anyway, there's good reason....

No, that's not 662. My weight starts with a 2 for the first time in more than 7 years. It's pretty darn close to being the least I've weighed in nearly 19 years. I'm thinking I went over 300 probably about 1992 when I was driving a taxi in Omaha....

The cool thing is being able to actually dance the Snoopy Dance and not be totally out of breath. Yeah, clumsy and bumbling but... not out of breath. I love it!

What to say to people considering surgery

One of the things that made a big impact when I attended the seminar back in March about weight loss surgery was the panel of patients that was there. Here were people who had been through the surgery and you could see the difference being made in their lives.

So now here I am on the other side and I've been asked to be on the panel at the next surgery. I know that it's a marketing thing, obviously, and as a result the people up there are going to be the ones who've done really well, not the ones who've really struggled afterwards. But then, I wonder what the numbers really are, how many have done well compared to who has struggled? And maybe they ask everyone and I'm just one of the few to say, okay. All that said, I'm honored to have been asked.

Of course I wonder what all I would say... There hasn't been any briefing or anything like that. I may be just one of those who says I lost this much, yada yada yada. So if given liberty to say anything I wanted, what would I say? Good question.

One thing I could do is point out the perils of the aftermath of surgery. It can be stressful on a marriage. What I mean is, any more I can barely keep my ring on my finger, the finger's just too skinny! I can't count the number of times it's dropped off. Another issue is clothes. There's a definite hesitance to buy clothes right now because in a matter of months they'll be too large. And the ones I have are pretty baggy. Fortunately there's been a reprieve of sorts, in that most of my slacks used to fit up under my belly around my hips. Now they fit around my belly. Of course there's a problem with that, in that now that they fit properly I'm able to wear them up where they should be, but that means that.... now I have a problem with my slacks being high water.... not to mention even now getting baggy....

Granted... these are nice problems to have.

The other approach I would take is to just give some suggestions from my own experience. What advice would the me today tell the me in March... actually I think it was February... ?

One of the things that I remember is being a little disappointed it would take so long to get an appointment. Keeping in mind all that I went through from insurance, one thing I would say is this: It may be a couple of months before you can get in for your first appointment. Don't wait. Start today. Get an appointment today with your doctor or nutritionist. Get started right now on a medically supervised diet. So many times insurance is going to require 6 months. For me that was a killer to even think of that possibility. But you could be half way along by the time you have your initial appointment, and even if your insurance does not have such a requirement, you've got momentum going.

That's the other thing I'd say is, get some momentum. I think that's something that has made a huge difference for me. Between the time of the seminar and the date of the surgery I lost at least 20 pounds. There's something about that because when the times come that say yeah, it's only because of the surgery that I'm losing this weight, I know that it's more than just that. The surgery has definitely made a difference, but it means so much to be able to say that I've worked pretty hard at this myself alongside the surgery, and I have that momentum to point to as evidence.

I know, it sounds hard when you're at a point where you're actually forced to start thinking about surgery, there's almost a hopelessness that makes any thought of momentum go in one ear and out the other. But realizing what this would be all about added a new sense of purpose for me. All of a sudden I wasn't thinking in terms of this being another short term solution but instead it became a thought that I was starting something that... I had some real hope that it could be permanent. There was a new sense of purpose in it. And by the time of surgery I was already losing weight, I was already getting more and more active, and it just made it easier to carry on the momentum.

So those are the main things I would want to communicate.

By the way.... 302.4 pounds was the latest weigh in. More than 90 pounds since starting this blog. More than 70 since considering surgery, and just under 50 since the surgery itself...

So yeah... I'd definitely be able to stand up there and mean it when I tell people that it's worth it.