Day 325 - Warcraft Patch 4.2 Day 2

Other than the trash loot tanking ring, my main character haven't gotten anything yet.  I've ran both the hunter and druid through the Thrall quest line to get their epic cloaks.  I'll be running the rest of my characters soon enough.

117/78/58 193.8lb 93 mg/DL

Day 324 - Warcraft Patch 4.2 Day 1

Yesterday, World of Warcraft patch 4.2 was deployed.  Also, yesterday was my support meeting night, which makes this a rather difficult night.  As expected, some of the game mods broke, and I have to shut it down.

More tonight.

120/77/54 196lb 98 mg/DL

Day 323 - When I Go Off Rail

Yesterday, someone at the office brought in chocolate cake (I can't eat due to the texture of the carbohydrate).  Someone else brought in cheese cake (which oddly enough, I can eat).  I know that I shouldn't be eating them, that they're full of useless calories.  But I not only gave into temptation, I had two helpings (albeit, 2 hours apart).

Surprisingly enough, my glucose reading this morning did not reflect this at all (90 mg/DL) which is actually a bit better than my week long trend.  I'm kind of at a loss at this.  All this while the rest of my family is having much higher reading than me.  As part of the lunch I'm having, I am having rice in the steamed Healthy Choice frozen meals.  And I cannot figure out why my glucose reading is still normal.

119/75/74 196.2lb 90 mg/DL

Day 322 - Continuing Stall

I've been fighting my digestive system all week last week with laxative.  I'm going to try this week without it to see how it works out.  This will be a tough week.

107/72/57 197.4lb 97 mg/DL

Day 321 - End of Week 46

08-07-2010 Front

08-07-2010 Side

06-26-2011 Front

06-26-2011 Side

It would appear that the weight result of last Sunday and Monday was a bit of aberration.  I am still following the overall trend of loosing weight, albeit with struggle.

I managed to do this morning's exercise without interruption.  I'm not sure if anything have changed, but the last couple of days, I double check to make sure that I'm doing this with 4 degree of incline.  Not sure what my previous settings were.

Ran Zul'Aman this morning on my druid, in between doing the Mid Summer flame quests, and got into a motivated and competent group that's actually capable of doing the bear mount run.  We got the final timed run boss down with 90 seconds to spare, and for a change, we finished the challenge.  Unlike my warlock (my only other character to have finished the timed run), my druid did win the bear.  The patch 4.2 should be deployed next Tuesday, so we're on holding pattern until then.


114/75/44 196lb 97 mg/DL
Week to Week -0.6lb
Total Weight Loss 132lb
Body Mass Index 28.12

Day 320 - Not a Good Day for Exercise

Not a good day for me in terms of exercise.  For 2 minutes, I forgot to wear my knee bracer, so I have to stop the machine, wear the bracer and start up again.  Then India tech support called me up to let me know that the machine being serviced and I should check it up...

By then, I knew that my day's exercise is doomed.  Oh well, I have a full day ahead of me with a lot of walking.

Yesterday, as usual, I managed to overate at the Chinese restaurant (I swear, I need to just stick to one kind of dish and manage my proportion that way).  On my way back, my right leg crammed up to an excruciating level.  This is all the while I was experiencing dumping symptom (nauseating, over heating sensation) .  I somehow managed to get home without hitting anyone.  And then while doing my usual online gaming, I got the exact opposite symptom, hypoglycemia.  I felt week and COLD.  I immediately took a glucose reading, 76 mg/DL, which is low for me.  I have to resort to eating a fudge bar and drinking a double shot of latte to bring myself back into balance.  Fortunately this morning, all seemed to be normal.  Lets hope for less drama the rest of the weekend.

113/77/58 196.6lb 95 mg/DL

Day 319 - Day 4 of Mid Summer Fest

And no pet.  The only good news is that the old midsummer pet will be available eventually in the 4.2 content.

118/73/58 196.6lb 94 mg/DL

Day 318 - Another Bout of Stalls

Another month, another round of stalls (and even increases).  I'm going to have to change my diet up a bit.  It's currently not working the way I wanted.

118/74/50 197.8lb 90 mg/DL

Day 317 - Warmer Days

One of my frequent complaint regarding the weight loss surgery is the loss of my insulation layer.  This past winter and spring has been a bit of a challenge to me, as I frequently have to fire up heater just to get through the night without feeling freezing.  On the other hand, I haven't experience warmer days without the same insulation in decades.  Last night was the first night I slept without any sort of blanket, it was simply too warm in my room for any of that.  Soon enough, I will have to have windows open while sleeping.

Day 1 of the Midsummer Festival result: zero pet, zero usable cloak.  Hell, before I go to work this morning, I ran Dianora through Lord Ahune, and got nothing of worth.  I have until the July 4th to get some useful cloak out of this.  In other news, I'm one rare artifact to earn the next rank in Archaeology...

111/73/72 197.4lb 91 mg/DL

Day 316 - Summer Solstice 2011

At about 5PM this afternoon, we'll get to Summer Solstice.  Correspondingly in World of Warcraft, the Midsummer Festival is in play.  Lots of running around getting flames (I've done this already on my main character).  Fortunately, I can keep on running the instances until my alts can get the cloak they want, and perhaps getting that Frostscythe of Lord Ahune that has the wonderful glow effect.

Naturally, my main character's primary concern is to get the pet from the daily goodie bag.  Here's hoping for the pet.

112/77/66 196lb 94 mg/DL

Day 315 - Annual Physical Examination 2011

Today's my annual physical examination with my primary physician.  First, the good news.  my cholesterol control is going great.  The good cholesterol is up, the bad cholesterol is down compared to my result from last blood test.  Pretty much everything on that test is going great.

The only negative part is my rib.  Apparently my rib bones are more apart than she thought was normal.  I did loose a whole lot of weight, but when laying flat on my back, my rib almost looks like someone suffering from malnutrition.  This is something I'll have to bring up with my surgeon on my next check up.

Since I'm not having any residual effect of diabetic, my next followup examination will be 6 months from now, instead of 3 months.  This means less blood drawing, and generally, less expense.

109/71/51 195.2lb 99 mg/DL

Day 314 - End of Week 45

08-07-2010 Front

08-07-2010 Side

06-19-2011 Front

06-19-2011 Side

We took our father to the StoneFire Grill last night for the Father's Day dinner (yes, one day early, but we figure that today would be even worse).  As usual, I still cannot judge proportion when eating something new, and over ate again.  My glucose reading this morning is still normal, so I'm thankful.

I've been feeling sleepy these past couple of weeks.  And even as I tried to get more sleep, my body still force me to wake up in the weekend.  I'm seeing the doctor tomorrow for my annual physical examination, my first since the surgery.  It'll be interesting to see what she think of me.

106/68/59 195.4lb 97 mg/DL
Week to Week 3lb
Total Weight Loss 132.6lb
Body Mass Index 28.03

Day 313 - New Shoes

So I spend better part of the morning driving around, picking up cable box, buying office diet coke, and shopping for new clothing.  I still need to get shirts tomorrow, but made some stride towards better fitting.

One of the thing I didn't planned on pick up is shoes.  I've known for a long time that my shoes is way too large.  What I didn't know is just how large.  When I was in store, I have the clerk bring me the same size (45), 1 size smaller and 2 size smaller.  When I wear the size 44, it's still larger than my feet.  So I'm wearing size 43.  Now for 3-4 weeks of training my feet to these new ECCO Track II Low size 43.

Also as part of my shopping, I pick up some replacement underwear from  Nordstrom as well as socks.  I didn't find the undershirts that I want in my size, but they'll ship it (like they ship my previous shoes).  My replacement shirts are from Costco.  No pockets, but at least they're the right size.

110/72/64 196.8lb 95 mg/DL

Day 312 - Will Power

Someone was nice enough to bring in a box of donuts at the office this morning.  Knowing my own limitation, I was thankful that I literally cannot eat them without pain.  However, one of the chocolate filled croissant looks so tempting.

Green Lantern movie opens today.  Green Lantern can shape anything they want so as long as they have the will power and the imagination.  I'm not going that far.  I'll just repeat this:  I'll not eat that piece of chocolate filled croissant.

Today is also day 2 of my 40 minutes exercise.  Still going well.  I can feel the burn starting at about 25 minutes mark, so the last 15 minutes are my burn phase.  Now sure how to get there faster without destroying my knees.  Knee bracer helps, but only so much.  Since I cannot take most pain medication, that option is out.

117/70/66 196.4lb 97 mg/DL

Day 311 - Walking 40 minutes

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I did 40 minutes of walk this morning at 3.9 MPH.  It's definitely a pace I can maintain, I do feel good afterward.  Since I can't go any faster, this is probably my only solution to increase the exercise.

I also tried something different yesterday when I restock for lunch at the office.  I usually buy the Healthy Choice steam lunch frozen meals, but I tried out Marie Callender's version to go for different flavor (and they're on sale, 5 for $11).  The first I tried is their macaroni and cheese, which unfortunately is full of carbohydrate in form that I really cannot tolerate well.  I won't be having that in the future.

106/67/50 198lb 103 mg/DL

Day 310 - Second Belt 5th Notch

As I finished my exercise this morning, it occurs to me that I probably can add another 5 minutes into my routine.  I tried 4MPH for 3 minutes on Sunday, and that wasn't working.  However, I should have enough energy and stamina to go for another 5 minutes.

I also decided to go to the next hole on my belt.  I've feel comfortable enough with my previous settings that I can use another challenge.  So lets see how this new changes works out.

113/74/73 197.2lb 100 mg/DL

Day 309 - Vial of the Sands

I've been gathering material for making Vial of the Sands alchemist created mount (much like the Mekgineer's Chopper was Engineering crafted mount in the previous expansion).  Like the motorcycle, this one has the option of carrying a passanger.  And similar to the touring rocket, this one is a flying mount with passanger.


After doing some calculating, I've opted not to do truegold transmute on a daily schedule (I have 2 source of alchemist for transmute, the transmute is on a daily cool down).  The material simply cost just as much as the finish product.  I went ahead and bought the remaining 8 truegold off from the auction house, the 16 flasks and gave the remaining money to Marinas, an old friend from the previous guild and have her craft the Vial of the Sands.  This is what it looks like with her riding on me:

Didn't have time to get a better picture, so there it is.

116/76/62 197.4lb 100 mg/DL

Day 308 - Blood Test & Bruising

In preparation to my annual physical examine next week, I had my blood test this morning.  Although now that I'm 130 pounds lighter, blood test is still an trying experience for me.  The technician doesn't have the same difficulty of finding a good vein to work with, but I still get bruised by the experience.

That picture is taken about one hour after the blood drawing.  The blood did squirt out quickly and I had the needle in my arm for no longer than 45 seconds.  I'll just be happier when I don't have to do this quarterly (though with the surgeon's office checking for vitamin, I'm actually doubling up on blood test).  Hopefully, the frequency of the examine will decrease.

Another drawback that I've already mentioned is the breakfast.  I tends to skip breakfast when I have blood test, since I don't usually eat before the examine.  Today, I have a bag of beef jerky (90 calorie), coffee (150 calorie) and cheese (70 calorie).  By no mean is this a well balanced diet.

111/70/49 199lb 98 mg/DL

Day 307 - End of Week 44

08-07-2010 Front

08-07-2010 Side

06-12-2011 Front

06-12-2011 Side

Odd week.  I managed to get down to 197.4lb on Monday, but spend the rest of the week yoyoing between 199 and 198.  For the week, I'm kind of down 0.6lb.  The only good news for me is that my inner-ear balance issue appears to be on the mend.  The doctor did say that it will go away after a while.  3 Weeks of this isn't fun.

On Warcraft front, I've managed to get two of my characters 2 piece Tier 11 armor bonus (Kasukabe & Kycilia).  Since getting 4 piece is out of the question with these toons, I've opted to try getting other items.  Kycilia is first to get Fluid Death via Valor Point, and this should significantly boost her damage capability.  On my other toons, I'm just struggling to get the rest of the 2 piece bonus. 

118/76/64 198.4lb 94 mg/DL
Week to Week 0.6lb
Total Weight Loss 129.6lb
Body Mass Index 28.46

Day 306 - Super Super Late Post

Sorry about this post being super late.  I also have to put out the Friday's post 2 day late, I just forgot to hit the Publish Post button.  Well, more on the Sunday post.

120/76/60 198.4lb 102 mg/DL

Day 305 - Finishing Gearing Up Alts

For a long while, the only reason I ran Tol Barad dailies was to get the two mounts and pet.  Now that I've seen the benefit of the epic trinket that's there, I've finished gearing up all of my alts with epic trinket (in the case of my Death Knight and Paladin, Tanking & DPS trinkets).  Now that rush is done, the only reason I'm even back at Tol Barad is to farm up tokens for the other mount and pet.  At least for my main character.  My alt is there simply to wait out the time for heroic instance queue to finish up.

110/71/58 198.2lb 97 mg/DL

Day 304 - Ten Months Out

Today is the 10th month since my surgery.  As expected, the month to month weight reduction has further slowed, 6.2lb this month.  I'm still about 30 pounds to my goal weight.  I still need to get on with some weight training to start building more muscle.

The thigh muscle pain that I mentioned yesterday is not getting better or worse.  Perhaps I should add heat/cold treatment to the mix tonight.

113/76/56 198.8lb 99 mg/DL
Month 10 6.2lb

Day 303 - Muscle Pain

I've noticed that my left front thigh muscle is currently hurting, when touch and when I utilize it.  Surprisingly it doesn't hurt as much when I'm on my morning treadmill walk (and with my left knee wrapped up).  Time to get out that Bengay cream and see if it helps.  This is annoying.

114/70/50 198.2lb 102 mg/DL

Day 302 - Size L Sweatshirt

I mentioned that on Sunday morning I went to see a movie.  It's almost summer, and for the most part, all I wear is t-shirts.  Knowing how the movie theater set their air condition I bring along a sweatshirt to keep warm.  I've been wearing XL sweatshirt for at least 20 years, and the one that I have (2 years old) feel way too large and not going to offer the insulation that I need.

We found some unused L size sweatshirts from way back that I had attempted to wear a couple of months back.  Wearing it is still a challenge (I have to remove my glasses to fit my head through).  Other than the wearing and removing of this piece of clothing, the sweat shirt fits fine.  It's also L size, which I supposed is my current size clothing.

114/78/67 198.8lb 94 mg/DL

Day 301 - 130 Pounds Down

After the horrendous none-morning-sleep-in the past 2 weekend days, I opted for the next best thing.  I slept for 5 hours on Sunday afternoon in an attempt at catching up.  Whatever it is, I still don't feel anywhere near awake yet, even as I'm typing this at 6AM.

I was pleasantly surprised at the scale this morning.  197.4lb, which means I'm now 130 pounds down from day of the surgery.

More updates later.

106/70/54 197.4lb 102 mg/DL

Day 300 - End of Week 43

08-07-2010 Front

08-07-2010 Side

06-05-2011 Front

06-05-2011 Side

I swear, the folks in the other time zone don't want me to sleep.  They woke me up again this morning at 4AM, and once again, I cannot go back to sleep.  So I opted to start my day earlier.  It's ironic that on my weekend days where I tried to catch up on sleep, I didn't get anywhere near as much as I wanted?

In my exercise this morning, I walked for 3 minutes before realizing that I haven't use the knee bracer yet.  So I shutdown the treadmill and put up the bracer.  It definitely helps.  In the 3 minutes of free form walking, I was started to feel inflamed sensation on my left knee.  Once with the bracer on, while it makes walking more stiff, I don't get as much pain.  Now that the left knee is thanking me, Perhaps I should wear it on both knees.

111/74/52 199lb 96 mg/DL
Week to Week 1lb
Total Weight Loss 129lb
Body Mass Index 28.55

Day 299 - A Tiring Day

The work woke me up this morning at 3:48AM, haven't been back to sleep since.  By the time the call finished, it was time for my morning exercise, and I was running a bit late for my car's service appointment.  It was supposed to be a 2 hours service job, but they found additional repair that they recommended (and it was covered by warranty, which saves me about $378).  The only down side is that the additional work took another 3 hours.  Due to the fact that I ran out of time as I ran out of the house, my breakfast consisted of 1 small bag of beef jerky and lots of coffee.  Not the most healthy example.

After getting my car back, it's another race against time for me to get to Costco to get flower for my mother's grave.  The cemetery closes at 5PM, so I had to rush a bit.

By the time I got home I'm dead tire.  Fortunately I did the housework yesterday.

114/73/61 199.2lb 101 mg/DL

Day 298 - Adding New Information On Spreadsheet

I've decided to add 2 new column on both my Excel spreadsheet and the Google Doc spreadsheet that I maintain to track my weigh loss.  First one is Body Mass Index, which gives me a easy way to figure out where I'm at in terms of ideal weight relative to my height.  Second one is the Percentage Excess Weight Loss, with 328lb as the starting point, and 174lb as goal.

As of today, my BMI is 28.52 and my %EWL is 83.90%.  Consider that the surgical program's definition of success is loss of 65% to 80%, I guess I'm successful.  I do want to hit that 100% goal.

I also went back and update the Sunday posts to back fill the Total Weight Loss information and add BMI for referral purpose.

115/72/55 198.8lb 101 mg/DL

Day 297 - iLevel 359

We finished all but one boss in the current round of raid content last night.  I got 2 pieces of new gears, that finally pushed my iLevel up to 359, the current raid content level.  I'm going to do a bit of reshuffling, mainly re-gem some of my choices to get more mastery.

I plan to do some clothing shopping this weekend, mainly to get new gym shorts, t-shirts with pocket and short sleeve shirts with pocket.  I really need new gym shirts, since my old ones are falling apart.

113/75/48 199.6lb 93 mg/DL

Day 296 - Dizziness Update

It's been almost 2 weeks since the onset of my dizziness spell.  The situation have improved somewhat, now that I know what not to do to trigger it.  I know it's mainly my left side of inner ear balancing mechanism that's messed up, and I have a suspicion on why that is.  With me not wanting to take motion sickness drug (drowsiness), I guess I'll have to tough it out.

Blizzard push out the Winged Guardian mount on their store yesterday.  Of course, I snag it up for all of my toons.  No point in not getting it.  Now just waiting for patch 4.2 to get 4 more pets.

We did a comparison check on the glucose meter this morning, and it would appear that my machine is consistently 10 points higher than my father's meter.  So the numbers the rest of my family puts up is actually worse than it is, or my number is better.

112/77/74 199.8lb 105 mg/DL