Scales and Goals

I was late to work this morning because I was busy trying to figure out how to use my new Christmas present: a body composition scale. It tells you all sorts of information about your body, from weight and fat mass to muscle mass and bone mass, even vascular age and it breaks down your body into sections to show how much muscle and fat mass you have.

My first attempt at using it was all wrong. Turns out, I was using it incorrectly. There's a bar you hold, but you have to keep your arms out away from your body. I'm still overweight, significantly so, and as such, keeping my arms from touching any part of my body while holding the bar will be a challenge. I did my best and tried again. The second, third, and fourth tries all resulted in progressively better results. You can see the body segments below.

Thirty minutes later, after mostly mastering the scale, I looked at my clock and realized, I was late to work. I checked my phone and noticed a text from one of the people on my team. "The lights are flickering in the office. It's creepy." It's a vacation week for many, and she was alone in the building. I texted back, "I'll be there soon, running late. You'll be fine."

I arrived to find a quiet building, no flickering lights, and a safe co-worker. We chatted for a bit, and suddenly I saw a call from my surgery program. Shit! I had an appointment that I forgot about. I answered, they were very polite and asked if I was still able to log onto the Zoom. I apologized, said I could, and signed on. A few minutes later, I was checking in with one of the nurses.

We reviewed my medication list, and she asked how I was doing with the Diet Advancement Stage. I let her know everything was going well. She let me know I have one more week before I can resume strength training; for now, no lifting anything heavier than 25 pounds. We talked about how losing muscle mass is common, and that strength training over cardio is going to be crucial for me on this journey. Fortunately, I've signed on to participate in a twice-weekly strength training program at work. However, she encouraged me to do things at home, too. Resistance bands, even just my own body. Anything to keep my muscles strong. And now, I have my scale to help me track how my muscle mass is doing.

I also got permission to start increasing my portions. I didn't tell her this, but I was kinda doing that already. Listen to my body, stop when I feel my full triggers. That's what I was already doing, but now I can do it more frequently, and not feel like I'm doing something bad. I'm really looking forward to two weeks from now when any [healthy] food is game to try. And, month four means ... I GET COFFEE AGAIN!

What was even more exciting for me, however, was the news that I've already reached 27% of their three-month goal for me; I'm in week 6. I'm ahead of schedule! She warned that plateaus could be coming soon, and not to worry, unless they last for 3-4 weeks; then I need to call them. But, I'm responding really well, and they expect that I'll reach my final goal ahead of schedule. They use the weight I was when I arrived at their program, which I forget right now. But I use my highest weight when calculating my progress, and I'm 43% to my goal weight. Either way you look at it, I'm doing really well, and I'm happy.

Progress Report:

Highest Weight: 366

Surgery Weight: 311

Current Weight: 277

Next Milestone Goal: 263

Goal Weight: 160

Height: 5'2

Age: 43