Fiddleman

Miralax is a great product to help with regularity, but sometimes takes 3-4 days to work, if at all. if you have any immediate issue then a good approach to unplugging is to take either a suppository like ducolax or fleets. Milk of magnesia is also very good as well as mineral oil for triggering immediate relief. Once you are past any immediate issues, some less forceful remedies like miralax and/or chia seeds will help. I take both miralax and chia seeds and do not have any constipation issues even though my diet is mostly protein. I do have to say both are needed for a reliable "good" BM. If I only take chia seeds only only miralax in isolation from one another I usually have a much smaller BM or none at all. There is satisfaction that puts. Smile on your face from. Good high quality BM. Lol. I am sure you know what I mean folks. Everyone who is a post op has heir own BM story!!

Nice sites! Thanks for the links.

Drinking is meh for me as a post op. I like the quick buzz that occurs on very little (1/2 glass), but most of the time it wears off in about 10 minutes. Definitely stick to 1 las because 2 does nothing extra sceptic add calories. If you are still in the losing part of your journey, do be a little careful about how much you drink, even if you can drink it. drinks will not help you lose weight and often times causes stalls or gains. That said, 1-2 a month should be ok if hat is what you want. Some drink more often while others do not drink at all. It is definitely a matter of personal choice. I have been averaging about 1 a month and I has to be a good reason. My favorite is an expensive Chardonnay or a very well blended mix of spirits ( a least a Long Island). It is not worth my time or calories to wasted lesser drinks! Good luck.

I am sorry to hear about your struggle with being newly sleeved. Even though you may not feel like it, have you tried taking short walks to soak up they rays from the sun and breath in the refreshing air? Sometime just getting out in nature will be enough to life the spirits and let you have some peace, if only for a short while. I know you are going through a difficult period. It will get better, one day at a time. Have hope where there may not appear to be any. Believe in the success that is to come even if it feels so far away. And feel free to reach out here at VST any time to your extended support system. You will find virtual friends here that will help carry your burden. Hope tomorrow Is a brighter day for you. Know that you will be happy and full of life in short order. It will just be a few short weeks as your energy and strength returns.

What a great idea!!! A bucket list for your dead overweight self. Here is mine: 1. Sky dive!! 2. Cross fit regionals 3. Caving in South America 4. Completing a 2 week back packing trip 5. Running a marathons ( at 12 miles so far) 6. Take an expedition up mount Rainer 7. Zip line!! 8. All night sex session 9. Horse back ride the Grand Canyon 10. To be determined

Have you tried the standard natural supplement stores like GNC, Super supplements, Vitamin shoppe or vitamin world? How about costco, target, Safeway or albertsons? They ll have zinc supplementation. You might also consider an nine soure like amazon or drugstore.com. I prefer to get most of my supplements from Vitamin Shoppe because they know hat they are talking about. If I cannot find it there or just need to restock for less, I might order from amazon prime. 2 day shipping with no fees. Yeah!!

Might I also suggest consignment? I have heard women will pay a lot for plus size, especially if it is stylish or classy. I would have done this as a guy, but I had no sense style in my large days. It was big and tall this or that. Lol. Instead, I just hauled a dozen large garbage bags of clothes down to value village. Can you say dozens of shirts and jeans? I bet they had a field day with all hose shirts and jeans, although, again, nothing was terriblely stylish. my wife even talked me out of putting it on my tax return because i was way over valuing my sense of value in my clothes. lol. do you have a support group you go to? Often times they have clothing exchanges and you can trade your stuff for more clothing that looks good on you. I d have to as that losing weight has put a lo more style sense into my man brain. ha!

Kristie, it has been so much fun watching your progress and reading your cheerful posts over the months. Congratulations on being a size 8. So fantastic!!! I feel the same way as you in my 33 skinny levi jeans and medium shirts. Me a medium?? Wtf?!?! I was a 48 Pant and 3-4 x large shirt before. Who knew!! Share the joy!! Keep up the awesome results ! Do you have another goal to shoot for?

That is an awesome spread!! I am jealous. How did the sleeve like the chipotle as. Understand you are not too far out as a post op?

Dude, there is no denying your results are impressive but put some clothes on. No soft porn on VST!! Just kidding. You have done amazing in your results.

64 oz is the minimum, the bare minimum!! Can you do more? Drinking water not only helps with basic hydration needs, but also flushes toxins from your system and boosts your metabolism for better weight loss, try getting between 90-120 oz a day, especially since you are in Texas where it is so hot. You might also consider keeping your electrolytes up with low calorie Gatorade , coconut water or other fitness drinks. Water, it is sooooo important all!!

As stated in the post above, I have 3 days a week where I am strength training. I never use machines. First reason is I do not own any at home and do not have a gym membership. However, I do take personal training at a cross fit gym. Second, and more importantly, machines take away the balance, focus and strength required for effective strength training. I use dumbbells and body weight exercise. Currently, my strength training at home is done using Bowflex adjustable dumbbells and strength training / HIIT cardio done at cross fit is a mixture of body weight exercises and barbell lifts in an intense circuit. A good WOD performance should take every bit of strength, breath and focus you have. You asked about rotation and weights so I will focus on my dumbbell-based strength training rather then my cross fit sessions. I do the same rotations from week to week, but increase the intensity by increasing the weight +5 lb and paying attention to maximum focus and proper form. Push day Dumbbell bench press Dumbbell flys Dumbbell side raises Dumbbell triceps kickbacks Dumbbell biceps curls Pull day One arm dumbbell rows Dumbbell pullovers Reverse dumbbell flys Lying dumbbell triceps extensions Dumbbell biceps curls Leg day Dumbbell squats Dumbbell step lunges Dumbbell straight leg dead lifts Dumbbell sumo squats Dumbbell single leg calf raises As stated above, you might start your rotation at 20 lb and work up to 35 lb for push and pull. For leg days, you might start at 30 lb and work your rotation up to 45 lb. It all depends on where your starting strength lies. This is how I started out a month ago. I am already 10 lb heavier per starting weight. The weight amount progresses week to week, but keep your movements slow and focused, pausing at the high intensity points to maximize the contraction. Think about the muscle as it contracts. Try and make the mind body connection. This is key to building strength more effectively, but does require practice in order to prevent the repetitive mindset from kicking in. Remember, the return trip out of a lift is as important or more important then the lift so keep the focus going all the way though. If you feel like you are getting bored, then increase your focus or perhaps increase the weight. The answer is not always to increase the weight. The more high intensity you make the peak of your rotation, the better results you will get in the least amount of time. My sets look like 12-10-8-8+ for each exercise in a rotation where there might be 1-2 additional drop sets. I keep track of rest between sets, planned weight / reps, target intensity level, actual weight / reps and actual intensity level. Tracking this information helps with measurable progress and helps me make changes as they are needed. If you are serious in transforming your body composition, it is vital to measure and track these numbers in order to understand where changes need to be made long term in the continuous feedback loop that exists between you and your workouts. It is, and should be, a very dynamic experience every time you start a session. Anticipate progress and learning. The intensity and focus of each set builds as the set reps drop and set weight increases. Intensity must come from your focus and not just from heavier weights delivered from a machine. That is why dumbbells are much more effective then machines when seeking true intensity, but dumbbell exercises do not tend to map onto functional movements very well. Hence, they are a little unnatural in terms of functional movements your body is naturally programmed to do. Body weight exercises, such as push ups, tire flipping, car pushing, squatting and pull ups, are *much* more effective then dumbbells (or barbells) because they do map onto functional compound body movements and, hence, tend to be safer with less prone to joint injury. I am going to start doing exclusively body weight training on my strength days starting soon, perhaps this coming Monday. A fair comparison is to state that most free weight exercises are isolation based where body weight exercises are compound based by the nature of which muscles they engage. You will get results 10 x faster from compound strength training then isolation training as larger and bigger sets of muscles will be used at the same time. Consider the classic pull up exercise. It is going to work you deltoids your lats, your triceps, your biceps and many other groups of muscles. This single compound exercise would take a dozen isolation exercises such as triceps extensions, biceps curls, flys and so on. Which would you rather do if your time is of the Essence? Hope this helps.

My understanding is that 2-3 days a week of strength training is a healthy place to start in your lifting. Some of he seasoned lifters are training 5-6 days a week. That is not for me yet. Do you have any experience with lifting? If not, you may want to start out light, such as 20 lb dumbbells, and go from there. A trainer will also help you get off the ground running towards your strength training goals, so to speak. Try 4 sets of 12-10-8-8+ per rotation, increasing the weights by +5 lbs in each set. Your rotations can consist of any number of lifts, but it is good to break them up into 3 days of push exercises, pull exercises and leg exercises. Give your self at least a day of rest in between lifts and do not repeat a rotation of like exercises ( eg push ) more then once per week. Remember, muscles are made in the kitchen. You will build the best results in the least amount of time if you focus on eating a well balanced set of macronutrients and limit foods that will not help you towards your goal such as bread, dairy, alcohol, sugars, high fats and high sodium. Eat a lot of lean Protein. The recommendation is to eat .92 g of lean protein per ideal body weight. For example, my ideal body weight is 180 so my lean protein is 170 per day. I try and hit this daily, but sometimes do not make it. Plan on drinking a lot of Protein shakes because you will not be able to eat enough in order to maximize your results. For example, I drink 3 protein shakes a day in the morning, after a workout and right before bed, shooting for close to 40 g per shake as a guy. Women have smaller frames so should shoot for the optimal amount of 30g protein a day. I know- it is not fair. Women also have a lower BMI ideal weight so do not need nearly as much protein as a guy. However, the .92 scalar still applies to both sexes. The other 50 g or so I source from lean Proteins like chicken. Always balance out your protein in a meal with good fat and carbs in order for the protein to be broken down into amino acids optimally for your growing muscles. I probably eat about 1800 calories per day ( often times less because, damn, it is hard work to eat that much) and stay close to 185 lb at 16 % body fat. You might pay attention to other amino acid supplements before and after working out to maximize muscle response during and after lifting, respectively. For example, I always take an amino acid supplement called catalyst before both strength training and cross fit sessions. The result of taking this supplement is very noticeable in the power I have during a session. I sometimes take creatine after working out to force more Water into the muscles during the repair cycle. Not every time because creatine can raise your blood pressure if you have an issue with that. I do not as my blood pressure is usually 190 / 70 and my resting pulse is 44. It is also very important to eat or drink a recovery protein food after working out. This is the optimal time to be consuming protein as your muscles are open for nutrients ready to be fed. Try to eat or drink within 20 minutes. It is also important that your Protein Shake be high quality whey with a good amount of BCAA in it. Again, the BCAA chains are amino acids in their basic for and optimal for being consumed by your muscles during repair. I haven't deviated much from this weight of 185 in a couple months, but have changed my body composition substantially without that much work. I really can appreciate that my body fat % dropped from 19 % to 16 % and is still dropping as the weeks go by. My goal is to hit 10 % by October. I exercise no more then 1 hour a day (on cross fit days) and most strength training days are no more then 30 minutes. See the rotations below. It is not that much work and I feel comfortable with expending this amount of time each week. In fact I look forward to the relatively short, but intense sessions daily. I take at least 1 day off a week to just relax or do some walking, hiking, etc. Drink plenty of water to flush out the toxins created from lifting and eating protein. By a lot, I mean 1-1.5 gallon a day. Depending on how far out you are, you may not be able to do this. Try your best. Finally, aim for 7-8 quality hours of sleep a night. Your body, and specifically, your muscles, repair the most while you are sleeping, so do not skimp on sleep. Again, I am sometimes lax in this area for many reasons but I do try. If you have trouble sleeping a natural sleep aid with melatonin in it will help. I will post some more information about an example workout in a few minutes.

There are mixed opinions out there questioning if one should train, workout or exercise when affected with a cold or flu. Besides feeling generally cruddy, are there medical reasons why a person should cool it until better? I read that training can cause the immune system to become compromised even more after being compromised from cold bacteria. There is other information that discusses a raise in body heat will kill off the bacteria. I have been dealing with a mild cld all week and it has become stronger today (DayQuil is my friend). I was able to cross fit on Tuesday and did fine, but today I cancelled as not wanting this cold to drag on any longer. I hate missing a training session. Thoughts on what the is right thing to do?

Still feeling icky today, but decided to workout because 1. Not working out was draining me and 2. No fever. Got a mile run and a rotation of push lifts in. Feel better now, but still sub human.

Thanks all - I will take it easy.

I want to start a fitness thread where people who cross fit can post their WOD or ask questions cross fit related. I am a fairly new cross fitter at around 3 months. It does not matter how long you have been cross fitting. Please share your experiences. I will start. Today, my workout: Warmup: 1 mile run at 6 minutes 15 air squats 15 pushups 15 lunges 15 pull ups lots of stretching, especially hamstring. WOD: For 7 sets 235 lb DL at 10 rep Pushups at 7 rep Ght sit ups at 7 rep Box jumps at 7 rep dumbbell s*n*a*t*c*h*e*s at 7 rep and 45 lb Toe to bar at 7 rep Vups at 7 reps Kettle ball swing at 7 rep and 45 lb 400 m run (sprint) Time: 19 min and 45 seconds Preworkout: c4 and catalyst Postworkout: AMRAP bar I felt good today about this workout as finished it and did not feel like on verge of passing out. Felt great! Also I did everything raw today, no bands or modifications. That made me feel good about progress. Please feel free to post all things cross fit to share with others.

Would it help y'all out if others on VST tell you how great you look? We see the progress over the months even if you do not see it yourself in the mirror. If you hear it enough times, then it has to be true right?

I am kind of late to the party here, but I will offer what my personal trainer told me a few weeks ago. She suggested to try and just balance the macro nutrients before a training session. If you also supplement with amino acids from a pre workout drink or capsules, then you will be much stronger and faster during your workout. It works every time for me. Back to pre workout food. A good meal I have before my cross fit sessions is 3 oz chicken and 2 apple quarters with 2 tbsp of nut butter. It gives me a lot of good energy for cross fit, which is intense. The apples also give me good restriction so i feel "full" without wanting anything else. your body requires good carbs and fats to optimally break protein into the amino acid chains for your lean muscle. If it is another workout like a run or strength training at home, I may have a couple energy squares from nuts.com (also a good balance of good carbs, fat and protein). Remember to always eat/drink a good protein based food such as a bar or shake after your work out in order to benefit from the rapid transport of nutrients, including amino chains, into the muscles.

anyone - I am new to cross fit and do not know yet how I fit in with "good times" for the above WOD, as I do one on one WOD with PT. Is this a "good" time? I was going as humanly fast as I could on the sit-ups with 20 lb ball from floor behind head to toes. My abs will feel this one tomorrow.

BTB is absolutely right. You do not "get" chi running over a weekend or even from a seminar directly with Danny. It takes a lot of practice and a lot of focus. You would not become a black belt over night would you? Well, unless, of course, you are Neo. It would only take him 30 minutes to download the Chia Running training program and become a master. seriously, this takes months and careful due diligence. It is definitely worth it; do not give up. Keep your eye on simply "wanting it" and it will be yours. Once you learn how to do it well. It is like riding a bike, you never forget...

Talley - you are so bad-ass, if you don't mind me saying so. Your cross fit sessions are awe inspiring. Thanks for continuing to share. I had a good cross fit session, although not nearly as bad ass. Someday !! Warmup: 1 mile run Two sets of 15 sit-ups 15 push ups 15 pull ups 15 lunges 15 air squats Strength technique ( not timed): Alternating back squats with burpees 10 squats at 100 and 1 burpee 9 squats at 120 and 2 burpee 8 squats at 140 and 3 burpee 7 squats at 160 and 4 burpee 6 squats at 180 and 5 burpee 5 squats at 200 and 6 burpee 4 squats at 220 and 7 burpee 3 squats at 240 and 8 burpee 2 squats at 260 and 9 burpee 1 squats at 280 and 10 burpee Spotted on 4-1 squat sets. Almost did not get up on 2 and 1 set. WOD (timed): 50 sit-ups w 20 lb ball and 50 jump ropes 40 sit-ups w 20 lb ball and 40 jump ropes 30 sit-ups w 20 lb ball and 30 jump ropes 20 sit-ups w 20 lb ball and 20 jump ropes 10 sit-ups w 20 lb ball and 10 jump ropes Completed in 6 min and 5 seconds. Cool down(2 set): 2 min plank Elevated plank 10 rep ( not sure what to call this. I hold in high push-up for 5 seconds, low up push- up for 5 seconds, repeat) 2 min wall sit

Hi all- rant on. I have been fairly blessed ( luck??) as a post op to not get hanging skin. I am tight everywhere and it probably has to do with exercise and diet because, man, my weight was really obvious in my upper body (stomach, chest, back) pre op. however, I do not have any panni, moobs or batwing issues so do not need plastics for those. if I would want to perfectly create a flat surface, currently there is 1/8-1/4 "lip", I might want to get an extended TT in some distant future. Will this go away? Not sure. What is obvious is a belly button area that looks like the Sarlacc Pit: http://www.g4tv.com/attackoftheshow/blog/post/716780/alternative-star-wars-costumes-for-halloween/ Star Wars geeks will "get" this reference (scroll down a little for the image). Does this smooth on its own over time from ample exercise? Would TT surgery help? My wife is going to have VSG soon and we have agreed she will get the plastics as we will not be able to afford two sets of plastics. I want her to feel good about her body in a bikini. She will be first. Rant off.

Saraj- I went through the same issue with Bariatric chews and Celebrate capsules. I think it is the Iron in them that leads to rejection. The only advice I can offer is to keep looking for Vitamins that will work for you because they are so important to keep on top of when nutritious food is absent from your diet. The Trader Joe adult chews worked for me for quite a while before I switched to GNC sports vita paks and now Opti-men. You might also look into some liquid vitamins that places like costco sell. I know you stated that you have tried a liquid Vitamin, but perhaps there is another better product that will stay down. As for Protein goals, I do relate with how hard it is to make that 80 oz goal in the beginning when it is a struggle to eat, let alone drink. You can work up to 80 oz a day and it will get easier to meet and beat protein goals over time. One strategy that helped me until about 4 weeks out was to focus on drinking 2 oz of protein every hour from shot glasses (3 oz). 2 oz is not so bad over an hour and there are a good 10-12 waking hours during the day. Let us look at a conservative consumption of 2 oz x 10 hours = 20 oz. Let us assume you measure out 24 g (1 scoop) per 8 oz of Water. This means 1 oz has 3 g of protein. Multiple 20 oz by 3 g per oz and you can easily drink 60 oz protein with this approach. Better is to drink 3 oz per hour so that you are able to consume 30 oz a day or 90 grams of protein a day. 3 oz per hour is not so bad. If you do somewhere between 2-3 oz an hour, you will easily meet the minimum protein requirements of 80 g a day after practicing for a few days or even a week of graduating from 1 oz / hour to 2.5 oz an hour. Good luck. Hope this helps.