Elliptical Workout 09/26/09

Two days in a row on the elliptical. I did the random setting again, unfortunately my elliptical machine (Precor EFX5.23) doesn't show me the whole profile when I start. Yesterday and today, the last 5 or so minutes of the profile have been incline of 17 - 19!!! So today it got my heart rate up there pretty high, but it's all good. Here are the results:

• 4,900 Strides
• Average Heart Rate 137
• Max Heart Rate 156
• 32:47 in Zone
• 556.5 Calories burned
• 2.59 Miles

Shooting for a 30 mile bike ride tomorrow morning.

Elliptical Workout 09/25/09

I'm loving being able to work out! You just forget how much energy it gives you and how good it makes you feel when you're sitting on the couch for 10 months thinking "I should be working out right now . . . nah, there's another episode of Dexter to watch". Which reminds me, I may call Comcast today and get another HD DVR for the bonus room so I can watch crap I have recorded WHILE I'm on the elliptical. That's probably a worthwhile investment. Noted.

Here's what I did this morning:

• 4,936 Strides
• Average Heart Rate 138
• Max Heart Rate 151
• 33:44 in Zone (forgot my HR strap for the first 30 seconds)
• 559.1 Calories burned
• 2.61 Miles

Pretty comparable to the one I did on Tuesday.

This weekend, either Saturday morning or Sunday mid morning, I want to do 30 on the bike. I'll see who I can sucker into joining me ...

Elliptical Workout This Morning

Having been cleared by the doctor (nurse) yesterday to start working out, we took Taylor for a walk. I didn't wear the Garmin, but I'm assuming we did about 2 miles. (Taylor running up and down the trail probably did about 5)

I had planned to get up and go to the gym this morning and swim. However, I succumbed to the comfort of my bed and didn't get up until 6:30. I briefly thought about ditching the workout all together, but we have a nice Precor elliptical trainer in the bonus room that doesn't get used nearly enough. So I put on the iPod and the Heart rate strap and climbed aboard. Right now I need to measure my base level of fitness. How much have I lost not really working out in the last 10 months? So I went easy, 30 minutes with 5 minutes of cool down on the Random setting with the resistance set at 7. Here are the results:

• 4,728 Strides
• Average Heart Rate 135
• Max Heart Rate 149
• 34:28 in Zone
• 571.4 Calories burned (probably more than I'll eat all day!)
• 2.62 Miles

Now I don't think that's too horribly bad. Compare that to the last workout I can find that I logged here (Feb of '08 because I was really in the gym by then preparing for my first triathlon) and I'm not doing too bad.

Tri training has officially begun! I need all of your strength and encouragement to get me through the dull winter months . . . so if you don't see much about me working out here or on Facebook, then by God give me crap about it!

One Month Post Op - 1st Band Fill

They say time flies when you're having fun. Well, I've been having fun, but it's really seemed like time has been dragging on and on and on. I've been waiting for today, well for a month now, but it's seemed like months! At two weeks post-op it felt like a month, 3 weeks felt like two and today felt like forever and would never come. I guess it's the same as Christmas when you're a kid . . . well except instead of presents, I got stabbed with a couple of needles. OK, so it's not like Christmas at all!

ANYWAY, so for the past four weeks, I've been on a liquid diet. Mostly. There was the chicken incident. And I've had a baked potato and small bites of some things that Teri has been eating, but for the most part, I've been surviving on Safeway soup. (BTW, the magic bullet does a fantastic job of pureeing Jambalaya!) I honestly can't tell you how tired of soup I am.

I'm trying to get into the habit of having enough protein each day and probably not getting enough. Along with that, trying to get in the habit of taking the plethora of vitamin and mineral supplements I'm supposed to be taking, WHEN I'm supposed to be taking them. All while trying to not eat anything that resembles solid food. Cap that off with a restriction of not being able to lift anything more than 5 lbs (my laptop weighs 6) and it makes for a LOOOOOONG month.

So today I went to the doctor's office. The goal of this session was to put the first "fill" in my band and to find out what I can and cannot do. What do I mean by "fill"? OK, think of the band as a zip tie. Lay the zip tie flat on a table, that's how they snake it into your body. When they get it to the place it needs to be, they wrap it around the upper part of your stomach and lock it into place. Coming off the band is a tube and attached to the tube is a "port". The port is a hard plastic disc, but in the middle it has a rubbery substance. The port sits at the bottom of your rib cage, just below the skin. NOW, back to the band. Inside the band is a bladder, that is attached to the tube that is attached to the port. This is how they adjust the band. When the bladder is full, the amount you can eat is restricted, when it's empty, you can eat more. So the doctor (or nurse) inserts a needle full of saline into the port and injects the saline through the tube into the bladder, thus restricting your stomach opening. It's pretty cool actually when you think about it. My particluar band holds 14cc of liquid. Today, they injected 4cc.

After every adjustment, I'm to be on a liquid diet for two days until any potential swelling around the band subsides. BUMMER! Liquid for two more days! Today at my first fill, I asked the nurse what I can and can't do for the next month. Here's the short list:

• Swimming, Biking, Running and Elliptical all OK!
• Liquid diet for two days, then soft foods (think mashed potatoes, soft noodles, etc.) for two weeks, then start with normal food SLOWLY to see what agrees and what doesn't
• 5 Pound weight lifting restriction for two more weeks, on October 5th, should be fully healed and able to pick up my laptop again

I go back in for my next adjustment (fill) on the 19th of October, just a few days before my first real social experiment will occur. On the 23rd of October, Teri and I fly to California for my family reunion. LOTS of good food to be had (my dad's chicken is AMAZING!) and I'm REALLY going to have to be concious of what I'm putting in my mouth. Especially as I'm already adjusting to the further restriction of the band.

Overall, I'd say I'm doing pretty well. When I weighed in a Dr. Oh's office on my first visit, I was at 356 pounds. Today at his office I was at 309, or 47 tubs of butter lost. (306 on my scale, so now you know how much my clothes weigh . . . EDITORS NOTE: Sorry for that visual). With adding exercise BACK into the mix, my hope is that I'm below 290 at my next appointment. That would be 19 pounds in 28 days. It's a stretch and under normal diet and exercise wisdom, not advised. BUT under weight loss surgery standards, not unusual at all I don't think. But honestly at my next appointment if the number starts with a 2, I'm gonna be psyched!

Bike ride anyone? Tonight? Orting Trail? 20-30 miles?

Soup Goooood. Chicken Bad. 2.5 Weeks Post Op

I like to test my limits. Or I have zero willpower. I'm not sure which yet, but I'm going with the former because it makes me sound like a bad ass.

So I'm still supposed to be on a 100% liquid diet. And for about 85% of the time, I am. But it's the last 15% that'll get me. You see, here's the problem with my surgery. I feel fantastic! Occasionally when I bend a certain way, I know I had surgery because of the shooting pain in the left side of my abdomen where the largest incision and my port are located. (Definitely something to bring up with the doctor on the 21st)

So earlier this week, I went to Tri-Cities for a class and hooked up with my good friend Marcus for dinner. The place we chose didn't happen to have any really liquidy soups. So I had to improvise. They had gumbo, which had some very small bits of chicken in it and a few chunks of Adoullie (sp?) sausage. That was about the closest thing I could find to liquid on the menu, so that's what I had. I chewed everything VERY VERY fine and it all went down without issue.

The next morning, as I was staying at the Holiday Inn Express, they have a free breakfast. (IT'S FREE PEOPLE!!!) So I thought scrambled eggs, sausage gravy and a sausage patty would be OK. And it was. Again, chopped everything up really fine and chewed and chewed and chewed it. Everything went down just fine.

At the class, they brought in pastries from Starbucks. (This is starting to sound really horrible) So during class, I had a pumpkin scone and a piece of banana bread. Same as before, small bites, chewed thoroughly. But because it was bread, I washed it down with water. (One of the things they tell you to not do is drink while eating because it has a tendancy to wash everything through the band faster, leading to your still feeling hunger) Again, everything was fine.

SO . . . this brings me to last night. Last night Teri and I went grocery shopping for dinner, I got some soup and she got a rotisserie chicken. Now in my previous life, I LOVED rotisserie chicken from either Fred Meyer or Safeway. So after I had my soup and Teri had her chicken, Teri headed off to bed and I headed for the fridge. Bad move. There was a drumstick with my name on it. And about 4.3 seconds later, I had eaten it. No thought for chewing, no thought for anything but eating that damn drumstick.

And then the pain. Like the WORST heartburn you've ever experienced. I could actually feel the chicken sitting in the top part of my stomach trying to figure out how it was going to continue it's journey past the band and into my stomach. It was painful. I tried to burp, nada. I thought for a minute, it may come back up, which would have actually been a relief. But it didn't. So I grabbed a glass of OJ and took a swig or two. Nothing. So I waited for a bit and FINALLY it started to pass the band. Some more OJ and it was all down, OR at least far less painful.

I looked at the Dog and said "Taylor, that was REALLY stupid. Why would I do this?" She cocked her head sideways and I swear said "shut up fat boy, where's my cookie?" Or maybe I just made that up? Regardless, I won't be having solid food again until I'm told to. It was just a plain dumb rookie move. The whole week was a binge it felt like and it's over. Fortunately I didn't gain any weight and I don't THINK did any permanent damage to my band. Stupid. Human, but stupid.

In 1.5 weeks the doctor will HOPEFULLY give me the OK to start soft foods. I'm dying to work out too, need to call right now while I'm thinking about it and see if he'll let me get into the pool at least.

1 Week Post Op Follow Up

I met with my Doctor's nurse this morning to see how I was progressing after surgery. I'm happy to report everything is coming along nicely. I'm healing up and she was shocked that I hadn't taken any pain medication in 3 days. (I have a pretty high tolerance for pain and don't like to take medication just for the sake of taking it) I was curious going in how my blood pressure would be. I haven't taken my BP meds for a week now. I could have been taking them, I just would have had to crush them and throw them in with a drink, but one of my big goals of having the surgery in the first place was to get off of my medications. (Yes, I know it's probably not smart to just arbitrarily stop taking prescribed medication) So today when she read 120 over 81 as my blood pressure, I was thrilled! My blood pressure was normal without taking meds the last week! I'm going to continue to monitor it, but my HOPE is that I'm done with those for good.

I did have a "lump" next to one of my inscisions that I was slightly worried about, but turns out it's just my "port". The little area where they inject or withdraw saline to inflate or deflate my band. So no worries. I didn't think I'd be able to feel it, but some have reported they can . . . I just guess I'm one of those lucky cyborgs . . . err . . . people. :-)

My weight was down 10.7 pounds from my pre-op visit, which she seemed happy with. She cleared me to start my protein shakes again AND my vitamins. So thankfully I have that to help with the hunger pains now.

I'm hoping for another 10 - 15 pounds by my next visit in 3 weeks. Then they SHOULD clear me to start eating soft foods . . . I can't wait!