Fiddleman

For all you folks who liked the "good poke" comment, I knew it was going to strike a big humour vein (ha!), depending on interpretation. Thanks for sharing in my little attempt at a joke.

Around-I need to check the blood pressure again. Honestly, I think it has gone up and sill get it checked today. We have a home cuff, but do not use it very much. One observation I made last night is the "pain" throbbed the most in a junction point of the primary vein on top of the hand where it branched towards middle finger and non married ring finger Is that a good classification of that finger?. Essentially, the finger between middle and pinky fingers. This blood "pump" is a change from most of the year after surgery where I was my bp was consistently 110 / 70 and my resting heart rate was between 40-45. Yes, my heart seemed to be pumping faster and harder now last night. It has since calmed down this morning. One change that occurred yesterday is I started a new really hard and intense workout at home (my next personal 12 week challenge). Loved it, but man it was a serious push of constant HIIT/ strength. I have also been taking some energy pills to help drive my focus and drive during workouts in order to push myself physically way beyond the point of comfort. I am not sure to think of it as good or bad. Good, I suppose, as being more visibly vascular is a sign that my hard training is paying off and my overall body composition is going in the right direction (targetting 10-12%). Bad because painful right hand vein pain may be a sign of phlebitis: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_is_swollen_and_painful_vein_on_right_hand_dangerous Not something to mess around with. I do not view the doctor with the same level of authority as I used to, meaning, I want to manage my own health holistically if possible. This is not meant to be a negative comment about the medical industry. I just want to manage my own health holistically without having to depend on prescriptions, doctors, nurses, whatever. I hate to be whining about this pain and that pain or this ache and that ache. Since achieving goal, I have taken my health into my own hands, trying to eat as healthy as possible to maximize my fitness efforts. It has paid off and I feel great, have so much energy and can do physically so many more things that I could only dream about before. I like what I have achieved in terms of fitness, nutrition and general knowledge about both in the last 6 months.

It's true. Both my SIL did not notice any difference until I was - 90. At -80, I was a little disturbed they said "I looked the same." Who says this about -80 lb drop? I am sure 10-20 more lbs and people will notice your changes. If not, slap them with a wet noodle.

Now that was funny BTB.

I used to be a notorious bad poke when doing blood tests as a formerly really obese guy. 3-4 tries in both arms, failing and then having to take it from the hand. Ouch! Now, my veins are very visible on both my forearms after months and months of training . I doubt the nurse will ever have a problem again. I will be known as "the good poke" by all the nurses. Lol.

These sound good and, wait for it, wait for it, HEALTHY! I may have to try these and somehow get some more protein into them. I wonder how well the protein powder bakes when mixed in?

Rabbit food is not meant to be a slight against fiber one cereal at all. I love the stuff. Or at least I did pre VSG. It really does look like rabbit food pellets.

BTB- that does sound really good. I am going to try that for a pre workout snack soon. Need to go stock up on fiber one with all my target gift cards. oh and I do have some 15+ month unopened fiber one sitting in my backup pantry in the garage. How long do you think the shelf life is on unopened fiber one (original - the rabbit food)?

A little holy water in the drinking bowl. seriously, we all hope apple returns to good health, as good as is possible for being a certain senior dog-years age.

At least there is a much more civil understanding on this thread then the holy flame war that occurred on another thread started by a believer a couple weeks ago. BTB, I am sure you remember that one. Fondly. thanks for keeping this one civil and allow the opinions of both believers and non believers to intertwine without resorting to name calling and threats.

Now isn't that a mind bender? What is an exercise that you hate so much, you LOVE to hate it because it is so good for you? Mine used to be pull-ups. Pull-ups are ok now that i can do 10-20 unassisted in a row. Now I love to hate toes to bar exercise. This is essentially where you hang from a high metal bar with your arms straight and you have to use your core strength to get your toes to touch the bar where your fingers are at or above the bar. My trainer made me do almost 200 of these today. And today was my first exposure to them!! Yup- I love to hate T2B exercises and need to get good at them. They are good for me I hate you so much I love you T2B!!!! better strap me down now while I still have some sanity. Here are the T2B exercises in context of my cross fit workout today: 1600 m run Stretches Cross fit warmup - 10 of each: air squats, push ups, pull ups, ght sit ups, back extensions, lunges 5 sets of 4 dead lifts @ 300 lb 1600 m run 50 T2B 55 Kettle bell snatches @ 55 lbs 800 m run 60 T2B 65 kettle bell snatches @ 55 lbs 400 m run 75 T2B 80 kettle bell snatches @ 55 lbs Time : 16 min 25 seconds Fore arms and hands on fire and HURT. Worked hard, but not broken yet. A little crampy and nauseous from the work, but basically ok. haven't tossed any Cookies yet from a workout. I asked my trainer to break me and she laughed and said I am not ready to be broken. i want to feel what it is like where I cannot do anything the next day. I am always ok with these types of workouts for the next day to do another workout. Waiting to be broken... Lol. Break me already! I may sound a little crazy in this read, but I am really not. Just having a good time. I am training for the cross fit open at the national games next year.

I've got to say 2-4% on a guy is freaky alien looking. no way Jose.

What type of physique are you targeting? Average, fitness or athletic? There are different percentile ranges for each. Here is some information on the different ranges of body fat for both men and women: http://www.builtlean.com/2010/08/03/ideal-body-fat-percentage-chart/ As you can see, your body fat percentage currently falls under average. Mine is currently on the edge of athlete and fitness. Perhaps pictures are worth a 1000 words to you? Here are images of men and women at different percentages of body fat: http://www.builtlean.com/2012/09/24/body-fat-percentage-men-women/ Personally, I want to target a solid athlete range : 10-12%.

That looks good, but need to up the protein. Perhaps some plain isolate protein can be mixed in or chunks of sliced low fat ham.

Let' see, so far today... Start out carbing up for the 10 am work out when I wake up: 6am: Trader joe frozen steel oats (150 cal - heat in microwave) mixed with two scoops of synth 6 Protein powder (400 cal, 50 G protein) 630am: 2 energy squares (120 calories, 8 G protein) 900am: 2 energy squares (120 calories, 8 G protein) Pre workout GNC repower powder (cals -25) 10am: home Workout (2 mile run, warmup exercises, 20 minutes WOD, cool down ) 1100am: 2 scoop synth 6 Protein Powder (400 calories, 50 G protein) 1pm: 1 BBQ chicken patties (210 calories, 25 G protein), 1 cocktail cucumber (30 calories) 4pm: 1 pure Protein Bar (200 calories, 20 G protein) For the rest of the day: 5 pm: 1 ostrich stick 6pm: 4 oz pork chop (220 cal, 30 G protein)), 2 ounce broccoli (20 cal) I always eat casein shake 30 minutes or so before bed (look forward to as my double chocolate treat, mmmm): 9pm: 2.5 scoops of casein protein ( 300 cals - almost pudding like, 60 g) Total cals: 2145 Total protein: 251 g This is very typical of how I eat every day and maintain between 175 and 180 (goal - 180). I feel like I eat a lot, but it does keep my weight stable and also increases muscle.

High fat stuff like a ham I got once from Patties Eggnest sent me into an hour of dumping. I never did that again and from then on shunned anything remotely suspected of bad fat. This was real ham, not the turkey, chicken or other healthier versions of "ham." It caused toilet issues, dizziness, echoing voices, etc, all after like two small bites. I think I ate this at about 6 or 7 weeks post op. I have small amounts of sugar as it is ingredient in my protein shake, protein bars, energy squares, etc. healthy foods of 2 grams or so max of sugar. This amount of sugar has never caused dumping if my experience with ham was truly a dumping experience.

I think you are referring to the Propofol OD in 2009 and that Propofol is in the same set of prescription versed drugs. Did he take like some insane amount or something?

Good luck. I hope your results turn out negative for any issues.

Both Bariactric and Celebrate are hard to stomach for a lot of post ops, including myself. I eventually had to get something that would not cause gagging, throwing up or whatever you want to call it. Same thing happened to my wife who is 1 year behind my schedule. I initially found that Trader Joe High Potency Adult Chewable could go down without rejection. So did my wife. After about 6 months post op, I switched to GNC vitaPak and then switched again to ON Optimen. Optimen works really well and is very powerful, but guys should know that the pills are huge so do wait until at least post op 6 months so you do not have trouble with it getting stuck anywhere.. These vitamins turn you into a beast during your workouts plus give you lots of clean energy for the day.

She is definitely the social one and loves to organize parties and cook food for people. me? I just like eating the spread.

That sounds hard! I guess I am chicken when it comes to sticking tubes down your throat. glad for the happy sleep drugs...

Ok - new exercise that I love to hate that I tried today : rolling sit-up to stand up with weight. It is hard and my core, glut, hamstrings, whatever are not strong enough to do 20 of them, not even 10 of them. Essentially, you start in a standing position while holding 2 hand weights, squat, roll onto your back, keep rolling until feet are behind head, arms stretched out with weights, reverse motion and stand up while still holding these weights above your head. No hands to stand up! They are holding the weights up in the air. It will take me a few weeks, but I am going to get good at these as part of a new workout program I started today at home.

Here are mine. I am 5'11" (maybe even 6' now with better posture. Lol) Before (7-2-2012 - 360): After (8-2-2013 - 177): After 2 (5-13-2013 - 188 ):

Oh yes - agree with the spicy comment TES. My tolerance of spicy food has gone way down and has not returned since surgery. That includes mild stuff like black pepper, chipotle or mild chili peppers. No way I could take on hot BBQ sauce now like I used to be able to ( e.g. Dixie's in Redmond as fellow Seattleites would be familiar with). Whenever I order Thai now it is 1-2 star when I used to do 4-5 star. Not a big loss for me, just different.