June 2004 Archives

I called the surgeon this morning and scheduled an appointment to meet. August 4th was the earliest available. I was a bit disappointed that it would be another month but I gave them my info and that was it. This afternoon the doctor office called back and offered me an appointment next week. The nurse said after talking to the doctor about my case they decided to move me up. Supposedly they will be able to operate within a week of my appointment.

And for those of you wondering if this has anything to do with my low carb diet. Yeah, it probably does. Doesn't that stink? Here is a bit of Dr. mumbo jumbo from the atkins site.

Well it is official, I am planning a party. It will be a two fold celebration. October 2, will be a year since I started loosing weight and October 12, will be my 35th birthday so I am gonna celebrate. Celebrate my weight loss and celebrate the beginning of the second half of my life(healthier, thinner life).

So to keep myself motivated and have something to look forward to in the last few months of my weight loss the party planning is on! I have some amusing ideas and promise it should be an interesting evening. So mark your calendars(October 8, 2004 at 6:30pm). Details will follow.

Went to my mom's house today and power washed her deck, two ramps and her wooden swing set. After it dries we will go put a finish coat in a few days. It was good to spend the day at her house and for my kids to spend time playing with their grandma.

Had my ultrasound this morning. Things went fine. However it did seem at the end of the test that the technician wanted to take a few extra shots. This alerted me a bit but since technicians will not comments on what they see I knew I had to wait to hear form the doctor. The tech said the doctor would have results back to me by the middle of next week at the latest.

Well by 3pm Dr. Sherpa called. My gallbladder has some big stones in it and he asked me to pick a surgeon and have it removed in the near future. Not what I wanted to hear, but such is life.

Still struggling with food urges, once again they are not physical as much as mental. I suppose I am still reeling from eating a bunch of low carb ice cream last week. I am thinking that the sweet taste has triggered my urges for sweet comfy food. I pray this will go away soon.

On another note we finally bought a new sofa today. It has been a long time in coming. Our other sofa bit the dust a few months ago. New sofa gets delivered on friday.

Went to the Dr. today for my 3 month check up. My blood tests were all great my triglycerides were 80, my cholesterol was 190 and my blood sugars were 84. My blood pressure was normal. All good results. The only thing the doctor was concerned about was my bilirubin count. My bili has been moderately high for the last year but in the last three months it has almost doubled. A high bili count is nothing to be alarmed about but it can point to a few bigger issues usually liver or gallbladder issues. The doctor has asked me to get an ultra sound to rule out any major problems. So friday I will get an ultrasound and see what happens.

Been having a hard time with my low carb diet for the past few days. I have been craving food, not that I have a physical hunger but for some reason my mental hunger has kicked back in.

I have been finding it harder to ignore a few specific foods like ice cream, oreo cookies, peanut butter & chocolate pudding. It has been 9 months since i have limited my carbs and have tried to take my eating habits under control. I am surprised at how hard it still is to control my eating urges at times.

3.6m 45m -82.3t

For the last four years we stayed at 1212 Central. Right behind the Vacation House was a cool little water ice shop name Jakes. Just about every night of the week we would stroll over to Jakes and get some ice cream. After some time we got to know the man who owned the place and his oldest son. They are good people to talk to and their friendship was jsut as welcomed as their ice cream.

It is hard to believe we could spend a week at the shore without visiting Jakes.
Today as we were packing to leave, Shelly asked me if we could stop at Jakes and get some ice cream for old time's sake. I couldn't argue cause I felt bad we hadn't stopped by. So before crossing the bridge out of town we drove down Asbury and stopped at Jakes. Sure enough Jake was outside and his son was working the window.

It had not occurred to me that they might not recognize me. I talked to the father like he knew me but after a short conversation I felt like he didn't have a clue. So I stepped up to the window and placed my order with his son. We talked as he got my wife's ice cream ready. He chatted with me like I was familiar but it was only when I got ready to pay that he figured out who I was.
He asked me about my weight loss and was pretty flabbergasted.

Every once in a while it is cool to run into someone who hasn't seen me since the beginning of my weight loss. I get to live for a moment in their eyes and see my weight loss as an achievement. To be honest, most of the time I am so caught up in my daily struggle to loose weight that I rarely see the big picture or feel good about where I have come from. So it was nice to see my weight loss fresh through someone else's eyes. And it was good to see our friends at Jakes.

My sister Cindy and her husband left last night, they went home and took Grandma Rutter with them. We had fun with them while they were here. I wish they would spend the whole week. But half a week is better than none. We spent yesterday afternoon playing on the beach. Shelly & Cindy took the girls out in the water. The girls spent a good amount of time Boogie Boarding.

Today Ji & his family arrived. It was good to see them. It has been more than 6 months since we saw them last and our kids were excited to see their kids and we were glad to spend some time with them. After going to the boardwalk for a short time we played carcassone. It is good to have the chance to spend time with them.

It was a dreary day at the beach. Kinda cloudy and windy with a threatening look of rain. We decided to go out to eat, but where? So we started looking through menus & flyers to find a good place to eat. Finally a small ad for the rain forest cafe caught my eye.

When we were in Disney world two years ago we ate at a rain forest and had a good meal in a fun atmosphere. So we decided to give the rain forest cafe a try. The rain forest was located in Atlantic City next to Trump Plaza. When I called and got directions I was instructed to park in the Trump Plaza parkign garage and make our way to the board walk.

Everything went easy until we got parked and realized that in order to get my mom and her wheelchair to the boardwalk we needed to plow through the casino in order to catch an elevator. (The rest of the options were escalators)

I had never been in a casino before in my life. It was a bit amusing and scary. I also had never seen more old people in my life, not even in a nursing home. All those bright flashing lights and sounds didn't cover up the desperation I saw in some of the people's faces.

Anyway, once in the cafe we had a great time, good food and fun atmosphere with lots of gorillas, monkeys, elephants, butterflies & tropical rain storms. If you have a chance to try it the rain forest is a fun place to eat.

Well I have been planning on taking a break form my low carb diet while on vacation. But I decided not too at the last minute. I know I am free to leave my low carb lifestyle anytime I want, but I am pretty determined to spend the week without carbs.

I thought I might regret my decision but for now I am not. Today we went to Sweet Impressions, after spending a few hours at the Cape May Zoo. To my surprise Sweet Impressions carried 4 different flavors of low carb ice cream with 3 net carbs in each . I tired moose tracks and raspberry swirl.

Well I fell in love with moose tracks. Very yummy and worth the 3 carbs. Now I just need to find low carb moose tracks near our house. So if anyone sees it at the store. drop me a note. So I can buy it.

So Sweet Impressions and Moose tracks made my Low Carb week at the shoe much easier. IF you get down on route 9 in NJ. I reccommend sweet impressions. They are the best!

Got up at 6am took showers fed ruth and packed into the suburban and was on the road to meet up with the others by 8:30. Then onto the shore. We made it to Somers Point by noon and decided to eat at TGI Fridays for lunch. I had there bunless double cheeseburger. It was served with some sort of alien looking salad. I didn't touch it. Overall my burgers were good but the service stank. Too bad cause I like Fridays.

Stopped at our realtor's office. They are good people, very fast and efficient. I walked in spoke my name and had my keys and info about 30 seconds later. (looking for a beach house rental in nj? check out our realtor website http://www.ocnj.com). This is a new house for us this year. For the past few years we have been staying close to the boardwalk in a 4 bed 2 1/2 bath house. It has served us well but it was time for a change.

This year I asked the realtor about houses that do not have stairs. In case you do not know, most houses in OCNJ need to be atleast 6 feet off the ground. This requires you to walk up stairs to get in the house. Since mom's legs aren't getting any better it was time to find a house without stairs to climb. The solution our realtor came up with was an elevator. So we moved to a house on 34th street with an elevator. So far the house looks like it will fit our needs and I hope it will give mom the extra advantage of not having to climb stairs.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Today was one of them. I can not deal without good home made pork rinds any longer. I called the Kettle Corn Hut at Cabelas and found out that they were making cajun pork rinds tonight. They held four bags for me. We packed everyone in the suburban and headed for pork land. When we got there they were packing up for the night and the guy sold me my pork rinds and gave me his sample bag. So I ate half a bag for supper. Life is good.

Went to the Y and got measured for Body Fat today. I was not pleased with my results. I did drop another percent in body fat so I am heading int he right direction. However, Somehow according to the measurments I also lost 6lbs of muscle. Six pounds of muscle! Holy Smokes. For the alst few months of bpdy fat measurements I have held my own or gained muscle. This is the first time I have lsot muslce. The was and is distresing to me.

It causes me to wonder if my experiment of leaving my weightloss plan for two days and going back to strict atkins has in the mean time left my body eating muscle. Well whatever happpened it no good. I only want to loose fat.

Today for the first time in a week+ I ran. The last 10 days have been hard. It seems like parts of my body have been in rebellion and I have been unable to run. But today I got the job done!

I am also getting my blood work done today. It has been over 8 months since i started loosing weight and it is time to see if I am any healthier. This will be followed by a Dr. Exam when I get back from vacation.

3.6m 44m -78.7t

Sunday Night was great. The youth came over about 5pm. We hung out ate some food and talked about the youth group on Wednesdays. The last two months have been tough with a brand new baby and some scheduling conflicts, but tonight was good.

When we took off for a few Sundays to have Ruth I left them with an assignment to meet separate from us(Shelly & I) and come up with a few goals for our Wednesday Night youth group and once they wrote down the goals they were supposed to come up with some questions they could use to evaluate wether or not we are meeting those goals. Well finally two months later we are getting around to following up on that assignment. Tonight I took those goals and assembled them on a sheet and had each person in the group evaluate our group with three different perspectives. How is our Bible Study living up to those goals, how are the leaders living up to those goals and how is our Youth group in total living up to those goals.

I am excited to see what the surveys have to say about us as a group. We will be taking off for the next three weeks due to vacation, father's day and Creation. So we will meet again in July. My goals for July are to take a look at the results and have a few SUnday Night Group Bible Studies talking about and looking to the Bible for solutions to make our group better. We shall see what happens.

Afterwards we went outside and hung out for about a half hour before it was time to say goodbye. The kids wrestled in our front lawn and played music in the driveway. I couldn't help but to think that my neighbors were amused.

Later, Lyle, Dave, JJ & Bekah came over and played games. It had been awhile since JJ and Bekah were here and it was good to spend some time with them.

Well as predicted the mulch project was stopped short due to heavy rains and a flash flood. So we decided to make the best we could of a rainy Saturday and go shopping. We had gotten some special coupons in the mail from JCPenney and decided we would go see if we could find some deals. Shelly and I both need shoes. I need something other than the one pair of sneakers I own and Shelly needs some comfortable walking shoes. I also have been in need of some good looking T-shirts. My current selection of clothing is sad, and I fear that it could take a long time and a good bit of money to build up my clothing supply so I do not need to keep washing the same outfits over and over again.

So off to JCPenneys, but which one? The regular store in Lebanon or the Outlet Store in Reading? Perhaps both? Well Shelly suggested we go to Lebanon first and check the place out and then go to reading if need be. Then I had an idea, if we go to Reading we need to make a side trip to Cabelas in time for lunch and grab me some pork rinds. This made the whole trip sound worthwhile to me. So off we went.

JCPenney's in Lebanon proved to be amusing. I found a pair of shoes I liked and shelly found some sandals. Then I went to the men' s section and for fun decided to check out the Levi's. (Why this is fun I am not sure, but it was). With my eventual goal of owning a few pairs of Levi's I thought perhaps I should try some on. But which ones? Levi's makes a ton of different jeans. So I took a few educated guesses and grabbed a few pair I thought might fit including a pair of 501 button flys and headed toward the dressing room.

To my surprise I was able to nicely fit into a pair of 501's size 36x30. They were just a hair snug but I imagine that if i loose a few more pounds they will be perfect. This was a monumental moment for me. I know that sounds crazy but in High School 501's were the thing to wear and regretfully I could never have a pair cause i was too big for them. But not anymore, the 501's fit me pretty good and for a moment I considered purchasing them. But Levi's are expensive and I figure I would not wear them for the rest of the summer anyway. So I saved my money for a few pieces of cheaper clothing I can get use out of right now. Also I am not sure that I want to own a pair of button fly jeans, there is a pair of Levi's out there for me. I am just not sure they will have a button fly. I suppose my best bet is to find a store in the fall with a big supply of Levi's and find the Levi number that fits me best.

After Penney's Lebanon we headed to Cabelas for a Pork Rind feast. I have been thinking about these pork rinds for a few weeks now and the cravings are getting stronger daily. The closer we got to Cabelas the stronger the taste of Pork Rinds got in my mouth. We finally arrived at Cabelas, arriving at the store was like an approach to Disney World. The driveway is a multiple lane highway filled to capacity with cars streaming into the parking lot which was sectioned and marked like an amusement park parking lot so customers can find there car after spending there whole day looking a outdoor gear.

I waisted no time and pulled up to the front of the store and went to the little Kettle Korn Hut and waited in line in the rain for five minutes. When I got to thee counter I found out they ran out of Pork Rinds yesterday and that there new shipment had not made it to them on time. BOOOO HOOOO. What an awful thing. I finally begged the people behind the counter for a phone number so I could call them and ask before making the drive again. MAJOR Disappointment.

After Cabelas, it was a short trip to the Reading JCPenneys. There I found a few new T-shirts and to my amusement I found one in size Large that I was able to wear. My guess it was cut big to begin with(I am really a XL). But since I haven't worn a Large shirt since my Middle School days I was amused and bought it($4.99). This left me feeling better about my trip to Reading.

Despite my body ailments & pain, this evening was mulch night. The only good news is shoveling mulch does not involve sitting. I borrowed Doug & Cindy's Truck, a Beautiful Black Ford F250 extended Cab(Making my Mennonite neighbors jealous, I am sure.) Managed to get 4 scoops of mulch distributed to flower beds around our house before nightfall. Bad news is it is supposed to rain all day tomorrow and we probably need another 2 scoops of mulch to finish the job.

Mulching became a family work project this year. The kids saw the mountain of mulch on the truck and had the need to climb and conquer. I gave them toy sand shovels and rake and put them on the back of the truck. As I scooped off the back they kept push and digging the mulch so i could reach it. They worked hard doing two full truckloads of mulch before getting tired. When they were done they were covered with mulch from head to foot and stained black from the damp wood. (I should have taken pictures) I took a very long time to get them cleaned up. I even had to use Q-tips to get some mulch dust out of Caleb's ears. Not sure how it got in there.

I feel bad for my wife because every year that we get mulch we some how run short and something doesn't get done. This year I was gonna make her happy and do everything, but the rain will stop me dead in my tracks.

Yeah Baby, as if foot pain, gout, and stomach cramps over the past week were not enough to keep me in pain and crabby. I got my first dose of Hemorrhoids in my life. And yes, even though I love Atkins and the Low-carb lifestyle, I am blaming them. Most likely due to a lack of fiber in my diet over the last year.

I know, now you know a little more about me than you wanted too. At least I am not posting pictures. Your welcome.