Fiddleman

Total carbs. I did not do any subtracting.

You might talk to your doctor about topical dicofenac or diclofenac patch (product called Flector Patch). Both are topical and avoid the stomach issues. I have found Ibuprofen works really well for certain inflammation pain ( not in back) and diclofenac patch for other inflammation pain ( in back). I want to not take any nsaid because I feel like such a WLS sinner and my stomach or GI tract is going to get revenge on me someday. The doctor said I could take after month 6 with a PPI. I do, but therapeutic doses are so high it really concerns me. I take straight ibuprofen, but also take Aleve if I have it. Another remedy for inflammation is to use those thermaheat pads. Works great and provides 8-12 hour relief. Some have said high doses of fish oil (3000 mg) will help. I have not tried this. Worked with a chiropractor for a couple months and it did not help really. I am going to ask the doctor tomorrow at my month 9 follow up to see if I can have something stronger then OTC Tylenol because even taking 4 of the extra strength does nothing for me.

Glad you asked! I enjoy the chocolate paradise squares and now usually eat 2 before a run. Need them to fuel my exercise, especially when muscles are involved. Sometimes I will also have one right when I get up to fuel my hop out of bed exercise routine (mile run, light weights). Gives me a good excuse to catch up on some news in the early hours and also get me going for the day. I recently ordered their variety pack so I can try out some different flavors for diversification.

Also, one approach that has helped me with improving 5 k run time and explosive power is executing something like the following 1 x a week. 1. Run 5 k @ x mph at some y% incline. Pretty fast, but the goal is to put in about 50% effort. For example, I start at 6.0 and .5% incline. 2. Every 10 minutes, increase speed by .2 mph and incline by .5% 3. When done, jump off tread mill and do a quick upper body strength workout. Feel the pump. Feel the burn. Feel the sweat. You might also do 20 squats to keep your lower body going. 4. Jump on ellyptical or perhaps rower or bike and do a 15 minutes interval session at 70% effort or more. Make sure you are doing HIIT on this so you keep your heart rate elevated and your body guessing. 5. Do the upper body pump again for 5 minutes. More squats, but this time with weights. For example, I use 20 lb barbells when I do the 20 squats. It really helps strengthen the inner thigh area and good overall core target. 6. Jump on the treadmill and alternate between running really fast for a min (sprint almost to hyperventilating) and running on a hill for a min for 10 minutes. Make sure you keep your body guessing on this step. For me, 5.8 mph on 6.0% hill and 8.0 mph on .5% hill. Make sure you are pushing pushing and pushing. Grunt, breath hard, make noise. You should feel on the edge of ability with this step, but do keep form as not to get injured. Keeping pushing through it and make it harder every time you try this step. 7. Run another 5 k in x minutes at 2% incline at a decent speed. For example, I run at about 6.6 mph and 2 % incline. I modulate a little over the 5 k distance, but this step is raw cardio. This should not feel that hard as by this point as it is the easiest part of the HIIT run workout. 8 sprint all out last quarter mile. For me this is about 9.0 mph. Another huge push moment. 7. Cool down with 5 min jog / walk. Feel the endorphins. 8. Get a towel and soak up the sweat. Other 2 runs during the week are more strictly about 5 k and 10 k race times. Like step 7 above. Just started adding a weekend long run that is greater than 10 k. No set distance, but am working it up longer and longer over time. I do this HIIT conditioning to not only improve my running, but also to prepare myself for the next day cross fit session.

I am 9 months out also. Interesting question. I think it really depends on activity levels and WLS goals. If you still have a fair amount of weight to lose , I would try and still keeps calories around 1200. If you are active and are pretty much done with weight loss, perhaps think about moving calories up to 1800. I am still trying to figure this out myself. My nine month appointment is tomorrow. I am going to ask them and get to the skinny of it. Lol.

Have fun camping!!

Interesting, interesting. You are right, I do not contract the stomach out of design when doing the flow of poses. I am just trying to keep up with the class. My resolve is only 1 hot yoga a week until I get better at it. Will do the less intense classes 3 times a week. For example Yin or Vinyasa flow or Hatha. Still learning technique as just started. Maybe someday I will build a little Yoga refuge in my background once I am good at it and not needing an instructor. Anyone who lives in the Woodinville, WA area want to join me as a yoga buddy at Balance Yoga? Be nice to know someone in the class. I usually go on M, W, F in the after around 4:30 pm and Sat in the morning at 9:30 am. During the week, Yoga is opposite in the day from running in the morning. On sat, I am training for 1/2 by running longer and longer distances in afternoon. I found doing Yoga after Cross Fit is too tiring so avoid practicing Yoga on T and Th.

Or better, see if you can eat a gotta have it cold stone ice cream without major diarrhea or throwing up. For sure, your experiment would yield dumping and mad running for the bathroom. Lol! Who volunteers? You could even pick something extra sweet like Founders with extra caramel, extra brownie and cake batter ice cream. And gotta have it is about a pint in size.

Just eat 5-6 ounces of chicken until you are full and the try to eat some raw veggies. Pretty sure you will slime.

BTB - unfortunately, I know exactly what you mean with the sleeve not helping with restriction on certain foods. My vice right now are Protein bars. I eat too many of them. Maybe I need to not eat any *at all* because they always seem to trigger a desire for another one. And I give in. All the time. It might be best just to go back to Protein shakes in order to avoid eating too many calories from these. Throw them away or hide them in my garage. Right now they are in my home office where I work and very easy to grab. I miss the easy days when it was hard to eat and even a Protein Bar did not go down well. It is too easy to eat for the last 3-4 months (month 6 and later) and there are not many roadblocks from the stomach unless I am eating very solid protein like chicken and/ or raw veggies. I do try and eat like like this, but have grown really fond of scarfing a protein bar after a hard workout. Bad habit. My family, fortunately, has been really supportive about helping me eat right post op. This includes immediate as well as extended family. However, I do have to say my extended family really ate and ate over Easter dinner. Really astonishing to watch. Also I do not buy that we maintainers need to exercise religiously just to live a normal life of eating, with some indulgences. I do not see thin people doing this. I happen to like hard exercise for the sake of fitness, but not for the sake of erasing an indulgence here or there. That seems insane because a person can never exercise enough to keep up with calorie in. Been there and done that in the past. It does not work. I am not saying I have this problem. However, I am saying I do not want to find myself in this epic exercise / food battle because I know what will happen. Not going there. Nope. For now, I just need to lay off the Protein Bars. They are too addicting for me to have in close quarters. Maybe this is just a phase that shall pass. I hope so. Sorry for the additional rant on this rant thread.

What the heck? Why on earth would she tempt you in that way when she should know better. Frustrates me reading that. Grrr. I would get them out of sight as not to be tempting. Some people just do not understand...and she is family no less. I am going to give Fyre permission to go after her. Lol.

I buy the BA chews off Amazon too, but they are actually 5 dollars cheaper from the WLS Center I belong to and no shipping costs. The problem is that the WLS Center is not open on the weekend when the support group meets and it is an hour for me to drive there otherwise. I suppose the cost of gas would balance everything out so will just keep ordering on Amazon.

I think I matched all 7 leading indicators 11 months ago so means I am still a raving food addict. Gotta make it 1 more month...