008 Our Journey Begins with a Fitness Pal

Our Weight Loss Surgery (WLS) begins...again...in December 2011. We actually visited and got established with Dr. Weiderholt in October but we missed the month of November so we basically had to start our consecutive six months over again in December. So for all practical purposes our WLS Adventure began in December.

Nothing much exciting happened right away. We were just getting established and setting the foundation for the insurance approval. Dr. Weiderholt wanted to know diet history, what our eating and lifestyle habits are like now (we established that pizza is Jimmy’s only recreational drug--the nurses thought it was funny!), and we set some goals for diet and exercise.

One of Dr. Weiderholt’s goals for Jimmy is to log all of the food he consumes using the app My Fitness Pal. Now I really have to sing the praises of this app for a second because I think it has really helped Jimmy to stick with it and get a more accurate picture of the amount and types of food he is eating.

My Fitness Pal has kept Jimmy using it because it is interactive and SUPER easy to use. Yes! We love that you can log foods by simply scanning the barcode on the packaging. I know it sounds lame but it makes entering foods easy and scanning the barcodes is fun. The other bonus is that they are making changes to the app to make it better all the time. So props to whoever invented and programmed the My Fitness Pal app. Keep up the great work!

The doctor also set the guideline that “If you bite it--write it.” Meaning that he should track every single thing that he put into his mouth no matter how big or small we make think it is. It was surprising how quickly all those little bites started to add up. No wonder we consume more calories than we realize!

By using this principle and the My Fitness Pal app, Jimmy is visibly able to see the calories he was consuming. It continues to help him get a grasp on the difference between good food choices and bad food choices that waste calories and leave you feeling empty. Knowing the difference has helped both of to start making healthier lifestyle choices when it comes to food.

If you are serious about being healthy and losing weight I URGE you to start logging your food. It may shock you to realize how many calories you are really consuming everyday. Plus you need to get a grasp on the amount of fuel you are putting into your body so you know how much you need to burn. I’m not trying to sell My Fitness Pal--because it’s FREE!--but honestly it can really help you have an easy and mobile way to track your diet and exercise.

Until next time...

Use MyFitness Pal for free by visiting www.myfitnesspal.com or download the free app.

003 Let's Go Back...

I realized when I was looking back at my last post that I talked about why obese people in general consider Weight Loss Surgery (WLS) but I didn’t talk specifically about Jimmy and me. So I wanted to stop and take you back...

Jimmy is 36 years old. He is 6’3” and a BIG guy. Many people can pinpoint the cause of their weight gain to a specific event or series of events in their lives. Jimmy once told me that he doesn’t remember a time when he wasn’t the “Big Kid”. I don’t think that could be easy on anyone.

Jimmy doesn’t believe there were any specific things in his life that caused him to gain weight (and of course there is the continuing genetics debate about weight) but that doesn’t mean his life was easy. He was raised by his amazingly wonderful grandparents--Grampy and Grammy--who lived in Boonville, MO.

Grampy and Grammy did their best to help Jimmy be healthy and active. He participated in just about every sport he was eligible to play. They made sure he ate his veggies (however few of them he may enjoy), and they took him to the doctor in the third grade when they were still concerned about his size. Nothing any of them did seemed to change the weight.

Jimmy says that it wasn’t until he had free reign over his diet and he could eat whatever he wanted that his weight truly escalated. Like most people in America, Jimmy didn’t make very healthy choices when it came to eating. By the time he really realized he had a real and serious weight problem things seemed hopeless to change.

I can attest from personal experience that when you can’t see a way out of your bad circumstances you often choose to continue in them instead of trying to make a way. So here we are now. It’s been 18 years since Jimmy left home to go to college and the spiral began and we are just now really, seriously trying to fight out way out of the pit. It’s going to be a long hard journey but we know in the end it will be worth all the blood, sweat, and tears.