Here I am in all my glory... this was captured last night at my one 8 days after surgery pic. I will take a picture every week and post it to this blog. My highest weight that I can remember was 455 and it was a real tipping point for me to see that just a little bit more and I was on my way to 500 lbs. That day was a sad day.. that happened to be on my birthday of 2019. I decided to sign up for an App called Noom, to help me with my mind and the mental game of loosing weight. Noom just was not a good fit. Too many tasks to do and to do them daily. I would see a clump of good days checked off and then a ton of days not checked off. And before I knew it, I was so behind that I just said.. screw it. That started a journey to finding a new course of correction and one that would in my mind yield better results.
My wife works for Comcast and she has great benefits, one of them is weight loss surgery option for her or a spouse. So I said I will go and learn more about this and then make my choice. I actually knew about it before Noom, but now it seemed more in my face. I went a class at the beginning of the year or the tale end of 2019.. to be honest that timeframe is a bit of a blur with my wife being pregnant and my anxieties reaching an all time high. I do know that I attended a class and decided, if I was going to have surgery I would choose the Gastric Bypass and it was a procedure that has been going for some time now and has been perfected plus it helps those suffering from sleep apnea and diabetes.
My son was born on March 10th, 2020 and after finally getting Linda home from her bout of Pre-clampsia Linda had to go back to the hospital for a few more days. She was reunited with Ryan Julian Pilkington or as we call him R.J. then the next morning was a big earthquake that left us rattled and worried for after shocks. Being a new dad, I was in a state of panic, fear and protection that I never felt ever before. Then Covid-19 made it's way in changing all of our lives upside down, riots and political unrest... I decided to get more aggressive with my food storage and I am happy to report that we got one started and it has been growing for the past few months. Going back to my weight loss journey, RJ had a huge role in me deciding to make the change and the big decision to having weight loss surgery. As well as my wife. I knew that the way things were going, I could be on my way out with a stroke, heart attack or who knows what. My knees were getting bad with my weight, and as you can see in the picture above I suffered from celuitus infection and bad varicose veins, not to mention a bad back, heavy breathing. In a nutshell, my overall quality of life was slipping. Not being able to ride rides, avoiding places like Disneyland and Universal Studios is something I would love to do and to spend it with my family and the memories that would make. Also, not being able to go out and travel, hike and play.. It was time for me to make the hard decisions and so... I decided to have the surgery.
Well, jump forward to today and the Pilkington family celebrating at Denny's on Christmas morning just 7 days after surgery. Some might ask.. why in the world are you at a restaurant? We had a lot of mess from the wake of the holiday's and just wanted to get out as a family. I ended up eating 4 bites of scramble egg and milk. RJ enjoyed a lemon, eggs, hash browns and some pancakes. It was fun and we ended up going up Big Cottonwood Canyon near the ski resorts for a ride. I have noticed that after I eat I get a bit tired and my energy runs down a bit. So we headed back home and spent time with "little man" and watching Wonder Women 84.
If any of this post or future post inspires you to change, please comment below and share the blog and podcast to a loved one that might find my journey some hope for another day.
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