Day 3079 - Battle for Azeroth Day 377

I'm in day 3 of my reduced caffeine intake regiment.  I had to take tylenol in the early part of the money to stave off the headaches.  After the intake of Coke Zero after lunch, it was gone.  Lets see what happen in the future.

I got 2 of the characters plus the paladin through Nazjatar.  The paladin still needs to level her followers to level 30 for the modified look of the essences.

124/97/61 97 251lb

Day 911 - Mists of Pandarian Day 132

My coffee machine died this morning.  It has served my household for about 7 years.  It's a bit sad to see it go.  More importantly, I'll be without freshly grind coffee in my house for a couple of days as we order a replacement.  The instant coffee just isn't the same.

My hunter got her 4 piece bonus today.  Didn't have too much chance to test it out.  She also got her Sha-touched weapon gemmed.  Time for me to round out the rest of my toons.

103/61/61 88 mg/DL 175.6lb

Day 633 - Happy Hour At Starbucks

On my Friday trip to Rose Hills, I usually swing by Noodle King to pick up take out dinner for the family and get a cup of Starbucks coffee on my way home. Since one of the item I usually order (pan fried steam bun) takes so much time to cook, I actually ordered it before I left the Rose Hills and fully expected to be able to pick it up when I get there. Since I have a little bit of time, I opted to pick up the coffee first. That was a mistake. For some reason, that particular Starbucks was having a Happy Hour special on frappuccino, and the place was way above regulated level of customer standing around. What normally takes at most 5 minutes of getting my coffee made took 30 minutes, and no, I definitely did not want a cold drink. In the end, due to this unforeseen turn of event, I end up picking up my dinner no earlier (if not later) than usual. Next time I probably need to try the Starbucks with drive through and skip all of this Happy Hour business. 116/76/54 171.2lb 86 mg/DL

Day 198 - Home Roasted Coffee

I mentioned that on Monday, President Day, I have a messed up schedule.  Instead of enjoying a nice day off, I had to rush out of the house to restart my own computer at work.  I picked up a large cup of latte from Starbuck Coffee.

It's the first plain latte I had from them in a while, and after drinking it on my ride to work, I got reminded why I roast my own coffee.  The bean from this batch was over roasted.  Small batch coffee bean roasting isn't hard.  I know what Starbuck Coffee was aiming at.  Their customer expected over roasted coffee, and they give what their customer wanted.  However, over roast coffee can bring consistency to roasting.  It's also one way of covering up blending cheaper bean into premium bean.

Small batch roasting isn't hard.  I do it twice a week with my brothers also drinking coffee at home.  I enjoy milder roast, which actually have far more caffeine than dark roast.

I was going to post something about my current bout of plateau, but lets not jinx it.

113/71/63 221.6lb 88 mg/DL

Day 187 - Blood Sugar Control

I went through yesterday without eating much carbohydrate (I think the milk in my morning coffee is my only carbohydrate).  Due to the office meetings (and the first one ran long)  I literally didn't have much time to prepare and eat lunch.  So my lunch consisted of finishing up the saute spinach from Wednesday night, and half a can of tuna with chopped green onion soy sauce and spicy sesame oil.  Dinner was grilled pork chop with onion.

Lets see what today's meal bring.

114/77/76 224.4lb 86 mg/DL

Day 177 - Muffin Experiment

In one short word: FAILED.  We had some left over muffins from Porto's bakery, and I was tempted to try one at 9AM.  I was in absolutely no condition of eating anything solid for the rest of the day (I had to skip lunch).  I also shouldn't have gone with my original dinner plan (grilled onion and steak with salt and pepper).  One thing I was doing is chucking down decaffeinate coffee with non-dairy creamer with regularity.  I believe I drank 8 8 ounces cup worth of decaffeinated coffee yesterday, with more water intake.

Today is also Chinese New Year.  Year of the Rabbit.  I'll have my damage report from today's dinner later.

121/75/74 231.2lb 104 mg/DL

Day 154 - Decaffeinated Coffee

For some reason I thought today is the 5th month post surgery.  Using my previous method of tracking milestone, that was yesterday, so the posts have been adjusted accordingly.

I've been getting too used to the taste of Crystal Light flavor that I actually like.  I also want to stay away from the caffeinated version, so my choice is somewhat limited.  For now, I'm trying out the office decaffeinated, which I know will have some trace of caffeine, but much less than the energized version of Crystal Light.

I'm also trying something else for my lunch today.  I'm bringing in my usual hot and sour soup, but this time also taking the kimchi for the extra fiber.  Lets see how this works out.

Yesterday, I also finish leveling my gnome warlock Kasukabe up to level 85, and in the midst of doing the Twilight Highland quest, push our guild experience up to level 10.  Since my main character's reputation with the guild is revered, at level 10, I can buy heirloom cloak that's good up to level 85.  I immediately gather the funds and send an agility based cloak over to my druid, and level that character up to level 20 (so the druid doesn't have to rely on travel form to get around, and actually ride something).  Now, just need to level all of the character's reputation to get the necessary gears.

115/73/69 240.6lb 101 mg/DL

Day 143 - And Paying the Price

Ok, I cannot eat cake.  I have my father's birthday cake this morning, albeit, I was being rushed out of the house, so I ate faster than I had planned.  Still, my digestive system is currently giving me the clear and unambiguous message of "What are you thinking of?"  I'll lay off of cake from here on out.

I'm also starting to drink decaffeinated coffee at the office.  I can only drink so much Crystal Light before I got sick of the flavor.  I'm also starting to get sleepy again.  Last night, at 9:30 PM, I literally doze off in the midst of farming for ores in  Vashj'ir.  Thus, I actually got in 7 hours of sleep last night.

And this morning, I'm becoming utterly broke in Warcraft.  I spend my last 6 thousand golds getting Elementium Earthguard.  Perhaps I should wait for some Blacksmith in guild to make the Hardened Elementium Girdle.

109/71/57 243lb 96 mg/DL

Day 140 - Things You Notice in the Mirror

I look at myself naked in the mirror about once a day (shower). I really don't pay much attention to myself, after all, it's me. Therefore, there are times and things that I don't realize sneaking on me.

For example, I actually notice my collar bones at this morning's shower. To be sure, it's always been there, but for the first time in recent memory, I can actually see the outline of the bones, instead of buried under a mound of fat. And to that extend, I can also see more of my shoulder bones as well, not as well defined as the collar bones, but still, another reminder of the progress.

Yesterday, for breakfast, I opted to add in toasted croissant into the mix.  Now, when I did this, it was 'round 9AM, and I was actually in so much of a hurry to get out of the house to go watch Tron Legacy, I didn't even finish my coffee/protein drink until I got back.  For lunch, I had some of the left over stuffing/mash potato from Christmas dinner, plus the Costco chicken noodle soup (minus the noodle of course).  The number came out today and it was encouraging.  One thing is puzzling me is the blood sugar measurement.  It's been 103 for 3 days straight.


117/75/65 242.2lb 103 mg/DL

Day 125 - End of Week 18

08-07-2010 Front

08-07-2010 Side

12-12-2010 Front

12-12-2010 Side

Now that I'm allowed to have one shot of coffee a day, I've changed my usual 2 eggs breakfast a bit.  I put dietary fiber, protein powder and blend them into a latte.  It actually has more protein (at least 25g of protein vs 14g) than my old formula, and it taste good.  I'm going to have to get some more sweat shorts, another one of my old trusty is not only too big, but the draw string on it broke.

Last night, I got into two different pickup group random heroic dungeon run.  The last one is the most fun I've ever had at dying at Worldcraft.  The group seemed to have high tolerance for wiping against the unknown, so as long as we learn how to do the content.  We draw Heroic Deadmines.  Deadmines was one of the best designed instance in the original World of Warcraft.  In Cataclysm, for maxed level character, it has been updated to Heroic, which means things hits a whole lot harder.  In all, I picked up 2 piece of upgrade loots: Cookie's Tenderizer which despite how it looks is a dream weapon for dual wielding Death Knight.  I'm using it for tanking.  I also pick Foe Reaper, which is a significant upgrade from my quest 2 hander for the Retribution set.

121/82/75 248.4lb 96 mg/DL
Week to Week 3.2lb
Total Weight Loss 79.6lb
Body Mass Index 35.64

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 74 - Coffee

So the increase in water intake does a number on my weight.  I'm no longer constipated, and I actually loose a whole tons of weight.  I actually managed to finish the whole grill chicken sandwich for lunch yesterday (over ate again) san the bread.  But the pasta salad, I was able to process without issue.  And to finish up the steak I bought a couple of weeks back, I had one for dinner yesterday with half of a brown onion.

Not sure if I mentioned before in this blog that I like drinking coffee.  I don't do recreational drug.  I don't smoke.  I don't drink alcohol.  The things I indulge in life are food and coffee.  With the WLS, food isn't a crutch I used to reward myself or to calm myself down.  I literally don't have the stomach for it.  Coffee is another matter.  I haven't had coffee since 2 days prior to surgery.  Unlike other people in my office who also drink coffee regimentally, I don't get withdraw headache.  But seeing how for the past 4 years, I've been roasting my own coffee bean, gone through 2 automatically espresso machines, 2 coffee bean roaster, not drinking coffee is hard.  I spend a lot of money building up the my gears, and it's currently sitting fallow.  Well, the roaster is currently fallow, my brother is using the espresso machine.  Other than the cake, I have been able to tolerate everything that I've tried (pasta salad, green onion pancake).  Perhaps I should talk to my nutritionist about allowing coffee.

On the other news, I learn from yesterday that President Obama will be coming to Los Angeles.  Not only to go to the Coliseum, but to Glendale.  As it turns out, he'll be across the street from my office.  Needless to say, I work from home to avoid the traffic problem.

120/80/64 271lb 100 mg/DL