From Couch to Triathlete - A Sleeve Story

[MacMadame 81]

I have chronicled my journey on my blog and encourage anyone who is thinking about either getting a sleeve or training for a triathlon to try it out. But here is a summary of my story:

A little over a year ago, I was in big trouble. I was at my highest weight yet. I had stopped exercising. My blood pressure required medicine to control. I had plantar fasciitis and my allergies (I thought) were out of control. Toward the end, I started to get very bad heartburn that would not respond to medicine. I was getting to the point where I had to sit down to tie my shoes and I was moving less and less. I looked into the future and it was not pretty.

But I didn't know what to do. I had been dieting for 35 years and it obviously hadn't worked. I didn't think I had another diet in me.

Then I ran into my next-door neighbor, who had had WLS about 6 months before. And contrary to the media portrayal of WLS, he had lost weight and looked good -- healthy. This somehow made WLS seem acceptable and I started looking into it.

Like most people I only knew about the band and RnY and I didn't want RnY. So I started researching the band and found LapBandTalk.com. It's a good thing I did because watching what people with bands went through -- normal people who followed the rules and still had problems -- made me more open to other possibilities. Then the long-term studies on the band showing what a high re-surgery rate it had started coming out.

In the meantime, I had learned about ghrelin and how it makes people think they are hungry. That was an "aha" moment for me and I realized that the reason I was hungry all the time was because I had too much ghrelin in me. I wanted a surgery that directly addressed that and the band did not. So I changed my mind and started the process of getting a sleeve.

I was sleeved September 24th and had a hiatal hernia repaired at the same time. As a result, my GERD went away completely. It turned out a lot of my "allergy" symptoms and some weird back pain I was having also went away. They were all caused by the hiatal hernia!

At first my weight loss was slow. I was eating to plan but I was only exercising two days a week. When I went to see my surgeon for my three week check-up, he was not happy with me and told me to exercise more. So I did. I worked my way up to four days a week, but now I had a new problem. Riding the stationary bike four days a week was boring. I wanted to do something else. But I didn't know how to use the machines at the free gym at work. I tried a few of the free classes, but they didn't float my boat.

This is when I felt the treadmills calling to me. I resisted at first. I had never had much luck running before even at lower weights than I was at that point. But I heard about the Couch-to-5K program and people swore by it so I gave it a whirl. And, suddenly, I was running. I was a runner!

This is when another strange thought popped into my head. I had watched the Ironman World Championships (aka as Kona) on tv and thought it looked like a blast. At least when they all jumped in the Water at once and started swimming. And when they staggered out and hopped on their bike and pedaled away. But then the announcer would say "and now they are going to run a marathon" and I'd think "are you freaking kidding me?" That part did not seem like fun at all.

But now I was running. And it wasn't fun exactly, but it was rewarding and, if I could run, I could do a triathlon. Maybe. Some day.

So I started looking into it and found out about the Sprint distance. The swim is only 1/2 a mile, the bike only 13 miles and the run was a 5k. Hey, that sounded completely doable! I signed myself up for one and started training.

At this point, I was still heavy enough to qualify for the Athena division! But the weight was coming off and much faster than at first. Every time my weight loss slowed down, I added in another workout or increased the time of an existing workout. In Feb. I joined a triathlon club and started doing their coached workouts on top of my gym workouts and I started improving much faster than expected.

This is when I did something a bit crazy. It was a week before my first triathlon, so I was completely unproven. But I found out that a friend was flying into town to do a famous -- and tough -- Half-ironman race three weeks later called Wildflower. It was part of a whole weekend of triathlons and I told him I'd come down and cheer him on.

Then I started thinking -- I'm going to be there anyway, why not sign up to race myself? I could do a Mountain Bike version at the Sprint distance I'd been training for, but I had no mountain bike. Or I could do the Olympic Course, which was twice as long. The voice inside my head that coaxed into getting on the treadmill, started whispering "do it, do it"

So I did.

I did my first Sprint tri as planned in April and came in 10 min. faster than my "in my wildest dreams" time. Then two weeks later, I finished Wildflower right in the middle of my expected time window. I had done it -- moved up to the Olympic distance, took on one of the hardest Olympic courses around, and did better than surviving.

Now I felt like a real triathlete. I had challenged myself to do something I wasn't quite sure I could do and I had delivered. I knew at this point that I could do anything I set my mind to do.

In the meantime, I've lost over 100 pounds, my body fat percentage is under 20 and my resting heart rate is under 60. I am also off my blood pressure meds, my plantar fasciitis is in remission -- even with all the running I do -- and I recently stopped taking my allergy meds as well. (I find with the GERD gone I can keep my symptoms in check just with Simply Saline.)

I don't think any of this would have been possible without the sleeve. The band would have made me eat less, sure, but getting rid of my ghrelin did more for me than restrict my food intake. Now instead of having a voice in my head that screams at me to eat and sit down more, I have a voice that whispers to me to get up and move (and do triathlons). It's like a switch flipped in my brain and now I have the brain of an athlete.

I like it and I look forward to where it's going to take me next. Dare I start dreaming about Kona for myself? The voice in my head seems to think so.

[Elisabethsew 50]

You've already proven you can do whatever you set your mind to so I have no doubt you'll do Kona. Reading your blog and now this post convinced me not to wait until the spring to have my knee replacements surgery. I'm doing it in early Sept. and will complete the rehab and use THAT as my starting point to see where I can go. I might not be able to do all you did/do, but I sure will be able to much more than I can now.

[DownInSocal 12]

Your story is such an inspiration to me.

[libguy2753 0]

You are truly an inspiration. What a great story! As a preop, it's hard for me to imagine that transformation. I hope I can be as successful with the sleeve as you were.

[Dragonfairie 0]

MacMadame, I have been following your blog since last year and I must say that you have inspired me. I'm not sure that a triathalon is in my future but I have stepped up the exercise! Thank you so much for sharing!

[Oregondaisy 2,021]

Great Job Mac! Not only are you a great athlete, you're a great writer!

[MacMadame 81]

Great Job Mac! Not only are you a great athlete, you're a great writer!

Thanks! :smile:

[Oregondaisy 2,021]

Mac would you do me a favor and take a look at the thread I started in the food section on rating liquid Protein.

I know you tried quite a few and it would be nice for us to hear your reviews.