medman

Bummer about the accident! I hope you're back to full health soon! I've got an incredibly annoying hip thing going on right now, so I feel your pain.

Chewy was also alluding to the fact that you might not be taking in a lot of calories. Eating a crapton = a lot more strength.

This thread cracks me up, especially with all the bickering over macronutrient ratios when the original poster, who was complaining of trouble losing weight, did the math and figured out she was eating like 4,000 calories a day. She was totally right to cut that down, a 4000 calorie diet certainly does not promote weight loss! Actually, those people DON'T listen to experts. The millions upon millions of overweight and obese Americans eating McDonald's and funions can attest to that. Considering any health expert of any sort would say regular exercise is a crucial part of weight loss, and so few people actually exercise at all, should give you an idea of how closely the average American is following the advice of any given health expert. Also, "indoctrinated" is one of those convenient terms that people throw around in order to try to put their opinions on equal footing with evidence-backed arguments. For example, I know the chemtrails in the sky are being used to keep the masses docile and obedient, and any aviation "expert" who says they're vapour trails is just indoctrinated by the underhanded work of the illuminati. See?

Actually, we are. Sensitive equipment is always in shielded rooms to prevent interference. I know they always ask people to turn off their cell phones, but the policy doesn't seem to apply to doctors. I think it's because the sheer number of patients and family in the hospital could cause problems if their cell phones were on, but it's not an issues when the much smaller number of doctors have them on. Most of the time, if you're near sensitive equipment, you get 0 reception because all the walls are shielded. The main thing I'd need it for within the hospital is to use electronic medical references, which are stored on the device's hard drive or accessed through WiFi, so it doesn't matter if I don't get good reception.

Your doctor is right, the final step in B12 absorption is in the terminal ileum (last 100 cm). Depending how much was resected, this alone can cause someone to stop absorbing dietary B12. However, other reasons for low B12 include dietary insufficiency, reduced/absent Intrinsic Factor production in the stomach, and bacterial overgrowth. There's a test called a Schilling test (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schilling_test) which systematically sorts through the potential causes. I wish you luck getting this sorted out.

This summer, I'll be getting a smartphone. I resisted it until now, but as I enter clerkship (my in-hospital training), the ability to use electronic medical references is too powerful a feature for me to pass up. I was planning on an iphone 4, but am hearing about reception issues due to the around-the-body antenna. If that turns out to be a bust, chances are I'll go with Android. I want something touchscreen so I can look things up and scroll through pages easily, and the only touchscreen blackberry is the Storm, and I've heard bad things about it.

Good luck with the surgery. It's good to see you working the different deadlifts. I hope you get back to it soon!

Good job on the ass to grass! I'm jealous, I still don't have the hip flexibility for it, though I am getting close.

My best advice is to find somewhere in your city/area where you can get proper coaching on form for a few sessions. Not the generic "random trainer at the gym", but for quality control purposes, find an olympic or powerlifting coach. There will be some if you have a university/college near you, and even if you don't, there are sometimes people at community centres and things like that. To have such a bad injury so soon suggests to me that there's something majorly wrong with your form. Having a professional, experienced lifter guide you for a few sessions might do a world of good. Of course, that's only after you've rested and recovered! Feel better soon.

I use gyms because I don't have the room for a power rack where I live. One thing I really like about going to the gym is that, once you get your butt out the door, you've committed to a proper workout. I'm not going to go all the way there to pansy out on the 2nd exercise and sit down in front of the TV. But when I tried working out at home, there was always the temptation to take it easy/end the workout early.

I think I'm lucky in that the taste of any alcoholic drink disgusts me. Beer is the worst, and the only thing I can kind of stand is decent red wine. So I never drink unless I plan to get totally drunk in celebration of something, which has only happened a handful of times in my life. The next one will probably be when I graduate from med school in 2 years. Can't stand cigarettes either. The only thing I'll do is smoke weed every now and then, but usually only if there's something to celebrate (like the night after my final exam a couple of weeks ago).

I love real dark chocolate. However, I often find chocolate-flavoured things (like ice cream) lacking unless it's one of those combination flavours (chocolate peanut butter, chocolate with fudge swirls etc). For ice cream, if it's plain, I'll take vanilla any day.

Oh come on. Bahaha, chrisjs wins for best post in this thread.

Oh and angryvegan, I don't recall what brand the EAAs are. Calories are whatever I feel like eating...I'm not into calorie-counting. When I was bulking, I just made sure I ate a ton. Right now I'm trying to cut a bit, so I'm eating more or less "regular" amounts of food (what I'd eat even if I wasn't working out calorie-wise).

Squat: 4x5, 4 @ 180lbs [Long explanation below] Bench Press: 5x5 @ 130 lbs [PR!] Pendlay Rows: 3x5 @ 120 lbs [PR, but mild form failure] Weighted Dips: 4x5 @ 40 lbs [PR!!] Overhead Press: 5x5 @ 80 lbs [coming back up from a deload] Deadlift: 1x5 @ 205 lbs [Long explanation below] Weighted neutral-grip pullups: 3x5 @ 20 lbs - PR So. Here's the deal with my squats. I am seriously f*cking up something in my left glute, possibly where the IT band starts. It's like a more serious version of my problem in my very early days, and I'm certain it comes from an asymmetric form. My little brother was watching me, and said my left foot seemed behind my right one, with my torso rotated toward the right a bit. I tried evening things out, but that put more stress on my left glute and ramped up the pain massively, which made me realize my stance must have become asymmetric recently as a way of avoiding the pain of this injury. The injury itself I'm sure was from a slightly asymmetric stance to begin with (this is an issue I struggled with months ago and though I had fixed). I'm going to blame the fact that the past few weeks have been at this new gym, with a new rack, in front of a mirror. So many things changed that I'm sure the kinks in my form I had worked out resurfaced because I had lost whatever landmarks I was using before. In any case, I definitely need to take a break from squatting. The pain is starting to radiate down my leg in certain positions (making me wonder if it could be piriformis syndrome). It's really frustrating but I know that squatting is obviously the last thing I should do right now. I'll need to take a break, and start back up with light weight trying to address whatever form issue caused this in the first place. It's frustrating because I was almost back up to my PR weight of 185, only going much much deeper than before (I've been squatting to/past parallel which I could never do before). Maybe I pushed the depth too much, too fast? If anyone has recommendations for leg exercises I might be able to do before I try squatting again, I'm all ears. As for deadlifts...after hurting myself squatting, I was warming up and made it to 205 when I realized I couldn't attempt my work weight. Too much pain/fatigue/aggravation from the squats. At least I hit PRs on pretty much everything else to make up for the squat drama . Blew past my previous bench plateau weight of 125 and did a solid 130 yesterday without any hints that I might fail. Hoping that means I can nail 135 on my first attempt on Friday! I also threw in an extra set of dips at 40 lbs because the first three didn't tire me out enough. My 115 lb Pendlays went great, but my first attempt at 120 yesterday was less than stellar...I noticed some hip drive in a few reps and my last couple didn't make it all the way to my chest, so I'll be repeating the weight. In other news, I got my P1 in Krav Maga this past Saturday! It's the first rank (out of 5). So if someone tries to attack me because they're tired of waiting for the power rack, at least I'll be able to drop them like a wet sack of potatoes

Everyone likes a good story about doctors getting bribed, but I still have trouble believing it is a large portion of them. I agree that your system is built differently, but the goal of every doctor is to make their patient well. I have trouble believing American doctors wouldn't recommend lifestyle changes to their diabetic patients...it is the foundation of diabetes management here in Canada. While I realize the American system is more profit-motivated, the American doctors I have encountered all seemed of equal integrity to the ones here. Here in Canada, if a doctor was ever found to be taking money under the table, or to be neglecting to give lifestyle advice to diabetic patients, they would be officially reprimanded by the College of Physicians and Surgeons with either a fine or suspension (or revoking of their license if they were taking significant bribes), and their name would be printed in the back of the Canadian Medical Association's journal along with a description of their violations and punishment. We run a pretty tight ship up here.

This thread makes no sense to me at all. I am very confused at this point.

I called out bullshit because I saw it. What prescriptions patients take (if anything) after visiting a doctor does not affect how he/she gets paid. The implication you then made by linking that article is that doctors on the whole are being paid under the table by pharmaceutical companies. That's as ludicrous as asserting that all cops are being paid under the table by the mob. I'm sure the occasional one is (on both accounts), but it is truly a tiny minority. Trying intentionally to piss me off for calling you out on your bullshit...I can see why you might get defensive if you felt I was trying to attack you personally (which I was not). But there's simply no way you can back up the claim that doctors benefit from keeping patients on insulin. It's in every doctor's interest to try to get patients off/to reduce their insulin, but usually it's the patient who is unwilling to make any lifestyle changes. Also: In before xjohanx points out oxygen and water aren't macronutrients.

Ducati, I find you a little patronizing. The article you linked is on how some companies are trying to bribe doctors and pharmacists to use their products, which is not even legal here in Canada (and by the looks of it, nor is it in the US). To assert that this is a practice the majority of professionals engage in is downright insulting. Also, to recommend the China study as though it's something I haven't read is even more patronizing. I realize you may not know my background, but I've been veg for 10+ years, have an undergrad degree in physiology and have finished 2 years of med school, so I'm fairly up to date on things health-related. And when did I ever say diet and lifestyle can't improve the condition of diabetics? I said it has a far greater impact ton type 2 vs type 1, which is true. I stick by my statement that it's bullshit to think doctors get paid to prescribe things. The payment is for seeing the patient, the prescription (lifestyle change, medication, or even nothing at all) doesn't factor into the billing system at all. Pretending all doctors are getting under-the-table payment from pharmaceutical companies is downright insane.

Ducati, it is a completely different story regarding whether someone is truly insulin-dependent or not. Lifestyle changes have a far greater impact on type 2 than type 1. Also, I really don't know where this kind of bullshit comes from, but doctors don't make money from what they prescribe. Prescribing insulin does not make them any more money than discussing lifestyle changes.

I think this thread sucks! I'm a weird mixture of optimist and pessimist. I my day-to-day life, I really am always an optimist. Even during/after a catastrophic breakup, despite the pain, I can still say "At least the next one might be hotter?" and have a laugh about it. But I also verge on nihilism on some issues, like the environmental/political state of the world, or even the patients I treat. I can give them genuine empathy, but also think to myself "Seriously, this isn't going to change much." when I know they're going to walk out the door and continue smoking 2 packs a day and drinking while pregnant or something like that. But, I still feel I'm doing the best I can, so it doesn't drag me down and I feel pretty good about myself (that optimistic side coming through again).

Thanks, guys! Cold Fission - it's a recent development. Honestly, I've always wanted to do martial arts. I just always felt like I was small and weak and had no confidence that I could ever do well at it. Even my choices of exercise - different types of running, mostly - were geared more toward running away than confronting danger . But finding this site, taking up powerlifting and actually building some muscle made me realize that I could be "that ass-kicking vegan" instead of "that scrawny-ass vegan". So a couple of months ago I took the plunge, and have found a real passion for it. My only regret is that my schedule will limit me to one art, max...if I could fit it in, I'd totally love to take up BJJ and Muay Thai as well. I chose Krav because I wanted something as practical as possible, and also because I'm half Israeli so I figured it would be cool to try something home-grown! It definitely awakened something in me, though! Just ask the guys I was throwing around during the test

I'm exactly the same way! Once I went black, I never went back... I'm also doing one of those "detox" periods right now. I'm on summer break and know I'll need the full effects of caffeine for my first year of in-hospital training, so I'm taking the opportunity to reduce my tolerance. I have to tell you, though...the first week was pretty unpleasant. I don't know whether it was recovering from the exhaustion of exam week, or the lack of caffeine, but I felt like I was moving in slow motion

I realize I never quite pinpointed the pain, so I got up in front of the mirror and tried to find the exact spot. It's definitely "more on the side of the glute toward the side of my hip" like you said. It's definitely far lower than my waist. For some reason, IT band didn't occur to me...and thinking about it now, I vaguely recall having a possible IT band issue right when I was starting out. I'll have to see about tracking down a foam roller (or tennis ball or whatnot) and go to town on it. What would you recommend for warming up if my work weight is 185? Right now, I start out with some squat stretches (getting down into a full squat position and maneuvering from side to side to stretch my hips), some leg swings (both front to back and side to side), some deep bodyweight squats, then I do a few reps with an empty bar, some more at around 100 lbs, and sometimes some more at around 140. Should I be going up in smaller increments to warm up? Like 100, 120, 140, 160, then 180? Do you always bench after squatting? I had that same cramping issue on and off a couple of months ago. I definitely had hip flexor issues while squatting too, though, so I don't know if I can offer any help on that front!

Good work staying disciplined with the squats. It must be frustrating at times, but I'm sure it won't be long at all before you're back in a weight range you're accustomed to. And I know you said you weren't happy with how your overhead presses went...but I'm still pretty damn impressed! Subtract 100 and that's around what I've been struggling with