Fiddleman

I bought a relatively new Eddie Bauer knit top that was labelled as medium on the sale tag at value village. I thought great: nice shirt - it is going to fit well as medium tops fit me well. And I like Eddie Bauer clothing for weekend wear when I can find it. When I got home, my wife told me it was really a size small based on the inside tag . I put it down, bummed and forgot about it for a few days. I "found" it again a few days later when looking for a warm comfy shirt to wear and put it on, forgetting that this was a small size. It fit nicely. Just right. I get downstairs and my wife reminds me that i was wearing the "small" shirt from value village. I thought, wow - since when does small fit me. It felt just like a medium in the other tops I wear. Eddie Bauer must run their cuts larger. Regardless, it is kind of neat I fit into a small top comfortably, even with my athlete upper body shape. Perfect fit.

great idea! I went to check if either my ON casein or ON Hydrobuilder has HMB in it. Unfortunately, answer is no (as far as I can tell unless it is renamed as something I do not recognize. Both do have luecine which, again, is a precursor to the HMB. I am not sure if luecine is going to produce the same results as HMB according to research done so far. Wish I knew the answer to that because I do load up from leucine daily in between xtend and the ON products mentioned above.

The episodes are not on demand for direct tv, but it does look like they repeat the episodes often. I set up to record the series for when penny's story comes around again. I've only watch an episode about Melissa.

How has HMB been working out so far? And ZMA? As an aside, have you watched buff dudes on you tube? These videos are really helpful and I can only imagine how the sups would make it even better. I do not do these isolation exercises that so many gym guys are into, but man, I respect what they can accomplish both aesthetically and functionally. I love the episode about the 5 exercises to improve the performance of the back. Very practical for me in order to understand which muscles I need to strengthen to get more power out of cross fit.

There was a vampire working in the clinic today because they took 10 large vials of blood for doing a WLS full lipid, vita, endo, etc panel review. The lab nurse was kind of surprised actually. I was so hungry because the clinic did not open until 9 am and last meal was 9 pm night before. If someone touched me with a feather, I think I would have passed out right there. Lol. Did they take that much blood from you on your reviews? I half expected the flow to stop after 5 vials, but no, it kept flowing. Honestly, I think they were taking extra for some research or something.

Bring the snow and cold back to PNW! I was pretty cold all the time between month 5-10 and stayed warm by wearing thick gloves everywhere (even in the grocery store), by running a space heater in my home office and by burying myself under blankets. I hardly get cold anymore after 10 months (now 18 months). In fact, my body has figured out how to even stay warm in sub freezing temperatures, especially after working out. I like that my body knows how to regulate temperature again.

Get really good at walking before you think about gym or class aerobic stuff. Most doctors will save 6 weeks as there is a lot of healing that needs to occur before then.

i was too busy watching Katy perry sacrifice herself. Man, the Grammys have gone off the deep end this year...

or it will eat muscle. Munch. Munch.

I like to carb it up 2 hours before a workout. It helps to prepare the muscles for the energy they need while going hard.

I did a little research yesterday on ZMA as I have heard of it, but have never looked into it. So it seems to be a very particular blend of zinc, magnesium and B-6 which promises up to 43% improvement in protein synthesis. That is a fairly heavy claim. One detail that I picked up on is that ZMA uses magnesium aspartame and not magnesium citrate. I wonder what the difference is. I use magnesium citrate in the natural calm product I take. If anyone that is more chemically minded knows the answer, please share.

Buy the 90 serving tub from Amazon at around 50.

I am not sure this should be in fitness or nutrition. Apologies if it is in the wrong forum. I work out hard daily and sweat out a lot of Water but do not take in a lot of electrolytes nor do I add salt much to food. I got really bad leg cramps at the end of a hard workout today where I had trouble completing the jumping part of the workout. My diet is mostly low sodium , a lot of lean Protein, protein shakea and veggies. I take Vitamins and do supplement with magnesium and some potassium to balance Calcium daily. I do not know how to add sodium / iodine to my diet to avoid this cramping from loss of fluids. I do not have electrolyte drinks readily available. I always thought consuming extra salt was a bad thing from conventional wisdom (water retention, hardening of arteries, heart concerns etc). How can I safely increase sodium in a practical way? Just sprinkle salt in water? I am not used to adding extra salt to food.

I went on Netflix today and watched the story about Melissa. It was good. However, I cannot find penny or any other episodes. Are they on Netflix? If not, I will try looking on direct TV TLC on demand.

Just wait until you are a year post op and more. You will be able to drink a lot, especially if you are very active. I still do not like plain water much at 18 months, but will drink it that way if I must (tap or bottle). My water intake is about 2.5 liters daily and about right considering my activity and current weight. I flavor it every time though. By the way, water is my only liquid. I remember struggling to drink an ounce 3 days after surgery and look how far I have come. It will take months / years to build up, so do tale your time. I think at 6 months my intake was about 120 oz a day.

From a pragmatic viewpoint, what is the difference between sitting with your feet on a squatty potty and sitting with your feet resting on a pile of books or something else that is the same height? Might as well save 35 dollars.

What do you think would be a good amount of Water daily for an active cross fit guy? Working out intensely requires a lot of water for healthy liver and kidney function, especially when we take in a large amount of Protein for building muscle. I've read .03-.04 L per kg of weight for active guys that are body building or highly active in something like cross fit daily. I weigh 81.6 kg (180 #) so that is about 2.5 -3.3 L. There are 33.8 Oz in a liter. That equates to a range of 204 - 276 oz per day for my weight. If we divide that range by 32 oz then that equates to 6.4 - 8.6 fills a day. Filling my bottle 7 x a day falls right in the medium. Keep in mind that filling me bottle 7-8 x feels " natural" and idid this based on instinct, not on the calculation I just performed. However, it is helpful to see that my instinct and the calculation are not that far off.

I think for me it was also a combination of things, but the most prevalent was a daily feeling of wondering if "today" was my last day. It was not a healthy mental place to be. I had the usual sleep apnea, high blood pressure and pre-diabetes that come along with a person of my size @ 360. I was having chest pains. On top of that I was depressed all the time. Secondarily, I hated the way people treated me as a second class person (no eye contact, blatant discrimination etc), the way I made people uncomfortable in the air plane )hated asking for the extension belt) and how difficult some basic activities were (tying shoes, wiping a** and washing places that were hard to reach). And finally, I had given up on doing the latest diet as had done so many. Some were quite successful like Atkins (dropped 100 #), moderately successful like WW (Dropped 60#) and not successful at all (hypnosis, hoodia, diet pills). I knew another diet scheme (green coffee bean diet was all the rage at the time, I think) was not going to help me even if I could lose weight with it. I still had some fundamental food issues that needed to be resolved before a "diet" was going to help me long term. Yes, it was definitely a combination of things. Taking control of my health, my relationship with food and my fitness was one of the better decisions in my life and I will be around to share many years with my family. I am a much happier person and have energy to do so much more. I have maintained a healthy and fit BMI for about 1 year now. I am looking forward to the rest of my life at this weight due to a toolbox OD good habits thanks to the help of VSG during the first 6 months.

The interesting thing about HMB is that it is a metabolite of l-luecine. And you know that l-leucine is prevalent as one of the BCAA in the xtend product (3500 mg is l-leucine per serving). Post your findings in 5 weeks or so and let us know what it has done for you. I would be interested to know if taking the metabolite of l-leucine, in fact, makes a noticeable difference in advanced Protein synthesis. See if you can measure your lean muscle mass before and after in order to have a quantitative means to demonstrate effectiveness.

Agree, no caffeine. xtend is the best amino supplement out there! Tastes good too.

I had 1/2 a banana yesterday with som Justin's PB before my workout Seriously, I have just gotten in the habit of eating this way as a post op. It is like breathing air for me. I do not have any desire to eat fruit, bread, dairy stuff. It just does not appeal to me any longer. Nor do I consume sugar (takes some will power at times) or levels of sodium not found already in a food item (try to keep it low though). I eat Protein and veggies every opportunity I get. I do drink a heck of a lot of Water to support a clean system. I think on average I fill my 32 oz bottle 7-8 x a day.

Wishing you all the luck on your workout GT! Be safe.

you can buy theanine from liftmode either directly or off Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/L-Theanine-Grams-1-76-Pure-FBA/dp/B0093UHQPA/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1390748954&sr=8-4&keywords=Theanine Cheap stuff and lasts a long time. A good dose for nootropic support is 200 mg. This is essentially one scoop. The best way to take it is to add to your Water. It does not have much taste. I usually combine it with 50 mg of caffeine to leverage the synergy from combining the two. The caffeine with activate the receptors in the brain so that the theanine can be better absorbed once it passes through the BBB (blood brain barrier). However, depending on your doctors instructions about caffeine (mine had no restrictions), you may or may not want to add the caffeine. Caffeine plus theanine is considered the most basic of nootropic stacks and will help almost anyone with concentration and focus when starting out with this class of supplementation.

Sounds very reasonable based on the following article : http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/beast7.htm

Have not heard about HMB. Will need to research it.