massindex

I posted my success story over here: http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/topic/67034-here-is-what-the-local-paper-had-to-say-about-my-success-story/ I was 437 and now I'm 185. You can read the article in the link and listen to the radio round table I did here if you have any questions. http://www.knpr.org/son/archive/detail2.cfm?SegmentID=9672&ProgramID=2699

Way to go!!! Now you guys can get thinner chasing each other around!

Take it step-by-step. Even if you are denied you can appeal and your doctor can help you manage that process. They are very good at 'structuring' and 'interpreating' the data to meet insurance requirements. Don't go this alone and work directly with the doctor.

Do you have other factors such high blood pressure, sleep apnea or diabetes?

I'm reading this and kind of chuckling to myself. I know I'm a little 'compulsive' when it comes to things I really want, too. It really won't matter all that much whether you have everything you think you need. You'll adapt and I can tell you'll succeed because this is something you really ready for. Let me just say - You'll screw up :-) This is a tool we have to help us from screwing up too bad. Part of the reason we have failed in the past is that once we screwed up, we beat ourselves up so badly that we set ourselves up for further failure. We are only human and less than perfect. You will do great. Keep focusing long term and you'll succeed.

Here is the link to the NPR Radio Show. You can use the player directly on the page to play it. http://www.knpr.org/...&ProgramID=2699

NPR is National Public Radio

Color Run's are a blast! Really enjoy it!

Welcome! First suggestion - throw out the scale! Not really but you will have stalls and they will seemingly last forever. Stick to the plan and you will be successful. Enjoy your life and rock your sleeve!

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2013/jan/28/marathon-runner-mark-noel/ Shortly after this story was published, I was contacted by NPR to participate in a round table discussion. During the course of the 45 minutes we were on the air, we discussed my journey and whether weight loss surgery was the answer for many people. I was on with the head of UCLA's Bariatric Surgery unit and discussed the VSG and other options for people with weight issues. As soon as the podcast is available, probably tomorrow, I'll post a link to it and you can down it. It was hard to come 'out of the closet' to tell everyone about my surgery. Even now there are comments that somehow I'm weak for having the surgery and not doing this on my own. As the doctor on the show pointed out, 97-99% of the people who try to do this on their own without surgery will fail and likely gain even more weight. Without addressing all the issues, you are setting yourself up for failure. Enjoy my story... Mark (massindex)

Podcast should be ready tomorrow. I'll post a link to it.

He's still in Bonn, Germany but moves over to ANU in Canberra in September.

I believe there there is. I'll follow up and let you know. Spent many months in Australia and my son hasaccepted a post-doc research position down under. Where you at?

Here is the link to the teaser: http://www.knpr.org/son/archive/detail2.cfm?SegmentID=9672&ProgramID=2699

I believe it's local to Las Vegas but they do stream it. I'm scheduled from 10-10:40 am Pacific. http://www.knpr.org/common/listen.cfm

PdxMan - Please feel free to post a thread to the article. I'll follow it up tomorrow. National Public Radio invited me to a 40 minute round table discussion tomorrow on the air to discussion my journey, weight-loss surgery, exercise and obesity with a bunch of experts. They might kick my butt on the air but I can take them in a 5K or longer!

PdxMan is da man where carbs count! He helped me to obtain this goal!!!

I've done four half marathons and an Ironman in the last year and I don't think I'm ready yet for minimalist shoes yet. I tried them once and since most of my running is on streets, I felt the jarring on my feet a lot more than my Asics. Good luck with them though.

Go ahead and get it and look at it this way. I have to go in to the DMV because I've been stopped the last four times by TSA at the airport because my picture (taken when I was at my heaviest) doesn't look like me now. I was also detained at customs for one hour because my passport ID picture doesn't look me a few weeks ago when I came back from Europe. It's money I'd gladly spend. You'll need to do this also in the future!

Forget it about it. Your body will go up and down. It wants to grab on to every calorie and pound and retain it. This creates stalls and it will happen many times in this process. If you are following the process, you will lose weight. Keep your head up.

That's how the old saying goes. I've decided to change this up and put my feet where others money is... I signed up for a Make-A-Wish 5K run fundraiser and put it out there that for each $50 donated above $100, I'd run an additional 5K. One week into the donation period and my family decided to punish me! I'm now running a marathon with more than $500 in donations. Signed up to run the Surf City Marathon in Huntington Beach, CA the day after the Make-A-Wish 5K here in Las Vegas. I've take the last month off after doing the Ironman 70.3 World Championships and a half marathon the following week so it's time to get my butt in gear and back on road. This should be interesting. New nutrition requirements and challenges. I'll post my challenges as I face them.

So this isn't an easy answer. There are several types of muscles, most notably fast twitch and slow twitch muscles. Fast twitch muscles are for explosive utilization like jumping, sprints and powerlifting heavy weights. Generally, these muscles require more time to recover between workouts. The slow twitch muscles are designed for endurance activities like jogging and they take less time to recover. Also, the more intense your workouts are, the more time you need for recovery. Your list of activites look like they geared to fast twitch muscles which means longer recovery periods are required. If anything, I'd take your Thursday activity (Zumba) and move it to a slow twitch activity like jogging or walking. That's my take...

I do 'bricks', which are two events back to back, five days a week and take two days off each week to recover. I open Water swim two days a week, bike three days and run five days (it's my worst event). I do add in some weight training but not enough. I'm going to revise my schedule since the season is coming to an end and focus a little more on core training.

My runs started with walking but I was around 265 when started trying to put together some motion that resembled running. This went well for a while until I started to bonk on my runs. PdxMan pointed out that my nutrition/diet had no carbs in it so I started adding them back in. That's been doing the trick. I just finished the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in 100 degree weather a few weeks ago and then came back a week later with PR in a half marathon. Thanks, PDxMan, btw!

I swim 5 miles per week, bike 100-150 miles per week and run about 30 miles per week on average, sometimes more and sometimes less as I taper into a race. Lately it doesn't feel like it's enough since my times are plateauing. I'm going start cutting back on the quantity and focus more on the quality of the workout in the future.