...............Barium?..But I hardly Knew em!

Well, hello again and welcome to the wide wide world of me. Today we have good news, not so good news, medical news, a taste test or two  and more! So stay tuned, same fat channel same fat time!
  Yes I am in a weird mood today. Before we get into that though, let's get to the taste test. Now Along with this video. I did drink the Isopure, apple melon protein drink. As you may recall Isopure makes many flavors and they range from yuck to I can't believe it's not something else. Well let's put the Isopure apple melon in the Yuck Tank. I compare the taste to a jolly rancher apple candy, laced with dirt and rancid cough syrup. Not exactly tasty. Now on to our video of the day!

                            
Well that was enlightening.

Now as you remember today was the day I went for my big tests. The Barium swallow and the Cardiac Stress Test.  Why was I looking forward to these tests? Next time slap me! First up the barium swallow. First I was given a johnnie to wear, even though I was able to keep my clothes on, as I had a very light shirt and workout shorts on. I asked why I needed a Johnnie and well, lets just say some people tend to , um spit up a little. 
   In the testing room there is a table like Frankenstein had standing upright on its edge and you sort of stand on the edge of that table and they put a x-ray machine in front of you and  have you drink stuff.  Here is a great representation:

  Let me say this, I would rather drink the worst protein drink I have taste tested, rather than touch this stuff again. The first batch is the Heavy Barium and you notice they hand you a plastic cup and its very ..um heavy! like a pound at least if not 2. They doctor, told me to take as big a mouthful as I could and hold it, and then when he tells me to swallow I should do so.
  Neither the big mouthful nor the swallowing was pleasant, or even decent. But I did get to watch the monitor and see my upper GI tract. Then you switch positions , still standing, but now you drink the fast barium, it measure speed, and trust me the first stuff was bad, this stuff was bad, with vanilla flavoring added. I almost did not make it down. Well then they hit a button and the whole table thing slowly lies you backward until you are lying on it like a bed. Neat! but the neat wears off and you are now forced to drink while on your side. Now barium is a pale white color, and in this position, I almost repainted the walls a nice off white.
     Finally the doctor hands me a pill and a glass of water and says swallow it. Evidently this is used to measure the width of your esophagus. Except my pill got stuck. it sat on a little ledge just outside my stomach. This ledge is called a hiatal hernia, and its not a good thing. It is when part of the stomach squeezes its way past the hiatus, aka chest wall muscle, and forms a little bubble at the bottom of the esophagus. I kind of thought I had one, now I am sure.   The good news is that it is an easy fix and they will fix it during surgery easy peasy. Oh here is my reaction immediately following the end of the test.
   

 

Now after this lovely experience, came the stress test. Simple enough right , first a nice technician shaved a large area of my chest so I ended up looking like a spotted poodle. Then they apply these self adhesive electrode leads. and the wires, and then a belt  that makes Batman's utility belt feel lightweight. I was talking with the technician while we waited for the doctor. She finds out why I' having the test and that I lost weight already. BTW it's officially 14 pounds by the doctors scale and that's with about 2 pounds of barium still in me. Of course she says, "well why have the surgery if you already lost weight, just keep going."  I am going to use another version of an analogy I used in an earlier post.

                                                 INTERLUDE

  If you are out running and your tired, and you see a small hill coming up, you grin and bear it and fight your way over it. Great, that's losing 20 pounds.  If you were out running and you're tired and you came to the base of a mountain, most people would turn around and run the other way or walk away and not run at all.  This surgery is my Sherpa, it wont carry me over the hill, I still have to do the work, but it will show me the path to take, and all my friends and loved ones and co workers are my climbing gear who help me get to where I need to be.

                                           END OF INTERLUDE

  Back now to the stress test. I am wired up, belted up and I am told the stress test consists of multiple levels of speed and incline. Each level lasts 3 minutes, and at the end of thee minutes the treadmill will raise its incline and its speed until you fly off the back like superman on crack. The goal is t get you to your target heart rate without collapsing or having any cardiac EKG changes. Well my target heart rate is 150 beats per minute. I got to 144. I knew I would have problems with my back trying to walk and then jog and run especially uphill. ( for those who do not know I have a herniated disc L4 -L5 which makes it hard to walk) A lot of hospital test centers will use a stationary bike as an alternative but alas this was not so. The good news, no heart problems or abnormalities. Yay!

      All in all it was a good day.

Well thanks for coming today friends. I love you all, and together we can do this.

Here is today's quote.

 

        No diet will remove all the fat from your body because the brain is entirely fat. Without a brain, you might look good, but all you could do is run for public office. ~George Bernard Shaw

        





.......I'm a 5 Percenter!!

Hello Bloggians, Bloggettes? Okay then, Friends let's go with that.
SO before get deeper I know you're interested in my latest Taste test. Well here we are.
   This test is for a MuscleTech product and usually the products made for muscle growth are not what I would be looking for, but this one was recommended to me by a salesperson and they gave me some free sample packets. So let us see whether or not it lives up to it's recommendation.

Well that was not a lot of fun. Free samples or no, I can't see drinking that again.

  The question of the day is what's new? well there is sort of a big deal, remember I posted that on this coming Monday Oct 27th, I am going down to good Samaritan Hospital in Brockton Mass. to have a barium swallow, and cardiac stress test. Well my other goal is that I have to lose 18 pounds prior to the surgeon scheduling the surgery. I had until November 20th to do so.  I weighed in at the start at 361 pounds. Well this morning I weighed on my home scale, which I don't move around and is calibrated daily, at 343 pounds, for a loss of 18 pounds. That's 5% of my body weight, evidently losing that amount is key to shrinking your liver. Obese people are known to have fatty liver syndrome, well this helps to shrink the liver making surgery easier. Now I just have to keep it off. That brings about the decision to finally get my gym membership back. I'm going to go back to Planet Fitness , and so is the wife. I love the late hours as they are open until 11pm weekdays. So I can either go in the mornings or more likely at night after work. It is an especially good fit as for quite awhile I am limited to just the bike or treadmill (bike thanks to my back) and general stretching, no weights or machines except to use for stretching.
     So all in all its a good day. I celebrated with a shake for breakfast a shake for lunch, my guitar lesson, and then a turkey sandwich, with maybe 10 French fries. Tomorrow were going to try a little homemade recipe, im going to dice up some chicken breast marinade in Trader Joe's sweet chili sauce, then I'm going to stir fry that up and serve it with these finely chopped crunchy vegetables, there is radish, cabbage, pepper, onion, jicama and small broccoli pieces, very finely chopped, and I'm going to serve them up and make lettuce wrap with them and serve with some of Trader Joe's dumpling dipping sauce, in small amounts of course. These should be a great low carb Sunday light meal, considering no food after 8pm and no liquids after midnight in preparation for the tests Monday morning. So far the ultra low carb no sugar  thing really does work. I am going to visit my weight loss surgical team on Monday after the tests since they are in the same compound in Brockton, and get an official weigh in, with the hopes that will allow the surgeon to take the next step and book the surgery and get the precertification paperwork completed.
    I am encouraged by the protein shakes, by my ability to live with the changes I have had to make just these two weeks. Now two weeks is not a lifestyle change I know this for sure, but it is a start, and sometimes starting is the hardest part. I will say one of the things they don't tell you is that these protein shakes can, cause things to uh, bind up shall we say. A daily event , took 4 days, and not without some discomfort. Getting past that is just another bump in  the road.
  So until Monday when I will clue everyone in to  what the tests were like, I will say go Patriots, and rather than a quote, I figured you might like this instead:
           

 
                                 
                                    Love you all, together we can do this!

.........Last Meal and Pepsodent.

Hi again all.
 I'm back with some more taste tests and a few words that my brain insists I put down. Now you may notice a few design changes, I thought the old look was a bit dreary, if you like the old way better, drop me a line, or just leave a comment at the bottom of any entry! Also you can now sign your email address at the top of the page and you will be notified whenever I publish a new entry! Now on to today's taste test.
    I know  you are thinking , "how many taste tests will he do?" the answer is... More. Yes there are more to go, perhaps many more. I am expecting to hear from the folks at About Time , they said they were sending some samples my way and I hope to do a series of taste test of their products soon.  First up let's look at another shall we.....

Okay now that's out of the way. I often go to a website called Bariatric Pal, ( www.bariatricpal.com)  It is the worlds largest gathering  online of pre and post bariatric surgical patients out there, as well as people just thinking about it.
    Now one of the big theme I have come across is hiding your surgery. Yes hiding the fact you are having bariatric surgery. Now I know there is a stigma attached to the surgery, people who do not know about it, think it's cheating or a cop out. Basically they do not know the sacrifices you have to make, and that you still have to do the work yourself.
    These stigma's are worse for men, Woman seem to understand more and even applaud, for instance you see celebrities go on Oprah, or The View etc. and  talk about their surgery. Men you see them  bring it up once then let it go.  However; these woman seem to by a huge margin hide the surgery from friends coworkers even in some cases family members. So I asked why, and here is what was said, a number of women said it was private etc. several said they felt it put stress on them to achieve ( I think there should be and if you cant take responsibility now, how will you do it after?) and not to fail. Here is the weird part the men on the site ( very few still) all agreed with me that they shared it with anyone and everyone.
   So even though the stigma on men being so blatant, and the number of surgeries on men so much lower than on women, but men are much more open about the surgery. Interesting.
  I wanted to talk about why. Yes as in why I am doing this. I am doing this to live, to be able to walk more than 20 yards without being out of breath again. To never have to shop in the big and tall section, and settle for a certain type of clothes, to never wonder if I would fit in a seat when I go out to a movie. To not have to buy two airline tickets and reserve the seatbelt extender. To not be stared at by so many people in public. Those stares hurt more than you can imagine.
   We have a big week next week, my barium swallow and stress test are on Monday, and I get my Mental health clearance on Tuesday. Basically the last two big pieces in this puzzle. You know my wife Hope, asked me what my last meal would be before the surgery, kind of a one last splurge probably two days before surgery. So many things come to mind, some of my all time favorites like homemade lasagna, ham and cheese sandwich , hot dogs, chicken broccoli ziti alfredo, etc. When it comes down to it, it will probably be breakfast at donut king in Weymouth, with at least one chocolate frosted donut. Lunch would be five guys, the single best burgers and fries on the east coast hands down. Dinner will be something  nice with the wife, maybe a glass of wine and something to remember. I will have to make it the day before the day before surgery, as I don't want that food on my breath the next morning, after all no liquids at all after midnight the night before, so no brushing your teeth either. No Pepsodent to the rescue.
   Now I know many moons after the surgery it is possible to eat these things again, just in very very small portions.
  So what else is happening besides the tests coming up? Well I will announce today I weighed in at 346.2 pounds. That's down from 361 two weeks ago. Now I have to add in a two pound clothing allowance, so I consider this a 12 to 13 pound loss.  I have to lose 18 before November 22 to push the final button for the surgery. I know that I can do this.
   It is also time to join a gym. I have looked at several places. Some of my awesome co-workers are trying to get a group discount to the YMCA next to our work. I would love this, as they have pools, aqua-cise, sauna, hot tub etc, and it would allow me to workout before work and not have to go to work reeking of a workout. If that does not work there is a place in Weymouth that recently opened and I think would be my backup plan.
   I will be testing another new product tomorrow and again on Friday. I'll post the next entry on Friday as well. Until then I say  thank you for reading and taking this journey with me. Be safe.

I leave you with today's quote.

“I don't want to wake up dead tomorrow and realize I didn't even try.
― Ryan E. Day

.................3, It's a magic number.....

Hello my friends.
Welcome once again to my blog.
Now today's entry is a rather short one, but I wanted to post some videos of other taste test contestants. So I thought I would post them for your viewing pleasure. So here are three more taste tests for you to enjoy. They go in order from top to bottom.
Did I enjoy them? Well you'll see.

                             
Well as you can see, over all, not bad. Things are not as bleak as they appear. I went to a GNC Health foods store and found some very competent help. They even found me some free sample packets to take home. I also bought a smallish jar of a bariatric solutions brand chocolate whey protein powder mix, and I am hoping this will work well. It is getting time to start trying the unflavored, mixed with things like Jello or pudding mix, and also mixed with some frozen fruit to create my own smoothies. But I'm jumping ahead a bit.
    I did want to show you something I found at that GNC. There is a new item that a company called SDC Nutrition has made called, ABOUTTIME. These are protein drinks, but you buy the plastic to go container with the powder already in it sealed you just open the lid pour in you liquid, shake and drink. These seem like an excellent way to carry around a shake or two in case you need to. Here is a picture to show what I mean.

Neat Huh.
Well that is it for this morning, I will see you all later.
Thanks very much for coming and sharing this journey with me. Together I know we can do it.
Here is your quote for today.

What some call health, if purchased by perpetual anxiety about diet, isn't much better than tedious disease.

Alexander Pope

 

................I can see clearly now

Hiya friends and readers.
Good to see you, well today is a bit of a short one I'm afraid. Short but good!
Today we had the continuation of the Protein Drink Taste Test
today we had the highly touted Isopure protein drink. Ready made in the bottle. Alpine Punch flavored. Shall we see what happened?

 

Well that's what happened. 



  Things always work themselves out right?  well anyway, today I stepped on the scale and voila almost 9 pounds lost in 5 days.  Thankfully it isn't water weight as I have been keeping an eye on hydration with all the protein I have been taking in.
   Now I have received a lot of suggestion from people regarding the protein products on the market. The problem is that most are mean to help gain weight or muscle mass. This is the opposite of what I can use. I cannot use anything but  Whey Protein Isolate. I must also use the no or low carb protein versions only. This is why things don't taste so wonderful. Well I have come across a specialist in this field. A company called Unjury. I will be ordering from the shortly but they have a great track record so far for bariatric patients and diabetics etc. They also have a chicken soup variety, which might be nice to have a hot drink instead of always cold.
   We shall see. It is hard to taste test the powders because they are sold in large bulk containers. Heck I cam across the Isopure powder in a 7.5 pound bucket, sheesh.
   So onward and upward as they say my friends. The Mental Health Worker I saw asked If I had taken up any hobbies to try to fill my time wit, so I can do something with my hands instead of eat.  She was surprised when I said yes I build birdhouses out of old car parts. No seriously I told her that I had picked up guitar lessons about 3 months ago, and I am so enjoying it.  I'm primarily learning the blues, but I have discovered what will be my first actual song to learn, and it will be Mother by Pink Floyd. Its a great acoustic type song, with only 5 chords. Now I'm not going to attempt the solo for many moons, but the chords would be nice for the moment.
  On that note, rather than leave you with a quote I think I will leave you with a song. Or at least a link to one.
 See you soon and Enjoy!

Mother by Pink Floyd

........................Happiness is a warm Bun

Welcome back readers.
  Good to see you as always.
Well today we have some really big happenings!!
Yes we have our second contestant in the great taste test. So without further ado, let's get right to it!

 Well that is two down, next up one of the Isopure clear type protein drinks. They come highly recommended, so we shall see if they live up to their reputation, tomorrow!
 I found out today I have scheduled my last two tests prior to surgery. I had the blood work done, ( 9 vials) and I am scheduled for a Barium Swallow and a Cardiac Stress Test October 27th.
  Now today was also my first visit to (drum roll please) The mental health worker. Yes, you see you have to get clearance from a licensed mental health professional in order to get the go ahead to have the surgery.
   Why? you say. Well, since this is a non-reversible step, the surgeon and weight management team has to know you are really on board with this for the right reasons, and are not likely to snap under the pressure of dealing with the aftermath. Think about it, could you go without solid food for a month or so? Completely change everything you know about food. never drink with your meals,  etc. (refer to day one for the list)
   It is not something for everyone. There are cases of suicide and attempted suicide by people who either cannot face the possibility of failure, or they cannot replace the hole food filled in their lives.
   Well, so I met with this person I will call Mrs. C. ( insert your own happy days reference here).  She was very nice, understood a lot and was very open with me and I like to think I was open with her.
   Now I have to get a little wordy here folks and tell you some background, for those who do not know.  My oldest sister, was diagnosed with adult onset Multiple Sclerosis. She has good days and bad, but her condition has brought us closer.  We talk more than we did, we laugh when we can. One of the things we agreed on was the role food played in our lives. Our dad was a food warlord.
    He always bought in bulk and you ate in bulk as well. But when it came to  snacks or things like that he controlled those like a hawk even locked up food. Which made you feel horrible having to beg for a cookie is not a fun thing when your 15.
    Also our family's gathering were always centered around food. You never dropped by and visited someone without bringing a cake or pie, of making sure the visited person had such on hand.  I wanted to give you a hint of how food was made into family happiness, at leas until much later.
   The average thanksgiving would consist of the following:
First Course- Fruit cup with sherbet on top ( optional).
Second Course- Basic salad, greens tomatoes cucumbers, black olives onions etc.
Third Course- French onion soup
Fourth Course- My mothers Homemade Lasagna about 25 pounds worth.
Fifth Course- usually ham, oven baked,
Sixth Course Turkey with all the trimmings. The average size bird in my house was about 20 pounds. We once had a 30 pound turkey, it was like roasting Godzilla.
   (humorous story) We had a wonderful female yellow lab named Ginger. Ginger would eat , well almost anything.  One thanksgiving eve my father who did most of the cooking, laid out two big loaves of bread to dry out to use for stuffing. When he got up in the early morning, there wasn't a slice left. Ginger slept very well that day.
  Back to Thanksgiving, well I know you are thinking wow that's a lot of food, must have been 20 people right? Wrong! normally we had about 10 to 12 at most. It did get worse. After you had turkey, and everything was cleaned up the turkey de-boned and put away for the inevitable turkey leftovers. The other relatives would arrive.  That meant it was time to pull out the desserts and coffee. Dessert filled multiple tables. Homemade pies and cakes, cookies and brownies, and even store bought items of different varieties. It was like Betty Crocker gave birth.
   So you thinks that's it? Heck no! Once the dessert dishes wee cleared you brought out the cold cuts and cold salads, rolls and condiments, pickles and such. Cant let your throat not have food stuffed in it.
   Well I finally realized that ingrained into my very being was this simple fact that may have driven quite a lot of my food issues.
                                     Food = Happiness

See you Soon

Today's thought.
  

“Food is symbolic of love when words are inadequate.”
                            -Alan D. Wolfelt

Episode 4...........................Its UnCANny

Hello readers.
  Well today is the big day. The start of my new diet. I weighed in the morning on my scale at 356.6 pounds. My goal for now is 342 pounds by November 22nd. So with that in mind my first protein shake taste test  is underway!
   Our first customer is the Protein Plus RTD51 Frosty Chocolate. Now this can seems to have more protein in it than others, and as such I am hoping that doesn't mean the more protein =the nastier the taste.
  So here is the video, let's see what happens!

 

   Just think Tomorrow I get to have yet another pre made ready to drink shake! I am all a quiver with anticipation.
  I am starting to believe the helpful saleswoman at the Vitamin Shoppe who said the powders taste better than the pre made canned. Although the Isopure bottled drinks, (which we will sample soon) are supposed to be very good, but not anywhere near as filling, so that is a trade off probably better left to post surgery.
  I read this stimulating fact in the notebook of information you get when you  start this journey. This is a three ring binder put together by the weight loss team at the hospital. Come to think of it I do not know if I mentioned that this program is run from Good Samaritan Hospital in Brockton, Mass. The surgery itself is at their parent hospital In Brighton Mass, The ubiquitous, St Elsewhere aka St. Elizabeth's.
  So this fact I read is that post surgery for the first few days, your intake is limited to one to two tablespoons of water spread out over 5 minutes. Boy I will bet that will be refreshing...
   It' is almost time for dinner, and I picked up some fresh cooked lemon chicken breast at Trader Joe's and I'm going to chop some of that up and warm it up in a pan, then serve it over a nice chopped green salad with some shredded cabbage, mixed in, and a little sprinkle of parmesan, with a fat free dressing ( keep an eye out on the sugar content of fat free dressings, just a hint). The good thing s I can have quite a big salad, as far as the lettuce types which I will vary, I have romaine, baby lettuce, radicchio and iceberg. Leave out the croutons of course, oh and Trader's Joes has a bag of half a dozen hard boiled eggs, de-shelled, I think ill slice one up on the salad, that's just the way I like it. Again I cannot say this enough, Everyone is different, what works for me might be anathema to you.
  Because, "the world don't move to the beat of just one drum, what might be right for you, may not be right for some"..(little 80's humor there).
  Anyway folks, tomorrow we shall try yet another shake! So come on back and see if it will be horror or happiness.

Here's what I leave you with today.

Stressed spelled backwards is desserts. Coincidence? I think not! ~Author Unknown

Entry 3..............I Drink Alone

Hiya Readers,
   Nice to see you again (metaphorically of course).
One of the key things to my surgery is the need to lose 18 pounds prior to scheduling my actual surgery date. Since my next appointment with the surgeon is on November 22nd that's the date I am shooting for. Now the nutritionist  set me up with this easy plan. A protein shake/drink for breakfast, with some frozen fruit if I like blended in, then a protein shake or drink for lunch to  drink slowly while I am at work. Dinner is a sensible portion of  lean protein and vegetables.
   Now I have some specific types of protein mixes and pre-made drinks that have been recommended and approved by the surgeon and the weight loss team.
   The first order of business was for me to visit a local Vitamin Shoppe, a few blocks from my house.  Once inside, I could see that the number of products is overwhelming. Now I am limited to a certain type of protein, known as whey protein, evidently made from milk.
  Thanks to the help of a great saleswoman, we found the vast supply of these mixes and ready made drinks and shakes, a little less daunting. 
  Over the next week, I will be reviewing some of these products. Here is a look at what I picked out for this first few days.

 

 

  We have from left to right, Pure Protein Frosty Chocolate, MetRx Protein Plus RTD frosty chocolate, and three flavors of Isopure ready to drink, which does come in about 8 flavors ready made, and in powder form as well, and is not at all shake like, which might be nice. The three flavors are Alpine Punch, Icy Orange and Black Tea.
   Now obviously you can also see the Nutri Ninja Blender system as well.  That, according to consumer reports, and many testimonials online and side by side tests on you-tube, is the most recommended unit without spending 4 to 500 dollars. It beat out rivals like the magic bullet, nutri bullet and others.
  This unit will be absolutely necessary to make the shakes from powder form, as the ready to drink varieties are, well not much for flavors. Most have chocolate, vanilla and unflavored, some have strawberry and a few have a coffee variant.  Now the shakes I will try in the mornings, as a breakfast replacement, and I will have video of the taste tests  up on those days. So place your bets and lets see who wins round one.
I would like to leave you with this quote from the Late Joan Rivers:

Diets, like clothes, should be tailored to you.

See you soon.

 

 

Day 2................Like A Surgeon

Hello readers,
    Thanks for coming. 
  One of the big questions on your mind has to be, "Steve, what is a Gastric Sleeve anyway?" Well from the picture you see here, it's not pretty.
(Aren't you glad I didn't use an actual picture of the surgery, Blech!)

Well , so they remove most (75 to 80%) of your existing stomach, and staple the rest into a narrow tube like "sleeve", Ah, yes.  Once removed there are so many rules to go by, like:
 1. eat and drink slowly: 1 ounce (2 Tablespoons) over 10 minutes or longer.
2. Chew each bite at least 25 times. ( try this one I dare you)
3. ALL beverages must be non carbonated.
4. Avoid alcoholic beverages.
5. Drink beverages 30 minutes before or after eating ONLY!
    and about 20 more I will not bore you with.

So maybe your asking yourself, "why would anyone do this? Is this just another need to look good?" Well NO a big emphatic NO.  This is to live, to stay out of a wheelchair, to walk more than 25 feet without pain and being winded. This to be frank, is about staying alive.

  I'll give you a taste of my medical history soon enough, for now I don't want to give you too much data to process. Lets just go with the flow.
 So I met with my Surgeon a few days ago, lets call him Dr. M.  SO Dr. M and I had a heart to heart , about what to expect, what he would do in  the surgery ( see above, 5 holes, staples etc.) , and how long my recovery would be. My recovery should be 1 day/night in the hospital (Saint Elizabeth's in Brighton to be exact) then home, with doing nothing for at least a week and maybe working from home  part time for  a short time there after and then ok to go back to work.  Not too bad.
 So Dr. M. has me weighed, and yes I weighed in at 360 pounds.  Which is horrible I know, but for me, not upsetting since I was 408 about a year ago. So I'm feeling pretty good, and then Dr. M tells me my goal weight.
Taa Daa, time for the other  shoe to drop! The magic number of my goal is 
170 pounds.
Yes that means my total weight loss is expected to be, 190 pounds. Should I succeed, and I will do my best to do so,  I will lose more than I end up weighing.  I weighed 170 in 5th grade.
  Now at first I am scared as all get out, but then I think  to myself that this is not something I am doing lightly, this is, LIFE.
 
  I would like to leave you today with this. I was talking to my boss, we can call him Mr. J, well we were talking and he said something that really hit me. I mentioned how when people see huge obstacles before them, like when your running and seeing a small hill and you think, " oh it's just a small hill, I can make it." Then they go right for it.  But if they see a huge mountain before them, they tend to see it as insurmountable and just turn around.
  Well Mr. J turns to me, and says, " not me, when I see a small hill, I'm thinking, this is nothing, anyone can do this, but when I see that big mountain, that's when I go for it, and I take the mountain head on."
Well this surgery and life change, is my mountain.  With enough strength, and especially support, I'm going to take it head on.
See you tomorrow readers.

BTW if you like my blog, please click the like button to the right, and if you would like to follow my blog and be notified when new posts go up, please click the follow button, also to the right next to my picture. If you would like to leave a comment or ask a question, please do so below.

Day One The Niceman Cometh!

 Hi,
  This picture is me a little over a year ago, but not very different from now. Maybe a bit less hair on top, but all in all, this is me, so without further ado.
Welcome to my blog.
    Welcome to the first , of what will be many posts all about me. Well me and for some of you out there, it is about you too.
I  know that over the course of the next year or so I will discover a few things about myself, some quite painful and who knows, some that might make you laugh.
    This blog is all about me and my journey through Gastric sleeve Bypass surgery. If it were a movie I would have to call it, The Good the Bad and the very very Ugly. I will share it all with you my readers, be you friend, family, or just interested bystander.
  This has all come about due to the fact there just are not very many if at all, places for men to go, to find out what these surgeries are like. Places where I can show them, what it is like, certainly physically, and perhaps even emotionally.  Places where the only judge is the harshest one of all, myself.
  I have a lot of things planned for us. Over the next few days I will tell you more about me and give you more of a idea of what has come before. We will look at my first meeting with my surgeon, a man who I will come to know quite well I'm sure, and my first meeting with a nutritionist. I will tell you all about what scares me going forward and the changes that need to be made right away.
      So sit back and together maybe we will learn a thing or two, about me, about weight, about food and about change.