Fiddleman

You can also help out people here on VST that need something or another depending on their circumstance. There are many ways to give back, pay it forward or whatever you want to call it all around us. You just need to look and then just let it happen. Trust me, you will feel giddy after giving selflessly to others. Have a nice day!

Interesting suggestion. I heard about this in 7th grade and tried it one afternoon. I lasted about an hour and then caved. It is funny I remember those things.

Here is what exercise progression looked like (just about 1 year post op): Month 1-2: walking, 3 x a day for 30-45 min each time. month 3-4: ellyptical and walking, when energy Month 5-7: running ( up to 20 miles a week), 3 x a week Month 8-12: cross fit, running, strength training ( heavy) Today I typically workout 5-6 days a week for 30-60 minutes (includes warmup and cool down). I also do some local hiking. Hope that helps.

Laura- really good to hear about your success with the 5:2 diet. As for your correlation between sugar and PMS, I am afraid that sweet tooths come in all sexes, shapes and sizes. have fun on your vacation!

You can buy Syntrax at vitamin shoppe or online at various sites like mybariatricpantry or amazon. Anything can be found at amazon.com.

Good advice! I do end up smacking on gum if my mouth needs something sweet. A habit I have picked up about 2 weeks ago. The main issue is I get bored sometimes during my day job at home (software developer for 12-15 hours during the day) and my immediate response sometimes is to drift back to food thinking. Pretty weak trigger at this time, but I do want to be mindful of it. I do not have an excuse to get bored outside of work. There are so many fitness, outside or inside things that can be done. I have so many video games to catch up on.

We all know the BMI chart is not very accurate as a measurement of good weight (or perhaps even good health) if you are built any different then " average"; that is, you do not have big bones and have a fairly average muscle composition. I may be completely wrong in the statement I just made, but it is something I have learned over the years. Before surgery, the BMI chart told me I was morbidly obese at 360. I did not like the term, but came to accept it and could see I was in middle of dark red section of BMI chart. Clearly, this was not something I was proud of and knew it was time to do a 180 reverse direction on both my physical and mental qualities that define my daily existence. Purge the bad and embrace the good as well as develop solid new habits for living a life of personal strength in all things. Fast forward to today and I am 1 year post opinion a couple weeks. My weight is within healthy BMI for my height of 5' 11 " and has been for 4 months now. The question, after this long introduction, is what should I target my final weight as? I am at 180 lb today (leaned out 10 lb in last 6 weeks with good fiitness and nutrition) and have a muscular athletic build. I have been working on transforming my body into an athletic physique for the last 4 months with Paleo fitness and diet, staying roughly around the same weight of 180 (average of course, I have gone up to 195 and dropped again to 180). The difference now when compared to the first time I was at 180 a few months ago is that I have solid muscle definition and a low fat percentage of 15%. My goal is to hit 10 % body fat, have a nice six pack and have he strength to compete in cross fit regionals and make a name for myself. Working at it every week with my PT ( so much improvement in last 2 months) and I hope to be able to compete next year. It is not a terrible amount of work to lose weight and keep / build lean muscle, about 20-30 min a day of Paleo type fitness and consistent Paleo neutrino with supplementation. Should I try and keep my weight around 180 lb or should I lean out more and let it drop or build up bigger muscles and let it climb more? I do not feel I need bigger muscle just for appearances. I probable want to trade 5 lb of fat for 5lb of lean muscle. Looking for a lot of different opinions and perspectives to help me move towards a well informed decision on this. One thing is for certain is I will keep up the Paleo fitness and nutrition as I have a good thing going there. Another certainty is I like the way I look and feel. I like feeling strong and at the same time flexible with good mobility. One change I might make is to cut alcohol completely ( drink now about 2 x a month) because the cost / benefit analysis is tipping the scale towards a cost rather then a benefit. Please weigh in (ha!) with all your opinions and thoughts to my questions. Thank you!!

It depends on how you define a problem. Sure, I have slimed a lot, got acid reflux a couple times and thrown up a few times. But are these really problems? No!!! They are blips on the radar compared with radiant health, great strength and athletic ability the comes from living a life full of drive and passion as a post op. There is no goal that is too large. Consider the problems pre op I had before with morbid obesity: high blood pressure, prediabetic, mental issues, constant battle with food, lack of exercise, no self confidence and the list goes on and on. I have been problem free for the most part. I wish the best and quick recovery for those dealing with problems like leak, gall bladder issues, bad acid reflux and so on.

She is awesome and chose me.

Sometimes people eat when they are bored. I was one of those people. After being "on plan" for a year almost, boredom is about the one circumstance that pulls me back into bad habits. I have not slipped yet, but my mind is going there. It doesn't help that is is cloudy outside (lack of sun makes my mood lower for some reason). If you are not eating when bored, then what are you doing instead? Sometimes it is not as easy as just reading a book, watching TV or exercising. Sometimes it is boredom while working and you still have to work, yet you have these feelings of satisfying boredom with food. Even if you could do one of these activities, sometimes you just don't want to drag your lazy butt out of your chair. What are your thoughts?

Thanks Nicole! It is great to hear you are on the up and up after GB surgery. Thanks for coming back into the program ! You were missed.

For those that are in the Seattle area, I would not mind running around green lake on a sunny afternoon. It is about 3 miles around and there are always runners and walkers circling the lake. Anyone game? It does not need to be fast; we can just jog and chat, perhaps holding a mocha in one hand.

I finally replaced my running shoes a couple days ago. They were starting to cause bruising when I run and I must have put 500 miles on them from 6 months ago. The new pair is a twin of my older pair and works great for running, Cross fit and lifting. The key is to just use them inside in order to protect the bottoms from wearing down faster. I have my old pair for outside stuff that is not necessarily running. My running shoes are Nike Pegasus. Love them!

Hi 12 week transformers! How are y'all doing? Are you feeling stronger, meeting mini goals for yourself along the way, sleeping better and more? We are in week 6 which puts us roughly 1/2 way through the 12 week challenge. For myself, I started at around 188 lb and today am at 182 lbn(5'11"). My physique has really leaned out in terms of muscle definition. I am motivated by this. The most gains for me are visible in the morning, after a nice sleep. Love that the body does the amazing repair work while we are sleeping. i started the challenge with my dumbbell routines ( see top of thread) for the first 5 weeks (3x a week) , but this week I have started doing exclusive body weight strength training exercises. They are nice and intense short workouts with each about 20 minutes in length, but man, they leave me drained and pumped. The program is called "you are your own gym" and has 3 levels of difficulty. I am on beginner now and want to be on advanced by the end of this 12 week challenge. It may take longer. We shall see. At the cross fit workouts(2 x a week), I am doing real unassisted push-ups and pull ups. These were impossible without bands when first starting out 6 weeks ago. Now they are not so bad. I can dead lift 265 lb and bench press 250 lb. Form and mobility are my biggest challenges and holding me back from really huge gains in strength. I am still pretty tight such that most of the lifting is limited by flexibility issues. I am working on this during every session with my personal trainer and already am much better. It is something I need to constantly be aware of. How are y'all doing so far? Please share for the benefit of the group.

I consume a green drink every day. And yes, they taste like grass. To remedy this, I always add in a little bit of pineapple coconut water enhancer and the taste comes out a million times better. For 10-12 ounces of green drink, it only takes a few squirts. The brand I like to use is Dasani water enhancer. I typically uses green drink like green vibrance, so has about about 80 different veggies, fruits and herbs. The alfalfa is always the "grass" taste for me.

I talked to several reps at vitamin shoppe and also some online research about optimal protein consumption. It must be working as dropped another 2 lb last night to land @ 180 lb. As you may recall from my transformation thread, I started the challenge at 188 lb about 1 month ago and in the last 2 weeks have been pushing as close to 40 g a meal in order to hit close to 170 g a day as possible. Much faster, stronger and leaner in my training at cross fit also. I am passing on what has worked well for me given about an average of 30 min hard core workouts 5 days a week (mostly cross fit and body weight exercises). May not work for everyone as I have conditioned my body to want a lot of protein by consistently eating every 2 hours or so.

Yeah - I know: You would rather read about alcohol. The questions: 1. My wife recently got us some diet soda stream concentrate to mix with Water. Are these same, better or worse then drinking water with a typical enhancer like Dasani, Mio, crystal light, etc. no aspartame in these and I am primarily thinking about the non soda flavors pink grape fruit or watermelon. We got them primarily to save on the cost of buying Dasani water enhancers all the time. 2. We picked up some Isopure RTD bottles last night. Awesome that they have 40 g 100% whey isolate. Would these make a good Meal Replacement option? I am wondering because of the optimal amount of Protein in them. My only concern is that they would leave you hungry as the liquid passes through you. I can see how these would work great post workout. It is funny; I am almost 1 year post op and I have never seen these before. I also picked up some Isopure powder to try post workout instead of usual amplified Wheybolic 60. First time using that product too. Thanks for your perspective on these two questions.

I used to think we could not consume more then 20 g of protein at first when a post op, but now have been convinced men can consume up to 40 g and women up to 30 g at a time. For men, anything over 40 and less then 50 g is questionable as the protein will get stored as fat, used as energy or discarded as waste. In practice, consuming 40 g a meal has worked out very well. I do not always hit 40 g for every snack, but do try.

Grin and bear it for 20 minutes!! I remember doing this with Thai food a month ago, thinking I could be handle 5 star ( out of 5). Big mistake. Not only was my throat closing up, but I could literally not taste the food. If you must have liquids, just take small amounts as not to create additional issues that come from being post op. maybe swish some ice Water in your mouth?