neveragain

*does his happy dance, but knows that this is a rare occasion, so he will savor the victory it while it lasts* lol.

Brad, as usual, pretty much dead on. For the MOST PART, building muscle is pretty unlikely, especially for those seasoned lifters and people on crash diets, like most banders. This also kind of goes along with why our Protein intake is so FREAKING important. If we are working out and not getting our protein in, it could easily backfire. Jacqui, high-impact does NOT always mean more of a workout. Swimming moderate pace freestyle for 1 hour and running a 12-min mile pace for 1 hour burn around the same amount of kcal/hr. Also, swimming is a full body workout AND easy on your joints. Ha. I win. :thumbup:

Ellisa: I completely agree. There is a BIG difference between LOW carb and NO carb. Honestly, personally, I err to the side of low carb diets because when someone says "low carb", they're usually referring to a sensible, low-fat, complex-carb, high Protein diet. Atkins diet COULD be healthy if it didn't have the the whole "fat is okay" bit going along with it. Also being a student of the craft, when the researcher man/woman was talking about how carbs, in general, are the devil, I thought that it was a little over-dramatically stated, but it's true to an extent. Genes definitely don't adapt quickly. For example, there seems to be an argument in the world of nutrition about the necessity of dairy. Why? Because we probably didn't milk cows 10-12,000 years ago, so why should we do it now? There are PLENTY of things, aside from milk, that you can get Calcium out of, like spinach, broccoli, tofu, etc. Also, our life span was MAYBE half of what it is now and obviously we didn't know how much we should eat, so it took a toll on our health. Without bringing institutional economics into it too, lol, the point I was trying to make was that even though our bodies weren't originally created to consume this type of stuff, it can have beneficial uses if consumed in proper moderation. Also, for the record, nearly everything healthy has connections to disease if it is not consumed in proper moderation. For example, soy has connections to male gynocomastia, zero carb diets have connections to kidney stones, and the list goes on. Just sayin'.

I just need to get a few things off of my chest, guys. I can't hold it in anymore. I'm sorry. After this, you guys will probably know me as good as my fiance. I have to tell someone... I put up a facade every day because I feel like I've failed in almost every aspect of my life. I love my fiance, but I feel like something is missing and it hurts because she is my best friend. I have no guy friends that I consider best friends. I can't even tell you how much I wish I did, though. I've tried to let them in, but every time I do, I feel like I'm going to change into a different person and become an asshole. It is really embarrassing, too, because I have no one to make a best man who I really trust. I have mixed feelings about my weight. Sometimes I care more than others. I care about the way I look, but sometimes I wonder if it is worth the effort. After my head injury 2 years, I never really realized how much I have changed. I'm more self-centered, but I'm also more emotional now than I ever was. I don't know how to deal with it. The most hurt I've been in a while was last semester when I got in an argument with a friend of my fiance that she doesn't even like or keep in touch with. She didn't back me up and now it feels weird when I think of it. I don't hold grudges, but this won't go away. Even though my dad would never tell me this, I feel like I failed my dad. He went to an ivy league school and medical school. I want to go to medical school, but I don't know if I can do it because of my head injury. Also, I'm 25 and I have yet to graduate from college. My sister is an overachiever and I respect her so much, but I wish I could have half of the ability that she has. It seems like my head injury is stopping me from doing anything I want. I feel like I can't be good enough at anything to impress anyone. I have a somewhat competitive spirit, so that hurts the most. My self-confidence is not half of what it was before the accident. Thanks for listening, guys...

You know, for the record, I'm all for Jenny Craig. My fiance is on it and doing really well and my parents lost a grip of weight on it, but for a people with a band, even that size of portion is just too big. They want you to eat 2 cups of just vegetables as a side for dinner plus the 2-3ish cups of entree. In my personal opinion, if your stoma is big enough to pack that down, you've gone a little too far and it's time to shrink it again and start over.

The truth is that, for the most part, your hair loss has to do with malnutrition, so are you taking a multi-Vitamin and how many calories are you eating per day?

Not even so much direct to Irene, but to ANYONE who reads this post who is curious, my tip of the day for anyone new to the band or exercise in general is to find people who you can workout with. I can't even tell you how helpful that is. Whether it is strength training or a group exercise class of some sort, MAKE FRIENDS! When you have people you like who you know are going to be there. Also, make friends with the instructor. When you have a friendly connection with the instructor, you will be WAY more likely to go and you will feel somewhat required to go because you want the instructor to know you're working hard. Also, they are usually a dictionary of exercise tips, including this one. Just my $.02 :biggrin:

I will catch up to you someday!! I did a 100km bike ride earlier this year and it was a blast. :biggrin: Hopefully, I'll get up to a 100mi ride sometime this or next year.

If I were you, I would go to the doctor. You could have a little cyst right there. I had that and it killed to sit, so I went and had my doctor lance it and drain it. :biggrin: Good luck!

Recently, I've been into p90x, not because I'm looking to get epically muscular, haha, but more because it is LITERALLY the best workout with the fastest results I've ever had. lol. If I could justify buying Insanity, I would. Lately, "Beachbody" is great stuff. :biggrin: Oh, and the abdominal workout that comes with p90x is crazy. The first couple of times you do it, you feel like a totem pole for a couple of days. lol.

So, for yesterday, I apologize. I think I just had one of those "it happens to everyone" breakdowns. Contrary to what some people may think, even guys can have irrational breakdowns. lol. Thanks again for the replies, guys. So, here's my thing about the friend thing. I grew up around women, so I have more female friends than your normal guy. I have guys that are my friends, but more of work friends than anything else. I think I'm just trying to figure out who my best man is going to me and I'm like, "ahhhh!" about it. lol. About the argument situation, you're right. I think both of our testosterone kicked in and we both got a little out of hand. I'm really happy that it didn't happen face-to-face because I would have laid out his druggie ass on the floor. What got me started is that he won't stop getting all up in her business and it makes her uncomfortable, so I figured it was time to defend her. Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut, but I feel like when it has to do with woman I love, it's my duty to protect her. She doesn't hold her ground and it bothers me. We talked about it and she says she feels really bad, yet she doesn't do anything about it. Arg. I'll probably get over it eventually. See, my desire for the field of medicine is there. I don't really know what else I would do, considering I've dabbled in a lot of fields. haha. I kind of feel l could do other things, but I wouldn't be AS happy if I didn't. I'm never going to give up, though. ^^ For my brain injury, I don't really know what to think. I keep hearing all of this stuff from my mom who was a nurse for 25 years, but not matter what research I do, I always wonder if it is actually the case. Aside from maybe being a tad more emotional here and there and my memory retention being a little less than what it used to be, my life really hasn't changed much. lol. I feel blessed in so many ways. ^^

Thanks for the responses, guys. I really appreciate it. Also, Jacqui, can I say something? Despite the fact that I can think of only one thing we have agreed on in the last 4 or so years, I respect you so much. You are very well spoken and I always enjoy reading what you have to say. Also, I look at you and see what you have accomplished and I can only hope to be able to do the same. :thumbup:

Thanks for the reply, man. I really appreciate it. :thumbup: I'm not sure why, but it was all just built up to the breaking point and I needed to offload it somewhere. haha. I don't really care about the emotion part so much because I've always been more of a sensitive guy. I've always been known to shed a tear at a good movie. lol. I would hang out with my soon-to-be in-laws more, but they live 120 miles away in phoenix. They're really cool, though.

Actually, what is happening is that you're eating so few calories that your metabolism slowed down, so if you bump your calories up to 1200/day or so, you'll start seeing your weight dropping. :thumbup:

Yeah, 500-1000 cal/day is pretty low and will slow your metabolism. Try to stick to 1200-1500/day. Edub, 1500 is actually a good number for most people. It's definitely okay if you're going to eat 2000-2500, but you need to work off the excess calories. :thumbup:

I'm so happy you liked it! He's such an awesome trainer.

Brad, you nailed it. I back you 100%, man. Like in the other post, too, it drives me NUTS that some people don't understand that in order to see gains, you HAVE to push yourself. Your body is an adaptive machine. If it doesn't see a reason why it doesn't have to change, it won't. Diva, I completely agree. I really hope that everyone gets a chance to read this.

My ability to go from 0-4 pullups in 30 days of p90x agrees with you 1000%. haha.

Here is a really quick and easy workout with Tony Horton. It's like 25 minutes or so. Free Beachbody Workout With Tony Horton | Beachbody Coach

Okay, so then we wear our weight very similar, then. I have also fluctuated, so I know what you mean. I was probably only skinny for one summer when I was a kid. haha. I was also banded at 291lbs and dropped 91lbs, by the way. I would consider that a pretty hefty loss. Anyway, I asked because I have this sneaking suspicion that you think WAY too much about it. For the record, make no mistake that I agree that a guy's weight and his ability to get women are directly correlated; however, there are outside factors that are not being considered. Having said that, you have to factor in where the increased confidence comes from, whether it be due to significant weight loss, increased exercise or some combination of the two. Make no mistake, too, there were other girls before I met my fiance and I had little trouble getting them to like me. haha. Going into this a little deeper, for a "study" to say that women can rate a man's confidence level is would make self-confidence an external trait, rather than an internal trait, therefore making it an unreliable study. For example, that's like me looking at every single post on this message board and deciding the average age of the normal poster on here, by asking everyone what they think the mean age is on here. Without proof from that person, who knows their age is. It's not empirically possible to figure out from an estimation. All I'm saying is that you can have any MTV/VH1 dating course you want, which I saw on TV by the way, but that doesn't mean that it's going to work. lol. Trust me, if you did half of those things with girls who don't go to clubs and get wasted all of the time, you would never get a date because they ALSO watched that show and know what you're doing. lol. I have a few female friends who go to clubs and tell me about guys who do that and make asses of themselves. Just a fair warning. lol.

Diva is right. It's 90% about calories in/calories out. There are little technicalities here and there though. For example, if you ate 1000 calories of just Protein or just carbs, you would have an edge up with the protein because it takes a little more energy to burn protein. Also, you may stay a little fuller longer. HOWEVER, there are small outside factors that make one diet better than the other, like Jacqui, for example. She's a runner, so the higher carb diet will benefit her greater because you need to supply your stored glycogen for easy access and, in fact, I did that too when I was training for a sprint triathlon and it was better than when I started the program with a high protein diet. All in all, though, it really doesn't matter which one you use. As long as you try to steer away from the processed stuff, aside from Protein powder, and try to keep your calories around 1000 or so, you're good.

So, edub, riddle the peanut gallery this: How long have you had the lap-band and what is your weight right now?

You know that you use facebook too much when you are look for a "like" button. In this case, *5000 likes*. haha.

You know, I can't whittle down to exactly why this rubbed me the wrong way, but it did. So, basically what you're saying is that if you were ever fat and/or not 6'3" or taller, you're up shit creek, then? Yeah...not so much. I know some guys who are 6'3"/6'4" and skinny who wouldn't stand a change against me. 85% of getting girls is how you talk to them. DONE. I'd be willing to put money on it. If you don't know how to talk to a girl and you keep tripping over your words, you're done, kid. It helps if you're skinny, but let me tell you, that is the least of your worries... Unfortunately, edub, if you want those girls in the clubs with the gigantic ass, huge tits, and brains that would rival that of the lap dog, you need a high-paying job and STILL know how to talk to girls. Tip of the day, kid: Learn how to talk to girls, THEN worry about how your weight affects it. FROM THE MOUTH OF THE FIANCE: Learn how to talk to girls because a skinny body won't do the talking for you.

I pretty much stay true to GNC. I love chocolate, but it's tough to get it THAT close to the actual taste, so I usually get vanilla and strawberry. I've mixed it with both milk and water and I prefer milk, but it's totally consumable both ways.