Fiddleman

A little holy water in the drinking bowl. seriously, we all hope apple returns to good health, as good as is possible for being a certain senior dog-years age.

At least there is a much more civil understanding on this thread then the holy flame war that occurred on another thread started by a believer a couple weeks ago. BTB, I am sure you remember that one. Fondly. thanks for keeping this one civil and allow the opinions of both believers and non believers to intertwine without resorting to name calling and threats.

I've got to say 2-4% on a guy is freaky alien looking. no way Jose.

What type of physique are you targeting? Average, fitness or athletic? There are different percentile ranges for each. Here is some information on the different ranges of body fat for both men and women: http://www.builtlean.com/2010/08/03/ideal-body-fat-percentage-chart/ As you can see, your body fat percentage currently falls under average. Mine is currently on the edge of athlete and fitness. Perhaps pictures are worth a 1000 words to you? Here are images of men and women at different percentages of body fat: http://www.builtlean.com/2012/09/24/body-fat-percentage-men-women/ Personally, I want to target a solid athlete range : 10-12%.

That looks good, but need to up the protein. Perhaps some plain isolate protein can be mixed in or chunks of sliced low fat ham.

Let' see, so far today... Start out carbing up for the 10 am work out when I wake up: 6am: Trader joe frozen steel oats (150 cal - heat in microwave) mixed with two scoops of synth 6 Protein powder (400 cal, 50 G protein) 630am: 2 energy squares (120 calories, 8 G protein) 900am: 2 energy squares (120 calories, 8 G protein) Pre workout GNC repower powder (cals -25) 10am: home Workout (2 mile run, warmup exercises, 20 minutes WOD, cool down ) 1100am: 2 scoop synth 6 Protein Powder (400 calories, 50 G protein) 1pm: 1 BBQ chicken patties (210 calories, 25 G protein), 1 cocktail cucumber (30 calories) 4pm: 1 pure Protein Bar (200 calories, 20 G protein) For the rest of the day: 5 pm: 1 ostrich stick 6pm: 4 oz pork chop (220 cal, 30 G protein)), 2 ounce broccoli (20 cal) I always eat casein shake 30 minutes or so before bed (look forward to as my double chocolate treat, mmmm): 9pm: 2.5 scoops of casein protein ( 300 cals - almost pudding like, 60 g) Total cals: 2145 Total protein: 251 g This is very typical of how I eat every day and maintain between 175 and 180 (goal - 180). I feel like I eat a lot, but it does keep my weight stable and also increases muscle.

High fat stuff like a ham I got once from Patties Eggnest sent me into an hour of dumping. I never did that again and from then on shunned anything remotely suspected of bad fat. This was real ham, not the turkey, chicken or other healthier versions of "ham." It caused toilet issues, dizziness, echoing voices, etc, all after like two small bites. I think I ate this at about 6 or 7 weeks post op. I have small amounts of sugar as it is ingredient in my protein shake, protein bars, energy squares, etc. healthy foods of 2 grams or so max of sugar. This amount of sugar has never caused dumping if my experience with ham was truly a dumping experience.

I think you are referring to the Propofol OD in 2009 and that Propofol is in the same set of prescription versed drugs. Did he take like some insane amount or something?

Good luck. I hope your results turn out negative for any issues.

Both Bariactric and Celebrate are hard to stomach for a lot of post ops, including myself. I eventually had to get something that would not cause gagging, throwing up or whatever you want to call it. Same thing happened to my wife who is 1 year behind my schedule. I initially found that Trader Joe High Potency Adult Chewable could go down without rejection. So did my wife. After about 6 months post op, I switched to GNC vitaPak and then switched again to ON Optimen. Optimen works really well and is very powerful, but guys should know that the pills are huge so do wait until at least post op 6 months so you do not have trouble with it getting stuck anywhere.. These vitamins turn you into a beast during your workouts plus give you lots of clean energy for the day.

She is definitely the social one and loves to organize parties and cook food for people. me? I just like eating the spread.

That sounds hard! I guess I am chicken when it comes to sticking tubes down your throat. glad for the happy sleep drugs...

Ok - new exercise that I love to hate that I tried today : rolling sit-up to stand up with weight. It is hard and my core, glut, hamstrings, whatever are not strong enough to do 20 of them, not even 10 of them. Essentially, you start in a standing position while holding 2 hand weights, squat, roll onto your back, keep rolling until feet are behind head, arms stretched out with weights, reverse motion and stand up while still holding these weights above your head. No hands to stand up! They are holding the weights up in the air. It will take me a few weeks, but I am going to get good at these as part of a new workout program I started today at home.

Here are mine. I am 5'11" (maybe even 6' now with better posture. Lol) Before (7-2-2012 - 360): After (8-2-2013 - 177): After 2 (5-13-2013 - 188 ):

Oh yes - agree with the spicy comment TES. My tolerance of spicy food has gone way down and has not returned since surgery. That includes mild stuff like black pepper, chipotle or mild chili peppers. No way I could take on hot BBQ sauce now like I used to be able to ( e.g. Dixie's in Redmond as fellow Seattleites would be familiar with). Whenever I order Thai now it is 1-2 star when I used to do 4-5 star. Not a big loss for me, just different.

There is this fairly new burger joint near where I live that sells buffalo, bison and boar burgers. When we go there, I order one in a lettuce wrap without fries and wilt some of the toppings ( like fried onion strings, etc). Customization is where it is all at when eating out!

Agree with you all (except Laura - sorry, you got taken big time!) My taste buds went in all sorts of directions for the first 6 months after surgery. Tastes I used to enjoy were unappealing. Tastes I did not enjoy became appealing. It was surprising for me to lose the appeal of peach and banana flavors after surgery. Now taste is pretty much back to pre surgery levels. Bananas taste good again. Peach ice tea is good again. However, I did not "lose" any new found tastes I acquired after surgery which is a "good thing" because it was mostly healthy foods. Plain water is just about normal tasting again.

Sure - one of my responsibilities of being further out as a post op is to share information which others in order to help breed success. I am happy to do this. These techniques I have mentioned above have really helped me with tightening up the core section. The day will come when I can breath a sigh of relief and say "goal accomplished!" In the meantime, i am diligently working at this goal of getting a tight core daily. I am looking forward to having a rock hard core where I am proud of my shirt off without resorting to a TT.

Cidmore- after hearing, watching and reading about what fast food restaurants put into their chicken and beef products, one would be smart not to touch those with a 10 foot pole. Eg. McD and their "pink slime" to make the chicken and beef safe enough for human consumption. Not to mention all the injection of GMO into the animals to make them grow bigger and faster. No thanks!

Thanks for the information about ART and he recommendation. I searched for providers in my area and found 2 within 10 miles, one that looks highly qualified. This approach is definitely something I am going to follow up on. Getting into top flexibility and mobility shape is one of my goals in order to become a better athlete in Cross fit competition. I also would not ind just being free of these aches and pains for daily living.

Thanks for the book recommendation. I will check it out and see if it fits or improves my current eating strategies.

Just keep doing core work: v ups, sit-ups, planks, push ups, more plank, burpees, mountain climbers, etc. compound lifts are also going to really help tighten the core: back squats, wall ball throws, etc. do toe to bars if you have access to a pull-up bar. You might also see my thread about sweet sweat and mcdavid wrap from earlier today as a way to draw toxins from your core region. Keep drinking lots of Water to flush out the toxins from muscle break down due to working out and from those released from stored ft as it is convert to glycogen. Eat as clean as you can. Age and genetics also play a role in skin elasticity. However, I do believe with the right training and focus on good nutrition, anyone can tighten up the skin. Good luck!

Beef was intolerable for the longest time. After 6 months, anything goes, but I do not eat bad fat, bad carbs, pastas, most fruit, breads or sweets. Essentially, I eat a modified Paleo diet now and feel great, full of energy.

Isopure makes me a little nauseous so I prefer to go with a protein powder. Unjury is good, but so is Syntrax and other brands. Protein powders are just one of those post op necessities you have to spend money on at least for 6 weeks while you are healing. I am strange and love daily protein shakes, even at 13 months.