vitamin b12, jack3d and my new plan

So I'm a VSGer and my doctor has me taking vitamin b12 along with a mutli and an iron. i also take Vitamin D because i have a defficiency since before surgery. 

Well since taking this new protein powder, i guess maybe because there's so much protein in it, i get sluggish. resulting in my workouts dropping into sometimes no workouts a week. Which at first didn't bother me because i lost 4lbs the first 2 weeks of taking this new protein. but then i started to stall. this is simply no good. but i find myself sluggish and fatigued and lazy during the day and not wanting to move let alone workout. except for sundays which for some reason i wake up ready to go.

so i decided i needed to take some action. i read Amy W's blog about Jack3d. its this pre-workout powder thats supposed to give you this surge of energy so you get all jacked up in the gym. she loves it. and it made me really curious. i looked it up and the reviews are so positive. and it just so happens they sell this stuff at the vitamin shoppe. i saw it in like 5 flavors. one of them being grape bubble gum. umm hello...i LOVE grape bubble gum! I smelled the cannister, smelled like grape nerds! ingredients: citric acid, caffeine and then a bunch of stuff i can't pronounce. i'm super tempted. i certainly could use the surge of energy not to mention the flavor excites me. but at the same time i have a small tummy and my system is different than most non surgery ppl as well as lapband ppl and i have to be very cautious of what i put in my body. i want to make sure its safe first and that i'm not harming myself. i tried posting in a WLS forum about it and go no responses. i even sent an email to my nutritionist asking if it was ok and still no response. i'm so close to just buying the damn thing.

i decided in the meantime i could just up my vitamin b12. i looked it up and even if you took massive amounts you wouldn't be harming yourself. which of course i wouldn't do but i just wanted to make sure 2 doses wasn't gonna poison me. so i upped my daily dose from one 1,000mg pill to two. thinking i would get energy and it would be good for me and blah blah blah. so i did it for a week. the result? i didn't feel any energy boost at all. instead i slept till about 1pm every day. i looked it up and b12 has melatonin in it. which helps you sleep. which probably explains why i sleep through the night now as opposed to before surgery. back then i couldn't sleep more than 6 hours. now i get a full 8 hours. but since upping b12 i was sleeping till 1pm and i felt like i could have slept even more! which you can imagine was not good for my schedule. i still wasn't working out, but i was sleeping more. i decided this wasn't working for me. so yesterday i stopped taking it. and today i was able to wake up at 11am for The View. first time all week. so yeah back to my normal dose.

meanwhile i've started to take 4oz of milk with 1/2 scoop of protein the morning hoping that that wouldn't make me as sluggish so that i can go workout and take the other 4oz later in the day. so far meh. not really doing much for me. 

so here i am in the same predicament. i wish i could workout at night since thats when i seem to have the most energy but the gym in my building started this new policy where you can't go in passed 10pm because people complain about the lights. yeah right whatever. so maybe instead of trying to work out first thing in the morning like i did before. maybe i'll wait till 5pm or something and try then.

another theory someone threw at me was that maybe i'm not getting enough calories and my body is going into starvation mode. i don't know if thats necessarily the case although i would say i don't eat much and i couldn't possibly eat less. which is why stalling frustrates me. i have my protein shake, then maybe a slice of cheese, water water, maybe another slice, maybe some peanuts, water, vitamins, maybe some apple chips, at the end of the night i'll have an oz or 2 of meat for dinner but i could just as easily eat a slice of cheese and some peanuts. if i'm super hungry fast i'll have some protein chips. but thats rare. and then at night once i've drank all my waters i might have a cup of special k. or the other day i had a s'more using graham crackers, sf chocolate and a sf marshmallow. so as you can see i don't eat much. just snacks pretty much. and i was thinking about it, before this new protein shake i was eating breakfast and dinner. 2 meals. now i just eat one if that. and i've been steadily losing weight for 5 months b4 this new protein. and yeah in the beginning i the pounds dropped but then i think my body adjusted to the fewer calories. so that might be why i'm stalling. it might also be why i have so little energy. not enough calories to burn. certainly not enough carbs. 


so my new plan is this. just drink 4oz of protein shake in the morning. have breakfast. and then have dinner. snack when i have to and see how that works. see if i have more energy. people tell me i should be getting most of my protein from food so we'll try that. and see what the results are next friday when i go in for my bloodwork.


also if i don't hear back from my nutritionist i'm just gonna get the jack3d. i'd rather eat more calories and burn more calories than do nothing and eat nothing. just because i feel too tired. i'm a little confounded about it though. in my mind eating less is better. and i've noticed i can tolerate things i didn't used to. i know my pouch has stretched a little. i like eating very little. it makes me feel like i'm working my sleeve. but in this case it might be healthier to eat a couple of bigger meals  than a bunch of tiny snacks.


and now that i think of it maybe i wake up ready to go on sunday because saturdays i usually have breakfast with my husband as well as dinner. so i get more calories in.


if this plan doesn't work i'm gonna attempt another 5 day pouch test. which might be easier than last time since now i have a protein powder that i like and that is very filling. wish me luck!