Now that this major surgery was done, what do I do? Well being that my entire digestive system was re-routed, everything was swollen and I did not even think of food. For the 1st time in my life I felt as though I was not addicted to the one thing I loved so dearly, I wasn't even hungry. For the 1st 2 weeks I can only survive on a liquid diet, and unbelievably so, this wasn't a problem. I was so excited about getting to see the new me and quite honestly was already seeing the results of the surgery. In the 1st month I lost over 60 pounds, so I was ecstatic. from that point I was able to eat processed food or baby food. The baby food I wasn't so thrilled with, so I got creative and started making the same food the family ate and put it in a food processor with a little water. To my surprise I was good and I did that for about 4 weeks.
Now 2 months later and almost 100 pounds lighter, I was able to start eating solid food again. The amazing thing about it is that I was never hungry. I cannot tell you how this made me feel. All my life I craved food, literally addicted to it. Let me explain. At one time in my life I was in insurance sales and worked in South New Jersey. On Monday and Thursday nights I would schedule all my appointments, and I did, as long as they were around a McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy's, Carvel and such. I typically booked 10 appointments a day and made sure to have an additional 10 minutes or so between appointments to stop and get something to eat. Double Cheese Burgers never had a chance. I would woof down 2, a large fries and a large coke at least 4 times a day. I loved Wendy's Frosty's, and still do. I had about 4 of those a day. Oh not to forget the Entenmanns and hostess cake outlets where you can buy about 5 boxes of cakes for around 5 bucks, and I made sure I did. You don't get to be 476 pound by smelling the food, and I didn't, I ate, and ate, and when I was done, I ate some more. If you ever heard the phrase "Fat and Jolly" it because fat people are jolly because we love to eat, it makes us happy. I still say us because being that weight all my life, I know what an overweight person is thinking. Can you believe that the one thing I was really afraid of before taking the surgery was that I would be able to eat candy, cookies, cake and deserts anymore? This is not an option, do I eat the sweets or live. The choice is obvious to most, but to an obese person it's an obstacle.
There's more to come in the next post.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
My Story - How I lost almost 320 Lbs and saved my life.
The Beginning.
Born in 1964, I was the first born, first grandchild, and first great-grandchild in an Italian-American family. Food was the center of every event Breakfasts, Lunches, Dinners, Coffee and Cake. Most people know these as meals and deserts, in my family they were the center of everything we did. Surprisingly enough, no one in my family was ever real overweight, until me. If you ever get a chance to see the movie Fatso, with Dom Deluise, this will make you understand my life allot better. Food was the prize, surprise and trophy for everything I did that was good. It was made to make me happy. If I would cry as a baby, a bottle was stuck in my mouth. If I cried as a kid candy or cake was the thing that would make me feel better, as so I was programed for fatness that went into auto-pilot. At age 10 I weighed 196 Lbs, I remember that specifically because a height and weight card needed to be filled out for school, I was to embarrassed so I never filled it out. My teacher had an answer for that, a scale in her draw. She asked me to get in front of 53 kids in my class and weighed me, then said, "Tom, you cow, 196 pounds. You oughta be ashamed of yourself". If you ever heard that kids can be cruel, believe it. My mom joined me in every weight loss program there was, Weight Watchers, Weigh In, Fat to Fab, I knew more about how to diet than anyone around. I lost weight, gained weight , and lost weight then gained it again. The bottom line was that eating food made me fell good. I was always happiest when I was eating. Up to age 39 I must have lost over 1,000 pounds throughout my lifetime. Every time I went to the doctors, they would tell me how bad my weight problem was and that I would probably die because of it, but I thought it was all talk, until 2003. I went to the doctors for a routine visit and he gave me the same schpeel, the only difference was that he said,"Your 39 and won't make it to your 40th birthday and I can prove it" I took him up on that, he sent me for a bunch of tests that shown that over 40% of every organ in my body was infiltrated with fat. Basically the fat was growing inward. He then told me I would probably die in my sleep on congestive heart failure. This made me think of the many times I would wake up gasping for air, as I had sleep apnea as well. He scared the hell out of me. Then he gave me my option one of which was Gastric Bypass Surgery. He told me the dangers of it and I choose not to do it. After thinking about loosing my Dad to Leukemia one year prior, and knowing that I had him for 38 years, made me feel real selfish. I am the Father of Triplets, two girls and a boy. At that time they were about 9 and the thought of them not having a Dad around devastated me. I decided to go for the surgery and looked for the right doctor to do it. After interviewing 6 Doctors I made my choose and on July 31st 2003 I had the surgery done. This is what was now to be the first day of my life all over again.
Born in 1964, I was the first born, first grandchild, and first great-grandchild in an Italian-American family. Food was the center of every event Breakfasts, Lunches, Dinners, Coffee and Cake. Most people know these as meals and deserts, in my family they were the center of everything we did. Surprisingly enough, no one in my family was ever real overweight, until me. If you ever get a chance to see the movie Fatso, with Dom Deluise, this will make you understand my life allot better. Food was the prize, surprise and trophy for everything I did that was good. It was made to make me happy. If I would cry as a baby, a bottle was stuck in my mouth. If I cried as a kid candy or cake was the thing that would make me feel better, as so I was programed for fatness that went into auto-pilot. At age 10 I weighed 196 Lbs, I remember that specifically because a height and weight card needed to be filled out for school, I was to embarrassed so I never filled it out. My teacher had an answer for that, a scale in her draw. She asked me to get in front of 53 kids in my class and weighed me, then said, "Tom, you cow, 196 pounds. You oughta be ashamed of yourself". If you ever heard that kids can be cruel, believe it. My mom joined me in every weight loss program there was, Weight Watchers, Weigh In, Fat to Fab, I knew more about how to diet than anyone around. I lost weight, gained weight , and lost weight then gained it again. The bottom line was that eating food made me fell good. I was always happiest when I was eating. Up to age 39 I must have lost over 1,000 pounds throughout my lifetime. Every time I went to the doctors, they would tell me how bad my weight problem was and that I would probably die because of it, but I thought it was all talk, until 2003. I went to the doctors for a routine visit and he gave me the same schpeel, the only difference was that he said,"Your 39 and won't make it to your 40th birthday and I can prove it" I took him up on that, he sent me for a bunch of tests that shown that over 40% of every organ in my body was infiltrated with fat. Basically the fat was growing inward. He then told me I would probably die in my sleep on congestive heart failure. This made me think of the many times I would wake up gasping for air, as I had sleep apnea as well. He scared the hell out of me. Then he gave me my option one of which was Gastric Bypass Surgery. He told me the dangers of it and I choose not to do it. After thinking about loosing my Dad to Leukemia one year prior, and knowing that I had him for 38 years, made me feel real selfish. I am the Father of Triplets, two girls and a boy. At that time they were about 9 and the thought of them not having a Dad around devastated me. I decided to go for the surgery and looked for the right doctor to do it. After interviewing 6 Doctors I made my choose and on July 31st 2003 I had the surgery done. This is what was now to be the first day of my life all over again.
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