Globetrotter

I'm currently doing some low calorie experimenting and have found my emotions are right at the surface. This could just be a coincidence, but I think I've noticed it before in previous low cal stints, I'm crying, laughing, and angry at the slightest provocation. Anyone else notice a change in their emotions when they drastically change their diet?

Today is a fast day, I drank hot tea all morning, then made hot flaxmeal - 2 TBSP cracked flaxseed, boiling water, and a splash of SF brown sugar cinammon syrup. For dinner I will have a salad of 3 oz red kidney beans, 5 oz shredded chicken, 2 TBSP homemade vinaigrette, 1/4 cup carrots, and 2 cups greens. This is a lot of food by volume, plus a lot of roughage, so I will eat twice, half at 5pm, the rest at 7pm. It may sound wierd, my timeline of eating, but I know that I am a night nibbler and I would rather it be proper foods rather than nibble cheating. Total cals for the day, 634, more importantly my fiber is 14.1 - poor for a normal person, a triumph for me

CGJane, I hear, respect, and absorb all of your wonderful words of wisdom, I am fully on board!! That being said, in my peculiar environment, there are things I have to consider that I wouldn't in the real world. I very much want to return to liftiing, I will figure out a way, I will make it happen! It will just take some thinking is all. I really miss my endocannabinoid rush from lifting.

What Chase said, definitely, and what Arts said, absolutely. I am 3.5 yrs out, also 5'3", also never hit goal, was near 300 at surgery, and also have had a pretty hellacious year and a half. As Oregon said, we've got a crew here in VST doing something called 5:2 and the group is made up mostly of seasoned vets. I do a version of 5:2 called ADR and it's working, 5:2 is honestly working, since the "craze" started back in late spring, several people have lost all of their regain and are getting real weight off toward goal again. Definitely stop grazing, up your water, go back to logging your intake faithfully, and get a hobby. Seriously, I'm painting up a storm right now.

what are some good body weight exercises? I can't use the barbells as I do not have a spotter/workout buddy

type in gluten-free in the search box, all forums, and you will find quite a bit on this topic, I believe a lot of sleevers are pretty much gluten free.

numb?!!!! How long as it been? Did the Dr say why?!!

cool. I love the taste of JayRobb but it is so expensive. I love the idea of hemp protein but the carbs are too high for too little protein.

@ Fiddle - I know, right? You would think that being for all intents and purposes, in the Army, that I could just get totally ripped lifting. Instead, as a female, I can't find someone to be a workout partner because no guy wants to open himself up to talk, the Army is hyper paranoid about talk. None of the females I know are interested in lifting, and our installation is pretty small so there aren't any classes like Xfit or spin or P90X etc. I'm on my own!

HKY, are all of those considered compound exercises?

OD, you might try doing what I do, reverse 5:2 or ADR, alternate day fasting. On the apron topic, as someone said, it really does disfigure our accomplishments. At my most fit it was a constant jeer in the mirror, telling me that I had accomplished nothing, that all my work was for nought, etc. etc. Mine is particularly pronounced and even with level 10 shapewear it is still discernible. But if it came down to it, I would get the arms over the apron done, because there is something particularly hurtful to my psyche about these pendulous flapping old lady wings, they humiliate me and make me feel old, if I ever wear anything with cap or short sleeves (FORGET sleeveless), I can see people's eyes gravitating toward the horror. And if I wear clever sleeves that disguise, if the shirt isn't tunic length I can see people's eyes gravitating down, down to my crotch. staring at my crotch/gut, it's humiliating. v_v.

I'm sitting in the office, it's a fasting/cleansing day (green superfood drink, tons of flaxseed, probiotics) and another person in the office is eating her hot lunch, it smells like salmon in cream sauce and rice and I could f***ing murder some salmon right now ... AND there is a bag of Ghirardellie dark chocolate salted caramel squares in the freezer. MOTH** FU****!!!! I'm sucking down the green tea like it's my job (well, it is actually today haha). Is green tea an appetite suppressant or is that a placebo effect? About to have my protein shake with flaxseed, it's noon, then around 3 I will have my green drink, then dinner will be around 6, a salad full of color. My goal is to stuff myself so full of salad that to even attempt a chocolate square would bring on the slimes, so I won't do it.

My God Cowgirl, it's like you have read my mind and heart! I'm going to be nakedly honest here, a year and a half ago, spring of 2012, I was at my lowest weight and fittest, I did crossfit 3x a week, yoga 5x a week, running with a trainer friend once a week, and tangoing 2-3x a week, many hours at a time. My weight was still high (wasn't even at surgeon's goal) but the intense compound lifting and strengthening transformed lumpy fat into smooth taut muscle, I'll say it right now, my ass looked damn good! Men turned to watch me walk down the street and one guy I dated, as we were going up a steep flight of stairs said out of nowhere, "every man should have the privilege of walking behind you up a flight of stairs". I say all of this because, the thoughts you mentioned Cowgirl of "what now" definitely were going through my head during those months when I came *perilously* close to goal and drop dead sexiness. I would lay in bed at night annd feel the sharp knobs of my hipbones, I wore "chicken cutlets" in bras that I formerly muffin topped out of and I think that there was a part of me that was so scared to be finished or thin or whatever, that I self-sabotaged. BTW, my profile pic in the teeny blue dress was taken at the height of my badassery But, I have received a lot of excellent therapy in the last 4 months, and a lot of traumatic $%^&*ing life has happened in the last year, and I am not the ingenue I once was. I have always been goal oriented, major long term style goals, so now I am looking at possibly going back for my PsyD, commit myself to learning French, commit myself to dropping the regain, and then commit to plastics. I am going to be as self-absorbed as possible, and I count that as a good thing.

I am deployed atm, I do have access to a gym but it is very basic, dumbells, barbells, a few basic nautilus type machines. Would planking be considered compound lift?

One bit of wisdom I have learned in the past few years, once I achieved "normalish" woman size, was that men like something to hold onto, something to squeeze. Does anyone know a way to measure fat without calipers, fancy machinery, or a fancy scale?

Internationally chuffed!

For the chicken noodles I think you whiz the chicken in a blender along with whatever spices you want and maybe some flax flour to make a paste, in a way you are sort of making free form boiled chicken sausage, just long and skinny threads!

You are right Arts, the fat is fluffier than the muscle. I'm not working out at all right now, just focusing on diet and at the moment my calories are too low to support heavy exercise and to be frank I have had enough regain that I no longer feel capable or competent at the gym. I think I will focus on the nutrition and my physical health for now, before reintegrating the gym. Like Cowgirl, when I am fit, I have a body that just loves to exercise, there were times at my fittest when I seriously considered becoming an instructor, just so I could work out all day long. I want to return to that kind of fitness but this time, actually at goal.

Unjury is wheat free, casein free?

What are compound lifts?

Maybe tomorrow I will just do some gentle yoga and then maybe 1 set of 5 squats, 1 set of dumbell lifts, and 1 minute of planking?

I'm not entirely on liquids, I typically do 2 shakes a day with flaxseeds, then a complicated salad for dinner, full of omega3s, leafy greens, Beans, etc. Arts - this old myth again - muscle does not weigh more than fat. It does not, it does not, it does not. It is more dense, smoother, but a pound is a pound the world around. As for starvation mode, When I was dedicated to crossfit I upped my calories and ate responsibly and was still obese, and it took me 6 months to lose 17 pounds and I was a model goody two shoes of nutrition and fitness. The only time I have ever significantly lost weight was when I was extremely low cal, low carb, high Protein, and did no cardio.

would prefer not to but yes.

Hi everybody, I am a sleeve vet who recently went through some non-VSG related health stuff that has kept me out of the gym for over 2 months and also has me on a post-op style diet again. I don't want to lose muscle mass or strength, I know that I already have, I feel so weak. Does anyone have any advice on how to return to lifting? Can't cardio atm beyond very gentle yoga.

Everyone has said such awesome stuff I really don't have anything to contribute, other than to reiterate the fact that muscle and fat weigh exactly the same, for some reason kicking the old myth that muscle is heavier is really difficult. Somebody up in the thread mentioned that during the muscle building phase you are tearing muscles and creating inflammation etc. and that could account for this temporary gain, I agree with that person. Also, don't forget just how individual results vary, for example the person above who said they stopped weight training because it slowed down their loss, so they stuck to cardio? I am EXACTLY the opposite, when I do cardio, my loss grinds to a halt, even though I still have at least 50 lbs to lose. But when I lift my loss continues apace, and I look better faster.