Fiddleman

Thanks for the very good read. I shared it with my wife (pheonix79, a newer post op) and we found our heads nodding like a couple bobble heads. Definitely a sign of a good article.

Taradawn- Your symptoms sound a lot like high levels of inflammation inside the body. One natural way go take care of inflammation is to take high doses of Omega 3 fish oil. I take 3 g a day (about 1 TSP) to combat information from workouts every day. So far it has worked really well and I have never been side lined with inflammation due to cross fit work outs or any work puts I do at home. If you wish a more traditional inflammation medicine, then go with ibuprofen or something like that. Everyone in my cross box takes omega 3 to prevent inflammation that leads to pain. You would be surprised at the rib cage and back pain going away in a few days if you treat the inflammation. At one point (6 months ago), I had daily rib and back pain also. For the central back pain, do be aware of good posture and alignments during bending exercise whether they are weight related or not. It is very important to be aware of form to prevent this spinal pain in the middle of the back (been there done that).

Double post. Delete.

A spike in blood pressure could actually be a spike in the insulin response that is triggered by certain foods or just by eating This might suggest some kind of pancreatic system issue. Notice I use the words could and might because it is just a suggestion to talk to your doctor about. I read about this correlation between blood pressure and insulin levels a little while back.

YouTube has a lot of good videos. A quick search turned up some good intro material : http://www.crossfit.com/journal/library/25_04_kettlebell_swing.pdf Start out with the American swing. It is easier and will not put your head, people, walls or windows behind you in at risk. Be very careful about posture as not to fault or tweak the lower back or neck. A pulled lower back muscle will side line you if not careful. Start light (10-15 lb) until you are comfortable with the basic swing movements and can handle more weight without losing posture. Keep your chest up, back straight, shoulders relaxed and imagine a wall in front of you. Do not let your body go past this wall. The power of a kettle bell comes from the snap of the hips forward, not from the arms. Practice just thrusting your hips forward from a squat position as you straighten out. Listen to your body. If any pain or tweak feeling, stop and recheck your form. Once you get a hang of kettle bells, they are a lot of fun and very powerful. They will take your workout game up a level. Good luck!

I just wanted to say kettle bell workouts are really effective if you can work them into your fitness program. Just started a kettle bell workout by bob harper inside out method and love it: http://www.amazon.com/Bob-Harper-Kettlebell-Sculpted-Body/dp/B004EFCVPE/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1376757802&sr=8-3&keywords=bob+harper+kettlebell 50 minutes of a lot of different exercises, not all are kettle bell related like cliff scalers, mountain climbers, etc. I like that he really emphasizes good form on use of kettle bell to prevent faulting the head or lower back. I am hoping to do his workout with 55 lb kettle bell in a few months. I am starting with 25 lb weight and it is still very challenging to complete 50 minutes.

Warning- long response. However, good info. I really have a lot of good things to say about c4 as a pre workout drink. It is one of the best pre workout products out there and I have used a lot in my pursuit of finding the best supplement stack over the last 8 months. I have tried a lot of different ones from c4 to Hyde to jack3d (original) to craze. C4 is the one that gives me the best physical response and has the least set of negative side effects. If i were to market a pre workout drink, i would call it Crank after the movie. lol. the raw energy that the guy in crank movie has would be great for a workout. While I want to say all good things about c4and the pre workout drinks in general as a tool to improve workout performance, there are some cautionary notes to consider. 1. Do not let pre workout supplements become a crutch. You do not want to depend on it to always get through your workout. Tolerance builds over about 3 weeks to the ingredients in a pre work out, drink, especially towards the caffeine. It will take more and more to get that initial pump that you once enjoyed. Once you start adding 3 or4 scoops to a drink, it is time to either cycle onto another class of pre work out drink or to stop entirely while your body reduces tolerance. My VST friendMark once wisely said that after your body issued to the effects of après workout drink, they become ineffectual. 2. These supplements are expensive and can seriously damage your wallet if not careful. Often times a container is 30-50 dollars. You will use up a container of a pre workout drink faster then you realize. Not necessarily the most important issue, but something to be aware of. 3. They contains lot of filler ingredients that have an unknown impact on the body overlong term. These lists of ingredients are often proprietary and you do not have an accurate description of ingredients or quantities to really know what you are consuming. 4. Some ingredients in excess can be dangerous. You may not have to worry about this one if you are an occasional user. However, if you are a heavy user, you need to be careful about impact on the renal system. Drink a lot of Water to help the renal system out. You can get a little nauseous depending on your tolerance to the ingredients. Find out what minimum dose is good for you to achieve workout goals. 5. Pre workout drinks are dehydrating. Be sure you are drinking a lot of water and replacing electrolytes after a work out from those lost through sweat. G2 is a great electrolyte drink, but so is coconut water. If you dehydrate too much, your muscles will cramp and that is not any good for your workout. So those are the cautionary notes. Just keep them in mind when using these pre workout drinks. Honestly, I have found the following suggestions to be safer and also help you have an awesome workout without dealing with the negative aspects of pre workout drink supplementation. 1. Amino acids. A good amino acid blend before a workout, during a workout, after a workout and during rest periods (throughout the day) is going to be a better option long term to help you have a better workout. Make sure you are getting branching chain amino acids (BCAA). The best BCAA amino acid compound I have found is called Xtend by Scivation. It really helps with giving your muscles the food they need to perform and to recover. Another good a amino acid product that I really enjoy is called catalyst by Advocare. It is an excellent pre workout set of amino acids that help you through an intense workout. Finally Theresa brand new type of amino acid research on SAA (silk amino acids) that claims to enhance Protein synthesis in the muscles. I did not find the product did much of anything except reduce my net worth. I toolkit exactly as instructed, but no real results. Maybe there needs to be more research on the effectiveness of SAA in humans, not just in mice. BCAA are really beneficial because your body knows how to transport them to the muscle for protein synthesis fast. If taking BCAA after a workout desperately from a recovery meal, it is best to take it first and then eat the recovery meal after that within 29 minutes. The reason is you don't want there to be competition between BCAA and nutrients from food during the critical period after your workout. Stack them in sequence and you will be just fine. 2. Complex carbs and good fats. A good complex carb meal before working out is the key to giving your muscles the sustained clean energy they need. I just had a thread on this over the last couple weeks. A good complex meal to eat 1-2 hours before working out is a serving of steel oats and a scoop or two of your Protein shake powder. I have found trader Joe frozen steel oats to be very convenient to heat up in a few minutes. Otherwise you can make steel oatmeal from scratch (takes about 30-45 minutes). This works too. Try and get a ratio of 2:1 of the macro nutrients carbs and protein. Energy squares from nuts.com are also good to consume before working out because of the high density of good carbs and good fats. Do not try and complete a back breaking intense workout without properly fueling your body with slow burning energy. Try and pick good complex carbs that are low on the glycemic index in order to keep the insulin response low. Pairing Fiber with a carb will lower the glycemic index on a carb. Apples, oatmeal, etc have a good source of fiber so lower the insulin response and give you more sustained energy. 3. Recovery shake or meal. Replacing the lost glycogen during a workout is important. Glycogen comes from the conversion of carbs and fats to energy. Be sure that you eat some carbs and lean protein following a workout to help your muscles recover. There are so many Protein Drinks out there. I currently use either a synth 6 protein shake or an AMRAP bar to recover after a home workout or a cross fit workout, respectively. Most recover shakes have BCAA in them, but I have found the dose to be low so supplement with extra BCAA. 4. Creatine. Creatine is a well studied supplement and has been shown to improve performance of a workout. There are 2 types of creatine to consider: monohydrate and hydrochloride. Creatine monohydrate has a loading period about 1-1.5 weeks where you needs to take high doses to saturate the muscles. Creatine monohydrate works by drawing water into the muscles. Water is beneficial for two reasons. The first reason is cosmetic where water gives your muscles a good pump. The issue is that the pump disappears after you stop saturating the muscles with creatine monohydrate as the water will leave the muscles. One side effects that you will gain some water weight. Creatine monohydrate also gives your muscles access to immediate fuel during a workout. This is where extra performance is going to come from. Creatine monohydrate doesn't actually help with protein synthesis for the growth of muscles be generating additional protein cells. Creatine hydrochloride has a much longer loading period of about 5-6 weeks. However, once the muscles are loaded, real protein synthesis occurs such that there is growth of muscles from additional protein cells. Additionally, there is no water weight as creatine hydrochloride does not work by drawing in the same level of water as creatine monohydrate. However, creatine hydrochloride tends to be much more expensive than creatine monohydrate by a magnitude. Hope this helps.

For me , 5 weeks out was 2 ounces of canned wild salmon (trader Joe), 1 scrambled egg, 1 ounce of very chewed chicken or a protein shake. Still kind of transitioning from puree to solid at that point. Calories were low: 300- 600. I was not able to eat a lot at that time. Eating was still not that much fun and kind of painful. Things got better by month 3 and slowly improved until able to eat 900 at month 5-6. Keep at it. It gets better, you can be assured! Try to do your best every day.

Eating 2000 calories of high quality lean Protein every couple hours is very beneficial to keeping your metabolism going throughout the day and at night ( if you eat some casein protein). The key is to keep meals small ( about 200-300 calories) and eat every couple hours. I eat about 7 times a day and metabolism is a well tuned furnace. If you lift or otherwise have a decent weekly workout program, then there should be little problem with eating around TDEE once you are far enough post op. You also should eat clean. Do not waste calories on dirty calories (sweets or fatty foods). Instead, eat lean protein and veggies, good carbs, good fats and drink a lot of Water. Good luck. I do not see why TDEE calculators cannot apply to WLS post ops. Several people have been successful with eating a normal amount of calories post op that I know. My comments apply to folks that are pretty well done with weight loss and looking to maintain. My weight loss has been 180 in 7 months and I have dropped to 13% bf after that in last 6 months by eating this way. Best part is my energy is awesome for working out week after week with cross fit and being super energetic all day. Love paleo style eating and never being hungry.

Yes, there are good TDEE calculators that tell you how much to eat based upon height, activity levels and some other things. I no longer have the link, but someone else might have it. A few months ago, I calculated my TDEE to be around 2054. I am sure it is higher now because my activity level is much higher today. Laura (ven) has a good TDEE link that she used to post. Maybe she will post it here.

I like the Nike Free shoes for running, cross fit and at home workouts: http://m.nike.com/us/en_us/pw/mens-running-shoes/7puZbrkZ8yz I used to run 20 miles a week with these. Now I run about 6 miles a week with the shoes in addition to working out with them. I am going to look for a good lifting shoe myself that has a thick hard plastic heel, yet is still a light shoe. Any ideas? Spent 100 on the Nike Free and fitted to it at a running store. Best shoe ever for running! 5k and 10k several times a week. I like it so much, I bought a second pair after 6 months of constantly running on the first pair.

I like to eat about 2000 calories after 8 months post op to fuel my life and workouts. During the first 6 months, tty and cap calories at 1100 a day (oscillate between 1900 and 2100 at 13 months post op and am with losing or gaining if my strength training is really good). You will eat 300-600 for a couple months and the start increasing towards 1100. After 6 months and down 100 lbs, start increasing towards 2000. It will take a couple months. Try to be progressive and slow about increasing calories as to not cause your body to store. Keep on exercising along the way increasing the intensity as you get more fit and your cardio and strength increase. Good luck!

Yup - it is time for new blood to contribute in sharing good fitness info for the rest of us. I always about learning new tricks. that is one of the reasons I started this thread. The BYOG workouts are really an effective use of time. You might find novice too easy as you workout with a trainer. If you find this to be true, skip to intermediate DVD. absolutely loved this program and the training style of mark lauren. Endorsed!!

Very nice! We all start where you are at and can definitely emphasize. great job for deciding to go for 3 days a week! It will definitely get easier as the weight drops. And more fun!

What do guys like to do for weekly exercise?

I really enjoy eating steel cut its from trader joes mixed with my Protein powder. It is a good injection of Fiber and slow burning carbs to my diet to fuel both my day and workouts. The flavor and sweetness comes from the flavor of your Protein Powder. For example, my protein powder is Cookies and cream, so I get a yummy cookies flavored oatmeal. You can add as much protein as you desire. I try and add as close to 40 g as possible in order to maximize the amount of protein my body will recess in a 2-3 hour window. I am not concerned about calories though this is probably a 500 calorie meal. Eating it before a workout really helps. My calories tend to be around 2000 per day and yet my weight fluctuates between 175 and 178 - a few lbs below my goal weight). Again, I only have a very general idea of caloric count because instead I just try and focus on maximizing protein and eating good carbs / fats. I am not a chef nor a cook so preparation needs to be easy and something I can handle alone without a lot of time or fuss. My wife is the master chef, but meals like these are generally my responsibility to make. I like the oats idea because it is so easy to make and can be prepared in a few minutes, yet energy gained is substantial. Another one that has helped me is apple slices,almond butter and chicken skewer. Again a really good set of the macros. A little lower on the protein though and apples burn up a little too fast during an intense workout. This would probably be my second best option. And those are currently my only two good complex carb / protein options. Lol. I need more options that hit fairly low on the glycemic index yet also pack a good solid protein punch. What are some other easy to make meals like this that I can eat either first thing in the morning for a 9 am workout or mid afternoon for a 4 pm workout? I take no prisoners during my workout so the more good clean energy that can come from these meals, the better.

Yup - very well indeed.

I would not worry about it too much. No wet noodle slaps for you! Your posts are often very enlightening and well thought out, very vet like. As a formality, you do have to wait until month 6 unfortunately to post here to this forum.

For men, compression clothing works great and can be found at retail outfits like sports authority. They come in a wide range of sizes from small to 2x. Buy in your size. I wear large for shirt and medium for shorts. The clothing helps to hold things like pannis in along with other distracting anatomical parts from lower body to shoulders (guys you know what I am talking about). I use both compression shirt and compression garments during cross fit and it helps you feel lighter with better elasticity if that makes sense. They are a little pricy, but worth it. It makes everything from running to pull ups easier, even if you do not have much lose skin (my case). Be sure to wear regular briefs over compression shorts because sweat will leak through quite easily. I wear an active wear shirt over the compression shirt and athletic shorts over compression briefs. They even help with your posture for when form really counts during a workout.