Waking Badger » weightloss

Photo Comparison (Pre & 6.5m Post Surgery)

bill — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 05:36:18 +0000

I’ve been asked about these for some time and in all honestly, I’ve been very slack about taking care of something I committed to do…

So, without further delay…

Here are photos comparing my body at a pre-Gastric Bypass state (7/6/2009) to 6.5 months out from Gastric Bypass surgery (1/25/2010). I’m still not happy with where I’m at and I still have 30-40 pounds hopefully left to go, but I’m thrilled with the progress so far…

Sorry the pics aren’t all from fully similar views, but this is what I’ve got to show…

Here are some additional stats

Waist size (Jeans)

THEN 52-54
NOW 40-42

T-Shirt Size

THEN 3XL-4XL (3XL was typically too tight to wear, so 4XL was the size of choice)
NOW 2XL

The Shaven Bill

bill — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 03:11:44 +0000

I thought I would post a quick picture of my cleanly shaven face. I undergo this procedure 2 or 3 times a year to start the beard anew and I felt today made sense. I had to post simply because I look so different without the beard and I believe this is the first time I’ve shaved it all off since I had the gastric bypass surgery. Unfortunately, I do still have some fat on my face and some loose skin around my neck and chin, but hopefully that will get worked out more in time…

PS: Yes, I know I still owe the blog and friends a full photo showing my weight loss progress, but I just didn’t feel like doing that tonight

Couch to 5k – Week 2, Day 1

bill — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:58:10 +0000

I got started with week 2 last night and this routine went much better due to my return to running in the gym. The only change was the intervals went from 60sec running/90sec walking to 90sec running/2min walking. Not a huge change, but the extra 30 seconds does make you feel it. I don’t think the next 2 workouts this week will give me much in the way of a problem as long as I am in the gym, but next week should be more interesting as the running kicks it up a notch. I do wonder if this will make running easier as so far I can’t tell a change, but in a few weeks will a few minutes running feel more natural? It’s just hard to imagine going from feeling sick/out of breath after 2-4 minutes of running to smiling as you pass 5-10 minutes of running. I’m hopeful, but given that I have never been a fan of running, this just feels…odd. Heather and I used to have a saying that you would only see us running if 1. someone was chasing us 2. a Krispy Kreme doughnut shop was on fire Well, now I am willingly getting into this and I wonder how much of the change I need is physical/mental and will Couch to 5k get me there?

On a related note, how do you get used to running outdoors? I understand that trying it in the fall/winter may not have been the brightest move on my part, but how do you get over the pain from an inflexible running surface and the resulting joint pain? Also, isn’t there an accepted way of breathing while running (in through the nose, out through the mouth or some such)? I have never been able to train myself to breathe properly and tend to more gasp when pushing myself

Couch to 5k – Week 1, Day 3

bill — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 22:49:04 +0000

Wow, to say today’s workout was MUCH harder than the last two would be an understatement. Nothing changed in terms of the exercise (60 running/90 walking intervals), but the circumstances changed:

Outdoors vs. gym
- Concrete doesn’t flex like the treadmill’s platform
- Cold
Heavy warm clothing vs. gym shorts & t-shirt
Still sore from tearing up carpet yesterday
Slight incline/decline vs. no incline treadmill

I was supposed to do this workout yesterday, but I was simply too exhausted from the cleaning/carpet work. So, I delayed it until today as I’m not supposed to start week 2 until Sunday. This was the first workout since my surgery where I have found myself cursing the iPhone for telling me it was time to run again and then pleading for the time to end. All that said, I did do the full routine and will continue on Sunday with next week’s ramped up intervals. I do hope this gets easier, but I’m sticking with it…

Couch to 5k – Week 1, Day 2

bill — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 05:25:27 +0000

I completed my 2nd routine tonight and I must say while the actual jogging/running was still painful, the after effects seemed somewhat less severe. Last time, I was walking at 3.2 mph and jogging at 4.5 mph. Tonight, I kept the 3.2, but bumped the jogging up to 4.8/5.0 mph. I’ve got one more workout for this week and then next week the jogging gets bumped up a tad in duration.

Next week, I have a body assessment scheduled at the gym followed by a personal training session. I’m hoping for some guidance on what else I can do to continue building on my weight loss…

Couch to 5k – Week 1, Day 1

bill — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:10:50 +0000

My weight loss had seemed to hit a plateau recently and I had been stuck bouncing up and down within the same 1/2 – 1 pound area. This led me to investigate new options to help push my weight loss to higher levels. After all, I knew that eventually the weight loss boost that I received from surgery and my resulting lack of appetite would wain as my appetite increased. I can now eat more (still less than a normal person) and as a result my exercise should increase to accommodate additional calories. The issue is that now that I am back at work, I have less time to exercise than I did post-surgery. So, I need to find ways to gain more benefit from less time (no more than 30-60 minutes)…

Here is where the story ends up at Couch to 5k. I had heard about the program before, but never seriously considered it. However, now I do want to get used to running, so I reconsidered.

It’s actually relatively simple:

3 days a week you exercise with an off day in between – I will likely continue to walk pretty much every day.
The exercises take the form of a 5 minute walk warm up, 20 minutes of iterating between some amount of time walking & jogging/running, and then a 5 minute cool down walk.
Each week, the jogging/running intervals get longer
Over the course of doing the above for 9 weeks, you build up to running a full 5k (3.1 miles)

I started last night and while I’ve done some jogging, this really made my leg muscles burn. It was definitely more of a workout than I had been getting with just 30 minutes of walking. They recommend you don’t exercise strenuously on the off days, but I think I will continue to walk as I aim for getting exercise (even if only moderate) 6 or 7 days a week. I will generally have to play this by ear as I am hurting somewhat today…

Interestingly & typical, technology made the leap more appealing. I found a great iPhone app that helps track and guide you through the routine. It’s called obviously enough “Couch to 5k“. The app will provide voice prompts, alarms to make sure you remember to switch activities (walking to running and vice versa), visual cues (green UI when walking, red UI when jogging/running) and tracking days completed. I have Nike+ running in the background and music or a podcast also going to distract me from counting the seconds, but this app just provides the audio cues over the existing audio. I love that I can have it all kicking around at once.

I’m hoping this helps in the weight loss area as well as maybe driving me to learn to run. Maybe I’ll even learn to enjoy it

50 pounds down … ~100 or more to go!

bill — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 03:49:28 +0000

Today, I hit 50 pounds (50.3 to be exact) of weight lost! I’m thrilled with the progress, but over the past few days it’s been going quite a bit slower. Not sure if this is a brief lull or a temporary plateau. I’m gearing up to deal with it regardless as I am the kind of person who gets frustrated without a quantifiable change. Improvement for improvement’s sake isn’t useful in my head unless I can attach a numerical change to it (at least with regard to weight loss). So, I’m working on dealing with a plateau whenever it should actually arise since I am now trying to begin weight training and that may offset some loss as I build muscle.

I’m hoping I’ll crash through this temporary speed bump & not have to fully address the issue yet, but who knows…

Weight Loss Photo Comparison 2009.07.27

bill — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 17:32:21 +0000

The following photos show July 6th, 13th, and 27th. I had originally planned to do grand things with video morphing between the photos, but honestly, I need better software, green screen, or some such, so I decided to just post the photos. There aren’t huge changes, but I found them interesting just the same… Just for information, today I’m down 1.4 pounds to 333.6 pounds or 34.9 pounds lost in total.

Front:

Side:

Click for higher resolution photos…

Update on the Walking Badger

bill — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 14:26:59 +0000

All credit goes to Sean for the name, Walking Badger

I’ve updated the weight loss chart a bit. I now include an official weight from 6/19/2009 before I started tracking it myself. This has enlongated the chart a bit, but I think it is a more accurate example of the weight that has been lost. So, now instead of starting at 6/29/2009 and 364 pounds, I’m starting at 6/19/2009 and 368.5 pounds. I’ve actually been a bit heavier before that point, but as I have no good weight/date information, I’m sticking with this one.

Given all of that, I’m now down 32.3 pounds as of today. I’m keeping up with walking at least 30 minutes pretty much every day and quite often I go a bit longer. I hadn’t been tracking distance very often as my Nike+ sensor in my shoe is dead (need to replace today) and I’ve been walking inside the mall, so GPS is useless as well. However, last night I walked outside for 31 minutes and scored 1.39 miles. I would imagine that puts my recent walks at between 1.3 and 1.5 miles. I hope to replace the Nike+ sensor today so I can get some more valid data when we go to Southpoint Mall in a little bit.

The follow-up, the trip, and the underpants

bill — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 22:22:02 +0000

Yesterday was an interesting day. I had my first follow-up with my surgeon post-gastric bypass. He said that all is going well. Incisions are healing up nicely and he thinks the weightloss is going well. He says I might even be a bit ahead of the curve at this point. I got some weight measurements from them that were done with their fancy scale, which I have to assume is more accurate than mine (Seems to be showing about 2 pounds lower than mine).

368.5 pounds – Test results visit prior to surgery (6/19/2009)

339.5 pounds – Yesterday’s post-surgery follow-up (7/17/2009)

So, according to their official numbers, I’ve lost 29 pounds. The goal weight range they have set for me (based on ideal weight and projected loss) is 218 – 268 pounds. Obviously, I’m aiming for the lower number, so I have 121.5 pounds left to go. I will be sticking with the results from my scale for all charting and such on this site as I don’t have unlimited daily access to the “super” scale at the doctor’s office.

They also told me that the diet is a bit flexible if I’m eating things that I work through with my nutritionist. This means that in week 5, I’m going to get to add a pizza made using either a low-carb flour tortilla or a whole-wheat english muffin as the crust. Mmmmm! Pizza! I go back in a little less than 2 weeks to see the nutritionist again and we’re going to start making up sample meal plans that I can use day to day. I think I’m looking at lots of chicken, pork tenderloin, and very lean ground beef/steak as I have to keep the incoming protein count VERY high and the incoming carb count VERY low.

After all of this, I found out Heather was going to have to come home a day early from Boston so that she could be seen in clinic for her IVF cycle. This caused us to jump through a few hurdles and arrange for flight, pick-up, etc. last night rather than this afternoon, but all is well now.

She brought me a gift from her trip, an authentic pair of squirrel underpants. If you don’t believe me check this out…