Fiddleman

My wife got me thinking about sleeve names. I am also a July sleever, but from 2012. My sleeve will be known as sir sleeve mix o' lot! I think it is named appropriately.

As for reported rebounds after your 5:2 losses, maybe it just takes some time to the tune of 6 weeks or more. Most dieting takes time to gain momentum, but losses of 4 lbs here and 3 lbs there overnight reported on this thread is really good. Keep up the great work!

Nevermind, too far off topic.

Just an update for my wife phoenix79, all is well and she had a textbook sleeve operation. The Dr said she had the perfect anatomy for a sleeve surgery which I think translates into a successful post op experience. I think we will get to go home from hospital tomorrow. This is a much better experience then my sleeve, exactly 1 year ago. Two days in ICU and the 2 more days recovery from small complications before allowed to go home. Thanks for wishing my wife well.

Agree the dessert flavors are very yummy and a good distraction to eating something sweet. My current favorites are root beer and raspberry cupcake. Mmmmm,.....cupcake.

Yeah Amy, I have those days especially on a cross fit day or two. Not every time of course, but there are days when I am not super excited to go work out. If my inner voice got the best of me, I would not be there on some days. I get tired. Not just from working out day after day or even from post op eating, but I have a job with long hours and sometimes, well, I do not sleep enough and it catches up to me. However, I still fake my motivation when I feel like this to get my butt to the training sessions whether that is with my personal trainer or at home. After warming up, I am usually pumped enough that the inner voice of tiredness is replaced by Thor. I am then on a mission to get the most out of my short workouts. And I have a good workout. Just showing up is like 80% of the work when you do not feel like it. Be consistent. That is where real gains will come from. Same applies to eating. Be consistent and the gains will show up over time. One session or one day of eating well followed by 5 days of not working out or eating crappy is not going to result in noticeable gains. Not trying go be harsh at all, just trying to make my point of being consistent and showing up. After a while working out becomes like a ritual where motivation comes naturally and purely within. If you look at my transformation thread in vets forum, I wrote some notes about different forms of motivation and the connectivity between the stages. Go check that out again if you like. As for Jillian DVDs, you are right. My memory did mix up you two girls on this. Sorry about that!! you two are very alike in your cheerful personalities.

Great, we are now likened to crack addicts... For the record, my box o' pure bars are in hibernation.

Didn't mean for it to be so verbose Amy. It just sort of came out like that. Fitness is something I really enjoy now and like sharing with others. I hope you find some good ideas in any of the posts above. Like you, I was never focused enough at the isolation lifts in a gym like 24 or LA fitness. Don't know why. Perhaps I get bored easily when doing something like that in a gym atmosphere. I found full body exercises as a post op to be much more fun. This also includes weighted exercises like kettle ball swings and olympic lifts. Even lifting tires looks like so much fun and that, my friend, is a killer full body exercise. I also like working out with someone to keep me going, whether that is an instructor on one of my DVDs or a personal trainer. They always keep me interested and the end of a workout feels well done. For this reason, you might still like to do a workout with, say, Jillian because I know you have and enjoy many of her exercise videos. She probably does full body training videos like pdx90 or insanity. Those are all going to be fun when compared to isolation lifts in a gym somewhere. Hope you find some information that is helpful here, even if I am rambling a bit. Lol.

Maybe this thread should be deleted as it is too tempting to keep the women off it. Lol!

Amy- I still think that sledge hammer idea sounds great. I almost was going to do this, but got hooked on full body workouts instead. There are also a billion full body strength training exercises you can do and you do not need any equipment at all, just you!! These are a lot of fun and you can do them anywhere. The following is a beginner workout you can do with just your body and should keep you busy for 3x a week for about 3-4 weeks until you are ready to move onto intermediate body weight workout. You can start a warmup with 5-15 minutes of running. this is not meant for speed, just to get the blood flowing before the next set of warm up exercises. You should run between 1/2 and 1 mile. when you come back, start by doing push ups, planks, sit-ups, air squats, lunges, etc. These kind of exercises suck at the beginning, but after a while they are a lot of fun and you can increase intensity by just varying the exercise a little. Do 10-20 reps for each warmup. You should have a light sweat going by the time you are done. If you have a roller, spend a few minutes rolling out your muscles: hamstrings, calves, back, etc. One exercise I like also doing as a warm up is like a push up but you hold the top and bottom for 10 seconds at a time before switching to up or down position. Repeat for 10 reps. It will give you a great upper body warmup, a little fatigue but not much. Do your stretches. I like doing arm shoulder rotations, forward circles, backward circles, full body circles, forward in place lunges and plank variation that involves starting in a push up position, dropping to elbow one at a time and raising to full push up position, repeat 10 x. A beginner body weight exercise is the dynamic sumo squat where you start with feet together and then jump into a sumo squat with butt back, flat back and hands on ground. Jump back and repeat for about 20 seconds, rest 10 seconds, repeat for 4 sets. A second beginner body weight exercise is combination backwards lunge and 4 count ladder. Start standing up straight, do two deep lunges backwards with back straight, chest up and hands together on back up head. Next go directly into a 4 count. A four count is 1. Drop down with knees bent, 2. Jump directly back into push up, 3. Jump directly back onto feet in dropped down position and 4. Stand up straight. Repeat up the ladder 1 rep, 2 rep 3 rep and 4 rep. Then repeat down the ladder 4,3,2,1. Go up and down the ladder 1 more time. A 3rd beginner weight exercise is combination pointer and thumbs up ladder. The pointer exercise starts with you on you hands and knees. In a controlled movement, lift you right arm and left leg up, keeping both straight with shoulders and hips parallel to the ground. Hold for 1/2 second. Lower. Repeat with left arm and leg. This is a great back stabilization exercise. That is 1 rep. For thumbs up, lay on the ground with you arms perpendicular to your body, out to the side. Now lift both arms up and squeeze your shoulder blades together with your thumbs in the up position. Really feel the squeeze as your chest and chin come off the ground. Bring your arms back down to complete 1 rep. Complete a ladder of pointers and thumbs up from 1 to 4 reps performing first pointer and then thumbs up in each set up and down the ladder. Finally, do your cool down stretches to reduce lactic acid and make recovery far easier. Always eat a lean meal after your strength training workout out. It can be a recovery shake or it can be a good balance of macronutrients including lean protein, good carb and good fat. I like to have a few teriyaki meatballs or a chicken skewer, a 1/2 banana or apple with a spread of 2 tbsp nut butter. If I have a shake, I like to have something that is high whey percentage with BCAA chain and creatine hgc. There are a lot of good shakes out there if you want to drink a shake post work out. Again, there are a billion different body weight exercises you can do. When you want more, just ask. I find these enjoyable and the workouts are short. Each exercise is slow and controlled so you never feel rushed. Yet, it is a really challenging way to build up your strength that you can get real results from in a short amount of time. In as little as 3 weeks, I promise you will like the results. It would take months of isolation exercises to achieve the same results, maybe years. And then you might not get there because free weight exercises are non functional a d generally not natural movements for your body. Body weight exercises are functional exercise and feel natural to you. That makes them much more enjoyable to perform once you get the basic movements down. As an aside I like to have 6-7 small meals a day focusing on protein to hit about 1 G protein per ideal body weight 180 for me). I do workouts like these 3 x a week and cross fit 2 x a week. The core of these workout is 20-30 minutes ( does not include warmup or cool down). That is over before you know it, but you will get an excellent full body strength training workout. Keep all movements controlled and in good form. Make each move deliberate and in clockwork. It may feel a little slow. that is ok as you are aiming for good form and activation of many muscles groups for each body weight exercise. I promise you will get a good body strength workout after these. Your shirt will be soaked. The important thing is to keep showing up for every workout 3x a week. These body weight exercise will be a very effective use of your time and your wallet. I find these to be fun workouts.

Not too many guy responses, so I'll put in my two cents. I have been an apple shape most of my life. Even after losing the weight, I was still a smaller apple. However, after a few months of focused strength training, I am getting the triangle athletic shape of broad shoulders, big delts, lats and narrow waist. It is possible to change your fundamental shape with the right type of strength training. It takes a lot of focus, high intensity and consistently showing up to workouts though.

Everyone has been super thoughtful in their advice. Thank you!

Oh man, it is hot out this morning at 9 am. 84 degrees F. So I drove down to my favorite barista stand in the area and ordered a 24 oz iced SF mocha with NF and white coffee beans. It hit the spot and got me all perky too!! I am also being Careful to drink a lot of water today. Sitting in my chair can feel the sweat dribbling down my chest at 60 % humid and 85 degrees f. I mean, damn, the sweat is dripping off my body just sitting here. I am sure it is hotter where you at, but herein Seattle this is hot.

Yes, I tend to agree with the comment on whey concentrates. However, that being said, this is still a decent choice if you can afford it and it allows you to get your protein counts up! Good luck! I am happy you have found some protein supplement that will work for you. as an aside, strawberry and creme sounds yummy. I used to like that flavor as a pre op.

It looks like a decent shake based upon the nutritional information here: http://www.gnc.com/product/index.jsp?productId=4179707 The macronutrients look balanced, and if you love the flavor, that is even better. My only concerns are the cost per unit and the quality of their proprietary Protein blends. The cost is going to add up fast, so please take that into consideration. Can someone else look closely at the components of each proprietary protein blend listed in the ingredients and see if these are suitable for absorption as a sleeve post op? The whey isolate is good, but I am not sure about the others in the blend. They look like filler Proteins which would make the drink less effective. Again, need confirmation on this observation.

The cramps in the calves went away yesterday so had them for a number of days. They went away mostly on their own. This week has been a little off for me. I don't know if off is the right word, perhaps unbalanced. I think my vitamins and minerals are not balanced out in some way and I need to get it checked out if it continues past next week. I've been getting uncomfortable (cramping) feeling around and above my stomach on the left side. Bowel movements have not been the best either (even though nothing has changed in terms of miralax/chia seeds) so perhaps it is just blockage or diverticulitis. Not sure. I don't like the fact that my stomach area hurts every time I eat something. Energy went way down after the OP on thursday. Good news is I still pretty much stayed on eating and exercise plan during the week. If anything, I ate less because of the stomach aches associated with eating. Should I be concerned about some stomach issue like ulcer? Or is it jus dehydration ndi should focus more on getting hydrated more effectively ( eg. coconut water or some drink with electrolytes). Dang it is hot outside today! Seeing flashies in front of my eyes.

Yes, agree wholeheartedly with using nestles. I like to put the coconut creamer in my coffee every morning. I do not really succinctly measure, it is more of an eyeballing, timing sort of thing. I would say it is about 2 tbsp. it sure makes a big difference to be able to enjoy coffee every day with creamer. On the weekend, I usually make a point of buying 1-2 16 oz SF mochas with NF milk. Keeps me perky! As for dehydration from coffee, I am not sure it happens. Regardless, I drink 32-64 oz every morning before coffee and then the same after coffee before lunch. I do not think I would be getting dehydrated with that amount of liquids before and after.

I had my sleeve on July 2nd 2012 and it has worked out so well in be a catalyst to building exceptional nutritional and fitness programs that work for me. Hey, I designed and tweaked them over and over again in the last year so they better be optimized! My wife is going to have a sleeve surgery next week on July 2nd, 2013, exactly 1 year later by the same surgeon in the same hospital. Isn't that cool? I will be in the hospital caring for her instead of the other way around. Maybe someday you will see the two of us standing side by side holding before photos with big grins on our faces on the WLS center web page!!

Have not heard of this term before so had to look it up. Also known as love lines, moneymaker, michaelangelo muscle, markys mark, etc. lol. Good job, man. According to the source material, you have to have 5-8 % body fat before it is visible.

Today I got the worse legs cramps at the end of cross fit training during stretch out. My workout was not anything crazy hard today. However, I was more tired then usual in between sets and really huffing and puffing. Felt like I was going to pass out. Warmup: 1 mile run 20 push-ups 20 pull ups 20 sit-ups 20 lunges 20 air squats Stretching WOD 1 3 sets: 20 ght sits as fast as possible 30 second rest WOD 2 5 sets: 250 m row as fast as possible 75 lb clean jerk @ 10 rep Burpee and bar hop @ 10 rep 1 min rest Stretching I started to cramp up during the 5 sets above, but the cramping afterwards had me on the floor desperately trying to make it go away. I probably looked funny thrashing around on the mat and my trainer probably thought I was just stretching out awkwardly after the 2 WOD. Lol. She was on the other side of the room and I told her afterwards what had happened. My calf muscles are still cramping now an hour later (now) and I have little muscle aches everywhere (upper arm, butt?). This is new for me. I usually do not have an issue with my body aching or cramping and workout 6 days a week for 30-60 min hard. My trainer had 5 pieces of advice: 1. Drink more Water. I told her I already am drinking over a gallon a day. 2. Drink Gatorade with sugar. I told her I have not had sugar anything in many months. 3. Drink coconut water - I could do this and, in fact, had a coconut water before training today. 4. Drink tonic water. She said it has something in it (starts with Q) that helps with cramping. I do not think the carbonation would be good for me, but did not tell her that. 5. Take a look at Vitamin consumption and make sure not taking too many as it dehydrates. I DO take a lot of Vitamins and minerals daily: optimen (way above RDA, especially B vitamins @ 3 pills a day), green drink ( above RDA alone), energy waters ( more vitamins) caffeine water (mix caffiene soda stream flavor with water). I think I need to cut out some. I am chugging another coconut water as I write this. Help?

Hey Laura- that toboggan ride looks like so much fun! You are doing so good to be out there and living life. Is tht a broken arm in the picture?? Did I miss something in one of your posts? That would be really hard to run with or do any activities with. I hope the stomach bug your husband has blows over soon. No fun!!

SunMoon - fascinating! I am such a junkie when it comes to seeking out knowledge related to optimizing health post sleeve. You are onto something with the magnesium. I do get an occasional calf muscle contraction when I stretch it, especially in the mornings. My daily magnesium supplementation is 25% according to the label of my optimen Vitamin. WTF? This vitamin is supposed to be superman making. Lol. I do eat a ton of lean Protein like chicken and Protein shakes. I would think they both have magnesium. One thing to add- I never really had chronic Acid issues pre sleeve requiring any PpI. Sure I got the occasional throat burning acid after eating high fat or spicy dinner, but who does not? And it was very occasional when it did happen.