Weight Loss

Enough About the Past

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Now that we’ve got the past covered, I want to talk about why I’ve decided to take on this challenge and why I’ve decided to write about it.

As anyone who has read my previous posts knows, I went through quite an adventure with my health in April of 2016 ending with 8 days in Hospital 4 of which were in the ICU.  I’d love to say that this was all a surprise and i had no way to know that it was coming but that would be a bold faced lie.  I knew i was unhealthy but i was going to deal with that later.  I guess my body decided later wasn’t good enough.

About 2 months into my recovery I started in earnest to work on my physical conditioning.  I started with walking a kilometer and then 2.  I got onto my bike and started getting comfortable again.  Short rides turned into longer rides,longer rides turned into 30km rides.

I started feeling better and by 3 months out of Hospital I was about 90% back to where i was before.  I was also 50 pounds lighter and actually looking after my body. Fast forward to 5 months after i was set free from Royal Jubilee Hospital and I hiked 13 kilometers over a lava field to see Lava flowing into the Pacific.  It was a bit difficult but i was very happy that I was able to complete it with out issue.

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The Aftermath of the Hospital

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I was free except that I had to plan any movements that were more than 4 steps and couldn’t muster the strength to do even the simplest things at home.  Thankfully my mother stayed around until she knew I could fend for myself again.

I had lost 52 pounds in the span of 3 weeks.  Yes 52. I started at 273 pounds according to my weight in at the ER and when I had my 2 week checkup I was a mere 221 pounds.  I should probably let everyone reading this know that I am 6 foot 4 and have a large build to start with.  I had not weighed this little since high school.

Unfortunately when you don’t eat anything of substance for a long period, it’s not just fat that you get rid of.  I was weak and looked physically sick.  In addition as I hadn’t been eating my stomach shrank and when I did feel up to eating I couldn’t get more than a third of what I would normally eat in before I felt full.

I was lucky to have good friends to help me thru this.  Some brought groceries over as my energy wasn’t up to a trip to a store plus with wild swings in blood sugar, driving was ill advised.  Others help me get a bit active to try to build some stamina back.  I would walk short distances and was limited to less than a kilometer a day.  This slowly improved with time.

In the end I was slowly on the mend but slow was the operative word….Painfully slow.