Fiddleman

Thank you!!

What do you guys think about eating Trader Joes Kale chips. [ATTACH]13359[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]13360[/ATTACH] I know you can bake them up and we have done this, but I specifically want your thoughts about this product and eating them as a light snack post op. I just tried some and OMG, they are so good and definitely a slider.

How? I think we are going to be grilling some steak tonight and have a side salad.

So we know chocolate is a slider, especoly the milk chocolate which is going to be lower in terms of cacao levels.. Would the health benefits of eating dark chocolate with 90% or higher cacao negate the slider quality a little? I do not eat chocolate yet, but munching on a square of very fine chocolate seems appealing, especially because of the released endorphins and antioxydent properties.

During first month, my diet was primarily protein powder shakes for first few weeks with some tomato protein soups. During last week I added canned salmon to munch on for 2 ounces at a time. The wild canned salmon from Trader Joe's was such a treat after eating protein shakes day after day after day. I lost 45 lbs first month on this type of diet. Did more of the same for second month and lost an additional 45 lbs. my calories ended up being between 100-300 for first 3 weeks and then advanced to 300-600 during second month.

Yes, I lost my hair for 3-4 months. It piled up on my iPad as I was reading and writing posts on VST. I did get a little concerned and my wife definitely noticed. I always had really thick hair for most of my life. It is now back to a good solid mane of hair. I did not take biotene, but consumed a lot of protein (120 oz at the time) and took my vitamins without fail daily.

I wish I could tell you that there is a way to magically avoid hair loss. No matter how much protein you eat, how much biotene you take, how much water you drink and how consistent you are with taking vitamins, you will still lose hair for 2-3 months. It is a bummer, I know, especially if you are blessed with beautiful hair before surgery. I can tell you it does stop though, usually after 3 months of loss. What you are losing during that 3 months is a lot of lower quality, not so healthy hair. The weakest hair strands will fall out. From what I have read, the loss hair is replaced by new stronger, longer and healthier hair before the 1 year post op. Hang in there and know we are all pulling for you. Believe that hair will come back stronger, longer and healthier soon.

I ground up my own almond nut butter from Safeway last night. It was fun! There were 3-4 different options to grind from: no salt, lightly salted and normal salted. Noticed that they have you grinding up just the Blanched part of the almond. That makes for a much light nut butter than, say, Justin's almond nut butter. Is anything nutritional being lost in the self-grind almond Blanched nut butter that might exist in the Justin's nut butter? I like the taste of the almond nut butter I made last night more then Justin's, even with no salt or sweetener added. It is yummy spread on a banana. Please let me know your thoughts.

Thanks for letting me know!!

Great job Serendipity. I am so happy for you!!

It depends if you want 1 or 2 scoops. 2 scoops is 25 g of Protein and 210 calories. This is 2x the calories as, say, nectar protein which is about 100 calories for 23 g. For those whole can manage an extra 100 calories, this shake is very yummy. To me the extra 100 calories is something I actually need to put on the lean muscle. Full nutrition information: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/calories/muscle-milk-light-protein-powder-cake-batter-58335617

I like shakes every day even though goal was a few months ago. They not only taste good, but help in eating enough protein to build muscle. Latest favorite is light muscle milk cake batter, but am also a fan of cookies and cream by nectar and GNC.

Nicole-in addition to yoga and other techniques I listed above in this thread, have you tried a roller on your core area? You do not need a fancy expensive one, just a cheap foam roller from Sports Authority will do. I know that this REALLY helped me get over hip pain that I kept getting from running week after week. The roller really helps you massage the heck out of your hip flexors and buttocks. I think hip pain is sourced from lack of muscular support either from the buttocks or from the lower back. Hip pain is no fun. I hope you feel better soon.

Good job girls! I cannot tell you how much your happy attitudes are wearing off on me (and others?). Reading your posts is always a joy.

It is really good, but do make sure you have the desire to eat it often because it is bulk from Costco. More then once, I have had to throw out a 1/2 eaten container because I did not remember to eat it often enough. Overall, I highly recommend it for the tastiness!

This bad breath is ketosis from a diet of low carb and high protein. It generally will go away once you start eating healthy carbs again, but that will take a few months. For now, you can try brushing your tongue and gargling mouthwash every day. Sorry I do not have any better options, but it is just one of those minor inconveniences you will have to go through as a post op.

I really like seaweed as a post op. it is the first time I have eaten it. There are a few different seaweed preparations I have tried : seaweed wafers, seaweed salad and seaweed topping. My favorite is the seaweed salad and can be found at Costco. It makes for a great side vegetable with your 3 oz of lean protein. The wafers and topping are more for snacking on. They are a little sweet and very "light" in texture and in calories, but high in superfood properties and iodine. Trader joes has a good selection of seaweed snacking food and Costco has seaweed wafers in bulk. I bought a package of seaweed wafers (12 individual packages of different flavors) 3 months ago and I am still only on my 4th package. I guess I do not eat them too often, but they are a very tasty way to get the superfood properties from a food.

M2g- Your experience with the secret menu at Panera sounds like you were a little unlucky or perhaps the clerks were not trained right. Usually, I ask them what is on the secret menu and they recite it for me. You can tell it is not printed anywhere because they always recite it from memory. It is bizarre why they will not even give the workers a menu to refer to! Maybe someday these healthier menu options will make it up onto the visible menu. The sooner the better. My favorite item has been the chicken, spinach hummus one, but it is still too much food to eat at one time. It comes in a huge bowl so do not even try to eat it in one sitting!

Chia seeds do not have any flavor and tend to take on the flavor of whatever they are added to. For sample, I add chia seeds to my cake batter or cookie and cream Protein shake. The seeds take on the same flavor. I like letting the seeds gel for between 30-60 minutes in order to make a really thick shake that requires a lot of slurping. Lol. Almost need a spoon to drink it up. I can tell the seeds are ready to be mixed if after shaking them around in my Blender Bottle they do not move. This definitely takes at least 20 minutes for the seeds to reach that state. Keep in my that blending together gelled chia seeds and Protein powder requires a vigorous shaking for 10-20 seconds to properly mix everything. You can also use a regular blender to avoid the mini arm workout, but shaking the blending bottle vigorously is kind of fun... Since I use chia seeds every day for their amazing super food properties, I buy 2 lb bags of it from costco. The price is not too bad at 12 dollars. I also have ordered them from Amazon online before Costco started carrying them. Online I was paying about 25 dollars for a 2 lb bag from a small grower. Good product, but I like being able to buy them from Costco now. As stated above, Chia seeds are a wonderful super food. They also a wonderful BM regulator that keeps things flowing daily. Ah the small miracles in life.

Thanks a bunch for posting this very interesting approach to strength training Amy!! I spent a while and read through the material yesterday and think it is a very sound approach to a full body workout with compound movement strength training. How can one not get a hot rock in' body after following these basic 'pioneer' type exercises? Rhetorical question. I told my wife about it last night and she also thought this is a great idea. She did wonder if these should be performed only outside in case you drop or otherwise fling the sledge hammer. It reminds me a lot of kettle ball swings, but with more compound movements. Hence, more effective I would think. One concern I have is the potential to mess up your back if you over extend the workout or lose good form. I need to research that question some more. I read some warnings about it on his information page. As a boy growing up, we used to cut our own firewood and one of my jobs was to split the rounds into quarters using a sledge and wedge. Let me tell you- it was a workout back then and built strength. We would do this every year for a few weeks in he summer time to prepare for future wood burning seasons. I am going to look into these exercises sometime soon and determine if it is something that makes sense integrated with my workouts during the week. Maybe I could replace some of my push and pull upper body workouts with these sledge hammer movements? Are you going to try this approach out?