Exercise, Nutrition, WLS, and Cooking Q & A - 1/21/2014

So these threads seem to go over really well and I get to interact with more and more of you all. If you have any questions that you haven't felt comfortable asking in the open forum, please feel free to ask here and you will get my perspective as well as those who want to chime in as well.

Let's Hear It!

Thank you. What a nice idea.

My first question is about lifelong eating following the weight loss. I like the idea of this being a complete rest for my body and that eventually I will be eating a healthy variety of whole foods in healthy amounts.I see so many people mention low carb and I'm not saying it's bad but it's not what I picture for myself forever. My doctor seems to agree with me that processed carbs and empty carbs aren't in my healthy future but beans, fruits, vegetables, andwhole friends can be as long as I'm eating adequate protein first. Do you our anyone else have any advice or input or cautionary tale to offer?

The more I read and learn about nutrition the more I realize that it is not an exact science and there really is no one size fits all answer to questions like this. I think how we got fat has a lot to do with the longer term eating objectives we embrace. If we had an eating disorder before, chances are we will still have one after we reach goal and even if we managed to come to terms with it during our weight loss phase, we may still fight against it the rest of our lives. If we were just lazy well a different tactic might work well too. What I do know, despite popular opinion here, is that not all carbs are created equally. The way our body responds to sugar and processed carbs (and it a lot of cases sugars can mean fruits as well, ill come back to that) versus whole and simple carbs is very different. When you eat a helping of sugar your body produces insulin to help break that sugar down and get it ready for use (either storage or burn for fuel). Most of the time, particularly for us, we eat way more than we need and while some of it may get used (for more active individuals) chances are it will get stored (and for those of us who were just lazy, probably the case).

I am over 1 year post-op and I am within 20lbs of my self selected goal of 184lbs. I have since revised my goal to be 10% body fat because while I do try to continue to lose body fat, I also work out a lot and I am trying to build muscle. I am very active now (as opposed to almost completely inactive) and I work out 6 days per week and get as many as 10 workouts in per week. So I have incorporated some carbs back into my diet but in a very strategic way. First I only eat slow digesting carbs (oatmeal, brown rice, whole grains) except for post workout where I will eat a small amount of fruit, mostly low glycemic fruits like berries and melon. One exception is banana. My goto post-workout breakfast is an organic brown rice cake with about 2 tbsp of organic natural (i.e. no sugar added and just peanuts as ingredients) with some banana slices on top. Breakfast and post-workout is the only time I would eat something like this. Why? Because in this rare and unique time of the day I actually want my insulin to spike. It helps to bring amino acids to my muscles for repair and I have plenty of active time during the day where I am burning calories for my insulin level to return to normal. This is after a mixed weight/cardio HIIT workout where I burn 500-800 calories. I more than make up for the calories in the post-workout breakfast AND I get some body building benefits that insulin provides. All of that being said, I would not consider myself in the average WLS patient as far as activity goes. I also did not do this during my weight loss phase. I only started doing this as I neared maintenance and physically speaking I do not have much excess body weight at this point. Right now I am going for aesthetics.

Sorry for the long diatribe. Long story short is that once you get to maintenance you will most certainly be adding back some carbs. My recommendation would be to keep high glycemic fruits (oranges, banana, apples) to a minimum (exception is apples, they are good for a lot of other reasons but no more than one small to medium one per day) and stick with low glycemic fruits such as berries and melons.

Excellent explanation. Thanks!

My only THING for TODAY is..... 

I just don't feel like going to the gym for my a$$ kicking session with my trainer. HA!!!

Do this then. Get ready and instead of going to the gym just drive to the parking lot. Let me know what happens. 

I just subscribed to an online exercise program called daily burn.  I can watch it on any device, xbox, computer, tv and it's only $10 a month.  Just wondering if anyone else has tried it and what they think of it.

It's pretty good. 

Doing the 30 day free trial, it's at home huge bonus because I'm extremely lazy in this cold weather to go outside.  I have to have someone around because my blood pressure is still running 80/50's.  Guess I need to follow through on that damn stress test.  :)

Start with body weight exercise routines. Find a 30-40min total body routine and do it every day and rest one day a week. Then so your stress test in a month. Also make sure you walk every day even on rest day. Go to a local mall and do laps if it's cold outside or a local college may have an indoor track that is open to the public. That's is all the cardio you need right now. Then re-evaluate in a month. As for the exercises do what you can. Drop to your knees for push-ups if you have to. Focus on form that is the most important thing. If you are doing your push-ups from your knees, at least once a week try a full regular push-up until you can do one then shoot for two and so on until you are doing them all regular. Make sure to do squats and here again focus on form and get to where you can go deep.