I've talked about my weight off and on throughout this blog. When I started it nearly a year ago I had lost about 20-30lbs already, and as I sit here today I'm literally almost in the same place I was then. The first 20lbs came off fairly easily which surprised me since I had been in the 250-260lb range for 10+ years. What had encouraged me to finally try and lose the weight was the desire to at some point have SRS and some/many/most of the surgeons do have a weight requirement. As I've discussed before, those requirements do vary, among the most stringent seems to be Dr. McGinn (BMI <= 28.0) and she would be on the list of surgeons I would consider seeing. Dr. Bowers, has a bit more relaxed standard of 210lbs and truthfully when I set out that was my target since I had (and still have) hopes that our insurance is going to cover surgery and she's one of the few surgeons that really and truly works with insurance completely.
Now the insurance thing - that's been a bit of a frustration this past week. As I've mentioned, I'm on my wife's plan since her's is a bit better than my own was and her open enrollment was coming up. With the recent Medicare decision and her companies apparent desire to cater at least a little bit to the LGBT community I really felt that for the 2016 plan year they may well cover it, but I also held out a small bit of hope that they might for the 2015 year which was coming up. However, Thursday evening they released their plans and despite the fact that the insurance company these use in our area does cover it, they have elected not to. It really put a damper on me the last several days. I guess it shouldn't have as I never really expected anything this coming year, but as I said I did hold out a bit of hope, but that's not really what I came to talk about.
Back to the weight, those first 20lbs did come off quickly and I attribute a lot of that to J being out of town for training for the better part of two months. With her gone and M/M2/P on nights, we often didn't have formal meals and while I probably didn't eat very healthy, I was able to control how much I ate fairly easily. I also slept a more normal schedule which meant I wasn't up snacking at 2am all the time which really helped. One thing I did *not* do was really exercise. I'm *very* sedentary and having the weight come off so easily without adding in much (if any) exercise made me think I could easily get down to the 210lbs or perhaps even 180lbs (which is a 28.0 BMI for me).
Well when J came back from training I did drop another 10lbs down to 220lbs, but we got into the holidays and I gained about 10lbs back at Thanksgiving time, lost it in December, and gained it back at Christmas time which is where I stayed until March - right at 230lbs. That's when we got the Fitbit Ones and the Aria scale and I did start losing weight again, albeit slowly, but I still really wasn't exercising the first month or two. I managed to get down to about 225lbs or so and finally decided that I'd have to exercise if I was going to make progress as by then I was cooking more and with J home for meals I did enjoy having dinner with her (and M as well).
So for the better part of six weeks starting in mid-April until the last week of May I was walking quite a bit and was slowly losing weight. I lost about 10lbs in that six weeks, down to about 215lbs and I was happy. However, that's when I started not feeling well and ended up in the hospital as I've talked about. When I went to the Doctor's office that day I was actually down to 209.8lbs so I had lost a touch over 5lbs that week. A good part of that was dehydration as by the time I checked out I was back up to 214lbs - I'm guessing mostly from the fluids they were pumping into me as I didn't exactly eat very much there.
But even at 214lbs I was still pretty happy with my progress and I went back to walking - in fact I was to the point where I was averaging about 25,000 steps per day which worked out to about 10-15 miles depending upon how I walked - I tend to walk faster by myself with the iPod than if I'm out with J or M and the faster I walk the fewer steps it takes for each mile. If I'm out with them I seem to go about 2100-2250 steps per mile and if I'm out alone it's usually closer to 1800 steps per mile. I still managed to put on about 5-6lbs or so and end up around 220lbs. But I was steady there for several weeks, *until* we hit a 90-100 degree stretch for a couple of weeks and I just couldn't get outside too much. We have the treadmill and the elliptical, but I hate to walk inside and as such I went all but quit walking for a couple of weeks, and even when the weather started getting better I couldn't get motivated.
So where does that leave me? Well a year later and I'm back at almost 235lbs which is actually a touch heavier than I was a year ago and I'm frustrated. I had been making progress the last week or so - I had a 13 mile day, and several days in the 7-9 mile range, but it rained quite a bit last week (and is doing so today as well) and then J was off for the weekend so we went running around which meant walking didn't happen much either day.
Now I suppose this isn't the end of the world since as I expected my target for surgery would be 2016, so I've still got a good 15-20+ months before the end of 2016 to lose what I need. And for that matter, if J and I have to end up paying for the surgery ourselves, it does open up other options - including surgeons that aren't necessarily as stringent with their weight requirements. Additionally, I'm just getting ready to start hair removal "down south" which most of the surgeons I've targeted want done. It doesn't mean I'm happy about having to wait another year - despite basically expecting that - nor am I happy about what's happened with my weight, but "it is what it is" and now I have to do something about it.
I will say that my opinion of the Fitbit One/Aria has *not* changed. It's been a great motivator for me to be more active, I just need to increase my dedication to it and to get back to watching what I eat better. Less eating out - despite things like "Red Lobster Endless Shrimp", "Olive Garden Never Ending Pasta Bowl", and various Chinese buffets - and for that matter perhaps I need to do less of the grocery shopping. It's easier to do it myself if I'm doing most of the cooking, but I seem to have trouble not picking up things *I* like that aren't necessarily good choices. Some things are, but many aren't and that's really the big issue. I'm not saying I need to go back on my "Hot Pocket diet" - but there are things I can buy that are quick and easy and reasonable on the calories - and that's what I need to get back to.
I guess I'll wrap this up, I'm not really sure what the point was other than for me to ramble/vent a little - which I guess I've done. I'll try and make the next entry less of a rant/vent and more something that people will find interesting. :)
- M
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