its been a whole year

Well it has been one whole year since my RNY surgery.  What a year it has been.  From my heaviest weight before I started seeing Dr. Amson (339 lbs) and my day of surgery weight (299 lbs) I am down to 320 and feeling great.  My life has pretty much returned to normal.  Or at least it has returned to a new form of normal.

So lets start with the physical changes.  I have gotten smaller, much smaller.  At my largest I work a tight size 46 pant and was likely more comfortable in size 48's.  Today I usually wear size 36s and have actual hips.  My shirts have gone from XXXL to L.  This is especially true in t-shirts.  My hands have also gotten smaller. My wedding ring used to be tight on its ring finger.  Then it was falling off when I went swimming so I did the old 'wrap tape' about it.  Then I got a second ring to hold it in space, then it moved over to my pointer finger and is now still pretty loose there.  One other thing is that I do tend to get cold more often so I will wear more sweaters (especially hoodies)..  But the real joy is making that transition to smaller sizes and getting support from my friends.  One guy at work gave me like 15 pair of nearly new pants. Then another friend passed on some really cool and once expensive shorts.

And when it comes to shirts, I have run into a few issues.  I started off wearing XXL and larger shirts, but now my wife kind of made fun of me because they have become quite sloppy.  But I really don't want to buy new clothes since I am still changing.  I think the thing that has really baffled me the most is my wedding ring. I had to move my wedding band from the ring finger then to my middle finger and finally it now occasionally rests on my pointer finger.  I had to buy a new band just to hold it in place.  I don't want to get it resized until I have been out of surgery for two years and I am sure I have stabilized.  The real catch is that the ring is 35 years old and may not re-size all that well.  We shall see.

The other big physical change is my interest in exercise.  For years I exercised to help lose weight but it didn't always work.  I developed a fitness class for overweight men.  I have a walking group.  and it was something I did first to demonstrate my commitment to fixing my health and secondly because I enjoyed it and the companionship.  But once I had my surgery and the weight started coming off I could go faster and further.  I started walking faster and after about six months I started running more and more.  I often have to go between buildings at work and I began running between the spaces.  It gets a lot of interesting looks because many of the people who have watched me as a fat guy for years are wondering who this jogger is.

I will have to type more on this, but leave it to say I am happy, healthier, and very very thankful.