The Apple Watch Is Saving My Life

Over the past several years I’ve had trouble with my weight. I didn’t make the best choices and the amount of time I spent in front of a computer greatly exceeded the amount of time I spent exercising or playing sports. Last July I turned 25 years old (I’ll be 26 in a month), that’s a big birthday. I should be super healthy and fit, but I’m not and I want to change that.

So realizing that I want to be there long term for my family, my friends, and to be able to build my business and watch it grow, I started to consider my options. To start, I signed up for a social soccer league (I was inspired by the World Cup) in the summer and fall and that was fun, I liked playing a lot, but when it was over I found myself back in my old ways.

Now you have to understand, part of my problem is medication that I’ve been prescribed has made it super easy to gain weight and much harder to lose it. That being said, I still knew I needed to do something get healthy. Fast forward to March 2015, I was probably at my heaviest weight that I’ve ever been. Simply walking around NYC became problematic for me, I’d get super sweaty — I hated it. This is the best city in the world and I’m living in it and my weight was making it difficult to fully enjoy. Not cool.

Of all the options I thought about I settled on wanting to get gastric sleeve. That’s when they remove a portion of your stomach and essentially make your entire stomach the size of a hard boiled egg. Some people may see that as an “easy way out,” let me tell you it’s not. So anyway, in March I went to meet with a bariatric surgeon and they explained to me how it all works and after careful consideration I decided this is in fact what I want to do.

As much as I wished I could just set a surgery date and be done with it, that’s not how it works. For the past few months I’ve been going to various doctors to be tested so I could be cleared for surgery. Additionally, many health insurance companies like to see patients show that they can follow a specialized diet (and lose weight) before they approve surgery. So while all the doctors visits were happening I had to start changing my diet/lifestyle/eating habits. Thankfully, I have a super supportive girlfriend who helped me so much along the way.

We started cooking at home more, we started going to the gym 2-4 times per week, I signed up for another soccer league, I cut back on snacks (and if I did have a snack I made a smart choice), and I cut out my two loves (completely): diet coke and orange juice.

I started to lose weight. It was so cool to see! Then I got my Apple Watch and I started to be aware of how many calories I was burning per day, how active I was being, and had a great way to track workout progress. The Apple Watch truly has helped keep me on track with my plan to get gastric sleeve surgery. I’d probably be struggling without it. Since late March/April I’ve lost 22lbs. I’m already feeling awesome. I can run faster/better than I have in years. I feel strong during soccer. It’s great!

I still have a long way to go but this week I was given my scheduled surgery date: July 1 2015 (health insurance company still has to approve so fingers crossed). So on Wednesday I started my liquid diet (2 protein shakes per day as meal replacements and then one regular meal). I have to do this for two weeks — until the surgery. This is to reduce the size of your liver, accelerate weight loss, and make the surgery easier to do. After the surgery, I’ll be on a complete liquid diet for three weeks and then I get to eat pureed food, yay! Slowly but surely I’ll be able to make my way back to solid food.

Once I’m back to regular solid food, I’ll be able to eat like I am now (smartly), I’ll just eat much less. At that point my biggest concern will be if I go out to a restaurant and it looks like I barely ate that they will think something was wrong with the food — talk about first world problems!

So with all that said who wants to be my first lunch/dinner budd(ies)?

Update 8/9/15: I had the surgery as planned on July 1 and have now lost 51lbs (in total since March)! Additionally, I found out that my liver is no longer fatty! I will continue to update this post as I progress on my journey.

Update 9/1/15: As of today I have officially lost 60lbs! Overall, I lost 30lbs prior to surgery and 30lbs after surgery (so far).