Weight 227 Total Weight Lost 133 lbs. Weight Lost in Last Two Months - 28 lbs.
Lots has happened in the past two months. It has gone past so quickly I haven’t been able to find time to write. We’ve moved from our fifth wheel into our summer home in Keene Valley, gone on and returned from a cruise to Alaska, paddled, golfed, played tennis, and altogether moved into our summer mode.
I was worried I’d fall back into old ways of eating and thinking about food when we settled back into our Adirondack haunts. Instead, I’ve managed to increase my exercise a lot and my eating has changed some, too. I still eat primarily protein, but I’ve begun to have toast or crackers, some salad, and a few vegetables. I should not be adding carbohydrates yet, but they seem to settle my stomach. Several months ago we stopped at Sam’s Club where Irene bought some cookies in vender packages, two Grandma’s cookies to a package. I’ve allowed myself to eat one cookie after dinner on quite a few nights. Because they come two to a package, there is no temptation to dig into the box and eat more. Furthermore, I find that one is very satisfactory. I still have a sweet tooth, but apparently the urge to gorge, to just keep eating till I’m stuffed, is gone. I’m told that a new stomach enzyme or hormone responsible for appetite has been identified. It seems to coat the stomach wall and regulate appetite. Since I have almost no stomach left, there doesn’t seem to be any hunger either. Whatever the mechanism, I’m losing weight at a good rate while eating a lot more variety, including even a few sweets.
When we move into our cottage, I’m appalled at the amount of clothing I have there I can no longer wear. While I had given away lots of too big clothes earlier, I have much more to get rid of now. Almost none of the shirts, shorts, or trousers fit. We try to separate some of the clothing to give to either Good Will or the clothing exchange at the local bariatric surgery center. Since many people seeking this surgery are a good deal larger than I was at my largest, there should be a need for post-surgical people needing clothing on the way down. I’ve moved from 3X sizes too tight for me to be comfortable in through having them fit, 2X clothes I bought on speculation of weight loss, many of which I never wore, or only wore once, and into XL and even just plain large. Knowing I’d be heading down in size, I’ve only bought a few pieces, but it all adds up. I guess I’ll be making still another distribution of nearly new clothes. I imagine my tax deductions for this year will rise into the thousands for clothing contributions. For the first time in many years I’m enjoying buying clothes, though. I like trying them on, looking in mirrors. Knowing I have more options than I’ve ever had in terms of what I wear and how I look. I’m buying T-shirts for the first time ever. What a pleasure not to feel constricted around the neck and to buy shirts whose message reflects places we’ve been and things we’ve done. I buy a kayak festival shirt, a Mountaineer shirt, two Ts on the Veendam, and one from Denali Air, a distinctive shirt if there ever was one.
In early June we leave for Alaska with Irene’s Mom on an eleven day cruise/tour with Holland America Line (for more about the trip itself, check out my website). Since food is so much a part of the cruising experience, I’ve been worried about how taking a cruise will affect my progress losing weight. After four days of vigorous land tours, we take a bus from Anchorage to Seward and board our cruise ship, the ms. Veendam. Food is available all the time on cruise ships. My regimen urges eating only three meals a day and strongly discourages snacking, a past-time easily available on a cruise ship. The Veendam has two dining rooms, the Lido where buffet and cafeteria meals are served as well as afternoon and evening snacks, and the Rotterdam, which is a formal dining room with waiter service, a wine steward, and an elegant menu. We soon settle into taking breakfast and lunch in the Lido dining room and dinner at first service in the Rotterdam.
Since there is much to do on the ship, the snacks and special eating events don’t turn out to be much of a temptation. I skip the Chocolate Extravaganza, which fortunately does not begin until 11:30 PM, easy for me to miss because we are usually in bed by nine. I’m so afraid I’ll miss seeing something from the boat, I get up at around 3:00 each morning and find coffee and a convenient window to watch the countryside slide by as the sun rises. I start having a croissant or Danish pastry along with my bacon and egg at breakfast. Even though I enjoy these treats, I’m not tempted by eating a lot. Lunches offer smoked fish, meat entrees, and other treats, which fit my diet. Unfortunately, they also put out delicious deserts, which I sample. I find that I can take a bite or two of a piece of pie or a tort and push it aside, feeling satisfied and not feeling deprived because I’ve had to forgo a taste sensation. This works very well.
Each morning, when I rise I go up to the ship’s gym, where there is a very high quality balance scale. When the cruise starts, I weigh 247 lbs., on this scale. I’m glad I can easily monitor my weight, because if this new approach to the diet regimen doesn’t work, I’ll be able to be more rigorous in my approach to eating. Fortunately, the cruise keeps me busy. I do a lot of walking and stair climbing. At the end of seven days on board ship, I’ve lost six pounds. Many people taking cruises gain ten to fifteen pounds in the same period.
After studying the dinner menu pretty carefully, I decide to not eat soup or salad with any meals, but to order a main entrée and to allow myself to have desert. This is quite a change from the eating out habit I’ve been observing of ordering an appetizer as a main course while others are ordering meals. Generally, I eat about half the meat or fish they bring, a bite or two of vegetable, and occasionally even a bite of potato before pushing the plate away. After a while, Heru, the head steward, stops by the table and asks whether I don’t like the food. I try to explain about the surgery and finally produce the card Dr. Marema sent me many months ago. This card asks restaurants to give you half size or children’s portions because you are incapable of eating more. He smiles and nods and no-one at our table ever asks again.
Meanwhile, I have decided to allow myself to eat deserts while we’re on the cruise. This works out all right, except…. One evening they serve a gala dinner with gala desserts, and I come up against “the choice.” I can’t make up my mind between two desserts, so the waiter says he’ll bring both. There’s the always much longed for key lime pie and a chocolate confection to die for. While I don’t finish either, they nearly finish me. I take several bites from each and feel the overfull sensation I know I should not be feeling. Soon I begin to feel ill and to sweat. I excuse myself and head, as quickly as possible, through the dining room, past the Yum Yum man and to the nearest bathroom. While I don’t get sick, I do have a strong reaction and spend a good deal of time in the bathroom. Later I head back to our cabin where I spend more time in the head. Lesson learned. If I eat to much, I pay. This is such a common reaction it even has a name - the dumping syndrome. Sometimes it also manifests itself as vomiting. An hour later I feel fine, but I have no interest in eating again until morning. This is the only time I have this reaction on the trip.
We return from the trip and head back to the Adirondacks. I have a doctor’s appointment a week after our return, so I go into the doc’s office to have blood drawn early. When the appointment rolls around, I’m pleased, first, that I’ve lost about thirteen pounds since we arrived in the mountains. More pleasant is the doc’s reaction. He says he wouldn’t have recognized me if we had met on the street. All the measures of former disease are now in the normal range - blood sugar (short and long-term), blood pressure, and cholesterol. He does notice a slightly low level of potassium for which he writes a prescription. A couple of days later, the surgeon’s office calls from Florida to tell me the blood tests also indicate I’m slightly anemic, for which they’ll send another scrip.
I take my bike down to the local bike shop for some work. A year or so ago I had had a bike shop take off the stock handle bars and seat and replace them with a pair of high rise handle bars and an extra large, padded seat. I could not lean forward enough to comfortably keep my hands on the stock handle bars and the seat just was not comfortable. Now I think I’m ready for something else. After Mark makes the alterations, I test ride and think they ’re just fine. The next day I decide to ride down the road to a friend’s house past a beautiful waterfall. The round trip is about seven miles and hilly. I make it easily. A day or two later, Irene and I go all the way to the next village and back, a thirteen mile ride. Again, it’s easy and good exercise.
A few days later I drive over to Lake Placid to play golf. I hook up my electric caddy cart and walk nine holes on this beautiful mountain course. Last year, I puffed my way from the golf cart to the ball, getting out of breath at the slightest exertion. On this day, I am able to walk along quite happily without ever getting out of breath. Unfortunately, I can’t say my score reflected my improved condition. I also play tennis a couple of times and feel comfortable and move better than I have in years. I particularly notice my joints don’t hurt any longer. There’s no pain in my feet, knees, hips, or back. I know when it comes time to go to dinner parties this summer, I won’t be looking for a chair as soon as I walk into the door, nor will I worry that if I do sit down, I might break the chair.
Early in July, we are invited to go camping with our son, Rick, and his family. Rather than stay at their house and drive to the campground, we decide to stay in a tent. This turns out to be a good idea. I discover I can get into and out of the tent as well as down on the ground to sleep on the air mattress. In the morning I can get up off the ground and dress without creaking and groaning too much. On the fourth of July we put our kayaks in the water, and Rick and I go paddling, each with one of his kids in the boat. Again, the paddling is fun and easy. All told, I can be more active and have more fun doing athletic activities than I’ve been able to do in years.
Keene Valley is a small summer community in the Adirondack Mountains where my family have been summer residents for over a century. Irene and I have been coming here since before we were married 38 years ago. Our oldest friends are either local residents or members of the summer community. Their reactions are a great deal of fun for me. Many don’t recognize me at all until they hear my voice. Others don’t see me at first and then do a double take before a smile breaks out on their faces. People seem both shocked and pleased at the effect of the weight loss on me. For the first time since I had the surgery, some people are telling me not to lose any more weight. I, of course, know I have at least forty more pounds to lose, but we’ll see what that looks like.
Meanwhile, the me I see in the mirror really does look different. My stomach is almost flat. I lie in bed in the morning and feel my bones. I run my hands over my joints or down my ribs and glory in feeling them there, right where they’re supposed to be. One day I find my pelvis, another day a hip bone. I begin to see veins and tendons in my wrists and legs. I think it’s time to have my wedding ring and signet ring repaired, resized, and to start wearing them again. The cumulative effect of these changes is now quite large. I feel like a new person, although Irene is quick to tell me I don’t have a new personality - yet. I don’t think I will, but I’m beginning to feel increasingly comfortable in my new body and with my new energy levels. I sleep less and plan more ambitiously for projects and activities to keep working on. And I have begun to think more long term again. Recently I’ve not planned too far in the future because I didn’t feel like doing much nor did I really think I was going to live very long. Now I see much further down the road. We have our admission interview for the home.