Finally making some progress

After visiting the health insurance office twice in three days and spending almost $600 in out-of-pocket medical expenses in a week we're finally heading in a positive direction toward getting bariatric surgery. It was refreshing to get some honest answers out of the insurance company representative. They told us that insurance will cover the hospital and surgeon but all of the pre-certification testing would not be covered so we are saving in anticipation of more expenses to come. And we saw the dietician and got our six month diet plans for follow-up with our primary care physician. Amy has already lost like 10 pounds and I've had to cinch my belt another notch.

Now we're dealing with learning what a normal amount of food for a day looks and feels like. I've been keeping a food diary for two weeks so far to track my daily calorie intake. Most days are ok. I'm already feeling better. My knees do not hurt as much and I can walk around for more than a few minutes without aching. Just losing a couple of pounds have already made a big change in how I feel. I wonder how much better I'll feel after losing 250 pounds. I remember my high school days in central Florida and we used to go all over the place hiking, swimming, tubing, and biking. It would be amazing to feel like that again. And it will be amazing to be able to keep up with Elizabeth. She is so full of energy and is so much fun. I want to be able to climb up on play sets with her.

The one thing I need to be mindful of is not to take the stress of the diet out on other people. And it is stressful to go from not caring or even thinking about what you are eating to having to read labels and measure and weigh your food and realize you've hit calorie limit for that meal and stop eating even if you do not feel full.

Fortunately, it does not take long for the stomach to catch up with the normal amounts of food and adjust. We even ate out last Saturday night and Amy and I each brought half of the meal home for lunch the next day. It was impressive to Amy that I stopped eating and packaged my dinner without finishing it because I always finish my meal.

I'm excited about this process beginning and I'm looking forward to more good things.