Fiddleman

Interesting, interesting. You are right, I do not contract the stomach out of design when doing the flow of poses. I am just trying to keep up with the class. My resolve is only 1 hot yoga a week until I get better at it. Will do the less intense classes 3 times a week. For example Yin or Vinyasa flow or Hatha. Still learning technique as just started. Maybe someday I will build a little Yoga refuge in my background once I am good at it and not needing an instructor. Anyone who lives in the Woodinville, WA area want to join me as a yoga buddy at Balance Yoga? Be nice to know someone in the class. I usually go on M, W, F in the after around 4:30 pm and Sat in the morning at 9:30 am. During the week, Yoga is opposite in the day from running in the morning. On sat, I am training for 1/2 by running longer and longer distances in afternoon. I found doing Yoga after Cross Fit is too tiring so avoid practicing Yoga on T and Th.

Or better, see if you can eat a gotta have it cold stone ice cream without major diarrhea or throwing up. For sure, your experiment would yield dumping and mad running for the bathroom. Lol! Who volunteers? You could even pick something extra sweet like Founders with extra caramel, extra brownie and cake batter ice cream. And gotta have it is about a pint in size.

Just eat 5-6 ounces of chicken until you are full and the try to eat some raw veggies. Pretty sure you will slime.

BTB - unfortunately, I know exactly what you mean with the sleeve not helping with restriction on certain foods. My vice right now are Protein bars. I eat too many of them. Maybe I need to not eat any *at all* because they always seem to trigger a desire for another one. And I give in. All the time. It might be best just to go back to Protein shakes in order to avoid eating too many calories from these. Throw them away or hide them in my garage. Right now they are in my home office where I work and very easy to grab. I miss the easy days when it was hard to eat and even a Protein Bar did not go down well. It is too easy to eat for the last 3-4 months (month 6 and later) and there are not many roadblocks from the stomach unless I am eating very solid protein like chicken and/ or raw veggies. I do try and eat like like this, but have grown really fond of scarfing a protein bar after a hard workout. Bad habit. My family, fortunately, has been really supportive about helping me eat right post op. This includes immediate as well as extended family. However, I do have to say my extended family really ate and ate over Easter dinner. Really astonishing to watch. Also I do not buy that we maintainers need to exercise religiously just to live a normal life of eating, with some indulgences. I do not see thin people doing this. I happen to like hard exercise for the sake of fitness, but not for the sake of erasing an indulgence here or there. That seems insane because a person can never exercise enough to keep up with calorie in. Been there and done that in the past. It does not work. I am not saying I have this problem. However, I am saying I do not want to find myself in this epic exercise / food battle because I know what will happen. Not going there. Nope. For now, I just need to lay off the Protein Bars. They are too addicting for me to have in close quarters. Maybe this is just a phase that shall pass. I hope so. Sorry for the additional rant on this rant thread.

What the heck? Why on earth would she tempt you in that way when she should know better. Frustrates me reading that. Grrr. I would get them out of sight as not to be tempting. Some people just do not understand...and she is family no less. I am going to give Fyre permission to go after her. Lol.

I buy the BA chews off Amazon too, but they are actually 5 dollars cheaper from the WLS Center I belong to and no shipping costs. The problem is that the WLS Center is not open on the weekend when the support group meets and it is an hour for me to drive there otherwise. I suppose the cost of gas would balance everything out so will just keep ordering on Amazon.

I think I matched all 7 leading indicators 11 months ago so means I am still a raving food addict. Gotta make it 1 more month...

Thanks, you have touched on it exactly. Sigh. So much to learn and get better at.

I second nominating Dr McMahon from the Swedish WLS Center. Overall, a really great experience from initial consult to post op 9 months next week. The whole staff is wonderful and really care about your success in a positive manner.

You can buy the Ostrim from GNC and online from Amazon.

Yes, you can actually eat there and not blow you post op eating plans. Look at their 550 calories or less menu. There are wonderful options full of taste from many different spices and flavor. There is enough to make 2-3 meals depending on post op time after DOS within the solids phase. Yummy!

Cross over Addiction is a very real and sometimes extremely private thing. I took too many pain killers after surgery because I enjoyed the effects ( at the time). It was my little secret until I shared with my wife. That was a very difficult thing to admit to. Sometimes I still think about them, but have gotten over that, for now. Everyone likes the physical process that occurs when the dopamine receptors receive the chemical dopamine from various external stimuli. Is addiction as I described here genetic? Not sure. However I do know I like the release of endorphins in my system so will stick to exercise related activities for now instead of substances, even if it is a little over the top. It is helping me achieve fitness goals, almost daily, which translate into other areas of my life. I am finally getting out there and living. Might I add that squats have been shown to release a lot of endorphins. Go low and get the warm and fuzzies.

MrsG - With all due respect: what is normal? Normalcy lies in the eye of the beholder. My pontification of the day. Lol. A simple example is a motorcycle that races past a bystander at a 100 mph will seem incredibly fast. If that same bystander were on a platform also moving 100 mph, the motorcycle would appear to not be moving. It all depends on your perception of things. Physics 101 stuff, but abstractly applies to my discussion about perception and point of view. And Laura, I know it is hard for you to keep coming back to that painful memory about your brother. It is very hard. I understand. Know that your story is helping someone. Maybe even a lot of someones. We are put through individual tribulation and to go through certain circumstances to heal those around us as difficult as that seems. Each one of us probably has a similar story to tell. Not of the same circumstances, but of the same depth of despair. Talking about it is part of the healing process.

Most doctors will say wait until week six when you are past risks from healing phase. Not completely past risks, but far enough. The caffeine may irritate your stomach or it may not. Good to ask your doctor. I started drinking coffee again at week 6, but my NUT said we never had to give it up. Oh well, better to be safe then sorry as they say.

I do not think that they do from my experience with it. The gelled seeds also provide a hidden cache of Water when you are working out.

OK yoga gurus. Question for you. I went to my power yoga ( "hot yoga") yesterday and starting last night my back is so sore, mostly in the midrange. Is this from lack of correct posture or perhaps lack of strength? I know my posture is far from perfect, but it is improving the more I do this. I am on my rest day today and am going to go heat it in the sauna for a while. Any other suggestions? It was a really hard yoga class, but I made it some how to the end. Without dying. Lol. I found out afterwards that the instructor for that class is known to be hard core in terms of physical activity during the session. What am I getting myself into? Lol. Next power yoga session will be easier I hope. I am so envious of all the other yoga students that are hardly sweating (not all, but most) and can do all these weird contortions of their bodies while resting on their hands alone. I am still learning all the basic moves. Maybe some day I will be able to do the hand stands. Such power they have!! I was surprised that many of them were making a lot of effort grunts and moans near the end, especially during the final 200 bike exercises (elbow to knee fast with abs burning on fire!!) Going to get in some more Yin and Hatha before next power yoga torture session. Lol. For me, power yoga is harder then running a fast 10 k and dare I say cross fit (close tie)! But the after effects are so worth it!

I guess we guys have a little codification as well in our clothing. "casual" and "Big and Tall" mean extra large for us. Could be 2x - 6 x. "Long" and "Wide" are also for larger men usually applied to button dress shirts and shoes, respectively. By the way, the only place I have seen sizes greater then 4 x have been at Hilo Hatie in Kauai, HI. 1x is still deemed socially normal for men. Lol. Not fair right? You will find 1x and maybe even 2x in almost any store as these are socially still regular sizes for men. Not sure I agree with this regular size treatment of 1x and 2x size any longer. I am now getting an appreciation for the regular men's size of S-L. Maybe my mindset is shifting and I am on the other side now. That being said, I do have empathy for those that struggle with weight when I see them in public. I try not to treat them any differently and often go out of my way to brighten their day with a smile.