neveragain

I can't wait to lose my belly again so when I go running, my fat doesn't flop up and down. It's kind of irritating when I have to look at it in the mirror at the gym, too. Bah.

That's kind of cool! Thanks for putting it up here!

Honestly, I have a suggestion that helped me more than anything at first: - Find a gym partner who you can count on to go to the gym with you and make you push your limits. I lost weight so much faster with someone to go with that it was kind of crazy. I felt SO good, too. ...Maybe someday I'll find that motivation again. lol.

Honestly, I would recommend "Couch-to-5k". It's free and it's online. It's a great program, but honestly, it's like anything else. You just work up slowly and be careful not to go past your limit.

Also protein powder and a multivitamin! :thumbup: GNC is a great place to go for those.

Is there any particular reason why you're avoiding meat? Are you a vegetarian/vegan?

Okay, so here's the thing about that. Really, if you're working out pretty hard, you could probably do 1500 and lose weight, but seriously, 1200-1300 is a good daily intake all around. Also, the more unprocessed for you eat, the better off you will be.

I've had the wii fit for a while and it's a BLAST to use. :thumbup: I do, however, think that if you're looking for something that's going to give you a tough, steady workout, you might look at something a little more cardio-oriented. The strength training and yoga things on there are awesome, though!!!

I'm quite the opposite, actually. I like nice, classy girls.

If I were you, I'd drop it all together. Honestly, though, if you want to smoke it a few times a year, have at it. Just don't make it a habit. :blushing: I kind of miss it sometimes, though. lol. I just can't taste anymore, though, so nowadays it would be "whatever" to me. haha.

Considering you had the surgery in that general vicinity, that's not terribly worrisome. It's probably soreness and a little leftover CO2. If it gets worse, though, PLEASE go see your surgeon.

At the risk of giving medical misinformation, we try not to give emergency medical advice, other than: you'd be best off to go see your surgeon asap.

I'm so happy this caught on so well! I did this last year and even though my joints fought me at first, they can take much more of a beating now! haha. I think I'll do the couch to 10k next. :biggrin:

I've been a little bad because of my class schedule and homework, but I'm trying to get it in throughout the week. I've also joined the triathlon club for supplemental workouts. I'm so determined to get back to 200lbs again!!! >_<

Sorry it's been a while! I'm keeping with it. My diet has been a little off and on, but I'm still giving it my best! Legs never get easier. lol. Love it, though. I start a U of A public Army PT class on Monday, too, so that'll add to the hell, but I won't give up. It'll be worth it! KEEP BRINGING IT X STYLE GUYS/GIRLS! John

The generalization that he made was really evil, but I know what he's trying to say. For this to work at it's highest potential, like most of anything I guess, you need that drive, that competitive spirit and the "never give up" work ethic. In my humble opinion, the quote they used about the LAP-BAND® was a bit harsh, but again I see what he's getting at and I'm not fully against it. The aforementioned concept, that is. hehe. I'm a competitive person when it comes to skill. It's tough for me to take a leisurely bike ride with my fiance or play a leisurely game of golf with no competitive feelings, even within myself. There's always something driving me to improve myself, though. Naturally, it's connected to my confidence level. Sorry, I'm veering off topic. haha. Amy, you can totally do it, though. Most days, I STILL don't want to do it, but I somehow convince myself to. Yesterday being one of them. haha. Don't give up, though. You always have us. Rant if you want, get it all out, and then kick its ass the next day. Whatever you feel like you need to do, do it. We're always here to listen!!! EDIT: Let me clarify what I meant. lol. I'm not saying that if someone is not competitive, they shouldn't do this. That's crap. Anyone, regardless of size or standing of confidence, could do this and benefit greatly from it. I just think that if you have the will to succeed and improve your skill, in anything for that matter, you're going to work harder and push the envelope more and create better results. That's it. ^^

It's okay, Shelby! I totally understand. I'm up at 5am and go to bed at ~12pm 4 days/week. haha. You can do it, though! I have faith in you! Okay, today, I have some stuff to do today for work and get my class schedule figured out, but this evening, it's time for chest/back and ab ripper x. Diet today: -Breakfast: Fiance brought home a Breakfast sandwich and iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts. I ate half of the breakfast sandwich. - Lunch: A little bit of a turkey/salsa simmer that I made last night. It was pretty tasty and pretty low calorie, so I figure that's a good bet and high Protein. - Dinner: Frozen lean cuisine sandwich - Snacks: Fruit and maybe a little cottage cheese.

Okay guys. I just saw a few people posting up saying that they started P90x this week or will soon, so someone had to start a public thread for it. One thing I have to say about it, though, before we get started. I, personally, think EVERYBODY should do this or Insanity. I swear that I'm not quoting the commercials to be a Beachbody whore, but LITERALLY, these are the hardest workouts I've ever done in my entire life, outside of football in high school. The first time I did P90x, I did probably half of what they did, if that, but NOW, I can actually do 2 pull ups and run a 5k, and I weigh 255lbs. I feel pretty accomplished, but nevertheless, my competitive nature pushes me forward to be able to do more. lol. AAAAAANNYWHO, diary of day 1: Today, I thought about starting, but I didn't. I was a little too hungover. hehe. Tomorrow is the day. Bringing it x-style. Tip of the day, kids: Do as I say, not as I do. lol. John

You guys are going to like it. It's tough, but you see results. Maybe not so much on the scale right away, but when you see yourself being able to follow along with him easier, it's a HUGE non-scale victory!! Oh, and plyometrics and yoga are the most evil things ever and I hate them, but there's nothing else that can replace them. lol. Honestly, I'd be totally game to do Insanity, though. I'm kind of a sucker for pushing myself to the limit. lol. Good luck guys and I'm gonna make a P90x diary thread for us. PLEASE JOIN!!!

*does his happy dance, but knows that this is a rare occasion, so he will savor the victory it while it lasts* lol.

Brad, as usual, pretty much dead on. For the MOST PART, building muscle is pretty unlikely, especially for those seasoned lifters and people on crash diets, like most banders. This also kind of goes along with why our Protein intake is so FREAKING important. If we are working out and not getting our protein in, it could easily backfire. Jacqui, high-impact does NOT always mean more of a workout. Swimming moderate pace freestyle for 1 hour and running a 12-min mile pace for 1 hour burn around the same amount of kcal/hr. Also, swimming is a full body workout AND easy on your joints. Ha. I win. :thumbup:

Ellisa: I completely agree. There is a BIG difference between LOW carb and NO carb. Honestly, personally, I err to the side of low carb diets because when someone says "low carb", they're usually referring to a sensible, low-fat, complex-carb, high Protein diet. Atkins diet COULD be healthy if it didn't have the the whole "fat is okay" bit going along with it. Also being a student of the craft, when the researcher man/woman was talking about how carbs, in general, are the devil, I thought that it was a little over-dramatically stated, but it's true to an extent. Genes definitely don't adapt quickly. For example, there seems to be an argument in the world of nutrition about the necessity of dairy. Why? Because we probably didn't milk cows 10-12,000 years ago, so why should we do it now? There are PLENTY of things, aside from milk, that you can get Calcium out of, like spinach, broccoli, tofu, etc. Also, our life span was MAYBE half of what it is now and obviously we didn't know how much we should eat, so it took a toll on our health. Without bringing institutional economics into it too, lol, the point I was trying to make was that even though our bodies weren't originally created to consume this type of stuff, it can have beneficial uses if consumed in proper moderation. Also, for the record, nearly everything healthy has connections to disease if it is not consumed in proper moderation. For example, soy has connections to male gynocomastia, zero carb diets have connections to kidney stones, and the list goes on. Just sayin'.

You know, for the record, I'm all for Jenny Craig. My fiance is on it and doing really well and my parents lost a grip of weight on it, but for a people with a band, even that size of portion is just too big. They want you to eat 2 cups of just vegetables as a side for dinner plus the 2-3ish cups of entree. In my personal opinion, if your stoma is big enough to pack that down, you've gone a little too far and it's time to shrink it again and start over.

The truth is that, for the most part, your hair loss has to do with malnutrition, so are you taking a multi-Vitamin and how many calories are you eating per day?

Not even so much direct to Irene, but to ANYONE who reads this post who is curious, my tip of the day for anyone new to the band or exercise in general is to find people who you can workout with. I can't even tell you how helpful that is. Whether it is strength training or a group exercise class of some sort, MAKE FRIENDS! When you have people you like who you know are going to be there. Also, make friends with the instructor. When you have a friendly connection with the instructor, you will be WAY more likely to go and you will feel somewhat required to go because you want the instructor to know you're working hard. Also, they are usually a dictionary of exercise tips, including this one. Just my $.02 :biggrin: