Fiddleman

Globe - thanks for sharing. I am glad the Insanity program is working out so well for you.

One step closer towards this challenge. I did 60 pull ups today kipping with the smallest band we had as part of the following workout: 15 Minutes to find heavy Clean & Jerk then For time: Row 500 Meters 30 Pull-Ups 20 Thrusters (95/65 lb) 10 Muscle-Ups (Sub bar muscle ups or 2 x ring dips) 20 Thrusters 30 Pull-Ups Row 500 Meters Time: 17:23 I did ring dips instead of muscle ups because, hey, who can do a muscle up anyways. I wish the pull ups were easier. This challenge will help with that. Anyone else try some pull ups yet. I know I am a day early starting the challenge, but I have an excuse. They were in the WOD.

I gained some this Christmas (so much eating!!). Back on my normal paleo/zone style eating this week and hopefully back in my normal range by end of week or next week. Now I KNOW just how easy it is to get carried away with holiday eating as a vet. The sleeve is still a big help IF you are eating the right foods (e.g dense proteins and veggies).

I just told her and she is tickled with joy to hear it.

One day at a time. One day will lead to two days. Two days will lead to three days in a row and so on. You can do it!

Oh my, this Christmas has been a lesson in self control. And I chose poorly a number of times. Yikes. I am going to get back on track after these parties finish. Today, is our last "Christmas dinner" feast as a family. We get together for the social reasons, but my, there is so much tempting food around. I have to go even though I dread the eating. Why must we always have to have eating of rich food at family gatherings? Don't answer, rhetorical question. We had like 4 Christmas dinners between the different parts of my extended family and I am staying off the scale. no reason to affirm what I can already feel. Next week will be a repurposing week about getting back into the pattern of eating right. I still exercise like before (5 x this past week of intense workouts), but I think the holiday eating is tipping my body into store versus burn mode.

yes, the chills happens to everyone. I found it to be worse between month 4-8. Somehow my body got used to the change after that and now I am no longer wearing gloves when out at the grocery store or cold when everyone else is in a tshirt. Fear not, it will get better. This winter (18 months), I hardly notice anything. In fact, my body almost gone the other way where it is warm in cold conditions. It is specially true after exercising. I can be in sub freezing temperatures (eg 20-30 f), in shorts, and still feel warm. Lol. And I do not have any layering with a body weight of 180 @ 5'11"

Have been trying to eat paleo since hitting goal in February 2013. While I can do it without too much of a struggle, it does get a little boring. I have been considering transitioning into zone diet because it seems to be a solid nutritional platform for athletes and offers more choice then paleo. I still am going to focus on high lean Protein and leafy green veggies, but am also going to up carbs and fat more towards the zone ratios. What do you think of the zone bar as a snack: I have had these a few times last week when on a business trip and they seem to satisfy me much better then bars like pure protein (20 g protein, 1 carb). I eat one of these zone bars and do not get the nagging desire for another as low carb Protein Bars trigger. Must be the imbalance of macros in a pure Protein Bar that causes it. I try and eat real food when possible, but sometimes need to eat a bar if real food is inaccessible. Does zone diet work for maintaining after hitting goal and, more importantly, for keeping body in a state that will maximize results from cross fit (or other exercise program like that). The aspect I like about paleo is it keeps my insulin response in a neutral position. I am satisfied in terms of hunger throughput the day and eat 7-8 meals to total between 2000-2200 calories. My weight stays where it needs to, but does drop low if I increase exercise intensity or add a day. 4-5 days of working out now for about 20 min on average oh high intensity effort (total time daily is about 1.5 hours, but that includes warmup workout , mobility, skill work, lifting, high intensity workout, cool down workout). What are your thoughts on paleo versus zone for an athlete?

Talley- how unfortunate and painful. It sounds like a long road to recovery. Best wishes to you.

Being 18 months out, I can say that the sleeve will always serve you well if you eat nutritionally dense foods (from both protein and veggie food groups), but will almost certainly fail you on slider foods. It is wise to develop good nutritionally sound eating habits during the first 6 months while you are effectively on " probation" as a new sleeved. Once a certain time period passes, your ability for the sleeve to help you on certain classes of foods (sliders, sugar, salt, fat, etc) goes way down, effectively to 0. And then it becomes a question of how well you built your foundation during the first few months for the house you now live in. There will be storms with hurricane strength winds and your house will only be as sturdy as the foundation you poured. Listen to your nutritionalist, read and educate yourself before your "honeymoon period" ends and what is left to guide you is your decision making process.

I hate the studies too because ironically you get very little quality sleep with all those wires attached and an uncomfortable bed, not to mention the ordeal of just getting up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. And then there is that sticky goo in your hair and the pain of ripping off the pads (for men). I was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea a few months before surgery. Most of us have had this condition before. So I was on the machine nightly until surgery and admit it took some getting used to. I always wanted to rip that sucker off after 2-3 hours. However, insurance required a certain number of hours on average every night which is recorded on the little memory card. On surgery day, I brought the machine with me, but they never used it. It sat lonely at the end of my bed. Nor did I use it while in the hospital. My hospital stay was 5 days due to some O2 complications (in ICU for 2 of those days). By the time I returned home, I used it for a couple days and then discovered I really did not need it any more. The snoring was gone within a couple weeks so the machine went under the bed. Fast forward a year and I did a second sleep study, just to see if cpap machine and I could break up amicably for good. It turned out I was 100% cured of any sleep apnea. The expensive brick (1600 dollars) still sits under my bed today only slightly used. Eventually, I need to sell it or find someone who needs it because it is doing zero good gathering dust. You will probably have to do a second sleep study eventually as a post op to measure progress.

I did a huge donation last year to value village. Hauled some 12 full bags of clothes to the store. I have only kept 2 articles of clothing: a leather jacket and my robe. My leather jacket was my favorite so have not parted ways with it. I still wear my robe. I imagine I should just get rid of it, but it is comfy.

Red bean - how has the mma been going? What do your workouts look like?

Yup had a (single) day this season when I really lost the battle in terms of eating party food and paid dearly in comfort afterwards. However, I felt like I have won the war this Christmas in making good decisions about food even though surrounded my mountains and mountains of cookies, cakes, pie, candy and chocolates all the time. It is a tough part of the year, especially if you are maintaining. Kept within my range I wanted to stay in.

My wife and I do try and come to a consensus on what we order to avoid left overs and save on cost. I have found myself compromising quite often, but hey, that is what you do in marriage.

Be careful if there is any risk of ab work following the TT. If it is just soreness from unused muscles, it will most likely feel better in 2-3 days. I have also found glutamine (in bcaa powder) helps in addition to contrast showers. I am not sure how much a roller would help on your front. I know the roller helps me recover my traps, delts and lats faster as we do a lot of core and upper body work, day after day, month after month. Maybe the contrast showers would help you. An interesting thing happened today. I did a really hard upper body workout on Tuesday where my delts and traps were very strained yesterday and this morning. I was not sure if I was going to get through the hard workout today. There were lots of movements that required traps, delts and lays from knees to elbows, to push presses to wall ball throws. I also did 1000 m of rowing as a warm up before getting into mobility stretching. After the workout, the strain was mysteriously gone. I am thinking about why this could be. Would it be that the use of the muscles and ligaments today released their tightness that caused the strain? Would it be that the endorphins from the workout is masking the pain and I will really feel it tomorrow? Not sure. What are your thoughts.

I've never done acupuncture, but have done acupressure on a home mat. It really helps. How different would acupuncture be from acupressure (besides cost).

Well, it is the end of the month and today everyone got to choose a benchmark workout. Everyone did a different workout and naturally I did the filthy 50 (my December goal): To reiterate, here is the workout (in case you do not want to go back to the beginning of this thread): Do 50 box jumps with a 24-inch box, 50 jumping pullups, 50 kettlebell swings (54 #), 50 walking lunge steps, 50 knees to elbows, 50 reps of push press with 45 pounds, 50 back extensions (45 # bar), 50 wallballs using a 20-pound ball, 50 burpees (dropping all the way to the floor), 50 double-unders. My filthy 50 time came in at 21 minutes and 53 seconds (down from 23 min at beginning of month). That would mean I met my goal of being 30-45 seconds faster. However, I see there is still so much to improve that is not time related. I am thoroughly and unconditionally toasted. Maybe it is because of 12 days of Christmas WOD on Tuesday, maybe it is because of rich eating in the last week from holiday parties. Don't know. I blew through the workout until knees to elbows and then started to get upper body tired. By the time I hit #30 in wall balls, I was beyond body fatigued and fell over at around #40. Everyone else (about 10 others) picked shorter easier benchmarks so were all on the sidelines, watching me as I fell over from exhaustion. They were yelling and cheering for me to get back up. The last 3 exercises of 50 reps each are brutal in this workout. They really test your resolve. I go through the burpees and then my rope broke on the double unders so had to find a replacement quick. Luckily I picked out a good fast one and whipped out the 50 quick. I love when a jump rope makes the whirring sound when the cycles are quick. I had to modify by dropping from 20# to 14# on wall balls and my knee to elbows would have not counted in competition because knees have to touch elbows when hanging from pull-up bar for each rep. My knees got about and inch away. Next time I do filthy 50 I hope to Rx. I also like that one of the coaches was personally helping to correct my form and offering tips as I went through the workout to complete the exercises with less effort. The more I do cross fit, the more I realize it is being really smart about coordination sand conservation of energy. These are especially important on filthy 50 because it requires so much stamina and endurance in addition to movement skill and focus. I wonder what tomorrow holds? this month has been a challenge. Next month I am starting a pull-up and handstand push-up challenge (another thread in fitness forum) to get 50 each in a row. It may take a couple months to reach the goal as I have what seems a very high mountain to climb.

Christmas dinner last night with relatives actually posed a fair amount of challenge for me. I was good and stuck with a small slice of ham and some veggies, but I wanted the croissants, the blue cheese au gratin, etc. and the dessert table was the worst of it. More then once I was tempted by the coconut cream pie, the banana cream pie, the cookies, the chocolates, the frangos and on and on. There was quite a spread and coconut cream pie was one of my favorites pre sleeve. I was able to talk myself out of actually removing said food from the dessert table. It was hard! However, I feel better now that I walked through the valley of death and came out the other side. I hope that is the last of the Xmas food temptations for the season.

HW: 360 SW: 335 7-2-2012) GW: 180 CW: 172-177 (first reach: 2-27-2013) 5'11" Maintaining the current weight for about 8 months now.

that's awesome! Start whenever you wish. I will be starting after the new year.

Those mathematical patterns in the snow are spectacular. I think if I tried that, the pattern would look more like those spider webs created by a spider on caffeine. Lol. http://www.trinity.edu/jdunn/spiderdrugs.htm I wonder if he uses a gps mobile program to help guide where he walks.

I think exercise and eating clean are great tools for anxiety and depression It was my sedentary lifestyle and consumption of sugar that led to many of my anxiety and depressive episodes pre VSG. And I had them in the worst way. I have not had any such episodes since changing these two parts of my life : daily exercise and eating small balanced meals throughout the day. I know it sounds crazy, but the wrong food (as a drug) really messes with your mental quality of life.

Protein bars are very close to being candy bars. And eating one leads to desiring a second due to, in my opinion, lack of satiety. If you compare the calories between a snickers bar and a quest bar, they are not all that different. There are also a lot of mysterious ingredients they pack into those bars from hidden trans fats to dangerous chemicals. For these reasons, consider eating clean whole food for a snack instead where you get a good balance of the macros and a full understanding of what you are consuming. For example, a few ounces of sliced chicken pieces with red pepper or apple slices with almond butter. I have found that whole food is much more satisfying and desirable then a protein bar with mystery ingredients.

I am the same way with unassisted full handstand push-ups. The strength is just not there in my shoulders to lift my head up off the ground. I am still working on the basic hand stand. That is, to support my body upside down with my arms in a locked out position, not worrying about range of motion yet. Tried again yesterday but still could not even lift head off mat a millimeter. It was sadly humiliating. In the meantime, I am working through a progression to get from 0 to 10: http://www.crossfitlondon.ca/wp/zero-to-10-handstand-pushups-hspu/ I am good at box handstand push-ups (step 3). Have been for several months now. In a few more months, I am hoping to do a full set of 10 handstand push-ups unassisted (step 10). In the meanwhile, I am going to practice the handstand push-ups on the side with this pull-up challenge so I can do my first unassisted handstand push-up in the same way you are working towards doing your first pull-up. Perhaps I should be working on practicing heavier shoulder to overhead presses because, according to my coach, the movements are the same except inverted from each other. A set of 10 shoulder to overhead presses are a challenge for me also at any meaningful weight (eg 95-115 lb) so doing a handstand push-up requires essentially a 180 lb inverted shoulder to overhead press. Yikes! I need some spinach right about now.