Fiddleman

There is this fairly new burger joint near where I live that sells buffalo, bison and boar burgers. When we go there, I order one in a lettuce wrap without fries and wilt some of the toppings ( like fried onion strings, etc). Customization is where it is all at when eating out!

Agree with you all (except Laura - sorry, you got taken big time!) My taste buds went in all sorts of directions for the first 6 months after surgery. Tastes I used to enjoy were unappealing. Tastes I did not enjoy became appealing. It was surprising for me to lose the appeal of peach and banana flavors after surgery. Now taste is pretty much back to pre surgery levels. Bananas taste good again. Peach ice tea is good again. However, I did not "lose" any new found tastes I acquired after surgery which is a "good thing" because it was mostly healthy foods. Plain water is just about normal tasting again.

If anyone has been following my posts, one the topics i post frequently about is my struggle with flexibility and mobility as well as general back soreness / stiffness. I have been trying yoga for a long time (6 months) with no real strides. I stretch a lot before warming up and after cooling down for a workout. I also have purchased a couple of excellent books on the subject of flexibility and mobility titled " genius of flexibility" and "supple leopard." I am starting to work through both books and they are going to help, but it will take a while to absorb the information and put it into practice. I like the supple leopard is written by a Cross fit expert and it is considered a bible in the athletic circles. I also use a great roller (TP roller ) for getting knots out of my muscles every day, but it does not really help with general stiffness. However, despite months of trying to gain flexibility I still struggle with a simple activity like bending over at the waist and putting my palms on the ground without tons of resistance from my hamstrings. In fact, I cannot do this. The best I can do is touch the ground with my legs slightly bent. For the life of me, I am noble to keep my legs locked straight and touch the ground. Yoga moves continue to be challenging because of this body stiffness. I think a majority of this stiffness and soreness comes from decades of poor posture in both the sitting and standing positions. I have been a computer person for 30 years professionally a software developer who works long hours for the last 15. I need a miracle because lack of flexibility and mobility is holding me back during my workouts, especially my cross fit workouts that involve lifting heavier weights. It is not a strength issue, but a mobility issue for me on several of the typical lifts. It is a bit frustrating because I try and use good posture today when working out, yet struggle with basic mobility due to my past chair sitting. I want to be supple like a leopard. Today, I spent about 30 minutes laying on a product known as bed of nails today, making sure my lower back was getting good exposure to the acupuncture. Usually I was on it for 5 minutes at night time, but today I wanted to see if 30 minutes makes a difference. I also used the pillow to apply acupuncture to my neck region and upper shoulders. Afterwards, the tightness was completely gone from my lower back and butt region in addition to my neck, shoulder region and rest of back. Another thing I did prior to laying down on it was drink some BCAA. I do not know if it helped, but perhaps the BCAA worked with the acupuncture to send BCAA goodness immediately to those tight muscles. Usually I do not take bcaa before using the bed of nails. Don't know, it is a theory. Can anyone validate that? After i got up, I bent over at the waist, legs straight and put my two palms flat on the ground with no resistance from my lower back and hamstrings. Yes! It is a miracle. I am not not into traditional acupuncture (nor may you be), but wanted to give this bed of nails product a try to see if it would work some magic. indeed, it has. You can find bed of nails at bed bath and beyond or you can order it or generic products like it from Amazon. I got a generic product because cost was 35 instead of 120+. Same type of product, just without the brand name. Maybe this will help you also with flexibility and mobility as it has helped me. I plan in continuing to dedicate 30 minutes a day to elongate the pain free flexibility duration, and with enough time, perhaps the stiffness will be permanently eliminated. Here is hoping to that!

Sure - one of my responsibilities of being further out as a post op is to share information which others in order to help breed success. I am happy to do this. These techniques I have mentioned above have really helped me with tightening up the core section. The day will come when I can breath a sigh of relief and say "goal accomplished!" In the meantime, i am diligently working at this goal of getting a tight core daily. I am looking forward to having a rock hard core where I am proud of my shirt off without resorting to a TT.

Cidmore- after hearing, watching and reading about what fast food restaurants put into their chicken and beef products, one would be smart not to touch those with a 10 foot pole. Eg. McD and their "pink slime" to make the chicken and beef safe enough for human consumption. Not to mention all the injection of GMO into the animals to make them grow bigger and faster. No thanks!

Thanks for the information about ART and he recommendation. I searched for providers in my area and found 2 within 10 miles, one that looks highly qualified. This approach is definitely something I am going to follow up on. Getting into top flexibility and mobility shape is one of my goals in order to become a better athlete in Cross fit competition. I also would not ind just being free of these aches and pains for daily living.

Thanks for the book recommendation. I will check it out and see if it fits or improves my current eating strategies.

Just keep doing core work: v ups, sit-ups, planks, push ups, more plank, burpees, mountain climbers, etc. compound lifts are also going to really help tighten the core: back squats, wall ball throws, etc. do toe to bars if you have access to a pull-up bar. You might also see my thread about sweet sweat and mcdavid wrap from earlier today as a way to draw toxins from your core region. Keep drinking lots of Water to flush out the toxins from muscle break down due to working out and from those released from stored ft as it is convert to glycogen. Eat as clean as you can. Age and genetics also play a role in skin elasticity. However, I do believe with the right training and focus on good nutrition, anyone can tighten up the skin. Good luck!

Beef was intolerable for the longest time. After 6 months, anything goes, but I do not eat bad fat, bad carbs, pastas, most fruit, breads or sweets. Essentially, I eat a modified Paleo diet now and feel great, full of energy.

Isopure makes me a little nauseous so I prefer to go with a protein powder. Unjury is good, but so is Syntrax and other brands. Protein powders are just one of those post op necessities you have to spend money on at least for 6 weeks while you are healing. I am strange and love daily protein shakes, even at 13 months.

At 6 weeks the risk reduces substantially. At 6 months, the risk is almost entirely gone. Try your best to stay hydrated and to sip those electrolytes. I hope you feel better soon.

I have been thinking more about this knot comment today. This afternoon, I decided to do some personal investigation of the tightness below my lower back, but above my hamstrings in the outer left buttock / hip region. It almost feels like it is in the glut Maximus muscle, but might also be something entirely different as in the Piriformis region. It is definitely tight as a bow string and a couple inches below skin of the buttocks on the left side right at or slightly below level of hip. It feels like hip pain. The following page has a nice diagram of the Piriformis region: http://www.doctorschierling.com/piriformis-syndrome--chronic-butt-pain.html This page talks about Piriformis Syndrome. I wonder if this applies to me because I have gotten sciatica nerve pain in my leg for a while in the past ( not recently since post op though). However, I had not really experienced the tightness and "hip" pain until starting to run earlier in the year. I think this muscle started to get tight when running often and for long distances back in dec2012-mar2013 (was running 18-25 miles a week). It has since remained tight only on the left side. This might have something to do with bad posture from decades of sitting in a chair for work and perhaps exasperated by running, lifting and general fitness stuff since surgery. The mat is not relieving that one area in the left buttock / hip region. Even my trusty roller does not seem to touch the tightness / pain. Activity does relieve the tightness and pain in the left hip / buttock region and then it comes back after workouts. So I started to really dig in with my fingers, focusing on the tightness. Must have looked funny digging into my behind at home. Lol. Anyone know how to get this muscle to "let go?" It is getting a little better after digging hard, but I will need to keep working on that knot with hard pressure tomorrow from my digging fingers. Or perhaps I will go get myself a sports massage. still researching...

Oh neat. You can probably get a proscription for the versed drug Midazolam: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midazolam Forget ambien for insomnia. This is the good stuff.

Red lobster is a great place to eat with all their low calorie low carb low fat options. Other good places are olive garden, red robin and Panera breads. Yes, I said Panera Breads. There is a secret menu you can order high Protein low fat and low carb stuff off of. The key is you have to ask for the secret menu as it is not on display anywhere. At least it was not when I went a few months ago. My wife and I can pretty much go to any restaurant and find some on their "lite" menu or modify z menu option to fit our needs. Most restaurants are very accommodating. We have eaten at the restaurants above in addition to Thai, Indian, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Greek and so on. We have not had to use the special bariatric card once. Good luck!

Nope. Cheating did not cross my mind during preop. I mean VSG is so much more important than cheating. Why jeopardize your surgery date? I admit your pre op diet sounds much more severe than mine. What you call cheating was OK on my program. We essentially were allowed to eat Atkins induction phase food (high Protein, low fat and low carb). Those that are only allowed liquids for 2-4 weeks, man, sucks to be you. I am saying that in a nice way of course.

Endoscopy is really easy. In fact, my surgeon performed it in a fancy suit (must have been speaking publicly around the same time). He said " you are going to feel a little warmth" and then you are waking up in your recovery room. It is that easy. You are not really put under like the full blown VSG; rather, you are put into twilight sleep. You are just asleep enough not to remember anything. Somebody tell me where I can get some of that good stuff for my insomnia or otherwise bad post op sleep nights. I would love to sleep like that every night.

Not sure if we are relatable or not, but my wife are very close to Everett as well and are always looking for friends.

Great - hope you guys find it as useful as I did. I will continue using it daily during workouts. However, I am sure you could wear the wrap all day if you wanted to.

My wife and I are in the Seattle area and go to Swedish WLS Center support group with a couple of our VST friends. The meeting is on Saturday morning, once a month and Tuesday evening, once a month. I know they are open to pre ops that are with Swedish WLS Center, but not sure about outsiders. It is about a 1 hour drive south from our home.

The others have made some great suggestions: eating Peanut Butter , eating calorie dense foods and eating more often. I also agree eating a small meal every 2 hours is a great idea so your body gets used to wanting a higher caloric load during the day. You might also try drinking some higher calorie Protein shakes. For example, mine has 400 calories a serving. I have also seen mass building Protein Shakes that give you 600-700 calories a serving. Drinking a casein shake right before bed is a great way to finish out the day with an extra 200-300 calories. Eat complex carbs and good fats. Try eating oatmeal with Protein powder mixed in. Try eating avocados, olives and salmon. I love to eat salmon because it is not only tasty, but gives you good fats with the protein. My weight oscillates between 175 and 178 for the last month and I am trying my darndest to pack on muscle so am shoveling in as much protein as possible during the day. At 175, I am almost mid BMI healthy range for my height of 5'11". Let's see, what else can help you? Perhaps eat some healthy Cereal like Fiber one (200 calories for 1/2 cup). Eat fruit when you can. Bananas are higher on the glycemic index and will "stick to you" more than, say, an apple. Getting your carbs over 150 a day should help you gain a little. Once you are at 130 or where ever you want to stop, drop daily carbs to about 80-100. Just be a little careful about making good food choices as it will be easy to tip the scales in the other direction. If you eat not so good choices of food, you may find yourself with the opposite problem: too much weight gain. It is a careful balancing act to figure out where your caloric and macro loads need to be in order to hit that sweet maintain range and stay there. Good luck.

Recently I have been feeling like I am going to throw up after a workout for last week or so. It lasts for about 20 minutes then subsides usually after a protein shake, drinking water/BCAA or a combination of both. It is a sign of overtraining or just that my workouts are hard? Do not read anything more into this message then is written. I love the challenge of working out an hour a day really hard and am only trying to understand where this nauseous feeling is originating from. I have been working out nonstop 5-6 days a week for about 6 months at an intense level ( kind of like an athlete).

This is such a good plethora of information with regards to my question about overtraining. You know I am an information junkie and this just delist me to read about these physical processes with regards to training. Cross fit is all about pushing yourself to maximum heart rate so do not think I can avoid that. I do like the idea of getting a little sugar to combat he feeling of nauseousness. My little energy squares will work perfectly for this. You are going to make a great PT. cheers!

Heavy is truly in the eye of the beholder. 100 lb will be heavy to a fairly new lifter. A seasoned lifter might say 250 is heavy. And then there are some that consider 500+ to be heavy. Most bars are 35-45 lbs without any weights. You can start practicing your form with just a bar until you have repeatable good form. Slowly increase weight until you fail by adding 5-15 lb increments on each side of the bar. Try and get in 8-10 reps with good form. That is where strength is going to come from, being able to complete 3-5 sets of 8-10 reps of 70% max weight. As you get stronger, your max, of course, keeps rising. Do not try and go heavy before you have great form or you may injure yourself. And sitting out to recover from injury is no fun (no experience with injury, but can imagine it to be a drag). Once you get into heavy range, make sure you have a spotter you can trust or t least have the knowledge of how to get out of a heavy lift properly on your own. There are definitely improper ways to drop out of a lift that can seriously injury yourself.

I think the canned response is 6 weeks to even start lifting and then 6 months until you go super heavy. It all depends on the completion of healing. I started lifting heave at month 10, but I think that is jut me. I came in late to the game and it took me a couple month to work up he muscle to go heavy. Supplement yourself with bcaas and other products to help recover faster and to complete more reps with greater intensity in order to get to a point where you can dead lift or squat 300. That is just my opinion and I am fairly new to the lifting. There are lots of guys on VST that have experience to answer this question with authority.