NO2 - Nitric Oxide

NO2 (nitric oxide) is a great supplement for energy, focus, and longevity when working out.  Nitric Oxide is not to be confused with Nitrous Oxide (N2O), which is used as laughing gas, or Nitrogen Dioxide (also NO2), which is an air pollutant.

The most common active ingredient is L-Arginine (in the form of Arginine Alpha-Ketoglutarate), one of the 20 most common amino acids.  NO2 is a vasodilator, which means that it widens the blood vessels allowing more blood, and with it more oxygen, to travel through the body.  This puts more oxygen into your muscles, allowing you to work harder, for a longer period of time, without fatigue.  This influx of blood to the muscles also helps to increase the "pump" of your muscles generally received from working out.

Nitric Oxide side effects include:

• Slight tingling feeling in the hands and face (usually goes away after 20 minutes)
• Headaches
• Nausea
• Diarrhea
• Allergic Reactions
• Asthma can be made worse
• If you have herpes, this can make it worse.  The herpes virus uses L-Arginine to multiply.
• Most of these seem to be temporary, and should go away after a week or so of use.

Always make sure to check with your doctor before starting to use any supplements, even a multi-vitamin.  This is not a complete list of nitric oxide side effects, but these are the most common.  Take it from me, if anything feels wrong, get to the doctor.  If it turns out to not be from NO2, oh well - better safe than sorry.  I almost died because I didn't go to the doctor when I first started having stomach problems (from my Crohn's) because I was too damn stubborn and macho to go.

I have used other brands of nitric oxide before (and absolutely love it), and have recently heard some great things about Jack3d, by USP Labs.  I just ordered it, so I will let everyone know what I think of this particular brand in a few days.  If it is as good as everyone is telling me, then this is probably the one that I will stick with from now on.  I'll let you know.

CoQ10

I received an e-mail about this stuff a few hours ago, and after doing some research, I've decided that I'm going to try it.  Most of the sales pages that I've seen say that anyone 30 and over should take it to keep their heart healthy and I am 30 years old, so I guess that means me!

CoQ10 is short for Coenzyme Q10.  According to Wikipedia, the name means this:

coenzyme Q, and abbreviated at times to CoQ₁₀ /ˌkoʊ ˌkjuː ˈtɛn/, CoQ, Q10, or Q, is a1,4-benzoquinone, where Q refers to the quinone chemical group, and 10 refers to the number of isoprenyl chemical subunits in its tail.

Uhhh, sure.  If you say so.......

For those of you wondering exactly what coenzymes are, click here.  Chemistry is not my strong suit, so I'll let them explain.

CoQ10 is said to help with high blood pressure, macular degeneration (very common in Crohn's patients), Alzheimer's, Asthma, exercise performance, and a host of other things.  Most of these statements need to be further researched, but the initial trials have been positive for many of these.

I am buying mine from Amazon, as they are one of the most reliable sites on the Internet.  Here's the link in case you want to check it out.

February 1st

Well, its finally February.  Time to start busting my ass.  I've decided that I will use the next month to get into good enough shape that I can really start pushing myself for the 3 months after this (March- May).  I will probably have to have another surgery this summer, so I need to get into the best shape possible to reduce the recovery time.  I DO NOT want to sit on my ass AGAIN for 6 months, so this time I plan on being prepared.  I have to build muscle so that I can move around easier, and I need to lose weight so that my scars don't look so bad this time (I gained a lot of weight before the last surgery, so they look weird right now).

I have been doing a lot of research on this topic, and plan to start including the best of what I find here to help those of you who are also looking to get in to shape.  If there is anything that you would like for me to write about please let me know.  I have been working out and playing sports all of my life so I am already knowledgeable about many aspects of this topic, and can easily find out anything that I don't already know.

January 28th

Well, I haven't worked out in a few days, but I did walk more yesterday than I have since before my last surgery.  Jessi was off yesterday, so after class we went downtown and did a bunch of stuff.  We went to the top of the capitol building, which is the tallest in the country.  You can see for miles, and you get some views of Baton Rouge and the Mississippi River that are gorgeous (well, except for the northern side, which is nothing but oil refineries).

We walked all around Arsenal Park, then walked all the way to Schlitz and Giggles to eat.  We had pizza which of course is not good, but then we had to walk all the way back, so I don't feel quite as bad.

Before we went downtown, we walked all over LSU campus.  Jessi needed some school supplies, so she came with me to class and we walked a whole lot (car to the Union, then to class).  After class we went to see Mike the Tiger, but he wasn't out.  they had to clean his cage, so he was in the building when we got there.

We then had to walk all the way back to the car, and then went downtown.

All together, I think we probably walked 4-5 miles, which I had absolutely no idea I was capable of doing.  My legs hurt so bad today that I can barely walk, though.  My calves are hurting just thinking about it!

January 25th

I decided to change up my workout today.  I want to start playing soccer again once I get in shape, so I decided to do some of the work that we used to do before soccer practice back in the stone ages.  I am not sure what most of the exercises are called, but they wear you out very quickly.

The first is called the Mexican Hat Dance.  You put one foot on top of the ball, and then jump in the air. As you are doing this, you take your foot off of the ball and bring the other on top.  As soon as you touch the ball with the second foot, you switch back.  You wind up jumping up and down switching feet very fast (once you figure out the motion).  This will wear you out quicker than you realize, and the ball is usually rolling around the floor, so you have to chase it while jumping.  This is a very good exercise for building your touch skills on the ball, and of course it is a great aerobic workout.

I call the second exercise the triangle, but I'm not sure what the actual name is.  You kick the ball a little ways out in front of you with one foot, then bring it back with the other foot.  You then kick it laterally back to the first foot, where you proceed to kick it out in front of you again.  When you do this correctly, the ball goes in the shape of a triangle, hence the name.

The third exercise has no name as far as I'm concerned (except maybe "the crazy ass-kicking exercise").  It is very simple, yet very effective.  You spread your legs out a little, and kick the ball back and forth between them.  It sounds simple, but when you go as fast as I do, it kicks your ass.

All three of these exercises are meant to increase your ball control skills, but I am using them to get back into shape right now.  As stated before, I want to start playing soccer again, so of course these exercises will help with that.

I also did 10 push-ups.  It was very hard to do those, so immediately after I dropped my knees to the floor and did 6 more girly push-ups.

It has now been ten minutes since I finished my workout, and my arms and legs are not working properly.  It's amazing that I used to drive home from the gym feeling like this almost everyday!


Update - Dinner consisted of great northern white beans with sausage over rice.  Cornbread would have been really good with this, but the meal was already fattening enough.

Since I've been eating better lately, the grease left after draining the sausage actually made my stomach a little upset.  Its been a very long time since that has happened.  With me it usually only does this when my stomach is no longer used to the grease.  This is a good sign.

January 22nd

Worked out again.  The video requires that you have a workout ball, but I do not have one.  I finally decided to see if a pillow from the couch would work, and it does!  I'm not sure how it compares to having one of the workout balls since I always let Jessi have that, but it worked good considering.  It probably wouldn't work very well for someone in descent shape, but I am disabled (read: very weak) so I can get away with not doing as much at the moment (and it still kicks my ass!).

I haven't really followed any type of diet lately since the term "diet" generally means that it has a beginning and an end.  I have been trying to consume less crap (junk food, sodas, etc), and eat smaller portions at each meal.  This has apparently worked, since I have lost 5 pounds in the last 2-3 weeks.

The biggest problem that I've had lately is coffee.  I drink a lot of coffee, and I have a tendency to include lots of sugar and creamer.  I like plain coffee, but it tastes soooo much better when you add so many calories that it basically turns into a meal!  Regular black coffee is supposedly good for weight loss since it raises your metabolism and only has 4 calories per cup, but I don't know if it's consumption has any negative effects (it most likely does).

January 20th

Well, we just worked out, and now I'm eating cereal!  Wow, I'm on the right track!

Since I am still in a lot of pain, I have been doing an aerobics workout with Jessi.  This is only the second time that I have done it, but she's done one of the workouts almost every night for the last two weeks (there are 15 workouts total).

I think my abs will be sore tomorrow, but hey, no pain no gain.

January 18th

Wow.  The last post was on June 14th of last year.  Around that time I developed fistulas in my abdomen (due to the surgery and a subsequent infection), and that basically killed my workouts.  In fact, there have been some days where I could barely walk.  But I am finally starting to get back to a point where I can do a little bit, and am very tired of not working out.

Jessi has started doing the Bender Ball aerobics workout, and I have been doing a little bit of that with her.  I can't do much because of my stomach, but I'm doing what I can, and trying to build up my strength so that I can start doing some real workouts in the near future.  School has started again, so I am hoping to be able to go to the Rec Center within the next 2 weeks or so.

Our friends are getting married on a cruise, and we are trying our damnedest to get the money together to go.   Jessi wants to look good in a bikini by that time (beginning of October), so this means that I have someone else working out, which will make me much more likely to do it even though I'm hurting.  I think that getting into shape will help me get rid of these stupid fistulas, so this is definitely a good thing.  Even if it doesn't, being in shape will help with so many other things that it will still be worth it.

June 14th

I am sick and tired of sitting in the house!!!!!  I have to wait 8 weeks before I can do any kind of physical activity, and its only been 3 weeks since my surgery.

I'm bored as hell, and want to do something.  Jessi's car is STILL broke down, so she is STILL taking my car to work.  The only thing that I can do is walk around the apartment complex, but the heat index has been around 100 everyday so thats not happening much!

The main thing that is keeping me off of my feet is a pain in my side (literally).  I'm guessing that it is a tendon since the pain is constant.  I had to sleep in my recliner last night because the pain was so bad.  I was tossing and turning and was afraid that Jessi would wake up.

But overall I'm doing good.  everything is healing up nicely, I don't have much pain other than that listed above, and I am able to go places with no problems (well, when I have a car).  I was able to do 4 push ups the other day before the pain started, so thats a plus.  Actually, I might try to do some more now!

June 7th

I am finally starting to heal up.  I can move around very easily and I can actually sleep in bed again (as opposed to my extremely uncomfortable recliner).

I went to my brother's house this weekend and slept on the couch both nights.  I had normal pains on Saturday, but I didn't even have to take any pain medicine on Sunday, and thats after drinking beer the night before and spending the night on a couch that is about 5 inches too short.

The doctor said that I can start lifting weights, etc after 8 weeks, so I currently have 5 1/2 left.  I plan on starting to walk around the apartment complex on Wednesday (after next doctor's appointment).

I am going bat shit insane right now due to the endless hours of sitting on my butt in the house, and so need to figure out how to be allowed to do something other than watch TV.  If I see one more crab pot, I might just kill someone.

And yes, that damn show is on as I type this.  And the remote is across the room.  Damn.