Well it has been a while since I have done a surgery update, so I figured I should do one at some point.

Overall I am doing great. I am really not sore anymore. And my chiropractor has finally started giving me full adjustments so my back feels great, and I really needed that. Amazing how much better I feel just after having a full adjustment. And my chest pretty much doesn’t hurt anymore. Once in a while I still feel it, and have still been using a pillow in the car, but mostly to just keep it like it is than to stop any current pain. The scars are looking the same really, but haven’t turned white yet, like they supposedly eventually will.

My brain is certainly doing better, though I still have a bit of brain fog. I certainly forget things more than I used to, and it is as annoying as all hell. Still it is vastly better than it was. And I seem to have some of my old creativity back as I have been working on my reel and having fun making new graphics for my reel. Still haven’t done any writing yet though, hopefully I will feel like doing that again soon.

As for my energy, it is awesome! I have so much more energy. I am doing a 2.1 mile walk every morning with a 9 story hill that is brutal, and while I do stop once going up it, I am getting farther every day that I can walk before stopping.

Still sweating like a mad man though. It has been cold in the mornings, and I am talking 39 degrees (mind you this is 4:30 AM, but still this is Los Angeles) and it has been cold to start the walk, but once I get up the hill I get sweaty and hot, though it is too cold to take much off (mostly wearing a hoodie and hat).

As for the diet, I can say it does not seem to be working too well. I am going up and down, but seem to be staying around 250 pounds, which is only 8 pounds done and have been going for at least a month. Now I have cheated some, but not much and have been even eating in 7 or 6 hours when I can, but just don’t seem to be losing much, and that is with more exercise, and eating less. And I am eating tons of salads, I mean tons. Many days I have a salad for lunch and one for dinner, though I guess I need to eat less little snacks, but even those have been tiny, and things like nuts and Apple’s that are recommended in the diet. I have this feeling that since the 8 hour diet is easy for me, it isn’t right for me, but I am still trying it, and we shall see. I mean I did drink with my friends this weekend, so it makes sense I gained some weight, so I will keep going and keep trying to eat less and healthier and just see what happens.

So overall I am mostly recovered and it is time to lose weight and start getting my body in better and better shape. Need to start doing more kettle bell again, though after a 50 minute walk I don’t want to do more, and I just don’t feel like exercising when I get home from work.

So while I did cheat a bit this weekend (not on hours, but I did have a Reuben, though I thought you were supposed to be able to eat what you wanted!), things have still stayed leveled off for the most part. I am up 3 pounds from my lowest weight, though I did lose 7/10’s of a pound yesterday. Will see how today goes. Am starting to think I may have to try 7 hours to see if I can lose weight that way.

Been thinking about my weight lately quite a bit. So weird that eating the same thing and exercising more that I have managed to put on almost 30 pounds more than what I weighted before the surgery! I am actually wondering if my slower heart rate means less callories burned. Seems like that makes sense. So maybe even with the 8 hour diet i need to cut down on my food intake more. I am trying to have at least a salad a day, though I have been having 2 at work, one at noon and one around 3 to tide me over.

Going to keep trying the 8 hour diet, but hopefully will get better results soon. Will keep you updated.

Wow, that was fast. After losing 10 pounds in 1 week the diet seems to have just stopped for me. I am still eating healthy, mostly salads, though some left overs for lunch. And I have fasted for 16 hours each day, and haven’t been eating anything bad at all, but not only have I stopped losing weight, I have gained back a pound and a half, and am now staying completely level.

Now either the diet has stopped working as my body got acclimated, which sure didn’t take long or my body has shifted. I have noticed I am pooping at least a few more times before i eat at noon, so maybe i am just not relieving enough waste during the night, it is going before i eat. Will weight myself before noon this weekend (though I can’t do that during the week as I will be at work) and just see what it says (probably won’t be right as I will have drank liquid by then HMMM).

I sure hope this isn’t all I got, as I am not even down to my pre-surgery heavy weight, and I really need to lose at least 50 pounds, and would like to lose 75. And am still exercising quite a bit!

••••

So I went for my long walk and went to the bathroom again, and I did go down a bit more to 248.3, and now it is time to have some water, and soon lunch (not being good today, a Reuben at Brent’s is in my future).

Down to 247.7, that means another 1.2 pounds in a day! I have never had results like this from a diet, EVER!

And I am doing the same exercise I was doing pre-diet! 30 minutes on treadmill and some kettlebells, though that is being supplemented by going on the subway, which adds at least 3500 steps in a day, plus lots of stairs. Soon though it will warm up and I will start doing the big 2.1 walk around the Veterans center again. Biggest problem right now is I start out so cold and then end ups sweating (though now I am sweating in the heat of the subway).

This is a diet I think all post operative patients who need to lose some weight should consider! I mean I have never seen anything like it!

Wow, am so impressed with this diet. One week now. Lost another pound and a half yesterday, bringing me to an impressive 9 pounds lost in 7 days! WOW!

And with such impressive results I don’t want to stop. It would be great to get under 200 pounds in the next 6 months, and that no longer seems hard! In fact I could get back to 175 by years end if the weight loss effect does not significantly slow down. I mean even at 5 pounds a week that would be 15 weeks! Wow! One can only hope.

Will keep updating, but so far I am so impresse by this diet, and think it is the perfect thing to start losing weight after a septal myectomy, especially because it is so easy! I wish I had gone right into when I started really eating again in my recovery so I never gained the weight back I initially lost!

So I had mentioned in my last surgery update that I was starting the 8 Hour Diet, and I wanted to give a little update on it. I don’t want to get into the controversy over the book, as it seems that the diet might have been stolen from a Martin Berkhan at leangains. Even if the initial diet was, there is a whole lot of research in this book, and so far I am very impressed, especially with my results.

Post surgery I had lost some weight, but I have managed to put it on, and more, and gained another 12 pounds over the holidays! Youch! So I had actually gotten up to 258, by far the heaviest I have ever been! I had been around 235 for  while, which was way too much (would like to get back to at least 200, and 175 would be better, though my face did look a bit gaunt last time I was around there, though I still had a belly).

Anyway, I have been doing this diet for 6 days now, and have already gotten down to 250.5. And while I was mostly eating well , I lost 1.3 pounds on Sunday and had a footlong Subway sandwich for lunch and a small dairy queen ice cream cone, and gumbo with rice for dinner! Now I did walk a lot around the mall, but still! So far I am blown away.

And I used to not eat breakfast, but it has been since my wife convinced me I should eat breakfast that I started to, and since she comes home from work so late also eating late that I have really packed on the pounds! I just hope that as the book says your body does not get used to this diet and stop, it just keeps going, because I can see myself staying on my diet for the rest of my life!

I mean you should still eat well, but you can eat some bad things too and still lose weight, and if even half of the benefits it claims are true, lowering cholesterol, helping diabetes  heart disease and even cancer! I am so in, and will continue with this diet.

And I am going 7 days a week, while it says you can get a benefit from only 3, but I would rather get my body back used to the no breakfast at all thing (I was mostly just having smoothies with protein powder, but I still do think if I ate breakfast I was hungrier all day).

Now I going to eat a little more at work, as I was bringing a salad and a half, but am now bringing 2 salads, 1 for noon and 1 for around 4, as I get pretty damn hungry, and 3 apples. Been chewing a little sugar free gum too as I get really hungry from about 11 AM till 12pm when I have my lunch, but so far the results are stunning.

THIS IS THE BEST DIET I HAVE EVER SEEN!!!