Fiddleman

Removed response - wrong thread

I have been getting cramps or on the verge of cramps in calf a few times in last few weeks. Thanks for the information on preventing cramps Tally and others. I am going to be certain to drink coconut water, eat a banana with nut butter in am and apple with nut butter in the afternoon before 4 pm on a cross fit day. Also including 1-2 ounce of protein on side like chicken skewer. My carbs may have been too low for the amount of workouts I do or maybe overtraining may cause the calf cramp. I also believe dehydration may have been contributing to cramping issue from pre workout drinks (going to break habiit of using these). I love fitness and working out!!

Has anyone else gotten nauseous after taking bcaa drink following an intense workout (mine had lifting and body weight exercises)? Maybe I need to carb up more closer to start of workout? My stomach was empty post workout. I drank 14 g bcaa on wake this am and another 14 g bcaa before, during and after workout. Also had creatine and recovery shake at about the same time post workout. Just felt really sick to my stomach and had to lay down. Maybe it was just a reaction to the flavor and not the bcaa, per say. Every online info says bcaa is safe and more is better. Thoughts?

Awesome Karin!

I will look up Pilates and see if it is something I can tryout at home. Thanks for he information on preserving muscle and toning. Do you recommend any specific pilates DVD for someone who is fit, has done yoga for about 7 months and no exposure to pilates. I saw a couple good ones on Amazon: "element: pilates weight loss for beginners" and "classical pilates technique: complete workout for the mat". I am thinking about starting with the former and graduating into the latter in due time.

"... Keep going. This is supposed to hurt." As you bust out the last few reps of your last set in a weight exercise. Lol. I am most assuringly hurting as I give her my friendly nod. Grunt grunt..trying not to pass out.. Ever had experiences like this in your training?

Take a stroll through the vets forum and you find many answers to your questions about long term success as interpreted by many different vets. I am sure you will find a lot of information there.

How many of you never got a goal weight number told or suggested to you by your doctor of the WLS center team? Did it bother you? Did you have to make something up, perhaps pulling something out of the BMI healthy normal section? Where did your number come from and what does it mean? Did you pick a different number even though your doctor gave you one? Perhaps because you had a different idea. I know: no simple answer. I am curious because I picked my number from the BMI chart, hit it, but am still wondering where should I end up? It is pretty easy to park at my current weight with my current lifestyle of nutrition and fitness. However, Is hypothetically gaining 10 lbs over my " ideal weight" ok if that places me in overweight instead of normal according to the BMI chart? I am not happy yet with my physique and more needs to be done. i just do not know if I can play the swap game forever with regards to body weight versus body composition. It is a lot of diligent work day after day. The 10 lb gain would be pure lean muscle gain and I have already been playing the fat for lean muscle weight swap game for 5-6 months now with some success. I would like to continue to bulk out with broad shoulders, large quads, well defined calves, powerful back and lean waist. And keep my weight parked on a good goal weight (currently, it is 180 - middle of normal range). But I digress. The real question remains to be answered: how do you pick a goal weight? Think about this topic question. How does it apply to you in your post op experience? What experiences have you had, are having or looking forward to having? I would like to hear from men and women, pre sleeve, newly sleeved and vet, different physical body composition goals, those that have it all figured out and those that are struggling, etc. no one is excluded from answering this topic question and I hope the threads serves as a resource for future VST members.

Bwahahah, you would have to be super hard core to do this in public on a city block. Must had been a total emergency or they know exactly what they can get away with, except the didn't. I think BTB said way, way back in a running thread that he strictly does his business in the woods while trail running...at least only the bears and deer will be watching, and the occasional bird watcher. no offense intended BTB; hopefully, none taken.

Yup- it was only an issue yesterday. Crossing my fingers it does not happen tomorrow. The on ramp sounds awesome, like a real commitment. Way to challenge yourself! Keep reporting back how things progress. It might be similar to what I when joining cross fit except it was called "go big" and consisted of 18 training sessions. I am now on my second set of these training sessions and love it. So much I am thinking about 3 a week. Once these run out, I will do 5 days a week open gym and start serious preparation for regionals summer 2014. It is tough to even qualify.

Hey globetrotter. I do not need my "strength for life" any more and can pass that onto you by mail. It is a great approach and the basis for the transformation thread that we have been working through. It has served me well. Sorry I do not have the body for life book , but do have the body for life profiles book. I don't really need that one either. I feel that strength for life is a much better holistic approach to building strength then body for life because the techniques tend to apply to all aspects of life where body for life just focuses on building the perfect body ( for their contest). Let me know.

Super incredible curvy! Great job at pushing yourself and setting new personal records.

Obviously 6 flags is to blame if they knew 180 is the "design" weight (they should!!!) and still let her ride. Not really a weight issue, but a safety regulation issue as Nicole stated above.

You look attractive in thepicture. healthy and in shape. skinny. Not sure how or why you characterize yourself as any other way. 20 lbs away? That is so close!

That is an awesome goal gift! *jealous* as per your mood, you look look like you endured it rather then enjoyed it.

What was her weight and what is the max safe weight limit per bar that holds one person in for that specific roller coaster? Media should not cast blame in this way, but we should know the numbers first.

I had a cruddy day yesterday at the end up my crossfit WOD, also from dehydration. First part of workout was a 60 % max one rep weight squat in sets of 7,8,10,8 and 7. Felt awesome about these and my trainer even said form was really good ( been practicing deep squat exercises at home). My second 1/2 WOD was going to be 50 burpees, 20 squats, 50 burpees and 20 squats. 1/2 way through the first set of burpees, my muscles in my lower back were bunching up (sending little pain signals) and my calf was on the verge of locking up in spasms ( absolutely hate this - been there and done that a few weeks ago). Input the breaks on that WOD. Do not want injury. This is not good pain. My trainer reset the 2nd WOD to be 5 2 minute AMRAP of burpees with 30 second rest in between, which I still had a challenge with. Don't be like me and be certain to get hydrated really well. I thought i was hydrated, but it must have been my preworkout drinks that are dehydrating. i am going to get off those as it takes like 5 scoops for me to feel anything. When I got home, I sucked down my BCAA drink and coconut Water, followed by recovery shake with 5g creatine. Today I feel fine and did my usual Wednesday am workout. One more upper body workout this afternoon. The funny thing is my trainer was claiming I would be really sore today in my Quads. I do not feel a thing, but my quads and thighs really toned overnight (yes!). The legs feel ready to workout. My legs never get sore from a squat workout like the one above so it must mean I need to ramp up the weight to where I fail at the end of each set. I did almost feel like failure at the end of the 5th set, but did not hit it. Thoughts?

Lynda- interesting comment on the enhanced efficiency of the small intestine over long term post op timeline. I do suppose that would lead to more weight gain because the small intestine is the primary point of nutrient absorption in the GI tract. Never heard of this before, but it makes sense.

Oregon daisy or anyone- I find that statement hard to believe ( as i am not out far yet 1 year post op). The only reason I can think of your body gaining faster is if the BMR locks in at a low number from low calorie eating. If one is actively engaged in fitness and eating around TDEE amount of calories then they would never have this problem, right? This hypothesis assumes both people are eating relatively the same types of food, but at different quantities. It is all about calories-based metabolism (right?) and not necessarily about type of food ( assuming it is not sweets, cookies, cakes, pastries and the like). I would think your metabolism would stay the same if you are constantly babying it daily with mindful eating ( nutrition, timing and quantity) and fitness. Or does your body just get so efficient at maintaining status quo that you can never do enough to maintain a constant metabolism as you get further out. To maintain a constant metabolism and outwit the body's efficiency of adaptation would require increasing the point of equilibrium between calories in and calories out by balancing eating and fitness until it is not humanly practical ( or practical for people like us with VSG). Agree or disagree. I am primarily asking for myself, but I am sure everyone wants to know.

You are very welcome. The challenge has been a real game changer for all of us. You will find the boot camp a good transition into the challenge that will follow. The boot camp will help you restart your nutrition and fitness. It is perfectly fine to do cross fit on your own, especially if you are doing body weight exercises. A stopwatch or a stop watch app on the phone works very well. I sometimes have my wife time me when doing a Crossfit WOD at home or in a hotel if traveling. One WOD I really like to do when I am anywhere is the 52 card game of exercises. I may have even described it up in this thread; do not remember. Essentially, you pick 4 exercises and assign them to 4 types of cards ( heart, spade, diamond, club). You start the clock and do as many exercises as the card type number. Ace is 13. Face cards are 12. A good set of exercises are burpees, jumping jacks, lunges and sit-ups, but you can really pick any 4 that allows you to count them. Another good set is one legged warriors, forward lunge with a twist, full dive bombers and thumbs up. You can do these with the cards, as a set of ladders (reps 1->4->1->4->1) or as a circuit. When doing ladders, I like to pair two exercises together for each ladder of up, down, up and down. The other two exercises are paired with another set of ladders. It is about a 20 min workout.

Are you recommending Pilates and hot yoga or just Pilates? I am doing the hot yoga primarily to enhance my balance and flexibility to be better at cross fit, but not for the exercise really.