Fiddleman

Not at all. In fact, they help with maintaining or losing weight by feeding the muscles.

My guess is 31-32 based upon your facial features compared to my SIL.

I used to have this problem several years ago because of bad diet and low fiber. Ended up in the ER the pain was so bad. Haven't experienced it post op at all. It was pretty embarrassing having the nurse manually clear several times after taking a couple bottles of the nasty oily stuff.

As a vet and am close to or have reached goal already, how many of you find yourself making mistakes and unintentionally eati g certain things? Unintentionally may mean too large a portion or the wrong foods despite best intentions and planning. Does being a vet cure us from unintentional eating? No for most I am sure. Not a very deep survey question, but it would be interesting to see the spectrum of answers. You would think being a vet means you have these issues under control. My answer is about once a week I will get the carb cravings and give in to some unintended carb snack. Not anything to derail from, but gives me pause to consider the trigger. For me, I think it is because body needs the glucose (energy) even though daily calories are pretty high. Weight still goes down. It really only hits me about once a week on the weekend (sunday) and usually mid afternoon. It is more of a "gee, can't you just not do that" response even though it does not lead to any weight related concerns.

My wife like to have these hot chocolate Protein drinks almost daily for chocolate fix and at the same time contributing to protein goals.

Most folks end up close to 2000 calories a day after they hit goal. This also assumes some exercise.

The reason why we like chocolate is the little bit of phenylethylamine that it contains. This nuerotransmittor releases norepinephrene and dopamine into the blood stream, the "feel good" hormones. Unfortunately, the 1/2 life of phenylethylamine is only 5-10 minutes which means the cravings come back quickly for more chocolate. It is better to find a food that triggers the release of the hormones with a longer 1/2 life. Caffeine in coffee might be a good example because it tends to stay in the body a lot longer before being metabolized. Just something to consider when thinking about the chocolate cravings.

Have any of you tried this? It has a good balance of Protein, complex carb and some good fats. This particular variety came from costco. Here it is as part of my lunch today: Here are some nutritional stats on it: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/calories/costco-cedarlane-quinoa-tabouli-75431816 I just do not like that the sodium is so high (probably mostly to preserve rather than flavor). Keep in mind that nut stats are for 1/2 cup. I have about 1.5 tbsp on my plate. It does not look hard to make from scratch. I am sure some of you chef inclined folks could make this fairly easily. chicken on plate is about 3 ounces and is sort of prepared like satay without the fish sauce. Very tasty. There is about 1 ounce of brussel sprouts. What do you think of this food item? [ATTACH]18665[/ATTACH]

Actually, no. The weird part is I developed some kind of RA in my finger joints in both hands that I never had before. strange, huh? May not be directly related to VSG, but I do know it started about 7 months post op after I started cross fit. Regardless, it is a new experience for me. My wife has SA (had since early adult / teenager) and I will ask her how it is doing now that she is a few months post op. I think the symptoms may be less now.

chocolate can still be benefitial as a post op if you manage the consumption of it. If you can eat chocolate in moderation, you might consider have a small portion of dark chocolate that is 80% cocao or higher once or twice a week. It will satisfy your cravings and also provide you with some additional benefits that come from eating dark pure chocolate. If you are not so much of a moderation type (me), then you might think about satisfying your chocolate cravings with chocolate flavored Protein powder or perhaps hot chocolate with additional protein. Find something with a good chocolate flavor that is not going to punish you in term of calories or spike your insulin levels to trigger even more cravings. I never have really been into chocolate before VSG, but as a post op it is a flavor I have come to enjoy. Every night I make a double chocolate casein Protein shake and it satisfies me as a desert. The casein protein also is such it helps my metabolism keep burning until morning when able to eat again. I really do enjoy the richness of the double chocolate flavor. I know cravings can be hard. I think the key with dealing with them is to first determine if you are a moderation person or an all or nothing person and then go from there, perhaps implementing one of the suggestions above into your post op plan. Hope this helps.

Good luck today everyone. I am sure you will do great. Today is a rest day and I will cheer you on from the sidelines whether you are jogging, running, biking, rowing or what not. You guys are awesome.

Good job Georgia! Victory is in the air.

+1 miles this morning, but sort of in an unconventional manner. It was part of a partner WOD today (first time I did this) Started with plank Tabata for 8 minutes (20 s on, 10 s rest) Then 1 partner did an increasing set of 3 T2B (toes to bar) 3 kbs (53# kettle bell swings) 3 box jumps While the other partner ran up and down the hill with a 35# plate for 800 m. When the running partner got back, he took over the exercises and the other went for the 400 m run with the plate.we must have looked funny huffing and puffing running up the hill with 35 # plate. Lol. It was fun! Every time a set of exercises got completed by a partner, he increased the rep count by 3 until running partner returned and took over. This AMRAP (as many reps as possible) workout was done after 20 minutes. We ended up doing 8 sets where last set had 24 reps of each exercise and 8 400 m run for a total of 2 miles of hill. I contributed to 1 of those miles.

Wow - you definitely hit the jackpot. Were there any conditions on getting the full coverage and what insurance? Not that I need a breast lift (no man boobs here), but I am sure others would want to know.

Check out this link for some really tough met con workouts: http://www.mensfitness.com/training/endurance/the-6-most-brutal-crossfit-wods Note that Fran (mentioned in above post) is in this list.

I know exactly what is wrong. overtraining. Doing 4 days of intense cross fit workouts in a row is taxing, especially yesterday when I ran 3miles in about 17 min ( each mile we were instructed to run far beyond comfort). I feel much better this afternoon, but was showing to classic signs of overtraining this morning (lethargic, weakened immunity, bad sleep pattern last night, decreased desire to eat). Just need to be careful about it no matter how driven I get. Gotta get it in my mind 3 days on and 1 day off.

A combination of clean eating, sleep and Metabolic conditioning will really help you get fit and fly past goal. You want to turn your inner furnace on and that happens by eating enough calories to fuel intense workouts. You have to eat enough good carbs like oatmeal before these workouts or your body will shutdown too early before the metabolic conditioning workout is finished. By metabolic conditioning, think HIIT or Tabata and then multiply it by 10x in intensity. Met con is usually not that long (short as 8 min sometimes long as 30 min), but pushes your body to do extreme workouts where you are on the floor afterwards recovering. Doing different metabolic conditioning workouts day to day is where you are going to see results, fast. For an example, look up cross fit Fran WOD. The elite can finish Fran in sub 3 minutes. It takes me around 8 minutes. 3 rounds of 21-15-9 sets of thrusters and pull-ups. Today's Met-con was 3 rounds of 8 muscle ups, 15 power cleans, 20 front squats and 8 muscle ups. I chose not to do it as I have already don 4 days of met con and am physically exhausted. however, i worked on deadlifts @ my 90 % and skill by practicing the movements of power cleans, front squats and muscle ups outside the WOD. Felt a little guilty for skipping the WOD, but I did not waste the day. The question you want to ask yourself is do you want to just hit a bmi #, a pant size or some other aesthetical reason or do you want to be in the best fit shape of your life. Given what I know about you and working out, I think it is the latter.

+1 mile. No met-con Wod (rest day). Worked on dead lifts (#295) in addition to skill training: power cleans and muscle ups.

Not sure what I am going to do today as far as miles go. I have spent most of the the day being physically overly tired, sleepy. Still waiting to wake up and it is 1:30 pm already. Oh and lots of sneezing and sniffling this morning. My body woke up at 4:30am this morning where I really needed to sleep at least another hour for recovery purposes (got 6 hours sleep). Need to get jazzed up soon for doing something in terms of working out around 4 pm rather than drooling on my keyboard fighting sleep (work suffered today). And yes I tried caffeine already this morning.

We got the WW digital scale a couple months ago. It is wickedly accurate, manages different profiles and also indicates stats like body fat %, bone density and a few other things. My wife and I both use it and have different profiles set up on it. She weighs daily and I weigh about 2 x a week.

I will probably get flamed for saying this, but have you considered your caloric intake is too low for your caloric burn from exercise? It is not even clear to me what is the right amount of calories to suggest. I have no idea. I stopped thinking about calories several months ago and eat when hungry, paleo style. Protein first, veggies and some good carbs / fat. Not much else. My meals are about every 2 hours where each meal is 200-300 calories. my Breakfast meal is usually the highest in calories (500-600) because i eat oatmeal mixed with a higher calorie Protein powder (400 calories from 2 scoops). There is a mix of calories from Protein shakes and from food for the aggregate of daily meals. Again, I stopped paying attention to exact numbers and just eat in a healthy way and often . It is working for me and it might work for you. It does not feel like a lot of work to eat this way and keeps both energy and insulin response stable. Also, sometimes I do not " feel" like eating (like 3 hours after a workout - my "dinner" time), but I do anyways in order to keep the metabolic response constant from rise to bed. Also look at reducing the inflammation that comes from working out often. You can do this with fish oil (my dose is 5 g daily). Reducing inflammation in the body will reduce fat storage. Also, are you lifting? There have been studies done that show inflammation genes can be suppressed and anti-inflammation genes can be increased in as little as 24 hours when a paleo style diet is combined with training. Isn't that an exciting fact? I exercise about 1 hour a day, but intensely. Rarely do I do steady state cardio any longer (read: fat burning zone for an hour). Instead, I do metabolic conditioning combined with lifting. Almost every day is a different type of workout and always is challenging. Think about adding some shock treatment into your workouts to really increase the metabolic conditioning. Sorry if this suggestion is something you already do. I do not know how you exercise. Just try to stay away from steady state cardio; it triggers your body to store fat instead of lean you out, after a long time of doing it. Just some ideas that might help you. My weight modulates between 175-180 (just Water cycling, I guess) which is just about right for my height and lean muscle percentage. See if some of these suggestions are worth pursuing.

Update (3 hours later): endorphins are wearing off and I feel the tiredness and general aching all around. Hope my body bounces back overnight for tomorrow's WOD. I usually do a lot to assist recovery: contrast showers, rolling, long mobility sessions, quality sleep, high dose fish oil, bcaa drinks, recovery drinks (shake and electrolyte), creatine, glutamine and vitamins. Crossing fingers.

Update: mowed my lawn tonight for an extra 2 mile of walking. 1/2 acre - I think that distance is about right according to this link: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090605065701AAM0eaM Gotta rake in the miles from any activity. +2 for 112.5 total.