Fiddleman

Thanks for the plan. It looks good. I hate having to give up my bedtime snack though, but it does have vitamins and minerals as it is either a shake or a Protein Bar. I will try out your suggested plan this next week.

Second infection post sleeve. First one was a staph infection affecting upper back, neck and head. Very painful for 3-4 weeks late last year. This second one is prostatitis ( inflammation of the prostate). The doctor put me on a 6 week Cipro plan starting yesterday. Waiting for labs to come back indicating "real" issue. The biggest concern is that the bottle says to take 6 hours from last mineral and wait 2 hours before taking next mineral. The timing thing is what is killing me because I need to take this 2x a day. I take my minerals and Vitamins in the morning ( including iron) when I get up. Calcium chews an hour or two after that and the calcium chews again at lunch and dinner. I usually eat every 3 hours and I eat last Protein shake or bar at about 9 pm. This snack usually is loaded with minerals by definition. I am wondering if these no-take rules can be bent a little since we have smaller stomachs and process nutrients differently from non sleeved individual. My plan right now is to take at 3 pm and 7 pm, but I am still not outside of the no take range and I am taking the doses pretty close together. I hope I do not have to resort to taking the Cipro in the middle of the night. Any thoughts? I know, not the most exciting topic, but...

I do agree that it is OK to throw caution in the wind every so often ( had my April drink last night - an apple martini shaken with some expensive vodka I picked up). I think it would be a fallacy to think you can succeed long term without being keenly aware of diet and exercise. You are going to go through shock and awe treatment at the end of weight loss phase if you do not develop good diet and fitness plans while you are going from month 1 to 6. The first six months are almost designed to help the post op get their lifestyle plan in order forcing a progressive introduction of food and exercise. Think about this. It is important to heed this warning in order to enter life as a thin person and remain a thin person.

Hey Mike - About a shot BMR: I just got done with an hour of power yoga ( vinyasa and hot). Will this type of Yoga get my BMR up? It was killer, but I actually finished with little modification. Felt good about myself. I always seem to really sweat and work my muscles using body weight in these hot yoga sessions. I hope it will help me burn calories better at rest like a naturally thin person along with the cross fit and running I do week over week. I really do not want to be looking over my shoulder for life for carb this and fat that. Maybe others know? I am slowly but surely getting my calories up my eating more good carbs and protein. Fueling my body all the time with food now it seems. Lol. Maintaining while eating peleo stuff more and more ( every hour?) and increasing fitness ( cardio and strength).

Some of you may know I have been training for a few months with running 5k and 10k. Each week I try and push myself and get better. Recently I joined cross fit to improve my fitness level. Last week, I saw this special on Evening Magazine (Seattle show) about cross fit and it showed this guy running at full speed on a treadmill at 12% incline. Afterwards, he was on his back breathing hard and looking like he just had the best sex ever (pardon the visual). I thought, damn, I wish I could do that. They said several times during the show that athletes do cross fit for the extreme high it brings. I thought - sounds good to me. Fast forward to today, I decided to really push myself like never before. Instead of spending the first 10 minutes of my 10 k to get into the zone, I got myself into the zone at the end of my warm up by adding sprints and incline running during the warm up. I started the race at 6.6 mph and 2.0% incline. At then end of 5 k, I had been running 18.5 minutes. At the end of 10 k I finished in 39 minutes. I was on my back recovering for a min, seeing stars with sound echoing into the distance. I felt great, like that guy I saw on the show. I wanted to stop several times during the run, but I kept repeating "I am a cross fit runner now. I can do this." To help me have the energy to do it, I popped 2 energy squares before the run and another at 5 k. I drank a lot of Water all morning to hydrate myself. Took a pre workout drink right before run so the pump would kick in around 20-30 minutes. I met my latest goal of running 5 k sub 20 minutes! I continue to train with runs 3-4 x a week, increasing the effort spent every session. I share this to motivate others. Good luck in your fitness endeavors and may you keep setting and meeting your goals. I think anything is possible and I want to apply the principles of cross fit to all areas of life.

How are they feeling on your runs?

Heh, you beat the censor system. Again. Way to go! You need a prize for breaking the software. how about a free IPad? Wait a few days and I bet you will not be able to do it again. Hope Alex is reading this. Seriously I think it is because the AI behind the censoring does not know how to conjugate or analyze per slang and urban lexicons. Something like that. by the way, did you get the answer(s) you were looking for / hoping for as the OP? I think there is a lot of good information In this thread. We should all get honorary psych degrees from a university for our in depth psychoanalysis and introspection. Who needs to pay for therapy when you can get it for free on VST!

That is wonderful news! Good luck on it and all the best.

As for longer term event goals ( next year?), I have been thinking more and more about ultra marathon trail runs. Have anyone of you done these before? I think it is possible in my future because I have a pretty good endurance and stamina when running hills and distance with my training so far. Getting better every day as I push my fitness levels in new ways. I have hiked 50 miles in a day before when younger ( high school). I would like to get out there and run a huge distance over the ups and down of a trail like the PCT between Stevens and snoqualmi pass. I've seen runners do this before when out back packing the trail. It is 72 miles from end to end and goes up and down between 4000 and 7500 feet. I think it could be done in a day with the right training and preparation. I am very familiar with the trail as hiked it many times. The biggest unknown to me is how one would fuel and drink along the way, especial since it will be an isolated run. Another trail to run would be wonderland around mount Rainer. However, I am not familiar with it so well. I would prefer to pick a trail that I can easily visualize from end to end in order to systematically prepare both physically and mentally. I have already read the popular ultra marathon books that are usually recommended. I would also want to work regular shorter day trail runs into my training like mount si ( 8 miles round, +- 4000 feet) or a slightly longer one like tiger mountain from I18 to I90, 22 miles round) to start out with. Need to research this more to determine how to train for a trail ultra marathon.

Heh, that's awesome. Running in a wet suit gets you the title "scuba man" in the papers. I like to run shirtless because I usually sweat up a flood anyways.

I think the Nectar product line is good for taste. The sweets are really good with cookies and cream, vanilla bean and many more. So good!

Sorry, my fault, (again ). Must stay on topic, damn, where are my focus drugs...

I am someone gets my wacky sense of humor.

You know, in all honesty, one day of blasting your system with carbs actually might help your resting metabolic rate. Not encouraging people to do this, but why not make lemonade from lemons? Just don't do it for more then 2 days or you really will start to store the excess calories. Carb cycling or something like it.

My bra size keeps increasing as I lift more weights. Lol.

Out of curiosity, what percentage of your excess weight did you lose with sleeve so far? If you are 40% or higher, I would not call it a failure. Even if it is lower, you have not "failed." It just means you need to figure out some changes to make. Do you exercise daily and eat as clean as possible? Even walking is a good exercise. How is your Protein and Water intake? Lets just talk as a group to see if we can help you out.

Is it bad? Dunno. No personal experience with bread post op. I have heard bread can get stuck in your stomach if you are not careful. It can swell and be very uncomfortable. That and the carbs / starches are not good for you nutritionally. It would better to eat Protein or vegetables. If you are going o eat carbs ( which you should later on), you want to have low GI carbs. In other words, you want carbs that break down slowly and do not cause an insulin spike. Raw honey is l good in moderation for sweetening.

Yes,I think you should. I have went to WW a few times in the past and it worked well. I never used their point system and was really successful at just finding some foods I liked and sticking with them. For example, for dinner I loved the Thai noodle with fiber one mixed in, green peas and a Sunday desert. I swear I had a Sundae every single day and lost 90 lbs. I did not know how it was possible I was losing 5 lbs a week on this diet for dinner. Never counted a single point. i do not what it is about me; i just do not enjoy tracking at all even though i am a numbers person by career, go figure. My wife and all the other women were so jealous. It was fun. I loved coming to the weigh ins on Saturday morning and recording the losses and getting the rewards. It was so much fun. It helped me be accountable. Unfortunately I had a tendency to fall off the WW band wagon after about 6 months. If your find WW will help you be accountable, then by all means do it.