3 month doctor visit

I had my 3 month doc visit and weigh in today.  I weighed in at 252 lbs, which is 96 lbs less than my first appointment 4 months ago, and 72 lbs less than surgery 3 months ago.  To say that I am very pleased with the results to this point would be an understatement.  I am used to over promising and under delivering, in this case the surgery has produced even better than I could have hoped for.  The dietician even went as far as to tell me I might be losing weight to fast.  Not something I hear everyday, so I had to give a little chuckle.

I feel like I am now entering the home stretch, which will also be the most difficult part of weight loss.  I am now at the point where the weight will start coming off slower where I won't be able to see the results as clearly.  I need to stay focused and realize that all I need to do to reach my goal by the end of May is lose 2 lbs a week.  That is not impossible, I am as focused and motivated as I've ever been.  Wish me luck, and I'll update you as often as I can.

Update

So I had a doctors appointment to go over labs that I had drawn last week.  My cholesterol numbers look great, so does pretty much everything else with a couple of exceptions.  I had below normal levels of iron in my blood, so I now take a daily supplement.  I also had an extremely elevated uric acid level.  For those of you who don't know, uric acid is what forms crystals in your joints, otherwise commonly referred to as gout.  My doctor prescribed me medication to lower the level of uric acid, and another medication just in case I have an outbreak of gout.  I'm praying that will not be the case, from all that I have heard, gout can be excruciating.

On top of the medical results, I was also weighed.  I weighed in at 262.5lbs.  That is down from a high of 357, and a June 17th weigh in of 348lbs.  That means that in 3 and a half months I am down 85.5lbs.  I really feel like I have had a huge weight lifted off my shoulders, both literally and figuratively.  I still have 62.5lbs to go to reach my goal, but I strongly believe that it is not only obtainable, but more importantly it is maintainable.  For those of you who know me, I have a history of losing weight only to regain it, plus some.  I honestly believe that this is it, I will never be heavy again.

Besides the weight loss, I am also in school.  I will be student teaching starting in November, and graduating with a Masters of Arts in Teaching from USC in May 2011.  I'm looking forward to the day where I can attend my first real graduation.  I didn't attend high school or undergrad, I did however attend Marine Corps Bootcamp graduation, but that doesn't count because it was mandatory.  The thought of graduating with a Master's Degree was not something that I would have believed possible after high school, but here I am preparing to actually teach high school.  Walking at graduation will allow me the opportunity to celebrate the achievement of 2 goals.  Completing school, and hopefully reaching my weight loss goal as well.

Well thats all I have to report for this evening.  I have an appointment with my surgeon and Dietician on the 16th of October, so I'll provide another update at that point.  Please feel free to leave me comments.  It would be nice to know who is actually reading this.  Take care everyone.

Starting Fresh

Hi Everyone,

It has been a year since my last post, and to say it has been a roller coaster ride is the understatement of the year. So to get you all caught up, the camp turned out to be an utter failure, although through no fault of its own. I pinched a nerve falling down playing basketball, and that essentially ended my effective time at the camp. So instead of staying the full two months, I left after 1 month, although I had dropped about 20 lbs while I was there.

After I got home I became pretty depressed and history repeated itself and I gained back not only all the weight I lost but then some. To this point in my life the heaviest I had ever been was around 310 lbs. By the end of May 2010, I ballooned all the way up to an unmanageable 357 lbs. I was having all kinds of issues from just walking around, to even showering without being out of breath. It was the scariest time of my life.

It was one night in early June that I had a conversation with my wife that I truly believed I would not be around much longer. At best I thought I would have another couple of agonizing years left. I even went as far as having a living will drafted just in case.

It was at this point that I realized I needed to do something drastic that I really had been opposed to. I made an appointment with a Bariatric surgeon for the middle of June. When I met with Dr. Milton at his office in Orange, CA. he made me feel right at home. I weighed in that day at a whopping 348 lbs. We (my wife, Dr. Milton, and I) decided that the right surgery for me was the VSG or Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy. We scheduled the procedure for the 19th of July.

2 weeks prior to surgery I had to go onto a all liquid diet to help shrink my liver to cut down on possible surgical complications. It was 2 weeks of hell, but when all said and done come surgery day I was 326 lbs. I had the surgery on a Friday afternoon, and spent 2 nights in the hospital before being released to go home. It was a painful couple of first days and an adjustment to say the least.

The surgery has greatly reduced the amount of food I can consume. On a typical day I will have 64 ounces of fluids, as well as 500-600 calories, most of which are protein. I exercise anywhere from 3 to 5 days a week. Lots of cardio with light weight lifting once the incisions healed.

Overall I am feeling terrific. I am a little over 9 weeks past my surgery date and I am down to 272 lbs and well on my way to meeting my overall goal of 200 lbs. I am hoping with hard work and staying consistent I can achieve my goal by April or May 2011. If I can that would be a total weight loss of 148 lbs in 10-11 months. It would be nothing short of amazing,

I will try my hardest to keep you all up to date on my progress going forward. I will shoot for at least a once a month weigh in and update at the very least. Talk to you all soon.

Sincerely,

Chris

Sorry Everyone

Hi Everyone,

So sorry for having such a gap between posts. I had computer problems, followed by bouts of sheer exhaustion. This week has been both the best and worst week of my life. The best in the sense that I have began a journey down the healthy road, and have already begun to accomplish goals that I thought would be impossible. The worst in the sense that I have never been so sore or tired in my life. This program is a complete assault on your body.

I'll try to give you a quick recap of some of the highlights of my days, and let you know how it has gone for me so far. Let me start by saying that both the staff and other attendees have been great to be around, and the program is ran great.

Tuesday - Arrival Day. I arrived at my new home at around 9:45 am and was met in the lobby by one of the assistants and helped to my new room. I have a roommate named Adam, he has been here 5 months and lost 135 lbs. After getting settled into my room I was picked up and brought the 1 mile to the gym. At that point I went through all the initial testing, which of course determined me to be in poor health, no surprise. My stats are that I weigh 304lbs, have 37% body fat, and 188lbs of lean muscle. After the orientation I met with the nutritionist for 30 minutes. We went over my meal plan which includes 4 meals a day plus a protein shake. It equals roughly 1700 calories a day. Since I will be burning 3500 calories a day, it is not such a big deal. After that I had 1 on 1 training for an hour. He took it kind of easy on me since it was my first day, ya right. He worked me out like I was training for a marathon. After that I went right into spin class with a trainer who might just be the fittest woman I have ever met. Lets just say my butt and everything else was killing me by the time that was done. Next I walked back to the apartment and the day was done.

The following days I have done things like completed a 3.5 mile hike up a mountain. At least the first half was all up hill. I also completed a 2.5 mile walk in the sand at the beach. Killer on the calfs. I've done a lot of cardio, and cardio boxing. Building up my stamina, and burning calories. Today was my first real day of rest, I only had about 30 minutes of cardio today, so my body got a chance to recover. I've been having foot blister problems so the day off was needed. My wife also came up to see me today, so it was a nice day. Tomorrow starts my first full week, and I'll do my best to update you nightly going forward. Once again sorry about disappearing for so long.

Thanks for reading this. Talk to you all soon.

Computer Died

Hi Everyone,

Just wanted to let you know my computer died on me Tuesday, and I finally got the replacement today. I will be giving an in depth blog tonight about my experiences so far at LIFE.

Getting Nervous

Well I am less than 2 days from going to the LIFE program and I am officially getting nervous. I'm worried that I am so out of shape that I will have a tough time getting started. I hope that there are more people there that are as out of shape as me, I don't want to feel like I'm the only one. I am going into this in the worst shape of my life, and I hope that I am able to turn everything around in 8 weeks. I don't know how realistic that is, but I am really hoping that it will at least get me started.

Everything else is going ok. I have everything that I need to leave on Tuesday. I picked up the last few things that I needed, so tomorrow night will be the packing night. I hope that I don't forget anything, but I can't pack everything I own either.

My wife is starting to feel the looming deadline as well. She's happy that I am going to be taking such a big step in getting healthy, but she is not going to like being alone for 2 months either. I would like her mom to come visit for a couple of weeks to keep her company, but I'm not sure she will be able to. My wife is going to be concentrating a lot more on her Mary Kay business well I am gone as well. Plus, for those of you who don't know my wife has started a blog telling our story from her perspective. You can find her blog at rebeccaconlon.blogspot.com. Please follow and support her as well.

I was excited today, the NFL really kicked off today. Tomorrow night my team plays, the New England Patriots. I can't wait till kick off. I hope I'll be able to watch some of the games on Sunday's as I'm working out.

Well I am going to get going, I'll talk to all of you tomorrow. Please keep the comments coming. Thanks everyone.

Busy Weekend Ahead

Well I start out this weekend already knowing how busy it is going to be. I have a lot to get done in order to be ready for Tuesday. I am not looking forward to having to pack two months worth of clothes. I just got finished moving, and its going to feel like that all over again.

Yesterday was a busy day as well. I had to take my wife to work, then drop off the car to be serviced. I also had a doctors appointment that I had to go to. On a positive note, I received my regular flu shot, so I just need the H1N1 when that becomes available.

I am going to keep this blog short today, I will have a much more detailed one tomorrow. Talk to you all soon.