I have news!

I rode the NW Greenbelt Trail today out to Hadley Lake in West Lafayette round trip as well as around Hadley on the "Outlaw MTB trail"! That gave me a total of 10.2 miles and here is the kicker! I did it without OXYGEN!(The crowd cheers!) This was a major accomplishment for me! My heart rate didn't exceed 116-120 either! WOOHOO! I guess I've come a long way, Baby! Just think, I just got out of the wheelchair in April this year! I guess I am down to nighttime oxygen only now! At least I'm gonna try it! If I have problems, I can always start again if necessary! I must say, it was a relief getting that 15 pound monkey known as an oxygen tank off my back!

I went shopping at WALMART and found clothes!

My jersey graphic above, me below left

I surprised myself today! I actually was able to buy clothes in a REGULAR STORE! I have been shopping Big and Tall for years(Emphasis on BIG)! I was able to get a couple of T shirts in Walmart today in size 3X that fit me! You have to understand, I started out in 8X shirt and 8X pants! I have dropped 14 inches off my waist as well! This is cool! By the way, any opinions on the Graphic I just set up for my race jersey for mountainbiking?

Holy Copulatory Bovine, I weighed and........!

I weighed and I think I busted the slow loss! I lost 18 pounds this week! That makes 210 pounds off now! I'm feeling great and very satisfied! I think my body had gone into famine mode, where it tries to conserve every bit it can because it thinks food is scarce! I gave it a good shot of carbs(Biscuit and Gravy breakfast at XXX a early this week!) and I think it definately convinced my bod that the famine is OVER!

I think I might be plateauing! AAAAAAAAARGH!

I weighed today and I only lost two pounds! CRAP! I hope I'm not plateauing! I guess it's time for my mean faced picture til I get some loss going again! I'm not eating more or differently and I am keeping up the activity! I've even added swimming to my routine! I wonder if I am picking up muscle weight as I drop the fat, because my butt and gut are smaller! Hopefully this won't last long and I'll get on the rapid loss wagon again!

A big thanks to the Baloonatic Bomber!

Thank you very much, there Baloonatic; for the wonderful Baloon Sculpture you sent me! It was a very pleasant surprise that I enjoyed very much! I've posted a picture so all can enjoy "The Amazing Shrinking Man Ballon Sculpture"! It is quite cool!

Here's a little update on school!

I took my entrance exams today and scored in the top 2 percentile on most subjects! The only problems I had were with Algebra! You understand of course, I haven't needed to use it for 30 years! I schedule classes next week and go through orientation in August! Hoorah! I am on track!

Well, Another Four Pounds!

I los another four, bringing the total up to 190 so far! Not as good as I wanted, but I'll take it. I had a bad week, not as active as I should have been, Mom, you know a good part of the reason! I didn't want to be too far from the phone![GRIN] A lot of stress through the week, but nothing I can't handle! Unfortunately though, it slowed my metabolism down a bit. It couldn't be helped though, I'll just have to do better next 7 days!

I found something horrible out! Changeable though!

I did some work on the weight machine today! I'm embarrassed to say, I didn't do as well as I thought I would! On the bench press, I could only do reps with 80 pounds! This WILL change though! I just need to start a conditioning program! Worse yet, on the sitting bench,(Overhead lift) I could only work out with 50 pounds! This too will change! The only thing I did up to snuff was maxing out the weight on the lateral leg press for 50 reps! It was only 250 pounds though! What sucks is that I used to routinely bench 300+ on reps and overheads as well as 1200 pounds on the Nautilis(TM) Machine leg press doing reps! Of course that was 30 years ago![GRIN] I guess I need to do some work! Of course I do rememberthat I was pretty much debilitated, believe me I couldn't possibly forget! I can tell you though, I'll never go back to that, EVER......PERIOD! I will follow the limits my Doctors set though, as I don't want to undo all the fine work they did on me(at least as close as I can!)! I understand I'm going through a process of recovery here. Well, I gotta run for now, see Y'all Wednesday! For the record, this is an older pic here, I'm about 30 pounds lighter now than when this pic was taken!

I took a nice ride today!

I rode my bike out to Fort Quiatanon from the levee today! It was't a bad ride! It's about four miles of gently rolling terrain out South River Road. The little hills were a killer for me! I did, however; manage to ride up them without getting off to walk the bike up them! If you know the road, you need to remember, I was in a wheelchair in March! This is definate progress for me. An aside here! I put Geax Evolutions on my bike(Tires) and they have certainly reduced the rolling resistance as well as road buzz through the handlebars. They also are a kevlar core tire, so they reduce the risk of road damage to the tires and reduce the risk of flats! I love these tires!
My wife is complaining that she can't keep up with me!

I HAVE AN ANNOUNCEMENT!

I just enrolled in Nursing School pending financial aid! I also got started with Vocational Rehabilitation as well! Both of these happened this morning! I enrolled at IVTECH State College in the 2 year RN program! Might have to take some refresher classes, but that's ok! I'm planning on starting in this Fall! Wish me luck!

My long term goal is to get my RN cert. and go into a specialty of Bariatric care. After I'm established in a job, I'll be continuing on to Nurse Practitioner as my next goal! My first primary goal though is to graduate from the RN program with honors! This will take hard work, but nothing that's worth it is easy!

New Weight results! They're good!

I couldn't wait til tomorrow to weigh in, so I did it today! I lost 11 pounds in 6 days! Total weight loss is 186 pounds! WOOOHOOO!

Recovering from the weekend, part 2!

Here are more pics from Wawasee! Uncle John and Aunt Debbies house, my wife, The dock, and Tipper the Dog!
In March, I would have had the option of sitting around in my wheelchair, and sitting around in my wheelchair! Do I regret going thru Bariatric Surgery? Not a chance in the world of regret! I'm getting my life back!

Recovering from the weekend!

Well, I had a busy weekend! I went home to Lake Wawasee in Northern Indiana! I'll tell ya, I had a blast. My Aunt and Uncle hosted my wife and myself for the weekend and among other things, I got some swimming in! Pictures are from Wawasee that include my Aunt waterskiing, the house I grew up in and the floating church service on Sunday morning. I'm still pooped from the weekend! Some triumphs included in the weekend were making it up and down the stairs to the lake. It's a LONG,STEEP stairway! Also just getting in and out of the boat was a triumph!
As I said, I truly enjoyed myself and I only wish my legs wouldn't hurt so much! AH WELL, I guess I need to go for a ride to work out the kinks! By the way, I figured out my approximate calorie burn for the weekend. It was about 7300 calories burned with about 741 calories intake. Adjusted burnoff was 6559 calories. Anyone care to guess what my weigh in will reflect Wednesday?

And the Answer Is.........? (New Weigh in!)

Well, I weighed in today. I had a slow week re/ weight loss. I only lost 4 pounds! Oh well, it's still going down. I guess it's time to up the physical activity again! See ya in a week, same "Shrinking Man" time, same "Shrinking Man" website! By the way, the cumulative total is 175 pounds!

I had a mixed day today(Wednesday)

I haven't gone to bed yet today, so it's still Wednesday for me! I had a mixed day today. Good news-bad news kind of thing. First the good news! I lost another 10 pounds, I weighed in and have lost a cumulative total of 171 pounds now. Now for the bad part. I had a bit of a disappointment as well, my Doctor refused to even consider letting me compete in a mountainbike race at the end of July. He insists I need a full cardio and pulmonary workup before I can do this and I'm not ready for it yet. Frustrating, but it's probably sensible! I'm only a couple of months out of the wheelchair after all! He did encourage me to continue training for racing though as long as I don't compete yet. I tend to forget, no matter how much better I feel, I'm not out of the woods yet. I'll at least be there and watch though, even if I am not allowed to compete yet! It'll give me a chance to see what goes on at a mountainbike event at least! This is not to mention it's a great excuse to go camping as well! Oh well, next year, and I'll be in a realistic position to compete and WIN then! Well, good night for now, see ya later!

Here are the results!

I have lost 161 pounds now! Wahoo! I had a bit of trouble with dinner last night, stomach cramps and spasms, but this is normal from time to time! I had waited too long to eat is all it was. NOTE TO SELF: Keep meal times as regular as possible so it doesn't happen too often.
If you go too long without eating, your stomach tends to clench down, and when you insert food initially, you experience PAIN! Another reason to stay as regular as possible is that too abnormal of an eating pattern, your body goes into conservation(or famine) mode and slows down the fat burnoff to "keep you alive" til the "famine" is over. This is very counterproductive where weight loss is concerned!

Here's a tidbit!

Well, hello all! I made a good solid ride last week! On 6/18, I rode out to Fairfeild Lakes County Park. It was 7.1 miles against a headwind, uphill all the way coming up out of the Wabash Valley! I'll tell ya, it FELT GOOD! I weigh in tomorrow, so I'll have a post for you then as well! See y]all tomorrow! Y'all come back now!(:-P)

New Weigh in! Still shrinking!

This is gonna be a short post! I'm still shrinking! 157 pounds! Wahoo! Having Bean and Rice Chicken chili tonight! Tastes great, and easy! Cook the beans in Chicken broth with Chicken breast. Black pepper and 2 TBSP of Chili powder are cooked in. LAst add rice to the mix. The amounts are to taste(I never really measure!). Low cal and loaded with protien and complex amino acids! Bon Appetite'

New weigh in and post Dr news

Good day, all! I am late posting this because I've been busy all week! Wednesday, I had an appt with my surgeon for a followup! At my weighin i was at that time 151 pounds down! I am apparently way ahead of the curve as far as rate of loss goes. All is going well, and I'm well on the way to my new life! Well, gotta run as I'm off for a ride! See ya! WAAHOO!

I dropped a "Gross" of gross fat pounds! ;-)

144 pounds off as of yesterday, 12 dozen; or one "Gross! :-D I feel fantastic! I have a ride planned for next weekend, so I might not post a new weight till Monday or Tuesday. I'll tell ya! The Cycling is going great! It's fantastic exercise and it's fun! You can feel yourself getting stronger and the progress is rapid. I am currently averaging 50 miles a week now in a mix of road and trail miles. The trail miles are the ones that give me the best workout by the way! My Mountain Bike is holding up well and I love the "Cyclists High" when the endorphins kick in and push me past the wall. I am getting to love the muscle burn as well as it tells me I'm burning calories at a good rate. My doctor tells me it's doing my legs a world of good too. My right leg isn't swelling anymore and my left leg has lost 99% of its swelling. My left leg is down to one wound and it's healing at a fantastic rate!(An aside here: I've been fighting Venous Stasis Ulcers on my legs for almost 10 years.) When this last wound heals, I will be Leg Ulcer free for the first time in about 8 years.