One Year Later of Diet Changes

I was going to call this a year later, but it isn't a year since the surgery. That's coming up in April. No, I was one of the lucky overweights that had to "lose weight before weight loss surgery," and that meant making dietary changes months ahead of time or my surgeon was canceling the surgery and instead sending me to a more specialized facility that had the equipment to deal with heftier hefty people. I know. I never not point out the irony of dieting before weight loss surgery.

It's been a little while since I updated the blog. The last entry is dated Christmas. Why? Because quite frankly there hasn't been a lot to report on. I haven't had diet stories that struck my irony or ticked-off bone, and I personally have been plateaued for several weeks. I could either bitch about being plateaued, which I already did once or twice, or just stay quiet (and update the other blogs instead).

That said, it has been roughly a year since I started dieting. I suppose it's more accurate to say since I made a change in my dietary lifestyle, since "diet" has the connotation of being a temporary measure (which never works in the long run). I thought it would be a good idea to post an update after one year of the change.

First, weight. I started contemplating diet and exercise changes shortly after Christmas, 2008. My first implementation started in January. My first entry on the weight tracking chart is dated 1/5/09 and is "458 pounds".

My surgery was 4/7/09, and the day before I weighed in at 376 pounds, for a loss of 82 pounds through diet changes alone.

Today was a weigh-in day (I know, how coincidental is that?) and I am 264.5 pounds. That is a loss of 111.5 since the surgery, and a grand total of 193.5 pounds in one year.

Commentary...have you ever tried weighing someone who's 400 pounds without a truck scale? There are home scales that can do it. Unfortunately they cost a LOT. More than my budget allowed. Instead I had to play with physics...it involved two cheap scales, one for each foot, and doing additional math. Fortunately the laws of physics are additive when it comes to the force the planet exerts on your mass.

Second, exercise. I definitely increased my exercise levels. My normal schedule has me at the gym for an hour or so three times a week, and other days I'd be working on my (very old) recumbent stationary bike. I try weight lifting.

What have I found? For weight control, not much benefit. At least, not that I can tell. The importance of weight is for your health more than weight control. Exercise is good for the heart, your bones, your circulatory system, and your libido if there are cute people of the opposite gender who, by virtue of the fact that they may see you with a sideways glance, force you to pretend you're not in excruciating pain when doing those last reps with the barbell hovering inches above your skull rather than seeing you as a fat dork with no right to be in the same room as them. You end up proving that you really are the little train that could, only instead of the consequences being a backslide down the hill you end up having a concussion if you fail.

With the holidays being an insane time I have not been into the gym for a week or so. I have spent a lot of time on the bike though. I have been down there pedaling away for 13 to 15 miles three or four days; I didn't keep track. I just know I was burning (according to the onboard counter) 800 to 900 calories a pop.

I figure this means I have a good reason to work on a resolution to exercise at the gym more once my regular work schedule resumes after the holidays.

Exercising more? Yes. Exercising for weight control? Not really. The number one biggest influence on your weight, from experiences and from my own research into the topic, boils down to caloric intake. Second is what you're eating...additives seem to have some correlation (but it doesn't mean it's a causation!) to weight gain. Third seems to be exercise. You move, you burn calories. Exercise a lot, you'll burn more calories and yes you can lose weight. Professional weight lifters eat more than even the average American eats and still manage to stay in shape.

The average American manges to end up with seasonal complaints when you can no longer jog or bike because the weather is crap, schedule conflicts mean you're at a party instead of at the gym, basically your routine is broken. You can always control what you put into your mouth. Relying on exercise to lose weight isn't the best strategy. This is especially illustrative when you realize how many hours on the treadmill you must put in to burn off even a single average fast food meal.

So I don't rely on exercise, but I'm still trying to get enough exercise that my health and weight loss are augmented.

Third, mental health. I'm still seeing the psychologist. Psychiatrist? I call him doctor. It was mandated by the insurance company, but I'm only out the time and they're paying for it. They screw that up sometimes, but in the end they're still paying for it. I'm prone to depression, and part of the control for the depression was my eating; that's been taken away from me so it's either trying alcohol binging or seeing the nice doctor every other week. Since the insurance company is paying that makes the therapy sessions cheaper.

Those are the three key alterations in my lifestyle over the past year without delving into specifics of what I'm eating and doing. Am I happy? I'm still seeing a therapist. What does that say?

Seriously, I'm not content with the weight loss. I'm still far over the weight I'm supposed to be and my flab hangs off me to a degree that it's embarrassing. I have lost 190 pounds and I'm not content; I'm also stuck at a plateau. I can do better. My height supposedly states that I should be in the 180 pound range, and I'm at 260...way over weight. The doctor seems to think I should focus more on the accomplishment rather than where my goal is (the bariatric surgeon said he didn't think hitting sub-200 pounds was really feasible in the first place, and I should be content with where it is for now; he also said that plateaus at this point are to be expected and could last days, weeks, or months).

I know I'm told that. But there's a voice in my head that says I can fix this and do better. Caloric intake and expenditure is something I can control in my life. I have less control over my current financial situation, work stresses, family stress...I can only control my reactions to these things but the situations themselves are going to hit me no matter what. But food? I control what goes into the food hole. Eat less, lose more. I can do this.

To sum up; one year later, there's improvement. But I can do better. This year I'm resolving to be even less fat in time for my two-year check-in.