Day One...March 2, 2010

Today is the first day of the rest of my life or so I have been told..................



I'm going back a few years now, actually 45 to be honest, when I was 5 years old about to begin my elementary school years as a 1st grader. I remember my Mom taking me to Sears to their "husky" department for young boys. At that age I didn't really put much thought into not being able to shop at regular department stores and thought Sears was the only place to shop.
The "husky" department at Sears kept me in not so fashionable clothes for many years to come as I continued through elementary and then into Jr. and Sr. high. I will admit that as I became older and more aware of my situation that I did find the "big and tall" boys/men's section at some specialty stores a little more appealing in style.
As a child the family doctor always said that I was extremely healthy (you think!) and of course my favorite saying was, wait for it...."it's just baby fat"!!! What, at 16!
Another favorite saying directed to me was..."he just has big bones". I guess this compares to someone who has small bones and is a normal size.
During my high school years like all teenagers you are trying to decide what you are going to be when you grow up. I thought that since I like food so much (eating) and over the years had become a pretty good cook that I would enter into the Culinary field in my Jr. year.
My Culinary experience continued into my Sr. year and then also a couple of years afterwards to obtain my degree.
I worked in multiple restaurants and continued to cook for the masses. This was NOT aiding in curbing my appetite.
At that moment a new diet was being introduced to the "states" from across the pond in Great Britain. Their faze diet was The Cambridge Diet. The concept of the diet was to drink 8 oz. of water with a couple of scoops of their powder to supplement two of your meals and then you would eat a regular size portion meal.
Great concept with no medical supervision attached. The weight did come off and quickly too. I thought if I'm loosing weight by drinking this twice a day just think how much weight I could loose if I didn't eat anything. Bad ideal, very bad! The diet threw my whole system out of whack and landed me in the hospital more than once I would like to admit for dehydration.
Of course after that the traditional diets began including Weight Watchers and Diet Workshop. Both are great diets and somewhat sensible too but like all diet's once you go off of their plan and don't monitor your calorie intake you realize that you are FAT again!
I am now out of my twenties, married-extremely b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l wife, 3 kids and a hectic, busy life. I tried to "watch" my calorie intake but I was fast becoming very comfortable with my lifestyle and now looking back still would not have changed anything!
The mid thirty's hit (36) and WHAM, out of the blue I have a stroke! Thanks high blood pressure that I thought was under control with medication-NOT! Our lives greatly changed overnight and my wife now had four people to take care of besides herself.
She bathed and dressed our three kids (all 5 and under) and then it was my turn. The stroke left my left side paralyzed for over two years. After a lot and I mean a lot of physical therapy and occupational therapy I slowly came back around to my old self but now taking 6 prescriptions a day plus an aspirin regiment.
My 40's came in like a lamb and I continued my regular doctor visits ever six months for checkup's. Our kids are now teenagers and living life to the fullest like it should be. My wife and I work a lot of hours and fortunately love our jobs. (we work together at the same company). As we see two of our children getting ready for college and slightly becoming "an empty nester" I decided that it was time to take control of my weight issue, get off of my 6 prescriptions a day, and I wanted to do it before I turn 50.
This all started around 4 weeks ago when I went to my family doctor for my 6 month check up and I found that I was bribing the nurse, offering to pay her $25.00 if she would reduce my scale weight by 25 pounds before she marked my chart for the doctor to see. I think that I was somewhat kidding but now that I think about it, not sure?
My doctor who is a great guy and has been with me since my stroke in '96 has always wanted me to loose weight to help control my blood pressure. Now, he was going to come in the exam room and I know the first thing out of his mouth would be my weight. This time he had a legit complaint as I was shocked at my weight too. *Remember that I have usually weighed between 224 and 228 pounds for over 15 years now.
As soon as the door opened and the doctor shook my hand my mind was racing in all directions to keep him away from opening my chart and seeing my huge weight gain. My wife is also a patient of his and like all of us everyone has their on vice to live with. Knowing that the doctor is always on my wife to quit smoking I thought this would be the ideal time to get the pressure off of me and onto her (in her absence) that I blurted out.....do you know that my wife is still smoking! Did I tell you that she still enjoys smoking too. This was not one of my proudest moments but if he got him off my back I would apologize to her later (and I did a couple of times).
Anyway after going through all of that it still didn't help. I think that the nurses write in my chart in red ink what my weight is so the doctor can find it immediately. As he opened up my chart he said that he was extremely concerned with my weight and that I have to do something about it.
My weight was 244 pounds! How did this happen? I'm still asking myself that same question over and over.
That is when I decided to take back my life. I knew that it would not be easy (it never is) and getting closer to the big 50 the weight does not come off as easy as it once did in my 20's. I did not want to go down the conventional diet path again and realized that I needed to "jump start" my weight loss program and had heard about the NutriMed liquid diet program through a local hospital .
I know, I know another liquid diet-not good for you or your body. After extensive research and meeting with the Nurse Coordinator I knew that this was for me. The diet is monitored by a clinical team that includes weekly meetings and monthly lab work. The "pre" lab work that is required is CBC, T-4-TSH, Urinalysis, Lipid, EKG & Complete Metabolic Panel.
I choose this diet because it is closely monitored by a doctor and a nurse clinical team and I thought what a better place to go through a diet but at the hospital. My doctor is on board with this and has even contacted the NutriMed team to get more information on this program for other patients.
Now getting back to the beginning of my blog. I started the diet today and have already had 3 shakes and actually looking forward to the remaining 3. I have chocolate, strawberry and vanilla. You are required to have 6 shakes a day at 80 calories a shake and NO food during the initial time.
That means that I will go for the next 12 weeks drinking a complete liquid diet. I will also drink at least 64 oz of water daily. You can have diet soda (don't like) and Crystal Light (5 calories per pack), coffee and tea, I like the other stuff and find it will be fairly easy getting the required liquids down each day.
This is my first blog and I promise that my daily entries will not be soooooooooooo long. I thought that it was necessary to give a little back ground info on me and my past failed diet experiences.

As I began this blog I will end it in the same way....TODAY IS THE FIRST DAY OF THE REST OF MY LIFE...