Fiddleman

Georgia, you are probably right. I do load up on carbs now every day with oat meal. How many carbs do you think is in 1/2 cup steel oats? I usually have 1/2 cup mixed with protein 2x a day (morning and afternoon). Other carbs comes from 1-2 ounces of veggies with lunch and dinner meal. Most of my calories comes from protein of some sort from protein powder to lean meat like chicken, but these do not have carbs.

4000 m of rowing today in 1000 m increments for time. That is about 2 1/4 mile. Workout was 1000m followed by as many push-ups as possible in 6 minute increments with 3 min rest in between. 4 increments total. Ended up with 244 push-ups total and very tired arms. I am glad we did not run today because it was raining a monsoon outside!! Tomorrow it looks like we will be running a mile for time along with a test for max squat, bench and deadlift 1 rep. Time to put on the after burners again like last thursday. I want to run sub 5 minutes.

That is really great!!

Yes, I have consider it and have done a ton of research on the standing desks. Would love to have one, but costs are too high.

Not at all. In fact, they help with maintaining or losing weight by feeding the muscles.

My guess is 31-32 based upon your facial features compared to my SIL.

I used to have this problem several years ago because of bad diet and low fiber. Ended up in the ER the pain was so bad. Haven't experienced it post op at all. It was pretty embarrassing having the nurse manually clear several times after taking a couple bottles of the nasty oily stuff.

My wife like to have these hot chocolate Protein drinks almost daily for chocolate fix and at the same time contributing to protein goals.

Most folks end up close to 2000 calories a day after they hit goal. This also assumes some exercise.

Have any of you tried this? It has a good balance of Protein, complex carb and some good fats. This particular variety came from costco. Here it is as part of my lunch today: Here are some nutritional stats on it: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/calories/costco-cedarlane-quinoa-tabouli-75431816 I just do not like that the sodium is so high (probably mostly to preserve rather than flavor). Keep in mind that nut stats are for 1/2 cup. I have about 1.5 tbsp on my plate. It does not look hard to make from scratch. I am sure some of you chef inclined folks could make this fairly easily. chicken on plate is about 3 ounces and is sort of prepared like satay without the fish sauce. Very tasty. There is about 1 ounce of brussel sprouts. What do you think of this food item? [ATTACH]18665[/ATTACH]

The reason why we like chocolate is the little bit of phenylethylamine that it contains. This nuerotransmittor releases norepinephrene and dopamine into the blood stream, the "feel good" hormones. Unfortunately, the 1/2 life of phenylethylamine is only 5-10 minutes which means the cravings come back quickly for more chocolate. It is better to find a food that triggers the release of the hormones with a longer 1/2 life. Caffeine in coffee might be a good example because it tends to stay in the body a lot longer before being metabolized. Just something to consider when thinking about the chocolate cravings.

Actually, no. The weird part is I developed some kind of RA in my finger joints in both hands that I never had before. strange, huh? May not be directly related to VSG, but I do know it started about 7 months post op after I started cross fit. Regardless, it is a new experience for me. My wife has SA (had since early adult / teenager) and I will ask her how it is doing now that she is a few months post op. I think the symptoms may be less now.

chocolate can still be benefitial as a post op if you manage the consumption of it. If you can eat chocolate in moderation, you might consider have a small portion of dark chocolate that is 80% cocao or higher once or twice a week. It will satisfy your cravings and also provide you with some additional benefits that come from eating dark pure chocolate. If you are not so much of a moderation type (me), then you might think about satisfying your chocolate cravings with chocolate flavored Protein powder or perhaps hot chocolate with additional protein. Find something with a good chocolate flavor that is not going to punish you in term of calories or spike your insulin levels to trigger even more cravings. I never have really been into chocolate before VSG, but as a post op it is a flavor I have come to enjoy. Every night I make a double chocolate casein Protein shake and it satisfies me as a desert. The casein protein also is such it helps my metabolism keep burning until morning when able to eat again. I really do enjoy the richness of the double chocolate flavor. I know cravings can be hard. I think the key with dealing with them is to first determine if you are a moderation person or an all or nothing person and then go from there, perhaps implementing one of the suggestions above into your post op plan. Hope this helps.

Good luck today everyone. I am sure you will do great. Today is a rest day and I will cheer you on from the sidelines whether you are jogging, running, biking, rowing or what not. You guys are awesome.

Good job Georgia! Victory is in the air.

+1 miles this morning, but sort of in an unconventional manner. It was part of a partner WOD today (first time I did this) Started with plank Tabata for 8 minutes (20 s on, 10 s rest) Then 1 partner did an increasing set of 3 T2B (toes to bar) 3 kbs (53# kettle bell swings) 3 box jumps While the other partner ran up and down the hill with a 35# plate for 800 m. When the running partner got back, he took over the exercises and the other went for the 400 m run with the plate.we must have looked funny huffing and puffing running up the hill with 35 # plate. Lol. It was fun! Every time a set of exercises got completed by a partner, he increased the rep count by 3 until running partner returned and took over. This AMRAP (as many reps as possible) workout was done after 20 minutes. We ended up doing 8 sets where last set had 24 reps of each exercise and 8 400 m run for a total of 2 miles of hill. I contributed to 1 of those miles.

Wow - you definitely hit the jackpot. Were there any conditions on getting the full coverage and what insurance? Not that I need a breast lift (no man boobs here), but I am sure others would want to know.

Check out this link for some really tough met con workouts: http://www.mensfitness.com/training/endurance/the-6-most-brutal-crossfit-wods Note that Fran (mentioned in above post) is in this list.

I know exactly what is wrong. overtraining. Doing 4 days of intense cross fit workouts in a row is taxing, especially yesterday when I ran 3miles in about 17 min ( each mile we were instructed to run far beyond comfort). I feel much better this afternoon, but was showing to classic signs of overtraining this morning (lethargic, weakened immunity, bad sleep pattern last night, decreased desire to eat). Just need to be careful about it no matter how driven I get. Gotta get it in my mind 3 days on and 1 day off.

A combination of clean eating, sleep and Metabolic conditioning will really help you get fit and fly past goal. You want to turn your inner furnace on and that happens by eating enough calories to fuel intense workouts. You have to eat enough good carbs like oatmeal before these workouts or your body will shutdown too early before the metabolic conditioning workout is finished. By metabolic conditioning, think HIIT or Tabata and then multiply it by 10x in intensity. Met con is usually not that long (short as 8 min sometimes long as 30 min), but pushes your body to do extreme workouts where you are on the floor afterwards recovering. Doing different metabolic conditioning workouts day to day is where you are going to see results, fast. For an example, look up cross fit Fran WOD. The elite can finish Fran in sub 3 minutes. It takes me around 8 minutes. 3 rounds of 21-15-9 sets of thrusters and pull-ups. Today's Met-con was 3 rounds of 8 muscle ups, 15 power cleans, 20 front squats and 8 muscle ups. I chose not to do it as I have already don 4 days of met con and am physically exhausted. however, i worked on deadlifts @ my 90 % and skill by practicing the movements of power cleans, front squats and muscle ups outside the WOD. Felt a little guilty for skipping the WOD, but I did not waste the day. The question you want to ask yourself is do you want to just hit a bmi #, a pant size or some other aesthetical reason or do you want to be in the best fit shape of your life. Given what I know about you and working out, I think it is the latter.

+1 mile. No met-con Wod (rest day). Worked on dead lifts (#295) in addition to skill training: power cleans and muscle ups.

Not sure what I am going to do today as far as miles go. I have spent most of the the day being physically overly tired, sleepy. Still waiting to wake up and it is 1:30 pm already. Oh and lots of sneezing and sniffling this morning. My body woke up at 4:30am this morning where I really needed to sleep at least another hour for recovery purposes (got 6 hours sleep). Need to get jazzed up soon for doing something in terms of working out around 4 pm rather than drooling on my keyboard fighting sleep (work suffered today). And yes I tried caffeine already this morning.