Day 113 - Vietnamese Noodle Experiment

OK, I walked to a Vietnamese Noodle shop for lunch yesterday.  While I have almost no problem with the meat and the vegetables, the rice noodle turns out to be an bigger issue than I anticipated.  It got so bad that I didn't have dinner as I doubt my system could handle it.  Next time, I'll just ordered it without the noodles and go from there.  For me, I'm only having protein added latte for Breakfast and Korean tofu soup with fish for lunch and dinner.  Enough experiment for this week, and I have things to do next week.

I upped my morning walking pace  from 3.3 MPH to 3.5 MPH.  The adjustment seemed to be a bit hard on me than going from 3.0 MPH to 3.3M MPH.  Lets hope I don't injure myself while doing this. 

I'm having a blast leveling the gnome priest.  It turns out that farming lower level zone for pet is not the best way to level.  Leveling in level appropriate zone really helps.  One more level, and she'll get the shadowform.

122/79/63 253.2lb 96 mg/DL

Day 112 - Gnome Priest

This is Fidie, formerly a dwarf priest I created to hold all of the excess gems from my main character.  With the advent of Shattering, Gnomes now have priest class available.  Fortunately for me, I've already leveled 2 other cloth wearer, so the heirloom gears are already available.  move all of the valuable off from the bank toon to my other bank toon, delete the toon and then recreate the gnome priest.

114/79/76 253.2lb 94 mg/DL

Day 111 - End of Week 16

08-07-2010 Front

08-07-2010 Side

11-28-2010 Front

11-28-2010 Side

Once again, modest improvement on my weight loss this week.  Being that this is holiday weekend, I feel good about the it.  I'll be heading out to get gifts for my co-workers.  Kind of funny that my family do not celebrate Christmas, but I felt obligated to give gifts to my co-workers.

I try something else today for lunch.  I went to the mall and have some Korean BBQ.  I partake some rice and noodles, and for a change, my stomach is not complaining much.  We'll see tomorrow how that pans out.

I'm currently grinding Argent Tournament to get that last couple of pieces of heirloom gears.  I'm actually thinking about consolidate my alts and delete my gem priest for her spot for my gnome priest.  Good thing I have a guild bank alt that's her own guild master.



111/77/77 252.8lb 95 mg/DL
Week to Week 4lb
Total Weight Loss 75.2lb
Body Mass Index 36.27

Day 110 - Grinding Rep

Day 5 of Patch 4.0.3a.  After 3 different character got their Mr. Grubbs in 30 minutes or less, my warlock took 3 hours of solid farming in Eastern Plagueland to get hers.  My main character, Dianora is already maxed out with Justice Point and reputation with Worgen faction.  Now it's time to grind all other characters.  After that, I'm most likely going to re-do all of the quests before Catacalysm.

So after fitting with the old-new pants, I realized that I need new belt.  My previous observation is that I probably need belt size 44-46.  There is no such size.  So I opted for 42-44.  It's a bit tighter than I'm used to, and the belt is lodged at the first notch.  But that shouldn't be an issue for much longer.

126/84/81 253.2lb 86 mg/DL

Day 109 - Black Friday 2010

So Black Friday is upon us.  Normally if I want to shop for anything, I'd just shop online and avoid the headache of finding parking.  This year, I truly need new clothing, as my old one are not only falling apart, but way too large.  I may have to break my tradition and go into shop.

2 thoughts after I came back from shopping:

1. I'm almost ready to leave the big & tall store for my clothing, but not quit.  Currently my pants size is about 46, right at the edge.  I still can't find underpants of that size easily at normal store.
2. I can shop for shirts at normal store.  

I bought 6 shirts for work from Target and 8 underpants from the big & tall.  I'll buy the undershirts from Costco tomorrow.  I'm buying them not only because my current clothes are badly oversize.  They're literally falling apart, and I really need replacement.  In a couple of months, I fully expect to be buying new pants (though the shirt I can probably survive).

Surprisingly enough, my weight in number today is actually lower than yesterday.

112/78/61 254lb 87 mg/dl

Day 108 - Thanksgiving 2010

Sorry, this post came 1 day late.  I was busy leveling my main character's reputation with the new worgen faction and having fun getting new pets for all of my toons.

We didn't have a whole turkey this year.  Instead, we opted for seasoned turkey breast from Costco and cook everything else.  My NuWave got used to bake asparagus and the turkey breast.  I had 1 slice of turkey,with mash potato, gravy and 2 asparagus for lunch.  For dinner, I skipped the asparagus, as it was too fibrous.  We didn't have that much turkey left, so my brothers cooked up a pot of sweet and sour soup.  We'll see how much weight this adds up to.

112/76/62 255.8lb 96 mg/DL

Day 107 - Coffee!

So in our support meeting yesterday, I was told by the dietitian that I should be able to have 1 cup of coffee a day.  Making the most of it, I'm spending it on my morning latte (albeit, I probably need to pre-mix the milk and the protein powder).

The Shattering yesterday of Azeroth from patch 4.0.3a actually went a whole lot smoother than I anticipated.  By the time I got home, the server was up, and fairly stable.  The only mod that was badly broken was Routes which is not a daily use mod.  Of course I tried to check out as many new thing as I can, but my priority is to get the newest thing around, and that of course is the Singing Sunflower (or Brazie's Sunflower, the naming is inconsistent.  It's Singing Sunflower on the spell book, but Brazie's Sunflower when you put it on the action bar).  Took me forever to find it.

Here's what it looks like:

Yes, she sings (by Laura Shigihara) and cute as a button.

125/91/83 257lb 96 mg/DL

Day 106 - The Shattering

Last night was my guild's final official raid for Wrath of the Lich King.  We had 4 bosses left in Icecrown Citadel, and we managed to one shot everything, even the bosses that we only managed to kill in heroic mode 2 weeks ago.  I picked up heroic Last Word as my last piece of main spec upgrade.  With the exception of my cloak, Relic and 2 trinket, all of my gears are now iLevel 277.  With this coming week being Thanksgiving, and the Cataclysm expansion in 2 weeks, this seemed to be the place to call it quit in so far as guild raid goes.  It's a good way to close out this expansion.

As expected, The Shattering, breaking of Azeroth occurs today, which means for the extended server side outage, all of the old world texture are getting switched (this is so that players can continue to play on the first second of the expansion).  I parked my main character Dianora at the inn at Goldshire, as Stormwind was under elemental invasion when I logged out.  I left all of the rest of my character back at Northrend as I still need their Argent Tournaments tokens.

Day 105 - Preparing to Level Druid Alt

We have 2 weeks left until the expansion.  I'm trying to save Justice point for when my main character reaches level 85, so I'm using Argent Tournament token to get Heirloom items.  It has just dawn on me that my druid alt set is not complete.  I have the Feral set, but no spell power set.  I think I have enough money at 26k gold that I can stop working for that, and start working towards Preened Ironfeather Shoulders and Preened Ironfeather Breastplate.  Since patch 4.0.1, you get bonus for wearing the class appropriate gears.

123/91/90 256.6lb 97 mg/DL

Day 104 - End of Week 15

08-07-2010 Front

08-07-2010 Side

11-21-2010 Front

11-21-2010 Side

Modest improvement this week. Changing up the pace of the walking is starting to work.  I'm definitely going to need more new under shirt ad pants sooner than later.

Went to the shop and looked at the belt.  I'm currently in-between sizes in terms of the belt.  Guess I'll go ahead and punch that hole after all.

Today is another day of expanding my horizon.  I've knew that I can eat sashimi for a while, today is the first day I have a chance to try it out.  As it turns out, I didn't know the serving size of the restaurant, so naturally, I over ordered and over ate.  The fish is delicious though.

118/90/80 256.8lb 94 mg/DL
Week to Week 4.4lb
Total Weight Loss 71.2lb
Body Mass Index 36.84

Day 103 - Death of Pre-Catalysm Guild Raid

A month ago, I wrote that with the advent of patch 4.0.1, Pick up Group raid is all but dead.  Well, with the advent of patch 4.0.3 this week, and the expansion 2 weeks away, it would seem that even the guild raid is going the way of the pug raid.  Which is a shame since we have one more person that's just waiting for his post Shadowmourne Lich King kill to distribute his loots.  We may have to ditch hard mode just to give him his just reward.

Went to the barber to get my hair cut.  While she confirm that I'm not loosing any hair (as far as she can tell), she did told me that my head is a lot smaller.  Didn't know I can store so much fat under my scalp.

Oh, today I cross the 70lb line.  All the while I ramp up my walking routine to 3.3 mph while doing it for 30 minutes.

117/84/80 257.6lb 99 mg/DL
Milestone 70lb

Day 102 - Din Tai Fung

Well, if all goes well, I'll be taking 2 of my co-worker back to Din Tai Fung Dumpling House in Arcadia.  One of them have already been there, and it'll be a first experience for the other.  The dumpling there is one of the best (if not the best) in all of Los Angeles.  Yes, in all likelyhood, I won't be eating dumpling, but it's more for them than it's for me.  I'll probably just stick to soup, which is also excellent.

Well, that plan didn't panned out.  Unexpected scheduling conflict means that only I get to go.  Had spicy beef soup (which is basically Spicy Beef Noodle minus the Noodle).  Next time, I'll go for the Hot and Sour Soup.  I did buy some take out for the guys at the office.

120/90/65 258.2lb 100 mg/DL

Day 101 - Protein Smoothie

Back in week 3, I went to my local Vitamin Shoppe to restock on my protein shake.  Even back then, I was getting too familiar with the taste of the shakes.  For alternative, I bought a tub of Muscle Milk protein powder and all but forgot about it until this week.  My brother tried it with hot water, espresso shot and it comes out tasting funny.  This morning, I use Magic Bullet to blend my smoothie, except I added 1 full scoop of Muscle Milk, and for added madness, I added my dietary fiber powder into the mix.  The smoothie comes out very thick, but the taste is very much agreeable.  That's another 25 gram of protein that I can add into my diet.

The heat treatment helps a bit on my back muscle.  Even now, I'm wearing a ThermaCare Heatwraps, which isn't too hot, but does contain enough heat to help mew with the pain.  For added measure, I've added Fish Oil (for Omega 3) back into my morning vitamin intake.  
  
124/86/68 259.8lb 104 mg/DL

Day 100 - Back Pain

So the back pain that I'm been having the past 3 weeks is getting worse.  It's just a small localized area at my back just below my right rib.  The last doctor I saw determined that it wasn't kidney, as I have no difficulty or pain in urinating.

I'm not unfamiliar with back pain, having suffered them off and on for years.  I'm pretty sure this time it's because the way I sit either at home or at the office.  So right now, I'm going to make concerted effort on fully utilizing my seat back and sit correctly.  I'm also thinking about taking some of the old supplements that I've stop taking since my surgery (Move Free and Fish Oil). 

Yesterday, not enough people show up to warren attempt at heroic Sindragosa.  Since we have more than enough people for tanking Lich King, I ask to bring my warlock so she can have the 25 man raid achievement.  Didn't contribute much, she didn't make it out of the first transition, but still get the title.

124/86/82 260lb 98 mg/DL

Day 99 - Sweet Potato

Since I posted on DiscussWSL Forum on Beth in Texas's weekly weight-in, I might as well post my own week by week progress both in the sidebar.

Onto the revised topic of the day.  Over the weekend, I ask my brother who's doing his weekly Chinese market shopping trip to get me some yam and sweet potato.  I'm not exactly sure what he got, but he got 2 different  types yams and  2 sweet potatoes.  Despite what my other brother warn me, I went ahead and roast one of the yam on the convection oven.  It took 40 minutes, and the result is a wee bit dry, but very delicious purple hydrocarbon.  Next time, I'll listen to him and steam it instead.

118/76/67 261lb 104 mg/DL

Day 98 - Plateau 2

So it would appear that I'm hitting the another plateau on my weight loss program.  I've upped my daily walking routine to 30 minutes, up 5 minutes from just a week ago, and I'm not having any physical issues.  Even my walk this morning gave me a nice warm feeling all over.  Unfortunately, that has not translated to weight loss.  I've hit plateau before, and I'll get over this one as well.

Ok, for lunch, I bought these Healthy Coice Steaming Entrees from Ralph.  One of them is Chicken Romano Fresca with whole grain pasta and romano cheese and butter glaze.  You can probably figure out what's wrong with that meal with me.  Yep, even whole grain pasta does not agree with my small pouch stomach, and my body is currently rebelling against my choice.  Lesson learned.

128/84/74 261.8lb 100 mg/DL

Day 97 - End of Week 14

08-07-2010 Front

08-07-2010 Side

11-14-2010 Front

11-14-2010 Side

Not as much progress as last week, but progress none the less.  I went back to my routine of cemetery -> lunch yesterday, and sad to say, I over ate at lunch (Korean tofu).  This time I didn't bother with rice, but I must've over ate the kimchee.  At dinner, the rest of the family was having rice gruel, which in Chinese cooking is simply rice and lots of water.  As I understand it, the reason why WLS patients were having so much problem with certain carbohydrate is that they expand in our small pouch stomach.  Since rice in the gruel is already expanded, I figure I shouldn't have much of an issue eating it.  At one bowl of the gruel and had some canned sardine and tuna.  No discomfort at all.  So my theory work out.

This morning, I decided to up my morning walk to 30 minutes, and no discomfort as well.  Last night was not a cold as during the week, but taking no chances, I turn on the space heater in my room. 


127/89/76 261.2lb 96 mg/DL
Week to Week 1.8lb
Total Weight Loss 66.8lb
Body Mass Index 37.47

Day 96 - Vitamin D

One of the thing that bother me about my last doctor's appointment was the problem with iron and vitamin D level in my blood.  I was taking 18mg of iron a day, and as far as I know, normal dosage.  well, that doesn't appear to be enough.  Fortunately, it was my refill time at the chewable suppliments, and I find the next step up, 29mg iron.  After I track down the over the counter coated iron pill, I discovered that it is 60mg.  Eating 2 pills won't cut it, so my daily dosage is now 87mg of iron.

On vitamin D, they actually give me a perscription.  I was havig problem deciphering the dosage, so I just took it into my local pharmacy.  It came back as 50k unit of Vitamin D for a weekly dosage.  My chewable version provides 1k unit of Vitamin D, so using that to make up the difference is out of the question.  Looks like I'm taking the gelcap pill.

137/84/73 260.8lb 88 mg/DL

Day 95 - Fat As Insulation

This is a re-edited version of a forum post on DiscussWLS.

I've noticed that as my weight decreases, the fat I'm loosing are causing some issues.  First off, I felt a lot colder than I'm used to.  When I sleep, just between the blanket and my own fat, I was able to get comfortable in my own bed.  The last couple of days belay that a bit.  It gets far longer to get the bed warm, and going to the bathroom at night felt a whole lot more uncomfortable.

The second insulation is the fat from my butts.  Due to my work, I sat in a chair for at least 15 hours a day.  I use Aeron chair both at the office and at home.  Just mere weeks after the surgery, I start to feel the tail bone discomfort that I never knew was there in the first place.  The forum suggest I tried getting a medical seat cushion, perhaps I can look into that.  (The medical supply stores all seemed to be in the business of selling motorized wheelchair for medicare, so my hope for them carrying what I need is low).

Yesterday is a non-raiding day, so I tried something different.  On Maintankadin forum there was a discussion regarding dungeons that can be run solo for making money.  Someone mentioned that Magtheridon is supposed to be easy to solo.  I tried with the suggested talent and glyph.  After my 6th wipe, I give up and went over to Karazhan for my weekly Fiery Warhorse farming.  Of course it didn't drop, but I decided to recoup some of my money by finishing as many of the rest of the instance as I can to get some money.  I got Attumen, Moroes, Maiden of Virtue, The Big Bad Wolf of the Opera Event.  And decided to farm Ghostly Philanthropist, which used to drop 11g per mob.  But Blizzard have completely removed the money drop from these mobs.  I was able to break even with the Karazhan farming.



120/83/83 260.8lb 96 mg/dl

Day 94 - Making Money for the Expansion

With the expansion 3 weeks away, and we're chasing down the last bit of achievement before the race to the max level began anew, I'm actually low on things to do in game.  I've stopped doing the daily heroic all together.  I've run the fishing quest if it's not the hated The Ghostfish.  One thing I have resume recently is to do the Argent Crusade faction daily quest.  The money is good for 30 minutes of work.  All of my toons are capable of soloing all of it, including Threat From Above.  And the added bonus is that every 4 days, I get to buy a faction only pet that I can sell on the neutral auction house for more money.  Thus far, I've upped my bankroll for the expansion to 18k gold. 

134/83/74 262.2lb 97 mg/DL

Day 93 - Nutritional Label on the Box Lies

OK, maybe lying is too strong of a word, but at least misleading.  I like drinking coffee and caffeinated drink.  I like the Costco bottled diet ice tea.  Both of which I stop drinking on Saturday morning August 7 2010 at 12:01 AM (yes, I have my lost shot of espresso right as I start my 2 days of pre-op clear liquid diet).  Fortunately for me, I'm not physically addicted to caffeine. I suffered no withdraw symptom, but the urge to drink them still exist (I'm surrounded by the coffee machine both at home and at the office, where they feed you quality coffee as a means to get through the day).  3 weeks ago, I started adding Crystal Light to my bottle water, and my water intake increased.  On Monday, as I sat in the off site meeting, I discovered that one of the Crystal Light packet contains as much (if not more) caffeine as a can of coke.  After I got home, I double check the nutritional label on the box, and sure enough, absolutely no mention of caffeine

So, my lesson to myself and to whoever that's reading this is:  be careful of the buzzword on the box.  The Wild Strawberry and Citrus Splash are prefixed with words like Focus and Energy.  Chances are they have caffeine, and for those of us still getting used to our new stomach, best avoid it until much later.

Edited on Saturday 11-13-10...  Ok, I went back and re-read the box again.  Caffeine is listed.  However, you'll have to read really carefully to find it.

On a happier note, the redemption code for Smoldering Murloc Egg from Blizzcon LiveStream was mailed to me, and I bind it to my account.  When I get home for the remainder of my ICC25 raid, I should be able to parade around with that cute Murloc around.

126/86/71 262.6lb 93 mg/DL

Day 92 - 11/12 Hard Mode Done

After a long long day (woke up at 4, drive 90 minutes to off site meeting, standing in the cold wind for 40 minutes, drive back that took 2 hours), I realized that I was not in any condition to do my 25 minutes of walk yesterday.  Well, no point in crying over spill milk.

Yesterday, we took our latest shot at Heroic Sindragosa.  It was a long and hard fight.  But with enough people finally listening to the instruction (stop casting when you're about to blow up on everyone around), we finally got her down.  We're now 11/12 hard mode boss down for the expansion (kind of odd that we're still chasing these 4 weeks before the next expansion), but good for the guild none the less.  We got 2 shots in at heroic Lich King and his 105 million health.  After trying to call it a night on normal Lich King, we have 1 spot open, and sold the 25 man achievement for 2k gold for the guild bank.

136/90/85 264lb 98 mg/DL
Month 03 15.4lb

Day 91 - Offsite Meeting

Not a lot to talk about.  I have an offsite meeting 54 miles away from my house.  Going through two separate traffic congestion point through the rush hour isn't my idea of fun.

The drive as it turns out wasn't too bad, though I leave the house at 5:30AM.  However, due to some snafu, the offsite location wasn't informed of our arrival. Good thing I brought my coat, standing in the cold drizzling rain wasn't my idea of fun.  The breakfast offered by the meeting contain stuff I can't eat (bagels and muffins).  I opted to get my own breakfast, eggs and sausage.  Once again, whenever I ate out for the first time, I have a tendency of  over eating.
 
131/81/74 264.2lb 97 mg/DL

Day 90 - End of Week 13

08-07-2010 Front

08-07-2010 Side

11-07-2010 Front

11-07-2010 Side

Another week, and we're on the last day of my on-call.  Today is the end of daylight saving, odd, I woke up at my usual time, and for me, that's 4AM this morning.

My 3rd month appointment with surgeon was this past Friday.  For some reason, my iron and vitamin D level are too low, with my current chewable vitamins and supplements.  I'll need to go to the pharmacy to find out just how much I'm supposed to take.

Yesterday's dinner was the beef noodle soup minus the noodle.  I only have enough stomach for about 1/2 of the soup, and the rest will be my lunch.  At least I have no adverse effect from that meal. 

119/81/65 263lb 101 mg/DL
Week to Week 6.4lb
Total Weight Loss 65lb
Body Mass Index 37.73

Day 89 - MacRib

Yesterday, I was fresh out of idea for lunch. I ran out of my spicy tofu, and being on-call, I don't have the luxury of going too far out for lunch.

I decided to try MacRib, since it is available from a MacDonald's a block from my office, and I've never tried it before. I eat it the way I eat all sandwich now, using the bread as cutting board for the meat. No idea what was actually in the meet, but it's serviceable. I had more trouble eating the french fries than the meet in the sandwich. Note to myself, skip the fries in the future.

Had some marathon work related calls to make this morning, took all of my morning. Since my surgical teams suggest that I walk 30 minutes, I opted to increase my walk time this morning to 25 minutes. Baby steps.

114/81/66 264.2 94 mg/DL

Day 88 - Token

Last night, Kasukabe, my warlock went to a ICC25 pug raid. We wipe three times. Twice on Professor. The off tank was unclear on the concept of how to drive abomination, and by the time we got the professor down to 48%, the entire room is filled with slime. By the second wipe, it was clear that we cannot do the boss with the raid composition. I can do the abomination tanking, but I was also the second highest damage dealer, and removing me won't help the situation.

I was able to pick up a Conqueror's Mark of Sanctification, and bought the Sanctified Dark Coven Shoulderpads. Thus, my little warlock's current wardrobe is of consistent coloring. Here's what she looks like now:



117/90/68 265.8lb 101 mg/DL

Day 87 - Chasing the Achievements

We're half way through our scheduled weekly raid.  Yes, none of this matters in 4 weeks, but within the last 2 weeks, we've managed to slay heroic version of Professor 3 times, including last night.  Things were going so well, we actually have an full hour of time to spend working on Heroic Sindragosa.  We got to phase 3 twice.  On Monday, we'll have at least 2 hours of quality raiding time on her.

114/76/69 266lb 95 mg/DL

Day 86 - Getting Resistance Exercise into My Daily Routine

I was introduced to the resistance exercise  last week's support group.  Other than 2 of the routines involving knee bending, I should be able to do the rest of routine.  Unfortunately I've been having problem adding them to my routine.

123/85/74 266lb 97 mg/DL

Day 85 - Bruise

Odd thing about bruise.  Last Friday, on my blood test, the technician punctured my vein through and through before pulling back enough to draw the blood.  I was certain that I'll get a decent size bruise at the site.  Oddly enough, 4 days later, I can't even find the puncture.

This morning, I noticed that one of the places that I use for injecting Byetta has a dime size bruise, with the puncture at the center.  That's one slight negative on this weight loss, I really cannot find any pain free area to do the injection.  Hopefully in 2 months, I'll be off that medication.

Oh, yesterday, I switched over to my long sleeve shirts.  Not the best day for doing that, since we're unseasonably warm right now.

On the work front, the on-call only woke me up at 1AM this morning.  Only took 30 minutes of sleep away from me.

As for dreams, last night I dream of World of Warcraft Cataclysm leveling, even though I'm not in beta program this round around.  We had a less painful night of raiding last night, managed to get Heroic Professor in 3 pulls.  We got a couple of shot at Heroic Sindragosa before we give up and finish the rest of the content in normal mode.  I'm still collecting gears for my Retribution spec in anticipation for the leveling.

123/82/74 268lb 99 mg/DL

Day 84 - 60 Pounds Lost

So, I've officially lost 60 pound today.  I can walk much further than prior to surgery.  I still have a very messed up sense of hunger.  60 pound.  And we're half way through the honeymoon period of weight loss.

I woke up 1 hour early.  It would appear that being on-call and sleep does not agree with each other.

I think I can safely avoid French Onion Soup for lunch in the future.  It just does not agree with me.

134/90/76 268lb 95 mg/DL
Milestone 60lb