Fiddleman

It has been a couple weeks since the last post. I feel progress is going well and the goal of real strength is becoming obtainable. This week I have switched onto intermediate training on the "be your own gym" workout. It did not kill me. lol. These are incredibly effective exercises that work out the whole body and several major muscle groups at the same time in a relatively short amount of time. I really enjoy doing these workouts and it is over before i know it. The moves are extremely functional so my body is in a happy place when performing them. I highly recommend others to try the training if you want to do challenging workouts with the power of your body only ( a bit like cross fit without the weighted routines). I missed cross fit this week because I needed to be with my wife at the hospital for her sleeve. She is home and doing so well, 100x better then I did as newly post op. Also notable is some stair running I did at the hospital to get a little exercise in. 45 flights up and 45 flights down total in a short amount of time. I think I am going to do the big climb up the Columbia tower of Seattle this following year because 45 flights up was not that much effort. I am excited as to where fitness is taking me week over week. My arms are still not getting big yet, but my quads, chest and back are getting powerful. Darn arms!! It feels good to own my fitness routine and not to be afraid of it. My weight is 178 lb this week, yet i have been gaining lean muscle all over, especially in upper body (athletic build). Happy about the progress. Lets keep on going to the end of the 12 week challenge. Hope y'all are doing great!

I am currently drinking GNC Wheybolic 60 cookies and cream after a workout and re-feed at night (tastes worst then monkey butt, but does work effectively). In the morning, I drink muscle milk light with chia seeds ( my yummy shake).

If the soreness is from training, a good recovery shake with branching amino acid chains in it should help next time. Drink it within 20 minutes of working out. Also, remember the importance of cool down and stretching. A few minutes on the roller or a heating pad also helps. Remember also to warmup in order to prevent muscle or ligament issues.

Yup- she is doing very well. Out shopping with her mom at Costco this morning. Has already been walking 1/2 mile. She can drink her 60 oz of water and also hit 78 oz protein shake yesterday. It is an excellent recovery.

It is bound to happen to everyone. We are human. And to be human is to err. Do not be so hard on yourself as there is always tomorrow. That is a good part of the sleeve journey. Nothing is permanent any anything can be corrected or modified. As for your question, I've had a few Mexican standoffs with my protein bars and lost. The next day, I dusted myself off and continued along my way. Another good motivating thought is to remember Newtonian physics. An object in motion will stay in motion. 3rd law if I recall my college physics correctly. Seven months is a long time of building up momentum in a particular direction. A screwup does not have enough opposing force to stop your momentum. Many months of screwing up might do it, but the occasional screw up is not going to derail you.

Thanks - I think I will do this! Good cause also.

Yup, agree with you. Bariatric Advantage or Celebrate are two good companies to start out with for supplementation needs (Vitamins and minerals). I have no problem with that, but would suggest nectar or unjury as great Protein shakes for a newly sleeved individual. They are both solid brands and work well. In fact, my WLS center also recommends Bariactric Advantage for supplementation and Syntrax Nectar for protein shakes. That being said, I am 1 year post op so am a mature post op and somewhat new vet. I have been around the block a few times in my journey so far and have learned much and have much to share around shakes and supplementation and their impact on weight loss and fitness. I hope you do not read my post as anti-doctor or anti dietician. Quite the opposite in fact. In the first six months, it is critical to follow doctor orders to a "T" both dr and dietician know how to make their patients successful. Of course you are aware every doctor and dietician can potentially give different plans to their patients that may not be consistent with other patient doctor and dietician plans. After 6 months ( or when you feel is a good time), you can start to form your own strategies in terms of diet and fitness. The level of tweaking that you do is highly individual. The shake mentioned in this thread from GNC is just another tweak to the lifetime eating plan. Re-feed may not be an ideal shake for me, but I wanted to give it a try for reasons mentioned above in this thread. I also take cake batter muscle milk light and GNC Wheybolic or Isopure vanilla bean for recovery shake. I am so much a shake person at 3 a day. I eat small protein based meals for the other 4 meals. By small, I mean 3 oz lean protein and perhaps a veggie.

Everyone is so insipiring in their motivation and dedication. Thank you for putting your struggles in a public light to also help and indirectly motivate both pre ops and post ops about the challenges of losing weight as a mature vet. Food for thought ( haha): even normal people who have not had WLS struggle with losing the last 10% of excess body weight. For this reason, I believe it is key to see yourselves as normal (maybe even better then normal) in getting off those last lbs to your personal goal. Those that are naturally thin struggle the exact same way! Deep breaths everyone and bask in the progress you have made so far. It will happen soon enough and, again, you are all inspiring.

I think I will go back to gold standard, but am having no desire to take valerian. Don't like it, hate the smell and just do not need it. Thanks for your response. Hey, you are a Swedish hospital patient right? Britney told me yesterday, while i was at the hospital with my wife, that the next support meeting coming up on Saturday July 13th will be about plastic surgery. This will be a good meeting to attend.

Laura - I wrote a nice long and thoughtful response for you, and then VST crashed. Not wanting to retype it, I will summarize. Consider an abstinence model instead of a moderation model. We all struggle in different ways with our relationship with food. For me, I chose abstinence over moderation because VSG was a game changer and I wanted to be a new person inside and out, essentially no changes were off the table if it would help lead to 100% success. Some people are good moderators like my wife. she can control having small amounts of sweet food. i am not the same way. i am more of an all or nothing personality, especially when it comes to food. You might consider detoxing from the sugar, fat and salt. Eliminate it. After that, consider eating a Mediterranean or Paleo style diet that will help retrain your reward centers (dopamine centers) to release endorphins from something other then sugar, fat and salt. With a good relationship with healthy food comes balance and sense of peace. Just a suggestion. I think your 5:2 approach will still be compatible with this type of abstained eating as you can still eat TDEE -300 and, might I add, way more often with a more consistent impact on your body composition. I eat a little protein (minimum 3 oz) at least every 2 hours, sometimes on the hour and am still maintaining around 180 lb (5'11"). I am actually going to sneak in one more meal daily because I want to bulk a little more, but keep body weight the same. This is possible by reducing body fat percentage more. You know I am not a gym rat. I just give myself about 20-30 minutes of body weight exercises 5 days a week. It is very manageable and does not feel like a drag. I enjoy it.

Any of you try this re-feed nighttime Protein powder from GNC? It is new. I went into GNC last week ( I know, first mistake), looking to refill my night time casein supply from optimum (gold standard double chocolate, yummy). Normally I go to Vitamin shoppe for my needs, but I was short on time and GNC was closer. The GNC clerk suggested this brand because they do not carry the gold standard. I do not like interacting very much with the GNC because they have very little actual knowledge about the chemistry and physiology attributes of the supplements. The Vitamin Shoppe clerks are very different in this regard and I can have decent conversations with them. Anyways, re-feed has a lot of marketing gimmick speak on it related to optimal anabolic body state instead of catabolic state. So far sounded good for me. It also states it has valerian, hops and other herbs for more restful sleep. I bought the vanilla ice cream flavor and have been trying it out this week right before bed. So far so good this week with good lean muscle results. I can see my veins popping more on my arms even when not working out. The problem is it tastes nasty. I mean really nasty like old gym sock I suppose. Like sniffing old underwear. lol. I think the taste comes from the inclusion of valerian for better sleep at night. I have had valerian root before and it smells the same way. Better sleep translates into better repair for your muscles. The GNC clerk warned me the double chocolate re-feed one tasted like butt, but she claimed the vanilla ice cream was good. Not! Sigh. I can return it, but I like the next day results so far. A good nighttime casein always, and I mean every night, results in leaning out over night ( for the 5:2 crowd - casein at bed is almost magical in how it amplifies results over night). That got me thinking about whether I have to enjoy every protein supplement I take if I am more after results. Don't know. I have tried a lot of different protein powders in the last year and this is the only one that has turned me off so far in terms of taste and smell. The next day results from gold standard casein are very good, but I think, not as good as the re-feed. Should I grin and bear it or go back to my gold standard double chocolate casein? I have about 25 days to make my mind up.

Yes, I can relate to the working long hours at the computer. however, I can say my posture has really improved in the last few months since I have been doing corrective measurements such as mobility exercises, back stabilization exercises during working out, walking with good posture, sitting in my chair with good posture, using PT roller on my back daily, etc. I am happy with the results so far in reducing the curvature of my spine into a more healthy form. It helps tremendously with feeling balanced and at ease during the day not to have tight back or shoulders from too much curvature developed from a career of computer work, hunched over the keyboard.

I still take Bariatric Advantage citrate caramel chews to the day, six a day. Last week I bought them in 500 mg rather then 250 mg size which translates to taking 3 a day instead of 6 a day. The price per bag is also the same so now I feel like I am getting 2 for 1 on the calcium citrate and that makes me happy. Each bag is about $12 when i purchase it through the WLS Center or 22 dollars when i buy it online through Amazon. Staying healthy with all the supplements really adds up. I do not take any iron in isolation, but there is some in my optimen multivitamin and green drink. Not 100% RDA though, but something small like 20 %. Should I be aware of iron as a man?

Thanks Arts- I will check with the PCP soon. You know what? Now that I remembered, I did have a spinal injury in the middle of my back from doing sit-ups on a cement like surface when using the workout floor at the Marriott on vacation (learned from that of course). I never Did go to the PCP on it, but did stay off it for a couple weeks until the acute pain went away (could still do non back exercises in my cross fit WOD). I think it was a bone bruise on the vertebrae. To this day, it still bugs me in that location on my spine in the middle of the back. It is not terrible, but is tender and feels sprained, if that means anything. My back has much less of a curvature now then it did back in May ( something I have been working on). Could under arm nerve issues also be caused by Vitamin toxity, specifically B6 or B12? It is better this morning, but still present. I put some of that topical prescription NSAID cream on it to numb out the burning sensations a bit so I could sleep. It helped and had a restful sleep.

No, unfortunately. The kirkland calcium chews are calcium carbonate ( unless they have added citrate since I last looked earlier in this year). This does not make them " bad, " but only means they will not absorb nearly as well. Carbonate also tends to be quite a bit less expensive then Citrate because Citrate involves some complex electrical chemical processes to make it. Agree both types of chews are yummy and a treat every day. If you cannot get access to citrate, carbonate should still fill the calcium requirements.

I have experienced pretty substantial nerve tingling or uncomfortness in a few points along my left arm, almost entirely all under arm. It starts around armpit and ends at elbow. I have not been able to pinpoint what causes it and am wondering if others have experienced it and/or have information on it. Usually it clears up after a few days, but I would rather not have to deal with the burning sensation of wonky nerve sensations. It is behaving like a pinched nerve and have had a fair amount of experience with pinched nerves as a career software developer. Sorry about not being very technical about describing Then pain in medical terminology. Do you think it has anything to do with post op dieting / nutrition or more related to bad ergonomics in my home office and long hours on the computer?

Easiest and most succinct way to explain why not to eat and drink at the same time: it hurts!

170 bucks for 5 lb of fake fat?!?! Imagine the cost in your equivalent excess body fat. For me, 180 lb of fake fat would cost 6120 bucks. I would rather go get liposuction for the same cost and ask for the left overs in a doggy bag to go. Lol. Forgive my macabre sense of humour.

No intention to make anyone feel like a slug. We already have enough of those in our garden. I guess the point of this thread is to suggest fitness can be found anywhere at anytime, not just in a gym. Even walking from the far end of a parking lot into the grocery store is a net negative in your total calorie consumption plus you get the added benefit of fresh air and endorphins coursing through your veins.

In the hospital for two days while my wife is getting sleeved. A good quick exercise I found is to jog up and down the 15 flights of stairs in the east wing of Swedish hospital. I jogged up and down 3 x and it only took a minute or two each direction. Not too bad and was able to get my legs stretched a little in the process. Now I want to find a 100 flight building in downtown Seattle and try jogging it over the summer.

Laura - I definitely can relate. My down fall sometimes is beef jerky. It is a great protein source and "healthy", but has super high sodium levels. Last week I had a two serving bag of beef jerky as my "dinner" meal (300 calories). I did not plan it that way, but it was filling enough that I didn't need any thing else until bedtime shake. Usually I like Ro eat some jerky before dinner in the afternoon if I am out doing grocery shopping . The problem is I gained 4 lb water weight the next morning. Gosh darn it! So, moral of the story is to not be left alone with a bag of jerky around or before dinner time as it is easy to finish it. Extra water weight is gone now but not worth it to get the blast of sodium.

For the record phoenix 79 wanted to do 8 laps at 3am. . I do not know if I was sleep walking or what. Today we are going to go for 12 laps.