Fiddleman

This question is more targeted towards you long term vets - 2+ years out. Sorry in advance for its length. I have read from a few vet posts ( ok, more then a few) that eating is much harder to control post 2+ years then, say, post 1 year. Why is that? Is it a relaxation of new post op lifestyle issue or something else deeper then that? I am looking more for an anatomical response rather then an emotional one because we all know about stress eating. Let us assume stress eating due to life circumstances or head issues are off the table for this discussion. My hunger woke up around post op month 5 and it required me to figure out a way to eat in balance with fitness. Lots of trial and error, research, reading, etc. you can probably identify when this happened by looking back through my post history. Not saying you should or need to do this. Just take my word for it. Today at post op 1 year I can honestly say my nutritional plan is working for me. And I am not struggling with eating or hunger at all. Sometimes i slime because i eat to fast, but that is my own fault. Essentially, I eat a very high Protein diet with some fruits and veggies. I have at most 1/2 apple or 1/2 banana a day with nut butter that also includes 3-4 ounces of some protein. Usually this is for my morning 9ish am meal. I eat 1-2 ounces of some veggie for lunch meal and for dinner meal along with 4-5 ounces of some protein. the rest of the meals are Protein shakes of various kinds. Most of my nutritional needs come from daily Vitamins, protein shakes and other supplementation and not from real veggies and fruits. I have a green drink that i take every other day. it is very nutritionally sound, but is loaded with too many vitamins to take daily with my Multivitamin. No reason in particular to do it his way; it just works out well for me. I do mind taking supplementation every day; it is just part of the day and is second nature. I really like the way I am eating and have energy to complete my activities for the day. I chose not to eat snack or junk foods after surgery. It was a little hard at first, but now it seems fairly normal to not eat or think about them. There is no desire to go have cake, donuts, Cookies, chips, etc. that is from another time in my life, in which the door has closed. A nice quality about abstaining and retraining the brain to be rewarded with healthy food, is nothing becomes a temptation any more (well, except low carb protein bars). No problems arise from sharing a conversation or dinner table with others who eat the way they want to eat. No desire to go hunt out carbs in the house. It is freedom and peace of mind to not be controlled by food. For this reason, I deeply thank VSG for giving me the time as a post op to turn my lifestyle around 180 degrees. There is no better way to describe it. Calories tend to be around 1700-1900 as I eat 7 small meals a day and each meal is about 200-300 calories. I eat about 170 G protein a day, sometimes more. Never hungry and weight is very stable (leaning out though) at my goal weight of 180. I have been maintaining this weight for 5 months now if you look at the starting and ending dates of the time period. In reality, i have gone up about 15 lb and then back down, swapping fat for lean muscle, as I experimented with different approaches since hitting goal. In so many words, I am asking if the way i am currently eating not going to require a change or adaptation in 1, 2, 5 years from now? Or am I somehow still in a honeymoon period where eating requirements will drastically change once I am out of it? Appreciate your thoughts. You are all good role models.

Hey laura - how has your treadmill been treating you? Are you having a good time doing the c25k? Hope all is well.

Wls4me - Thanks for sharing. That is really good to hear today was a better day for you. Are you really going every day? Wow, great commitment!

My stomach area (and Chest) is where I carried a lot of weight most of my life. I did lose a lot of weight 180 lb) fast ( 7 months) and the stomach is the only area where I have loose skin. Not a lot of skin (I can pinch about .5 inch), but enough for it to be annoying because it is hiding my strong core muscles and 6 pack. I am presently a little over 1 year post op. Maybe this will improve with time, maybe it will not. I look awesome in clothes and even look fairly good without clothes on except for the stomach region. Everywhere else is muscular. I am so looking forward to a TT so this can be fixed. I believe that lots of working out, running, doing core workouts, eating clean and drinking water like a race horse has contributed to skin almost being a non issue. Almost.

Your blerch picture got eaten.

Wls4me- are you feeling less sore today?

Awesome. That is great news. I started with PVC pipe, then moved to just a bar (45 lbs) and then started adding weight over time to improve my max 1 rep and to find my sustainable 70% max weight for sets. What I really like about cross fit is that it always gives me a chance to 1-up myself within a progression over time. For example, I started out at 125 lb deadlift several months ago and can now do 320 lb deadlift as max 2- rep. I really like the feeling and sound of dropping heavy weight at the end of a set whether the set contains 1 rep, 2 rep, 5 rep or 10 rep. One of the best tips I can give you is go slow enough in your cross fit sessions to maintain good form. There are a kabillion things to remember when you are new, but it becomes second nature after a while like driving a car. I am still considered new as a lifter, but am starting to get good form on the heavy compound lifts. Me, a lifter? Who knew. I was so weak just back in February and no upper body strength. zero, zilch, nada. Today, I am much stronger. I can do any body weight exercise, including pull-ups, and lift a lot of weight.

This is such an accurate portrayal. It hits home. Funny as hell.

Today I got the worse legs cramps at the end of cross fit training during stretch out. My workout was not anything crazy hard today. However, I was more tired then usual in between sets and really huffing and puffing. Felt like I was going to pass out. Warmup: 1 mile run 20 push-ups 20 pull ups 20 sit-ups 20 lunges 20 air squats Stretching WOD 1 3 sets: 20 ght sits as fast as possible 30 second rest WOD 2 5 sets: 250 m row as fast as possible 75 lb clean jerk @ 10 rep Burpee and bar hop @ 10 rep 1 min rest Stretching I started to cramp up during the 5 sets above, but the cramping afterwards had me on the floor desperately trying to make it go away. I probably looked funny thrashing around on the mat and my trainer probably thought I was just stretching out awkwardly after the 2 WOD. Lol. She was on the other side of the room and I told her afterwards what had happened. My calf muscles are still cramping now an hour later (now) and I have little muscle aches everywhere (upper arm, butt?). This is new for me. I usually do not have an issue with my body aching or cramping and workout 6 days a week for 30-60 min hard. My trainer had 5 pieces of advice: 1. Drink more Water. I told her I already am drinking over a gallon a day. 2. Drink Gatorade with sugar. I told her I have not had sugar anything in many months. 3. Drink coconut water - I could do this and, in fact, had a coconut water before training today. 4. Drink tonic water. She said it has something in it (starts with Q) that helps with cramping. I do not think the carbonation would be good for me, but did not tell her that. 5. Take a look at Vitamin consumption and make sure not taking too many as it dehydrates. I DO take a lot of Vitamins and minerals daily: optimen (way above RDA, especially B vitamins @ 3 pills a day), green drink ( above RDA alone), energy waters ( more vitamins) caffeine water (mix caffiene soda stream flavor with water). I think I need to cut out some. I am chugging another coconut water as I write this. Help?

Thanks everyone. I think it was the caused by low potassium. Since posting this thread, said mat thrashing episode has not repeated.

Specifically for stomach, there are some core specific exercises I do at cross fit 2 x a week, core workout 2x a week using roller with DVD trainer. Planks, pushup, Romanian dead lifts, ght sit ups are all examples of good core exercises. Mark answered a similar question yesterday with a list of good core foundation exercises. There are 100s of basic moves and uncountable variations. Yoga is also super for strengthening core if you are into that. I do so many different pushup and plank variations daily to help with core strength.

I bought this product today. It says to take intra workout, but I think I will just take a serving before and after the workout. How do you take it again?

Hi - be sure to: 1. Do a cross fit warm up 2. supplement with bcaas before and after 3. stretch before and after 4. If necessary, take an NSAID. If that is an issue, take a hot shower, etc. It will get better after a few weeks. Keep showing up and have fun!

Yup - I think that is because the stomach is mostly healed and the g juice starts flowing again to tell the brain about hunger. They call this the end of the honeymoon period for this reason. All the more important to work on eating issues as well as long term eating and fitness plans before hitting this month.

Oregon daisy - I eat the amount of protein I do to build lean muscle, lean out and eliminate hunger, in that order. I hear you on the kidney stones. However, I do try and drink water all day, every day to counter and negative consequences.

Every day I pay attention to my nutrition and fitness in order to keep building muscle. My goal is to Not only get strong, but also to have a lean, well proportioned athletic physique. I had really good definition on Saturday this week and then by this morning my fat percentage is up .1%, weight is down 1.5 pound and definition has gone down. What is up with that? Is my body going all catabolic on me? One change I made on Friday was to switch my evening shake from GNC refeed ( hate the taste, but good results) back to ON casein ( love the taste and still get good results for leaning out). I am new to the muscle gaining / cutting exercise and am trying to learn along the way. In the 2 months, I have cut 10 pounds and dropped fat percentage 6%. From 2 weeks ago, I dropped 2% and 5 lbs. really got me motivated to keep "showing up" every day in my effort. I took Saturday and Sunday as rest days after great week of body weight workouts and heavy lifting t-th) . I eat every couple hours a solid meal of 200-400 calories, either strict Paleo of lean meat and veggie or Protein shake. Calories end up being between 1800-2000. I do take creatine monohydrate before and after working out (total - 20 g). I sleep enough at night. Is two consecutive days off on the weekend too much? Is the creatine giving me the appearance of muscle growth, but is really just creatine Water infused muscles? Should I switch from creatine monohydrate to creatine hydrochloride exclusive and where do you find it in powder form? Thanks for advice! I am learning in this process of putting muscle on so need help solving this problem.

Thanks mark. Validation from you, around and all the others (apologies in advance for not naming names but you are appreciated) that are into strength training is good for me to hear. I do tend to overthink and complicate things as that is my nature ( a thinker and very analytical). Strength training and fitness is new for me. I am learning as I go, keeping what works and tossing what does not work from a lot of different folks on VST and research online. Very simple strategy don't you think? Lol. Sometimes I throw a lot of stuff at the wall and most of it sticks, but there is also a pile of crap that did not stick. I mentally take out the garbage as often as I can to keep my set of strategies as effective as possible. I had a really good cross fit workout yesterday: 1. bench press 3010 @ 220 pounds of 5 rep for 8 sets. For readers, 3010 means 3 seconds down, pause 0, 1 second up, pause 0. Not sure what is a good goal for bench pressing. 270 pounds for more than 1 rep? 400 for max 1 rep? 2. Deadlifts @ 310 pounds of 5 rep followed by 5 burpee for 15 sets. The burpees keep your heart elevated even though resting a good 30 seconds between the lifts. My goal is to get my 1 rep max to 500 lb. 3. Box jump @ 40 inches of 10 rep for 3 sets. This is a new personal height record. My goal is to jump 5'6" in the future. Jumping from standing position onto top of weights sitting on box really takes a lot of self confidence and visualization. You have to really believe in the successful execution of this jump because it does not look possible when standing in front of it. However, you would be surprised at what you can do once you believe and jack up the focus. This is key I think. Not the usual cardio soaked workout at cross fit ( that will be tomorrow, Thursday), but for the first time, I felt in control of each compound lift. Really focused on form, breathing, concentration, focus and power. It is *way* easier to do the compound lifts successfully when these attributes are locked in to the execution of each lift. Thank you Mark for your comments about this several months ago. Still taking 10 g creatine monohydrate before and after daily strength based workouts. Next week, I am probably going to Ramp down n the daily creatine as 20 g has been good for loading, but not needed for long term daily use according to every resource I read. I think I might also look into btb's suggestion of the BCAA drink (5000+ mg of BCAA) as it has way more oomph then my catalyst product I have been using for months. Weight down from yesterday 2 pounds at 178 and bf% down a point. Dropping a bf % point overnight is a good confidence booster. I am pretty achy also. Hoping that my body will get jacked up by my 9 am body weight workout.

Hi angel - I am definitely after long lasting results and will PM you for information.

I took 2 hydroxyz last night and slept really well, but a bit groggy this morning. Maybe this is going to be me sleep aid of choice as tryptophan worked ok for 1-2 nights with putting me asleep, but did not keep me asleep very well.

I have experienced pretty substantial nerve tingling or uncomfortness in a few points along my left arm, almost entirely all under arm. It starts around armpit and ends at elbow. I have not been able to pinpoint what causes it and am wondering if others have experienced it and/or have information on it. Usually it clears up after a few days, but I would rather not have to deal with the burning sensation of wonky nerve sensations. It is behaving like a pinched nerve and have had a fair amount of experience with pinched nerves as a career software developer. Sorry about not being very technical about describing Then pain in medical terminology. Do you think it has anything to do with post op dieting / nutrition or more related to bad ergonomics in my home office and long hours on the computer?

- I think there is enough in the news without me adding to the crime beat. Lol.

Aren't Benadryl and Unisom essentially containing the same active ingredient that helps with drowsiness? I am asking this because why take Benadryl when you can take some OTC sleep aid like unisom or NyQuil zzz?

Thanks aroundhky - I definitely am not really tracking sodium levels. This might be sabotaging my attempt to achieve the dry chiseled look. Actually, I did some research on how body builders achieve dry chiseled look on contest day and underwear models on photo shoot day. Essentially, it is really hard to maintain this level of physique for more then a couple days and it takes real work to get the body into that state. Sometimes we (the public) are mislead by the fitness magazine ads and the televised or internet representation of body building contests. I have read that there must be careful attention paid to cutting, carb loading and reducing workouts before the big day. I know this is probably not something that can be sustained as a daily goal given this research. I am getting strong with respect to lifting body weight and semi heavy weights for my experience level (beginner), but look kind of soft. I do not want to look soft even though my strength is there. I am still motivated with my fitness goals so will keep at this goal of sculpting the body.

mark- As usual, very good information. I do not carb cycle at all. In fact, I would say my diet Is on the low end of carbs (100 g or less) while not being super low (20-30 g) as it was during the weight loss portion of post op. if I were to pick a number as I am not a strict tracker, I would say ball park is between 50-100 carbs a day. The carbs I do get come from either a serving or two of greens, a couple energy squares, an amrap bar or my Protein shakes. My synth 6 Protein Shakes have more carbs (2 scoops at 30 g) then other protein shakes I have been using in the past, but is still considered a leaning shake rather than a gaining shake. Typically i take this only as my recovery shake, but will also have it for other meals in morning or afternoon occasionally. I usually only have the AMRAP bar (17 g) 2x a week following a session of cross fit. The two servings of greens come in at lunch and dinner meals, each which are 1-2 ounces in quantity. Eating for me is pretty strict. Also no dairy, wheat, breads, nuts, etc. It is almost not Paleo because my diet is usually just lean protein, greens and supplementation (several shakes during the day). This seems like a cross between low carb and Paleo, and again, puts my daily caloric load between 1700-1900. I might hit 2100-2300 if I have an extra synth 6 shake in order to drive up the daily protein consumption. I do not deviate from clean eating and am quite disciplined in what I eat. However, I have been doing it this way for so long, it seems like a very natural way of eating and it is effortless. No issues with wanting certain foods. Dumping 10 g of creatine monohydrate (AST) in a shake before and after working out really helps with pump and definition on days when I do work out during the week (3x strength, 2x cross fit and 2x core), but not so effective if taken on weekend when I am resting ( still do some push-ups, etc). I am going to stop taking creatine on the weekends. This is kind of odd to me because the reason I am resting on the weekend is to build muscle, so I would think by the end of the weekend they would be more noticeable. It is hit and miss for me. My muscle definition and pump usually peaks in the evening during the week and definitely by friday evening. This is what is confusing me. I feel my nutrition is pretty solid and I have very good workouts during the week with an excellent energy response when not working out. TDEE is 2054 and body weight is currently 180. This is where my body likes to maintain weight and my body fat % is still inching down weekly as I am purposefully cutting. I am not looking to be huge, but rather would like to maintain a well proportioned athletic build with good muscle definition. At this point in time, I feel this goal of being well proportioned has been met with broad shoulders, strong Chest / back, slim waist and strong legs. i just want to improve definition in upper body more and have a good set of abs (core workouts at least 2x a week). I think having a "300" body type would be a good goal. What advice can you give me with the information I have given you?