250lbs Missing

To start out with; WOW! This whole process has just been a flurry of adjectives. Exciting, worrying, humbling, tiring, painful, surprising, itchy. Just to name a few. Week two was not what I expected, being rougher in my opinion to go through than the first week. In the first week I had the worst pain (though when it was bad it always seemed to be relatively brief), and I was more or less immobile and dependant on others. My mobility, independence, and being able to stand up straighter has drastically improved in week two, however it's also brought some of the roughest parts of my recovery so far. Pain-wise I got hopeful for a few days. My abdomen muscles stopped hurting as bad and I started getting a lot of itching. The itching itself I thought was a sign of the end of the pain, however after a few days of intense itching I started getting pain from the incisions themselves. I think most of the pain comes from the incisions being irritated by pressure and contact in various wa...

(Click on photos to see them larger.) Things start pretty fast if you are scheduled for a morning run. You get to the hospital and into the surgical pre-op staging room. Here you get to meet all the wonderful people like your nurses, assistant anesthesiologist, anesthesiologist, surgeon and more. Each of which you will end up forgetting. They ended up putting the IV in my foot, which I hear is rare, as they would be flipping me around like a short order cook making pancakes through the procedure. One of the final things that happened is my surgeon came along with his purple crayons and did some impressionistic art on me. Anyways, shortly after this I was wheeled away and honestly taken to what I assume was the surgical theater, after this photo was taken, I don't remember a thing that happened to me. It's one of the most jarring things I can think of in life, coming out of a fog where you just feel lost and cheated of your time on earth. Before you open your eyes...

As many of you reading this may know, I am going in this Friday (1/12/18) to have skin removal surgery done after my weight loss of 250lbs. They will be reducing the extra skin on my arms, chest, abdomen, and then the beltline (which pulls some of the buttock). It's not an easy surgery to go through and recover from. Recovery itself seems to lay you out from normal life activity for a week to two, and you are not back to pre-procedure levels for six or more weeks. The scars themselves are  pretty gnarly (though much less visible than your extra skin), and the cost is often prohibitive for most (or at the very least puts you into medical debt for a few years as insurance will often cover just a portion or none of the surgery). So the question really comes to mind as I count down the days and then hours to this surgery. Why? I'll start with the more upfront and simple reason, medical issues. It's a little gross to talk about, but skin irritation and rashes are a real and...

It’s not something you often hear people say, but I’m about to throw these words out there. It’s possible to learn to enjoy your weight loss and dieting! Please, stay with me and hold off on clicking back to that YouTube video of goofy animals you were watching. I’m not crazy. Call it stockholm syndrome or hardcore denial but it’s possible to have fun along the way and enjoy the process! Here are some tips to enjoy your work: Have fun cooking your meals. Get creative and freestyle a bit. The great part about cooking is that it’s like an art (nothing like that strict science magic that is baking). Meal prepping can start to feel like your staring in your own cooking show. Who knows, you might be able to get some views if you start filming it! New and exciting options are going to open up for you in clothing as you slim down. Build up lists on Amazon or other websites with styles and clothing you’d like to try. It sounds cheesy, but a 90’s shopping montage with some friends can b...

One of the largest reasons for my success that I will preach about till I’m blue is the act of calorie tracking. It is necessary for most people who are looking to lose weight. I remember years ago when I was younger and my mom had me visiting a doctor at Sanford, they handed me this book that I was supposed to track everything in. Needless to say that book stayed empty, that was a lot of work that was just not fun in any way. However, in modern days this chore has become more of a hobby with phone apps and community driven databases of foods. Since the crux of weight loss really comes down to eating less than you are burning, for most people that means they need some way to track how many calories they are taking in each day. Many people are able to do this quite naturally without paying much attention to it, but for those of us who find ourselves overweight or obese it’s a mechanism we just seem to lack the ability to lock down. Being able to see what you take in really opens you...

When I started my recent and only successful goal to lose weight, I did it by jumping into a keto diet. What this means on the surface level is that your goal is to eat less than 25g of net carbs a day (which is less than one average banana). There is a lot of talk out there in diet communities about how the increased ketones in your body on this diet help you burn fat faster. I don’t know how true these claims are, and I don’t think anyone truly does. What I do know however is that when I was eating a diet higher in fat and protein, I was able to become full and satisfied with my food much more than I was when I was eating more carbs. While everyone works best with different weight loss styles, I would urge you to check out the keto diet. It’s simple in that you just need to watch your net carbs (Total Carbs - Fiber - Sugar Alcohols = Net Carbs) and your calories. Staying below 25g of net carbs a day forces you to fill your calorie intake with protein and fat, both of which are gr...

When it comes to health there are two pillars that hold you up. Your diet and your physical activity. Both are important to take into consideration and changes in either will make big changes to your overall well being. However, if your main goal is to lose weight you will want to pay much more attention to your diet than any sort of exercise routine. I believe this is especially true at the beginning of your journey. When it comes to losing weight, the big deciding factor comes down to thermodynamics. Now, that sounds a bit intimidating but it’s actually really simple. You just need to burn more energy (calories) than you take in. The nice thing is that your body does the majority of your calorie burning for you just by being alive. Take a moment right now to google “TDEE Calculator”, choose sedentary lifestyle, and input your age/height/weight into one and see what your body burns on a day to day basis. That number you were just given is your starting point. When it comes to losi...