Fiddleman

Seela- you might find it easier to allocate smaller time blocks during the day such as 15 minutes here and 15 minutes there. 15 minutes is just enough time to benefit from the exercise and may work better until you are able to time manage larger time blocks. Also, as you spend more months working out, there is less and less of a reason to not workout and it gets easier. I think the key is to identify a plan that will work for you and then adapt it as you are able to.

Here is roughly my activity plan post op. My starting weight was 360 and my current weight is 180 with roughly at 16% body fat. Week 1-6 : walking up to 3x a day. Started walking a block first day home and progressed to 1-2 hour walks with my dog. I did one hike @ week 3, but I serious regret doing it because it nearly sent me to er from dehydration. Month 1-4: more walking and ellyptical for up to 45 min. Month 5-7: started running on my treadmill. Worked up to 20 miles a week. Did different types of running like distance, speed and HIIT every week. I was able to do a 18 minute 5 k and a 37 minute 10 k at my fastest. I averaged 22 minute 5 k and 55 min 10 k. Rarely did more then 10 k in a single run, but z few times did 15-20 miles. Long endurance running is not really my interest. All the power to those that enjoy running 1/2 marathons and marathons. Month 8-14: personal training cross fit 2x a week, a video series called "you are your own gym" (completed 2x from beginner to advanced). Continued to do some 5k and 10 k running, but focus switched to sprinting shorter distances up to 1 mile at a time. My best mile time is 4:55. I average 5:30 mile when I run for time now. Started my first weight training at this time. Month 9-18: open gym cross fit 5-6 days a week. Started with 3x a week and now do 5-6x a week. I do Olympic and power lifting daily and also a high intensity metabolic conditioning workout that pushes you to the wall like nothing else. These types of workouts keep me fit and mentally interested. There is also the social aspect of working out with friends on a daily basis that I enjoy. It is how I socialize currently. You can see my activity levels are definitely following a progressive pattern. This is the ideal way to do it, to grow a little every day by doing more and becoming more skilled. The reason why I started cross fit at month 8 is because pure cardio was wasting away my muscles. That simply would not do for a guy of my age. Today I am not only at my ideal weight, but have an athletic body fat percentage and build. It was not until I started open gym at cross fit that I was able to achieve this. Listen to your body and fuel it with the right food choices, Water and supplementation. The sky and your mind is the limit.

that's a good point. I usually eat the same thing, even on off days. Maybe I should lighten up the carbs a bit on off days. Don't know. The muscles need the carbs to regenerate glycogen and that occurs when you are not working out...

2 sessions in 1 day?

It took 80# before my relatives noticed anything. I mean, really?

Wise words. Thanks BTB. Now, I do know one day you rest and that will be tomorrow. Ha! I just gave you seven days of rest a week.

BTB - I eat about 70% paleo. There are lots of violations on my part, but it is my goal every day to eat as clean and natural as possible. As you can tell, I take liberties with fiber one, steel oats and protein. Nothing comes between my bowl o' carb and an afternoon workout. same thing can be said about my night time case protein shake.

The bad for me was learning how to eat at the right speed and right quantity as the dynamics constantly changed during the first 6 months. Lots of sliming and some throwing up during those early months. It was also hard determining what types of food your sleeve could handle after 1 month when most transition into solids. I never had trouble with eating and drinking at the same time. After 6 months, my sleeve chilled out a bit and became more accepting g of most foods. Today @18 months there is hardly anything my sleeve will reject except too large a quantity. The good for me was no more high blood pressure (been 110 / 70 for several months now), no more sleep apnea (disappeared during first month), no more pre-diabetic conditions and a much fuller life with my family in terms of quality time and activities. Food is no longer the boss of me and I have learned how to eat as an active athletic person of ideal weight.

Thanks CBT! Really good answer.

You have experienced death twice?

Definitely morning, naked after bathroom. During weight loss phase, I was on the scale almost daily. Now, at 18 months and maintaining since 2-2013, I typically weight about 1-2x a month. I can get all the feedback I need in terms of clothes and mirror.

Hi- for endurance running greater then 1 hour I typically eat a couple nuts.com energy squares before running. I will eat 1-2 more every 45 minutes of running. My runs are typically 10k-18k and about once a week. My pace is usually 55 min/10 k. For other days in the week, I may or may not do running as part of cross fit workout. It will be no more than 3 miles and is typically sprinting. Every day, without question, I eat 2 hours before working out a lot of good carbs. Usually it is 1/2 cup steel oats, 1 scoop hydro builder Protein powder and 1/4 cup of Fiber one pellets. This mix works really well for me to push and push hard during the workout. There are four parts. 1. Cardio warm up 2. Heavy power or Olympic lifting 3. metabolic conditioning workout (different every day). 4. Cardio cool down I do not think I could make it through the cross fit workout without carb loading ahead of time (the oatmeal mix is probably about 500-600 calories). I eat to fuel every day every 3 hours. I have been maintaining my ideal weight with an athletic body fat for about 8 months.

Every time I click next page button from first page in personal messages the BP app will hard crash. This bug is 100% reproducible, at least with my account.

Yes, I have had this exact same experience during the few surgeries endured so far. It is like hibernation on a computer - everything freezes in a state until the computer is woken up from hibernation. No sense of time passing. It is like anesthesia puts your consciousness into hibernation mode. Everything just freezes, yet you still breath and your heart still pumps. It is a fascinating process.

Great! You might find a meal of good carbs before doing these cross fit type workouts will help you with sustained energy during your workout. Every day I make this huge bowl of steel oats that is mixed with a scoop of my protein powder and 1/2 cup fiber one 2 hours before working out. Works great for sustained energy during the 1-2 hours of busting it out. A good whey protein drink afterwards along with Glutamine, as part of a BCAA stack, will help your body recover faster and stay out of a catabolic state. Keep drinking a lot of water (in liters) all day to flush out the toxins generated during your daily intense work out.

My challenge for this month is to do 50 unbroken pull ups in a set . I did 100 in sets of 10 yesterday, each set unbroken. Slowly working towards my goal. Started out this month being able to do 5 in a row and would burn out after 4-5 sets. So making some progress. Long ways to go. Good luck everyone in reaching your goals for the month.

Birthing machine...lol. I think you are talking about the leg press machine. I always enjoyed that machine also.

Increasing your calories will "turn" off the weight loss. The weight loss ends when you have found a good number of calories to eat daily that will neither cause you to lose or gain weight within a range of course. Most vets will have a 3-5 lb bounce range and try to stay in that window. The number of calories you eat depends on your activity level, your BMR, etc.

OK - had my first rheumatology appointment this week. I did a DEXA scan to check bone density and also an xray of SI joints. DEXA scan came back fine indicating I have normal bone density for a guy my age and height. However, the SI joint xrays indicated wear and tear along with arthritis and inflammation. What does this mean? I am going to do blood work at the end of this week and they are going to give me an update after reviewing the labs. They still do not know why I have bone spurs and deteriorization in the spine. Some things that help my is wearing a special shirt that corrects my posture. I wear it all-the-time and the back and neck pain I have been experiencing in the last year disappears. Still need to figure out what an inflamed SI joint is and how that relates to the spine issues. Anyone know? I am 37 male so a little strange to have these issues.

I did a lot of pull ups today. 100 of them in sets of 10. What helped me prepare and get better at them is watching a 2 part video on you tube called " pull up virtuosity" in addition to the video I posted above. It clicked for me. Getting the kip right requires careful balance of tension in the body and the "power" comes from the transfer of energy when switching from "arch" form to "hollow body" form and then pulling at the precise moment when the transfer of power occurs. So this made my pull ups match easier today. It is also important to keep swinging to a minimum and head / trunk in neutral position. Do not pull your chest up or crank you head back as that changes the shoulder mechanics quite a bit (see video I posted above). I have a few new blisters. I have lathered my hands up with a product called "winnies rip fix" so I can be back practicing the pull ups on Friday. This stuff heals your hands really fast (better then "new skin" or neosporin). Next goal 15 in a row.

Muscle spasms sometimes occur when there is an imbalance between calcium and magnesium in the muscle cells. Magnesium causes cells in muscles to relax and calcium causes them to contract. This is especially important for the continual pumping of the heart. However, If there is too much calcium in your muscle cells, they will continually contract and spasm. If there is too much magnesium, then you blood pressure may drop too much. Heavy exercise can cause the imbalance (my case), but so can a lot of others things like dehydration. The muscles function best when there is a 2:1 ratio between calcium and magnesium. Since we take 500 m of calcium 3 x a day, you will want to counter with 250 mg of magnesium for every 500 mg of calcium. You may be able to source magnesium from food. I cannot so I take a magnesium supplement daily in the 2:1 ratio. The spasms I used to get are gone. Magnesium has many other health benefits, but the best one is relaxing the muscles. The best product I have found for sourcing magnesium is called Natural Calm. It comes in a few flavors, but I like the raspberry lemonade. I usually split the recommended daily dose over breakfast time and bed time. I do not find it makes me sleepy during the day, but the relaxed muscles may help you sleep better at night.

Popcorn - it is just not worth the empty calories and is too much of a slider food. I did have some popcorn at around 6 months out (a small at the theatre) and found it was way too easy to eat. If you are looking for something crunchy that will also benefit you, try some fiber one. It has a high percentage of daily fiber for 1/2 cup and is relatively low in calories.

How about just do cross fit WOD daily? Works great. A lot of the cross fit WOD can be done with just a pull up bar, a good pair of running shoes, a barbell with weights, a heavy kettle bell, a wall ball and a rower. If you only have, say, a barbell, you can go to town on thrusters, back squats, front squats, power cleans, clean and jerks, push presses, sn@tches, dead lifts, etc. If you do not have access to any equipment (which i think is NOT your case), there are an unlimited number of body weight exercise you can pull from to build a WOD (burpee variations, jacks, push ups, etc). Cross fit.com posts a daily WOD or maybe your cross fit friend can help out with some WODs (do keep them changing every day). Glad you found something that works for you.

I remember my first Christmas as a post op. It was 5 months out and nothing sweet perturbed me, in any way. It was so easy. I could sit around people, parties and xmas time food, yet utterly lack the desire to eat any food that was off " the plan." So easy I tell you. Fast forward to this Xmas and it is a much different story. We host parties. That is who my wife is. It is so easy to grab a small piece of home made almond Roca, a home made this or a home made that. My desire for sugar and salt comes alive. Granted I only have eaten about 100 calories extra this weekend of Xmas part food (big party last night too), but I am quite surprised at what difference a year makes. I reached goal at 7 months, about 10 months ago. I have been able to eat my paleo friendly diet without too much effort since then, but, man, this Christmas has been so much harder as a vet. I am sure come Monday things will be fine again, once back on the eating plan and back to the cross fit workouts (today is my rest day). I am going to need to be careful when tempted around holidays. It is not about weight gain (working out keeps me fit), but more about being disciplined, about being in control of my motivations and my goals. Things I should have responsibility over. How has your Christmas time been? Do you get these holiday lapses? What are your strategies when you are around parties (either hosting or attending) and your vet mind starts tricking you ?

Those doing the pull up challenge may find the following video on pull up mechanics useful: