BigTink2LilTink

Today was more cardio and arms day. It was hard but I powered through it. I haven't been losing, but I'm not gaining either. I'm still toying around with liquid fasting for a week. The down side to that is if I do that I can't lift or really work out to hard.

I will be the first to say finding the motivation can be hard. What got me back on track were three things. 1st. Not reaching my weight goal. Going from being 10lbs away from goal to now 100lbs away is the wakeup call I needed. 2nd. Clothes starting to not fit loose like they where in the past. Nope that's a negative trend gents that I wish to not start. So that was the "okay a*****e get back on your grind" talk I had with myself. 3rd. The old eating habits creeping back in. Now they aren't at pre-surgery levels (eating 8-10k calories a day), but I can get about 3-4k calories in especially if I eat junk like carbs and high sugar **** (Reeses still my weakness). So to combat that I try to make it a goal to burn at least 500-1k daily if I can. Get my water in and try to keep my carbs back to early post surgery levels. And to have some sort of cheat day (usually Saturdays) but eat as clean as possible during the work week, where I can stick to a schedule. Tonight was leg day at the gym. I've been on a walk right into the gym work out and go home. No locker room no changing. Get in and get the hell out as soon as possible.

Last few days I've been working out in my street clothes. Its just makes it easier if I skip the locker room and walk into the gym right into cardio. Some look at me crazy but I'm stilk in there getting the routines that I need to complete completed. I will admit the jeans are heavier and make my normal 3 miles on the elliptical seem like 6 miles. But the key here for me is trying to restore some consistency in my workout schedule and routine so that my body doesn't do another heart plateau again.

No problem @J San

I would work on just non-weighted squats. Get a exercise ball put it up against the wall and your back and use that to squat. Work on your form and get that down before you move on to do it without the ball, then no wall, and then with a bar, and finally with a weighted bar. That helped me with my back issues while I was still carrying a lot of body mass. I think after I lost my first 150lbs I started working on pushups and planks. The one think I keep having to remind myself is that no matter what this isn't a race. Its a marathon, and that as long as you keep moving forward doing the work consistently then you will get to goal. Some of use can get there faster than others, but you will get there when you get there. And that is all that really matters, you getting there. Another thing I have done is I do change up routine every few months. It to kinda shock the body out of routine. Like right now I'm back to outdoor biking. I'm gonna do that from now till maybe early Dec (It gets cold here in MO by then), and I'll stitch it to indoor swimming at the gym during the winter. Then spring I'll go back to outdoor biking again.

For me I started working on my core, back, and legs first. That means a lot of crunches, planks, and leg lifts, dips, leg press, leg curls, lunges, jump squats, squats in general, jump rope, jumping jacks. You can use your own body weight for this but for starting out I wouldn't go beyond 10/15lbs max. The ideal as you are starting out is to get get the form down so you minimize injury risk, while getting your body use to working out in general. I would work on that for at least 8 to 12 weeks before increasing weight. And even when you do increase in weight, do so very moderately and only after a good 6 to 8 weeks of consistency with the current weight. For example if you are doing leg lifts at 50lbs and you've been doing it okay for about 8 weeks at that weight and its easy to you, then go up to about 60/65lbs. The ideal is to ease into more resistance, while minimizing the chances of injury that will cause you to miss more time working out. I do workout my arms and chest too, but I didn't focus on that till maybe a good 16 weeks into working out more. I do curls, pressing both bench, and hammer, curl rows, push ups, lat pull downs. I do alternate days and I do focus training, where I will spend one day working on either legs and back, and then the next on arms and core (gut). I try to average at least 3 to 5 days a week working out with weights. However for Cardio I try to do that damn near daily. Walking daily helps. the more you can average per day the better.

Yeah its all about accountability here. And that the realization that the surgery is this magical cure all be all needs to be squashed. It take work and focus to get there. The surgery, diets, working out are all tools that need to be used in tangent to one another in order to reach that goal. I got lazy part of the way and now I'm dealing with losing weight that I had already lost before. It sucks, but its reality. We all have peaks and valleys to deal with here. I choose to recognize my peak moments and then trying to get my ass back down to the bottom of that valley. Can't stay on this mountain of fat for too much longer.

You're very gorgeous. Keep up with that awesome work. Sent from my SM-N920P using BariatricPal mobile app

Yeah I try to squat about twice a week. Nothing too insane, but enough to give a bit a resistance and to make sure my form is key. Last thing I wanna do is hurt myself, especially my back.

Hey all. Its been a minute since I've posted in here. Been dealing with my own stall and weight regain over the last year. Been a rough year with job stress and buying a home, that it really didn't take that much for meto fall off track and let old habits creep back in. Over the last four weeks I've refoced and went back to the basics again. Counting callories, avoiding the things that don't help as much as I can (at least during the week), and hitting the gym more consistently. This time around where some things are easier to cope with, other things aren't. Its why I'm here. Needing that reminder that this isn't a race but a marathon of continued work, focus, and dedication to being a healthier person. Acknowledging that my success will come from the work I put in. My honeymoon phase from surgery is long long gone. So when you get stress out, or slip up with the eating/diet/exercise remember this: 1.You didn't get to where you got in a week, and you won't get to where you need to be in a week. 2. It takes time. Learn to acknowledge your mistakes and learn to move past them. Even if that means starting from the basics (calorie counting, meal prepping/planning, walking, water intake, etc). 3. Remember/remind youself that you can do this. Surgery was the hard part. Working out isn't **** compared to having your stomach/body altered. 4. Celebrate your success, because they do count. Whether its making it to 2 miles on the treadmill, staying at your caloric goal for a day/week/month, fitting in smaller clothes,or dropping an inch off the waist line celebrate it. Because not everyday that scale is gonna cooperate with you. When that happens remember that you are changing in other ways. Yeah and days you feel like its still not working look at that picture of you prior to surgery, and then look at you now. Your light years away from where you started. Because you decided to start. Sent from my SM-N920P using BariatricPal mobile app

Good job. Mighty good job indeed.

Today will be my first day back in the gym in about 3 weeks. Besides life getting in the way (trying to buy and house and the headaches that come with that) I haven't been getting to the gym as consistently as I had wanted too. When I last stopped I was about about 150lbs on my dead lift, lift pulls, and about 130lbs on my weighted squats. Gonna go slow here tonight when I do some work. Hopefully once I close on my house I can get back to a more consistent routine again. The last 2 months have been crazy with house hunting and everything else.

I would say for now stick to either using beef/chicken broths, and protein powders and mixes. I wouldn't even chance trying to eat and/or drink pureed beef/pork anything. You may feel fine, but your body is still healing from you removing something out of it. That takes times, even if you feel like you are fine and okay, your body is still in recovery and will be for at least the first 6 to 8 months. Don't skip by your plan, and don't cheat it. Because if you do, it may come back and bite you in the rear in a lot harder than what you expected. For me getting those 80g of protein in consisted of me not only using Isopure unflavored and flavored protein mix, I was also doing Pure Protein coconut water (had about 8g of protein per 12oz), and Swanson's chicken broth (10g per 10oz). Then there was just some days that I didn't meet the goal. Not everyday are you going to meet that protein goal. And that should be expected especially only being like 10/15 days post surgery. But try very hard to get as close as you can to goal as often as you can. The sooner that you meet your protein goals I feel the quicker you will heal your body.

^^^^^^^^^ This Also LOL!

Looking good there madam. Keep up the working.

No you haven't given too much information. These are some of the same issues that I had ran into as I was going through my changes. Its good information to share, because others will go through these changes and will want to know if the way they are acting, of if the increase libido/sexual urges are normal. And we can tell them yes.

Make sure you are with a partner(s) that can handle your new found sexual urges. Trust me, nothing is more frustration as you go through these changes than to be with someone that can not sexually satisfy your needs. Also it will tapper off after a while. I call it the second puberty. The affects of the testosterone will start the level out the more excessive fat you burn off your body.

Your surgeon should have covered that with you before the surgery, but I believe you are looking at about 2 to 4 weeks before you are moved to soft solid foods phase post surgery. Again, every doctor has a different recommendations so its best to error on the side of the guy/gal that took out your tummy vs a bunch of people that are on an online forum.

This that post gym pump look. Yeah I have to keep going. If you can't motivate yourself to do it, then no one else will. Sent from my SM-N920P using BariatricPal mobile app

I was the same. Although I had a hard time believing it. Even after having a former partner measure it for me to ensure I was "well endowed" I still questioned it because of my stomach being in the way. Now that I have a hell of a lot less stomach, I can see it for myself clearly now. And my partners can indeed feel it to.

Yup I love buttoning up my size 36 jeans as well. Especially when just 30 months ago I was struggling to get into a size 58. Would not trade back the old size for anything.

Sorry, but I can't stop sharing this ****. Every time I look at it, I am like WOW, I'm actually doing this ****. I am actually changing who the hell I am.

Looking good there.

Why thank you for the compliment madam. I do truly appreciate it

Fantastic job. However I just wanted to say that you are very gorgeous. Both pre and post surgery madam.