Wednesday, April 20, 2016

1 Year

Well it's officially been one year since my surgery. Actually last Friday was my surgiversary!  I'm very pleased with my success of having the surgery. My life has changed so much for the better. I've accomplished many things that I had never been able to do before.

Accomplishments:

1. Being at the lowest weight I have seen in 20 years
2. Being more active with my family
3. Doing things I never thought I would do; Went to Disneyland in Feb for 4 days. Walked on average of 10 miles every day. Rode every single ride without a problem (well except the Matterhorn but that was due to my height not my weight!). I've participated in 2 5K's (and have another coming up this weekend).

Life is so much different now. I love being active and miss it when I can't be. I love the fact that I can play with my kids. It's refreshing to be able to get up at 6am on a Saturday, ride 20 miles on my bike then go out and spend the day chasing the kids around for soccer.

I'm officially down a total of 131.2 lbs. from my surgery date (as of 4/20/16). I'm about 20-30 lbs away from my goal. I'm looking forward to being more active on the bike this spring/summer. I'm hoping to get registered for the Lighthouse ride. This will be the longest ride I have done ever (Metric Century or 65miles). I'm inching closer to my goal of one day completing a Century ride.  I look forward to going to the water park this summer with my wife and kids and not being totally embarrassed to get in the water and have fun!

Life is good!

Thursday, January 14, 2016

It has been a while...

My wife reminded me last night that I had not updated the blog in quite some time and needed to.

My weight loss is still on track. It has slowed some, but after losing 100+ lbs I sort of expected it to do that. I am happy so far with my loss, a little over 120lbs, and have found new joy in working out. I know this is why my loss has slowed. I am still losing, inches and fat and replacing that with muscle.

I just had my 8 month followup with my surgeon's office last week. I ended up with a new nurse practitioner and she is great! Love her sense of dry humor, much like mine. She was ecstatic with my loss. We talked about my goal weight and decided on somewhere between 235-240.  I told her initially my goal was around 220 and she said that was much to low for my body type. She first said she wouldn't want me under 250.

I have also gone out of my comfort zone. I have now signed up for and started training to run a 5k. I've always said, you won't see me running unless someone is chasing me with a gun. Now that has changed. I'm signed up for a 5k on Feb 13th called the Valentine Undie Run and I decided to sign up for the 5k at the California Classic Weekend.  I've done the Classic by bike twice before and have signed up again. This time I will be doing the 35 mile ride on Saturday and the 5k on Sunday. The ride for this event is very cool. You actually get to ride on the freeway, which is unprecendented! This time I will get inter-locking medals for doing both events!  I am currently on week 2 of Couch to 5k and I have to say I'm not hating running. I don't think I will do any further distance than a 5k but you never know. I also want to do the Color Me Rad 5k, which I believe is coming soon.  My ultimate goal for this year is to ride either a full century (100 miles) or a metric century (60+ miles). There is a ride that happens at the coast called this Lighthouse Ride that I might try and sign up for.

Right now I am just living life to the fullest and trying to be as healthy and active as I can.  I will try and update this blog more frequently.

My last note, for anyone that might be reading this and considering weight loss surgery. I know it may not be for everyone, it is not the easy way out. I've had to dramatically change my life in both the way I eat as well as becoming more active. The surgery is a tool, but a tool that will change your life for the better if you use it properly!