tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23216207868298977002011-11-27T20:21:32.330-05:00An opinionated curmudgeon tackles bariatric surgery and explores the role of food and diet in Western society. I also throw in some medical information on health and exercise (and Asperger's, as I've discovered I now count among the ranks) along the way.Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.comBlogger2371100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-50858395649218894202010-08-07T09:27:00.013-04:002010-08-07T09:27:00.293-04:00

I went on a trip that lasted roughly ten days. I didn't really take any meals with me, I decided to try "roughing" it and just being kind of careful of what I ate. The trip consisted of one 11 hour day in the car, then a 6 hour day in the car to reach the destination. We ate out a lot. Once in awhile some fast food...McDonald's for breakfast meant a McMuffin, for example, or we had the hotel

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-72145165154639419902010-07-14T18:13:00.000-04:002010-07-14T18:13:08.517-04:00

I saw this story and thought that the author's conclusions rather echoed the conclusion I've drawn after researching exercise and caloric intake after my surgery. As a matter of fact, I posted a comment to the Weighty Matters blog about it! I probably had said it before, but basically, exercise simply isn't a great way to maintain weight loss. It's good for you and does great things for the body

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-28234104901548224252010-05-26T18:18:00.000-04:002010-05-26T18:18:23.206-04:00

It's been awhile again since I had blogged. The reason is simple; there isn't much to report on. Bariatric surgery is something that takes intense retraining and relearning and introduces new coping challenges for a period of time; once you have met (or coped) with those challenges, life returns to some semblance of a new version of "normal" and you move on, with changes and checkups

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-30174018944019478532010-04-22T21:33:00.000-04:002010-04-22T21:33:13.048-04:00

Supposedly there's a new trend going around. Hypnotic bariatric surgery. Well, they call it incision-free bariatric surgery. Basically it's hypnosis where they walk you through the surgical room, complete with the wonderful smells and horrible gown, as if you're going to have surgery. Only instead of getting cut open, you get a hypnotic treatment. The price tag is significantly cheaper than

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-88158380661982090212010-04-15T21:00:00.000-04:002010-04-15T21:00:04.732-04:00

Today was my day to visit my surgeon/doctor in the bariatric department. As I had already posted, April 7th was my one-year anniversary for the surgery. Now I periodically go in for followups. So how I'd do? Well, he didn't give me huge kudos, but he didn't tell me how I screwed up either. He looked at some vitals and change in medications since last time, asked a couple questions (Pains?

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-70464873034845008642010-04-08T22:02:00.000-04:002010-04-08T22:02:20.448-04:00

Yesterday was my anniversary of the operation. I was tired and said I'd post more about feelings on the whole operation journey today. Perhaps weary is a better word instead of tired. I think there's a distinction between the terms. So how does it feel to go from around 450 pounds to 270? I don't know if I could ever put it into words that would properly convey what it's like for me. I've had

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-52173673144149716652010-04-07T22:37:00.000-04:002010-04-07T22:37:01.363-04:00

One year ago I was waking up in my hospital bed with a giant incision held together with giant staples. I woke up in the morning one year ago in a hotel room, suffering from the after affects of a laxative meant to clear out my digestive system after a wonderful liquid diet regimen. Then I rolled into the hospital around five, was pushed into the operating room around eight. Many hours later I

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-81863578083511766352010-03-27T11:08:00.000-04:002010-03-27T11:08:26.488-04:00

I stumbled upon yet another reality show the other night. It was called, "Kirstie Alley's Big Life." All I could say was, "Wow..." I remember Kirstie Alley from Star Trek II and Cheers. Other than that...not much. I've seen her on the cover of the occasional tabloid with headlines discussing how she gained weight and lost weight and gained more, as well as a headline declaring that she had been

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-67118362752645580442010-03-13T11:46:00.000-05:002010-03-13T11:46:02.705-05:00

I don't really have any desire to see the critically acclaimed movie "Precious." IMDB has a plot summary that reads, in part, "In 1987, obese, illiterate, black 16-year-old Claireece "Precious" Jones (Gabourey Sidibe) lives in the New York City neighborhood of Harlem with her dysfunctional family; she has been raped and impregnated twice by her father..." Not really my idea of a movie that grips

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-77938637326118432952010-02-21T14:34:00.001-05:002010-02-24T20:56:47.858-05:00

I was curious after seeing  some blurb somewhere about a kid who lost "half his weight" from a technology-inspired diet plan. The book was called Cutting Myself in Half by Tayler LeBaron. My wife picked it up for me off my Amazon wishlist as a gift. The gist of it: Taylor was overweight, around 300 pounds, and decided to lose weight using the good old fashioned method of eating less and

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-71089488720283407052010-02-12T10:48:00.000-05:002010-02-12T10:48:00.247-05:00

I've been bad lately about exercise. I haven't gone to the gym for some time. I've not been carving time to go there. I have reasons that I find valid. Parent meetings after work, feeling blah after getting home as the sun is falling due to this stupid time change crap, circumstances surrounding having to get a new car after totaling my old car in an accident...it just plain sucks. I have been

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-69544217950688525462010-01-27T19:34:00.000-05:002010-01-27T19:34:04.179-05:00

Life simply gets in the way. I have been shifting my priorities a bit; I've been busy with work, but most people say that, and it sounds like a cop-out. On the other hand what I've also been busy with is my first draft of a novel, which I've been writing about in my New Author Chronicles blog. I've actually been making headway, too. The first draft weighed in at 112,240 words, and from that

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-37136407015183801882010-01-07T21:37:00.000-05:002010-01-07T21:37:53.396-05:00

I had my six-month checkup with my primary care physician (not my bariatric doctor). The good news is that I'm still alive. The bad news is that I'm still not normal. The okay news is that I'm a little closer to normal than I was. The doctors have cut my cholesterol medication and my blood pressure medication dosages in half. One of them has a side effect of damaging the liver; now that they

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-30287077415793849042010-01-01T10:55:00.000-05:002010-01-01T10:55:55.074-05:00

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

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-31662282115500106992009-12-25T10:51:00.000-05:002009-12-25T10:51:23.132-05:00

Merry Xmas, Happy Holidays, etc. etc...we all know the season and the stores remind us of the reason at every opportunity. It's to overeat and indulge, right? Well, that's what one aspect of the holiday has become. My indulgence today is to not do my weigh-in, meaning I'll do my next one on Monday. I don't need to be reminded that I'm stuck in a plateau...Merry Christmas to me! People with the

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-19322285231573035342009-12-22T09:14:00.144-05:002009-12-22T09:14:00.127-05:00

I have been working on a first draft of a novel for several months now, and after over 100,000 words am finally drawing near the end (then comes the FUN part...editing and rewriting parts of the draft so I can submit it in hopes of finding an agent!) I was exploring different ways to end the story and yes, it includes the possibility of killing someone. Maybe not in real life, but one of the

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-31827671132737158432009-12-16T19:22:00.000-05:002009-12-16T19:22:39.472-05:00

I had the surgery 8 months ago. Doesn't seem that way...seems like a distant memory. I was told that the surgery's effects will continue for a year to 18 months down the road. But seeing as it's the holidays...which can be a trying time for nerves as well as stomachs...I thought I'd reflect a little on the current state of maintenance. As a note, I've lost about 190 pounds total. That was

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-2682938189018432502009-12-11T08:19:00.024-05:002009-12-11T08:19:00.083-05:00

The diet-blog has an article about a Fun eXercise Bike, or FXB, for your Nintendo Wii. Basically it's an exercise bike that interfaces with video games, an example they cite on the Amazon site includes Mario Cart. The Diet-Blog site blasts it because it's an "excuse to spend more hours in front of the TV screen in the name of exercise."  From the posting: "What ever happened to fresh air and

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-34915355467947192432009-12-06T17:08:00.000-05:002009-12-06T17:08:25.047-05:00

Wow...seems odd to see how the time and gone recently. It's been a very busy week and a half...two weeks? I can't even remember. Perhaps the word "hectic" is more apropos. I have relatives come up to stay with us for several days over the Thanksgiving holiday. And then there was a family "Christmas dinner" this weekend, so relatives came and stayed with us for another weekend, and I'm well aware

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-14626746053520588452009-11-30T11:12:00.000-05:002009-11-30T11:12:51.892-05:00

The diet-blog had a quick blurb about a study from the Center for Science in the Public Interest that states that (are you sitting for this news? Of course you are, you're reading a blog entry...) theater snacks are not healthy. I know, it's shocking. Basically the study drew one comparison thus: could you stomach three McDonald's quarter pounders and 12 pats of butter? That's what you get

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-16702860522781299982009-11-28T13:30:00.000-05:002009-11-28T13:30:15.108-05:00

For the past...oh, two weeks or so...I've been plateaued. I'd have to look at the numbers as they're listed, but for the most part I'm between 260 and 270 (I think I've actually been hovering around an average of 264/265 pounds), so I've lost somewhere in the range of 190 pounds. I hate it. Plateauing sucks. It means that I'm doing something wrong. I know that the formula is simple...calories

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-8648909997303749632009-11-27T06:00:00.030-05:002009-11-27T06:00:02.141-05:00

I've said before that losing weight...or anything to do with weight, really...is a matter of calories in and calories out. Eat more calories than you burn, you gain weight. Burn more calories than you eat, you lose weight. Pretty simple once you average everything out. The diet-blog just had a posting that strikes me as one of those "Well, duh..." moments. Some researchers apparently tried to

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-28733156193931371312009-11-26T08:01:00.022-05:002009-11-26T08:01:00.567-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving, US residents! Holidays are here, and with it another reason to overeat. Holidays are tough. For those of us having to adjust to new portion sizes, holidays are no longer the excuse to overeat that they used to be. Normals splurge occasionally and because of their lifestyles, the weight evens out. If post-ops overeat, we're talking pain, quick visits to the toilet, or violent

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-73251566417847533802009-11-25T18:59:00.000-05:002009-11-25T18:59:13.504-05:00

Does anyone really watch "reality shows" and expect them to be an honest depiction of what's going on? The Living at 400 Lbs blog has an article regarding a New York Times piece on The Biggest Loser, the show about overweight people who compete to lose weight using restricted calorie diets and six hours of exercise a day. Quoted in the article is a bit saying that they can lose up to 15 pounds

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-78525971771483029132009-11-24T17:56:00.000-05:002009-11-24T17:56:47.474-05:00

Lee had mentioned slider foods recently. I don't have the reference handy or I'd link here, but I remember him mentioning that it was a new concept to him. I haven't really thought about it, but I knew about them. Slider foods hold a special place for bariatric patients. Basically they're foods that go through the pouch pretty quickly and with little digestive effort; they go down and through

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-23367531430785240182009-11-21T20:22:00.000-05:002009-11-21T20:22:45.097-05:00

This was interesting. Apparently Lincoln University in Oxford, PA (USA) now requires students to have a BMI (body mass index) of 30 or less or they have to take a one-credit health course. Apparently this is the first class for whom the requirement means if they haven't fulfilled the requirement from their freshman year, they won't graduate, and nearly two dozen seniors fit that requirement. My

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-43111628319405709022009-11-19T20:00:00.000-05:002009-11-19T20:00:58.291-05:00

I just saw this post at the Diet-Blog claiming that Burger King franchisees are suing the headquarters for forcing them to sell double cheeseburgers in a promotion that has them selling at a loss. Apparently they will lose ten cents on each burger, while Burger King corporate believes that this will drive up patronage by %20, meaning more sales to cover the loss. I'm torn here, perhaps because

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-84402979600949318402009-11-15T07:51:00.000-05:002009-11-15T07:51:00.769-05:00

There are times when I miss being able to indulge in oddball foods. Take a look at this Donut Burger.I know...disgusting, isn't it? It's only 1,500 calories. A bacon cheeseburger with a glazed donut instead of a bun. I'm repulsed and intrigued at the same time.Alas...trying it could have repercussions with my modified stomach, so I'm forced to admire the photograph and not try it in real life.The

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-34477163001636142552009-11-14T22:34:00.001-05:002009-11-14T23:20:31.974-05:00

Before I had the surgery I had studied as much as I could as a layman to try to figure out how the body and weight loss were related. I try to take a common sense view of the body and how it works. First, weight is comprised of the contents of your body. Makes sense. You stand on the scale, it's measuring the force of gravity on the contents of your body. Your bones, muscles, organs, fat, hair,

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-27639708734035317532009-11-14T07:50:00.002-05:002009-11-14T07:50:00.139-05:00

I was reading an article about being choosy about the restaurants you visit. The author had been on the receiving end of food poisoning. The gist of the article can be summed up thusly: If the bathroom is dirty, the kitchen is most likely filthy as well. Leave. Quickly. Or risk having a big plate of contaminated food.On the surface this is just good advice. Heed the advice and you can feel better

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-69229081707910281672009-11-12T05:42:00.045-05:002009-11-12T05:42:00.450-05:00

Interesting post in the Weighty Matters blog post about the milk industry's claims regarding milk and the ability for it to help you lose weight. I've heard the claims about milk helping you to lose weight. It was another one of those "read it a few times and filed it away" things I do. The thing is that milk, like any other large industry (oil, restaurants, tobacco, corn,...anyone with a

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-20026019944775059032009-11-11T05:20:00.004-05:002009-11-11T05:20:00.855-05:00

It seems that there is more research buzz pointing in the direction that exercise isn't as big a factor in losing weight as people are led to believe.The first time this splashed on my radar was from this article in Time Magazine. The author was getting virtually speared online by various pundits and squawkers for suggesting that exercise wasn't a panacea in weight loss, and worse, may actually

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-74087730576974316632009-11-07T06:29:00.003-05:002009-11-07T06:29:00.854-05:00

I started this blog for a couple reasons. One of the primary reasons was to document the bariatric surgery from the perspective of a patient and have a record to look back on, and to make those public enough for other people to look at if they were researching the surgery. All they had to do was just come here and click the tag "bariatric surgery" and voila'...a list of thoughts and hurdles

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-68128060001820625032009-11-06T07:57:00.003-05:002009-11-06T07:57:00.859-05:00

Here's just some interesting thing that I stumbled on while buzzing around online. It's an article at Time about a guy that died of a tongue piercing. Check it out here.How'd he die?An infection that went to his brain.It's interesting that there are people who are very, very afraid of having something like Bariatric Surgery because of the risks (although the risk of dying from the surgery is a

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-63405672210937029022009-11-04T18:53:00.000-05:002009-11-04T18:53:17.720-05:00

The New York Times had an article about a "Cookie Diet". The premise is pretty simple; you subscribe to a diet program where you get a certain number of little cookies for breakfast and lunch each day, and you pair those up with a "sensible dinner". The doctor that started the program in 1975 has since started a website called cookiediet.com to sell his cookies in addition to selling them

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-48816205008179848352009-11-04T05:48:00.001-05:002009-11-04T05:52:42.711-05:00

After another plateau period I am down a pound today from my November 2nd weight level. Quick stats... Weight: 263.5 Weight loss since surgery (4/7/09): 112.5 Weight loss total (1/1/09): 194.5 Most lost since January: 195.5 So I'm a pound away from my lowest weight (so far?) My bariatric doctor said there's no way I'd hit the "healthy weight" in the sub-200 pound range in his experiences.

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-31398670144842837702009-11-02T09:02:00.000-05:002009-11-02T09:02:46.334-05:00

Here's a diet-blog post about the effects of antioxidants on diabetics. Turns out it may be a bad thing to take antioxidant vitamins to help your diabetes symptoms! The effect isn't huge; the best thing to do for diabetes is control your diet and lose weight, the things that have been repeated ad-nauseum for years. I thought it was worth mentioning this because the whole "antioxidant" movement

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-75809260480324494342009-11-01T11:23:00.000-05:002009-11-01T11:23:04.485-05:00

Here is a quick story on the diet-blog.com regarding the "Smart Choices" food label system. If you hadn't noticed it, the Smart Choices program was started in 2009 by a coalition of food makers as a way to promote "healthier eating" using a quick checkmark label on the packaging that specifies the calories per serving and how many servings are in each package. Plus the big checkmark draws

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-88715921359974682532009-10-31T19:46:00.000-04:002009-10-31T19:46:05.859-04:00

I logged into my account this afternoon and found a disturbing post from my loyal reader, Lee. He, too, has been going through a weight loss surgery journey and blogging about it. I don't really know him personally, only through his blog posts and messages here, so I can't speak for him (just what he has already shared in messages and posts, if I may be allowed to do so). On his blog he posted

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-76869385466679409502009-10-30T05:50:00.000-04:002009-10-30T05:50:13.346-04:00

I just ran across this UK article about abuse of fat people. The article makes it sound as if there's a rash of beatings for being overweight across the pond, but overall is focusing on the question of why society seems to pile so much hate on people who are overweight. Personally I've not encountered more than just the looks and stares and the occasional comment here in the US for being fat.

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-26302539167342541932009-10-29T07:06:00.002-04:002009-10-29T07:06:00.239-04:00

Some of this may not be pleasant. If the show Dirty Jobs makes you squirm, you might want to skip this entry.Here's something that doesn't seem to occur to a lot of people in regards to dieting. That something is loose skin.Um...the title of the post probably gave it away, didn't it?I'm perpetually mystified by the number of people that crawl from the shadows saying they had the surgery (or more

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-8458617610818192252009-10-28T18:50:00.000-04:002009-10-28T18:50:27.791-04:00

You may have noticed some changes on the blog recently. I've decided to take my wife's advice and listen to one of the little voices in my head to create a more focused blog. What does that mean? It means a few things. One, the Barry Atric blog is now going to focus on what the title says. Weight loss, diet, food, medicine, bariatric surgery and my personal updates on my progress from the

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-83205889804241721612009-10-28T05:44:00.000-04:002009-10-28T05:44:56.245-04:00

My birthday will be coming up soon and I've hit another low in the downward trend of weight loss, and I thought I'd share again since it's been nearly a month (I think) since I shared progress. To recap, I started losing weight in January to prepare for the surgery (how many times have I mentioned that as silly as it seems, you have to lose weight before having weight loss surgery?) I started

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-48194696188669743162009-10-27T07:01:00.002-04:002009-10-27T07:01:00.172-04:00

Sometimes people ask how I'm losing weight and now, unless they specify that they know about the surgery, I just tell them that I'm eating less. Which is true. I just had someone today ask me about this in a tangent manner...basically, "Are you dieting or did you have the surgery? My cousing had the surgery..." and she kept describing from there.I said, "I had the bariatric surgery, but really

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-41493022924764049102009-10-26T03:41:00.000-04:002009-10-26T03:41:01.740-04:00

The Creative Penn on Twitter posted a link to a site that had some interesting information on it. The article is found at Penelope Trunk's blog and the article is called, "Blogs without topics are a waste of time." You can read it here. I'd first recommend reading that site to form your own opinion then return here to see my take (if you're interested).A blog without focus...basically calling for

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-77408100020507642502009-10-24T07:42:00.002-04:002009-10-24T07:42:00.348-04:00

I saw another ad on TV for an energy drink.I kept wondering about energy drinks. See, when I think of ingesting something to get energy, I think about calories. But the energy drink being advertised was only 5 calories "per shot".So the energy they give isn't really food energy. Instead, they are more akin to "alert" energy; basically the drinks are just stimulants, made from a mix of caffeine

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-85605311344488228832009-10-23T08:55:00.000-04:002009-10-23T08:55:00.279-04:00

Wow. TV sure is changing.I just found (although this is being posted several days later...) a news article about a TV show that is apparently in Australia about risky surgeries. It has already been confirmed that some of the patients die.The article I was reading is found here.It's called Last Chance Surgery. One of those surgeries involves a 17 year old hairdressing student with brain cancer.

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-70439935747209000432009-10-22T08:01:00.000-04:002009-10-22T08:01:00.213-04:00

I avoid fried foods now. I've had a bite once in a great great while, but overall I avoid it simply because fried foods make me feel a little queasy (psychosomatic, maybe?), but fried foods aren't very good for you anyway.One of my guilty post-op pleasures is following the This Is Why You're Fat site. Every day, a new culinary concoction. Such as this one which sounds intriguing and scary at the

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-40031290396955882982009-10-20T06:26:00.000-04:002009-10-20T06:26:00.214-04:00

I heard about this in a podcast. It's a gym in Denver called "The Anti-Gym". The website is found here.When I first heard of the "Anti-Gym" I thought it was referring to a lounge, spa, or restaurant. Some kind of hedonistic self-indulgent resort where you do everything but exercise. I was wrong.Apparently it's a self-styled extreme gym with their own "no chubbies" policy, generating controversy

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-11022342329236654922009-10-18T06:31:00.000-04:002009-10-18T06:31:00.660-04:00

This is going to be a short entry because there is a thought that just won't stop racing through my head for the past few days. I'll share it here. Maybe someone else can comment or clarify. Consider this a fun day for the entries.As an Aspergian, there are concepts that just don't make sense to me. Why is it a social faux pas to tell someone they're an idiot, but it's not a social faux pas to be

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-67164392401744138252009-10-15T20:54:00.002-04:002009-10-15T21:05:02.370-04:00

Today was my six-month followup. I had my surgery, open roux-en-Y, on April 7th. I met with my surgeon today to see how things were going.So far things seem to be progressing just fine.He said that skin removal isn't something to consider for another couple years. "If you jump the gun and get it removed too soon then continue losing weight you'll have more excess skin, and two operations get

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-25961102958531364632009-10-14T07:17:00.000-04:002009-10-14T07:17:00.388-04:00

I was at a recent birthday party for a friend. At this party was an old acquaintance with whom I was, in my opinion, a closer friend for several years while in our middle- and high-school years until we had a falling out towards the end of our high school careers and from that period forth we didn't really speak much at all.We had kept enough in touch enough to know certain things. I knew, for

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-89819797864126983712009-10-12T06:59:00.004-04:002009-10-12T06:59:00.249-04:00

This article is more than a little scary. It's nearly as long as my rambling posts, but if true, it certainly is informative.The video on the site is especially scary.The story has two facets; the human interest story focuses on young Stephanie Smith, a dance instructor who is now having to use a wheelchair, possibly for the rest of her life. Why? Because of the scary story. She ate a

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-15659939137465623742009-10-11T07:59:00.002-04:002009-10-11T07:59:00.266-04:00

Here's another relatively short posting.I've been trying to do some kind of exercise, mainly to supplement weight loss but also because it's supposedly a requirement to not waste away or lose muscle and bone mass. It's hard. The gym in my area has lots of equipment, but no training program for the noobs, or if they do they don't advertise it. I'm making a hobby of figuring out which muscle is

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-75471866300880653902009-10-08T05:34:00.006-04:002009-10-08T05:34:00.581-04:00

I think I've alluded to this topic before to some degree but I've been hearing this so often lately that I think it bears a revisit.People have been suddenly asking how I'm feeling, or saying to me "You must be feeling so much better now!" or some other variation of the statement.I of course don't know how to react to it. I had to sit down and think about a decent canned response for the

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-86880451645720593712009-10-07T19:58:00.004-04:002009-10-26T18:48:39.435-04:00

Today started out well and ended on a sour note. But oh well...some days are like that. Get up, brush off, hope tomorrow you don't end up on the ground again. I had a small milestone pass. I broke the 270 barrier. I weighed in this morning at 269, for a loss of 189 pounds since January (and 107 pounds since the surgery in April). Right now I'm just really anxious waiting for Friday's weigh-in to

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-29635431645361568602009-10-07T06:46:00.003-04:002009-10-07T18:22:59.951-04:00

Here's a real WTF. Apparently the Senate Finance Committee passed an amendment to the healthcare bill that will penalize workers not following a "healthy lifestyle". A blog post on the issue can be found here with links for more information.Apparently it's unhealthy lifestyles that are entirely to blame for skyrocketing healthcare costs. At least, according to the idiots in government that is

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-49320835848911591602009-10-04T04:40:00.003-04:002009-10-04T04:40:00.812-04:00

I went to the hospital on Friday for a quick errand to the lab. A ten, fifteen minute job at most. I had let my boss know I'd be out a few extra minutes that morning, he nodded and said it was fine, and so I headed there first thing that morning.Now here's the fun part. For the past few weeks I've been having this feeling of hollow thumping in my chest. I feel it for about five seconds or so,

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-69073612672482772762009-09-30T06:50:00.004-04:002009-09-30T06:50:00.473-04:00

I am just finishing up compiling a series of posts into a document to give to someone that are tagged with "bariatric surgery" from the blog.I was recently stopped by a coworker and she asked me several questions about the surgery. Apparently she's been struggling with her weight for awhile and has lost a large amount of weight on two occasions; one, she had an aneurysm on her pancreas that went

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-36951545892211231892009-09-29T09:08:00.000-04:002009-09-29T09:08:00.368-04:00

I have to admit, this sounds...compellingly...tempting to me.Maybe I'm earning my time in the therapists chair as most sane people would probably say this is disgusting. Me...it's a huge chunk of the things that I miss. This is virtually every cakey dessert that I used to enjoy mashed into one.Click the link. Go ahead. Take a look.Yes, I've had bariatric surgery, and I struggle with emotional

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-40704077154135192402009-09-24T07:16:00.002-04:002009-09-24T07:16:00.808-04:00

Here's a scary article for people that are actually trying to do the right thing in their diet.I suppose it shouldn't be much of a surprise, though. Many government agencies are charged with a large set of duties and then find themselves understaffed and underfunded and apparently it includes the FDA. This leaves the patients in charge of the asylum, or in this case the food packagers and

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-92036768912183917412009-09-21T06:27:00.004-04:002009-09-22T06:29:23.739-04:00

I've talked to my wife on and off about the website. Once in awhile I just sort of babble out whatever's on my mind, and one I commented on was that the Google Analytics seemed to show a steep drop after I had decided to spend more time working on things like my story instead of the blog site.I've been posting things in spurious sessions, scheduling them ahead of time and trying to keep things

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-9405031297151726492009-09-20T09:23:00.000-04:002009-09-20T09:23:00.317-04:00

Ever hear the story that when you exercise your muscles build up lactic acid, and that causes soreness, pain, and general fatigue?I've heard it. I know I've heard it associated with pains from exercise. "Your muscles build up lactic acid and that's what makes you feel the burn!"Turns out it's not true.For people that are regularly immersed in sports medicine or weight training, this we probably

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-21197522249172877102009-09-18T10:10:00.002-04:002009-09-18T10:10:00.325-04:00

I tagged this with Doctors, but it's not really related directly to doctors. It's more about the medical community. Drug companies in particular.I talked about the book Don't Swallow Your Gum! in yesterday's blog post. One item in particular surprised...and ticked...me off.There are various projects out there for drug companies to figure out the proper chemical makeup to create an effective

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-12863751350494159802009-09-16T07:05:00.004-04:002009-09-16T07:05:00.289-04:00

After the surgery there was a lot of emphasis on water.Not as much emphasis as what I'm eating, mind you, but there was more attention on drinking adequate amounts of water than before.Like so many other things I've discovered in my research regarding weight and diet and exercise, your intake of water has some mixed messages thrown in there. I could see some concerns after a shift in my eating

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-3374384620582299422009-09-14T07:18:00.000-04:002009-09-14T07:18:00.343-04:00

This is a rather inflammatory title to a blog entry. The real issue comes from this article at the diet blog regarding employers being compelled to pay for weight loss surgery.Long story short: overweight cook at a pizza joint is hit in the back with a freezer door. Overweight dude needs back surgery to fix the injury and solve chronic pain issue. Overweight dude's doctors refuse to do it unless

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-33261949527232657182009-09-13T08:33:00.002-04:002009-09-13T08:33:00.156-04:00

Well, actually it is fried butter. Click the link to check it out.Comes in different flavors. You might think this is crazy...well, I'm not so sure.It's a pat of butter. I don't know how many you get served, but it's one pat of butter rolled in a dough. Probably less calories than (or on par with) your average restaurant dinner roll. With a pat of butter.It joins the ranks of fried Oreos,

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-55126929927407482792009-09-11T06:21:00.002-04:002009-09-11T06:31:26.019-04:00

Today was another weigh-in day. I usually will try weighing myself on a Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule or on a Tuesday-Thursday, alternating on the days of the week depending on how things kind of work out. Believe it or not this is actually the least anal-retentive way for me to do this...I used to be more obsessive about doing it more often and having small mental fits of beating myself up if

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-84719705690694190112009-09-08T07:51:00.001-04:002009-09-08T07:51:00.507-04:00

I just ran across yet another article in a blog asking about how someone can maintain a weight loss. This person said they lost 20 pounds and regained it all in 16 weeks...oh no!I was going to quote the article in question (I try to avoid just tossing around crap into the blog without some pointer to where I got the information...it's bad form not to) but thought, y'know, I've run into this

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-18882050629140191062009-09-02T09:21:00.004-04:002009-09-02T09:21:00.253-04:00

Most of the time my diet consists of a plain home-made wrap, usually with thin-sliced ham and lowfat cheese and mushrooms, maybe some salsa or mustard mixed in. Small, simple, easy to pack. I estimate that the calories are under or around 300 a pop (the tortilla is 2.5 grams of fat and it comes in at around 120 calories, the cheese is 25 or 50, depending on if I use one or two slices of 2% cheese

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-45714769982034395892009-08-31T08:59:00.000-04:002009-08-31T08:59:00.351-04:00

Introspection is the self-observation and reporting of conscious inner thoughts, desires and sensations. It is a conscious mental and usually purposive process relying on thinking, reasoning, and examining one's own thoughts, feelings, and, in more spiritual cases, one's soul. It can also be called contemplation of one's self, and is contrasted with extrospection, the observation of things

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-56783652521094980582009-08-29T08:29:00.003-04:002009-08-29T08:29:00.875-04:00

Ironically I found a post from another blog that said that Denny's is being sued to disclose the salt content in their food. The Reuter's article can be found here. I don't know what the basis is for compelling a company to tell you what's in their food if it's not something that'll immediately kill someone, but hey, in America you're free to litigate against anything that annoys you if you have

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-84893781095928377252009-08-28T09:08:00.003-04:002009-08-28T09:08:00.196-04:00

I recently went to some little social outing. Small thing, but I still didn't really want to go.My wife said that maybe my mother just wanted to "show me off" with my weight loss.The problem is that when there are people in the area that I know who suddenly comment on my loss of weight from what I was in January, I get mad, not grateful or glad.I can't help but think that these people live in the

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-33977071715313265402009-08-27T09:01:00.002-04:002009-08-27T09:01:00.076-04:00

The basic definition of a food calorie (yes, there's actually more than one kind of calorie) is the amount of energy required to raise one kilogram of water by one degree Celsius. There's information on the Wikipedia page on calories. Basically it's a unit of energy.Since it's a unit of energy, things other than food can be measured in calories. I just saw a story about a kid in China that wanted

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-31968904904922619272009-08-26T09:02:00.002-04:002009-08-26T09:02:00.744-04:00

I've been going to the gym for awhile now on a regular basis. Well, awhile for me, since I am allergic to exercise.It's true. Every time I exercise I end up breathing really heavy and sweating a lot and by the time it passes I'm all achy and sore. Look it up. Sounds like an allergy to me.Anyway, the gym I go to isn't really all that bad, but I think it could stand some improvements.Thoughts that

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-20241500052744500742009-08-25T07:34:00.002-04:002009-08-25T07:34:00.450-04:00

This was kind of surprising...a restaurant chain called Burgerville is apparently going to be adding calorie counts to the receipt of the customer's orders.The story appears here.The story also criticizes the fact that the only way to know what the order's calorie count comes to is to order, then look at the receipt. The restaurant apparently says it's a side effect of the way their business is

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-56768640057938751462009-08-24T06:26:00.004-04:002009-08-24T06:39:34.011-04:00

This morning was another weigh-in day. I clocked in at 286 pounds.Since January, I've lost 172 pounds, and since the surgery I'm down 90 pounds.The reason I'm posting a progress this morning is because I saw a small milestone go by. When I first started dieting in January, the nutritionist at the time that was assigned to me suggested a free website called FitDay.com to track my nutrition stats..

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-12921862348797634922009-08-20T10:37:00.000-04:002009-08-20T10:37:00.261-04:00

(keep in mind this happened a few weeks ago...I queued this one up to log some thoughts and information for later on.)I went to the gym today. I adjusted my workout a little...I think I mentioned I was going to do that...so that I was doing 10 reps at each machine instead of 15, but I increased the weight significantly. Most of them weren't as hard as I thought they'd be to do that. I don't know

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-69097858144620903112009-08-19T08:02:00.004-04:002009-08-19T08:02:00.234-04:00

There were a couple comments about my progress since the surgery. Ironically, I had queued up an entry for today that dealt with a topic from going to the gym, but I bumped it ahead a day to put this in.First, some info on weight.I had my surgery back in the beginning of April, on April 7th. It's now August 19th (technically 18th as I'm typing this). That means it's been a little over four months

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-10332179645255114272009-08-17T08:32:00.002-04:002009-08-17T08:32:00.254-04:00

Here's some thoughts I've been pondering over a the past few days.I've been faithfully going to the gym on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, doing a full circuit on the upper- and lower-body machines along with my walks on the treadmill. I haven't been recording it here because It's kind of a waste of space; just reposting the same type of information over and over. I'd rather just post about

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-28947041801661063292009-08-16T10:21:00.002-04:002009-08-16T10:21:00.422-04:00

Wow...interesting how much noise is being made about this article at Time postulating that exercise doesn't help in weight loss.I thought it was interesting. Then again, I think much of the article correlated with what I've observed in my time with exercise and people's habits, so it may be simply a matter of noticing some form of confirmation bias on my part.I read the article about a week ago.

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-19735529025833066632009-08-08T09:05:00.004-04:002009-08-08T09:05:00.395-04:00

One of the more difficult things to cope with after weight loss surgery are the reminders of your fat body.That means waking up every day to a large mound of flesh hanging over your waist and pubic region because some of the excess fat may be gone, but the flesh doesn't go away. The connective tissue is too damaged to "bounce back".I can't count the number of times people suggested going to the

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-57214146085552220542009-08-03T07:56:00.000-04:002009-08-03T07:56:00.044-04:00

I don't get up early enough in the morning to get my breakfast. I have to get up and get around for work but also take my nine pills in the morning (some vitamin supplements, cholesterol pills, blood pressure, Prilosec as the stomach heals...etc...); then I'm supposed to wait for a period of time before eating so my stomach empties of water.To simplify having to get decent food without much fuss,

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-62849974685923710382009-08-02T08:57:00.003-04:002009-10-26T19:00:03.561-04:00

It took me about a week to finish reading Weight Training for Dummies (this review is being posted long after I've finished the book) by Liz Neporent, Suzanne Schlosberg, and Shirley Archer. The book includes the trademark Dummies 5th Wave comics and is filled with the entertaining, down-to-Earth writing style I've come to expect from Dummies books. At a glance, the book includes chapters on "

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-69140720138355805202009-07-29T05:29:00.002-04:002009-07-29T05:29:00.376-04:00

I thought this was an interesting coincidence.Shortly after the July 4th holiday here in the States I was watching Degrassi on whatever that satellite channel is "For Teens". Think it's a Nickelodeon spinoff channel of some sort. My daughter was a fan of the show and I actually started watching it and got too much into the whole drama of the various storylines...so sue me.Anyway there was a

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-39644304320670570282009-07-28T20:42:00.002-04:002009-07-28T20:58:48.972-04:00

I thought I'd put this in since I kind of hit another milestone of sorts. Of course, it could change in a couple days if it goes the wrong way, but at least it hit a milestone for one morning.This morning my weight came in at under 300 lbs. 298.5, actually. That's 159.5 pounds since January lost, 77.5 since my surgery in April.Like I said, it could all change with water weight or one of the fates

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-886352397352377322009-07-28T06:24:00.001-04:002009-07-28T06:24:00.412-04:00

This is appearing in the feed many days after the fact, so while it just recently happened to me it actually occurred weeks ago.I needed to get my bloodwork done as part of my post-operative followup. That day things were already running late; my wife's parents were leaving to drive many hours home but apparently arranged to meet for breakfast after my 9:30 appointment. The doctor's office must

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-76468864591050201962009-07-26T14:18:00.000-04:002009-07-26T14:18:00.430-04:00

Diet is a lot like a good suit...any diet can be made to fit you, but you need to shop around to find one that really fits you well. Notice I said diet, not dieting? They are often linked but usually people don't see a difference. There is one. Dieting is an act and people consider it a temporary measure usually to starve yourself in some way or with some gimmick in order to lose weight while

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-57022873037818353162009-07-25T09:11:00.000-04:002009-07-25T09:11:00.077-04:00

I've been taking a couple baths finally. Ah, to sit and stew in piping hot water...nice and relaxing.We happen to have a tub with little jets in it. There is a circular intake with a plastic sieve-like cover that sucks the water into the pump, then ejects it into my blubbery skin, simultaneously relaxing the muscles after an hour at the gym (and an hour out doing weed whacking) while highlighting

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-41146281129448739612009-07-24T08:24:00.002-04:002009-07-24T08:24:00.660-04:00

How do we raise our kids to eat well?Is it by example? Or are their habits for eating innate?I've been worried about this with my son lately. Up until shortly before my surgery we were big on fast food. We went to breakfast on Sunday mornings at McDonalds, and several times a week we would go to get dinner at McDonalds or some other fast food outlet.Slowly my own habits had changed; it was done

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-83104673889729087722009-07-24T07:52:00.003-04:002009-07-24T08:03:30.051-04:00

Time for another update, I suppose. I weighed in this morning and I'm now at 300.5 pounds.I've lost:157.5 pounds since January.75.5 pounds since the RnY surgery in April.62.5 pounds since my friend challenged me to lose 60 pounds before he lost 30.As I've said before I don't think he's tracking his challenge anymore; I'm not pressing it with him. If he checks in periodically he can do what he

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-6415883878755306142009-07-22T10:22:00.001-04:002009-07-22T10:22:00.570-04:00

Going out and about while finding food is a challenge for me.If you've followed my blog posts you know that I'm very much set into routines. It's an Asperger thing. Or maybe it's a me thing. I don't know, but it's the way I am.There are a few places I am comfortable going to because I more or less know what to expect. For example, we go to Panera Bread and get a sandwich because I normally can

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-57052773125973101842009-07-21T09:44:00.002-04:002009-07-21T09:44:00.134-04:00

My wife and I recently celebrated our fifth anniversary. To celebrate we made arrangements to go to a rather large city several hours away for a night.I noticed that there were several restaurants right near our hotel, some of which I was familiar with (chain restaurants we have within an hour of our home) and others that we hadn't heard of before.We were in the area for just one night= and we

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-32428277940140519322009-07-17T09:23:00.002-04:002009-07-17T09:23:00.789-04:00

Well this is depressing.I always knew that calorie counts weren't exact on labels. Your food would vary by some percentage because I knew that a calorimeter measures calories by burning the sample; you can get a decent approximation of calories in the food by using samples in the calorimeter tests, but it's only supposed to be a close approximation. "Close enough for hand grenades", I suppose;

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-39816464769201301082009-07-16T10:48:00.004-04:002009-07-17T22:39:35.497-04:00

The Junkfood Science blog has an entry regarding the Democrat's proposed healthcare plan, and if the 10,000 foot overview looks like spaghetti from this diagram then it's probably too complex to actually manage in any practical sense.You might be able to find the blog article from either the link I embedded above or the blogroll on the right side of this page to find Junkfood Science and check it

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-69088185686552230232009-07-14T20:12:00.003-04:002009-07-14T20:12:00.445-04:00

Another day at the gym. I pretty much stuck with what worked last time; starting with 3/4 mile on the treadmill at fourteen minutes and ending with 1/2 mile on the treadmill in 9 minutes (although I did have the grade set to 3 and 3.5 degrees, increasing a little over previous times), I managed (15 reps each, with associated weight):compound row: 125lat pulldown: 110pec fly: 110vertical chest:

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-86749796486794860742009-07-14T06:46:00.002-04:002009-07-14T06:46:00.481-04:00

There have been a number of stories flooding popular media lately about recent results of a study on calorie restrictive diets.This blog post nicely sums up why 99.9 percent of those stories have been misleading at best and wrong at worst.In other words, rely on the media to give you some 10,000 foot view of information but if you want the real story you'll need to learn to think critically about

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-90983700818623074202009-07-14T06:15:00.005-04:002009-07-14T06:41:09.400-04:00

I just realized that the last time I posted an update on my weight loss was on the 23rd of June, and here it is the 14th of July. Weight loss seems to take so long and yet I look at the entries here on the blog and realize how time seems to slip away; must be relative to the subject at hand.As of the 23rd of June I weighed in at 321 lbs. This morning I weighed in at 306 lbs. Since the surgery I

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-53116876610266346492009-07-12T16:56:00.002-04:002009-07-12T17:50:36.053-04:00

I just went for my fifth visit to the gym. The Sunday hours are short and attendance, as promised, was sparse. All the better for me.It was quiet and I managed to do all 15 reps for each exercise this time. I think I may have come close to finding the adjustments for the next couple weeks to stick with. Here they are, fifteen reps each, with the pounds each was set to:compound row: 125lat

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2321620786829897700.post-67872317850758662662009-07-12T09:41:00.005-04:002009-07-12T09:41:00.334-04:00

I've started kind of following along with The Fatshionista blog and Living At 400 lbs blog lately. I guess the Fat Acceptance movement kind of interests me since obviously I'm overweight.I'll start off by saying that if you're happy with the way you are, more power to you. If you're 300+ pounds and say you're happy and fit and you feel good about yourself, then really it's not my business to

Barry VanEmeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16139966477595280152noreply@blogger.com6