Another body transformation thread

June 19th I went to the emergency room because of extreme back pain and inability to urinate. The next day I had 2 different procedures done and they could not locate the abscess they knew had to be there. My colorectal surgeon checked the rectum/anus under sedation, and later that night a urologist checked my bladder and prostate (also under sedation). The following morning a CT scan was ordered and it revealed a massive abscess in the left side of my pelvis. This was promptly drained and I was sent to the ICU. They took blood cultures which revealed I was septic and I was given a cocktail of antibiotics since my blood pressure was dangerously low. After 7 days I was able to go home, although I had a PICC line in to receive daily antibiotics along with my oral antibiotics. Also I had a drain coming out of my hip/buttock. Yesterday I saw my colorectal and she ordered another CT scan. Today I got the results and it has completely healed up. She removed both the drain and PICC today in the office and I am to remain on oral antibiotics for 4 more weeks.

What does this have to do with diet/fitness? I'm planning on posting a few pictures I took today of how I look, and in a month post updated pictures. I hope that by showing how much change can occur in 1 month people will be encouraged and have confidence to make changes for the better in their lives. At the end I'll give an overview on what my diet was generally like, what physical activity I chose to do, and anything else I find germane to healing/gaining.

My personal goals will be to continuously improve my health while gaining as much lean body mass as possible. Obviously along with the muscular increase I will aim for great gains in strength as well.

I am a 23 year old male who is 6'3 and 145 lbs. Besides the antibiotics I am also taking lialda.

Sorry you'll have to click on the links to see pictures. These were taken 7/9/2013

http://i.imgur.com/SeoJLZr.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/mJrOPGr.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/BSj1QCq.jpg

What a story of hell. Right now I'm 130lbs but not as tall as you are. I'm desperate to gain body weight.

Hi Kel, I'm looking forward to seeing your progress. Are you going to primarily be lifting weights? Or are you not able to lift much right now because of the abscess?

My surgeon said I can do whatever I feel up to physically. This is my first day home so I am going to be experimenting this week to find what I can and cannot do.

Pulls from the floor are in, any standing movement should be fine as well except squats. My hip mobility is poor right now and I am not sure how much the stretch during the squat will aggravate the drain wound. Will see how I handle bodyweight squats and go from there.

Anything that involves me bracing against a bench is out, the drain site is right where I normally support myself for say the bench press. Maybe I can add those in a few weeks.

I'm walking in the morning post BM and pre breakfast for 10-20 minutes outside. My conditioning level is piss poor and this is the easiest thing I can do without burning a lot of calories.

May I ask what that bag is? It looks very bloody. Also how long do you need to keep the pic line in? Wouldn't it be challenging to work out with those? I really hope you gain weight because at your height you are so skinny.

All the very best Kel.I'm sure you will be an inspiration to lots of people on the forum.You sound like you know what you're doing.I used to do three aerobics classes a week and felt great.That was pre arthritis & IBD & old age haha,but I'm very interested in how you do, as I'm sure are others.Keep Well.

nogutsnoglory said:

May I ask what that bag is? It looks very bloody. Also how long do you need to keep the pic line in? Wouldn't it be challenging to work out with those? I really hope you gain weight because at your height you are so skinny.

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The bag was the drain coming out of the abscess. Called a JP drain. Both the drain and the PICC are out now, I edited my first post to clarify everything when I added the pictures.

Cat-a-Tonic said:

Hi Kel, I'm looking forward to seeing your progress. Are you going to primarily be lifting weights? Or are you not able to lift much right now because of the abscess?

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I did some experimentation today before I braved the heat to get some groceries (103 F). Squats are out, at least for a week or two. Breaking parallel causes quite a stretch on the wound and I don't feel like pushing that issue right now. I can do lunges (weighted or body weight) so I can get some leg work in. I can also do some pulls out of the rack or off the floor to take care of my hamstrings. Bench press is a no go, but I can do push ups, dips, and overhead presses. In addition to chins/pull ups. And of course any pull that isn't seated I should be able to do.

Today was my first day back at the gym. I did a few pull downs to warm up, then started to do some stretching/warm up with the bar. I started doing deadlifts and worked up to a set of 5, which was shockingly easy. I finished up with a few sets of heavy pull downs. Total time in the gym was 30 minutes including warm up. I'm encouraged by this and hope my workouts this week all follow suit

Deadlifts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJ-a0uZUjI8

In the future I'll try to get a view of the plates on the bar in the video.

I admire your determination. How do you find the energy? You said the other day you could barely walk past your driveway and got the paper. I get so weak and dizzy just going downstairs I don't know how I'd actually do anything meaningful.

NGNG, do you know the cause of your dizziness? I get dizzy fairly often due to low blood pressure (my normal is usually around 90/60). When I work out, I think that it must raise my blood pressure to a more normal reading, as I almost never get dizzy when working out. Even on a day when I'm having a lot of bad dizzy spells, I can go to the gym and will feel much better.

And as for willpower, I find I have an endless supply. I need to fight for my health and that's that. I feel like every day I'm fighting a battle inside my body, and every day that I go to the gym is a battle that I've won. It's a no-brainer for me, it's become habit to work out and I feel like something is missing when I'm not able to exercise. It's as important to my treatment plan as medication and diet are. (Actually it's probably more important than diet, since I often cheat and eat bad foods, but I try to never cheat on my exercise plan.) Even if exercise doesn't directly combat the IBD, it helps me in so many other ways - it lowers my stress and eases my depression, it helps me sleep better, it's helped a lot with my arthritis, it's made me stronger physically and emotionally. I know now that I can push past mental barriers and instead of saying "I can't" now I say "one more rep!" or "I can keep going!"

Cat unfortunately I don't know the cause of my dizziness or severe fatigue. It's one of the things driving me crazy with the doctors because they could care less they just a regular blood test and don't look into it deeper. I have been begging for answers but very few doctors take the time to look into things. They all just offer to prescribe drugs like Nuvigil to increase wakefulness.

Accidentally put the wrong weight on the bar today and was a bit surprised when it wasn't as easy as I expected. Still very doable though, I got 3 sets just like I planned. After that I did a fair bit of push ups and chin ups, then did a couple of sets of dips to see how they felt (not good lol). Workout lasted over half an hour mostly because the gym was quite crowded and I spent a good deal waiting around. In the future I'll probably just leave to keep my workouts short.

Press
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPvT9S-Nwok

Kel. Sorry to hear about your recent hospital visit. But its good to hear that your going to be making this thread to show people that there is hope. It just takes a little extra effort and mind power kinda like that new Gatorade commercial "ONE MORE!" (one more day of working out, one more day of eating healthy, one more set of workouts, one more rep)

im interested to see how things turn out, ill be keeping an eye on this thread.

I myself just picked up a

http://www.walmart.com/ip/5280822?w...5=pla&wl6=34188939070&veh=sem#Product+Reviews

And im going to get all the other goodies, and EZ bar, and some pads for rest the weights on for dead lifts.

When I saw it was only 169.00 I had to get it... No brainer. It even comes with a percher curl pad and grab bar included.

You can move it out the way to do dumbell work, and then use the rack in the back for squats (and it even has the safety catches). So Im pretty happy. It should be arriving anytime in the next week. So maybe ill make a thread like yours and post up pics and all.

Only difference is, (Sorry for the minor thread jack) Im still fully flared, And they found out that my Humira hasn't been working because its not saturating my blood enough, and my body has built up anti-bodies to it. so Im head up to Ceader Siani Today at like to talk about being switched to remicade.

So my thread will be a bit more about working out while your stilll flared and on all your medications.

wow I just re-read that at there are a bunch of grammatical errors. -- Sorry, Thats what I get for being up all night... I took (2) 10mg Ambien, and 2mg of xanex and I still cant sleep.

This sucks. But hey! At least im up in time for McDonald's Breakfast menu. Gotta hurry though, they stop serving at 11am... So quick.. hurry up and tie your shoes. Loop Swoop and Pull buddy.


(A dancing banana will go to the first person that can name that reference)

Big daddy reference?

Had an easy time with deadlifts today did a set of 5 with 155 as planned then did a triple with 185 for the hell of it. All very easy. Hoping to start squats next week.

Here is my old arm
http://i.imgur.com/mJrOPGr.jpg

Here is my new arm (the red/purple dot is where the picc was)
http://i.imgur.com/TsghcCO.jpg

:dance:lol Kel you got it.:dance:

Im curious, can you post up your meal plan and workout regiment? I was just going to say Fu*K Paleo and go right back to my diet I was on before I got sick when I was lifting. - which is funny cus I wasn't gaining much size, now im figuring it was due to the crohns and not absorbing nutrients... so I dunno how im going to put on mass when im flared.

When you're in a flare it's really difficult to gain weight. Especially if you are having a lot of diarrhea and losing blood, I think that eating more calories is probably not the best thing for your digestion. I've tried to bulk through flares and it generally ends poorly.

My training routine and diet are changing quite a bit day to day. I am trying to ease into paleo by adding a fruit and veggie to every meal, and cutting back on all boxed foods as much as possible. That said I find it impossible to follow the paleo diet strictly and gain weight, so I add caloric rich carbs when I can, example 1-2 slices of cake with a half gallon of milk after my workout. I also ate a salad of greens that night after my cake (lol paleo). Donuts are also really good for this. Anything that is very calorie dense that doesn't fill you up helps weight gain tremendously. I don't have a clue how many calories I'm eating per day but I'd wager it's north of 3k and south of 4k. Since I stopped taking Norco 10's about a week ago my average number of BM per day has increased quite a bit, I'll have to keep this in mind and watch my fiber intake more now. Also will probably need to get more calories to continue weight gain.

My workouts are based around 1 core lift that I focus on and then assistance work as I see fit. The big lifts right now are deadlift, overhead press, and trap/hex bar deadlift (substitute for squats). Next week I hope to add squats. It will be a while before I can bench though.

Here is my journal so far:

7/11
Deadlift 135x5
Pulldowns 100x3x8

7/13
Press 65x3x5
Push ups 5x5
T bar row 50x2x8 (I don't count the bar weight)

7/14
Trap bar deadlift 90x5x5 (90 lbs of plates, idk what the weight of the bar is)
Pull downs 100x5x8
Lunges (across the gym on one leg and back on the other one time)

7/15
Press 75x3x5
Push ups 5x5
Chin ups 4x5
Dips 1x5

7/17
Deadlift 155x5 + 185x3
Pushdowns 80x3x15
Pulldowns 80x3x15

Quick update

Tore a callous on my palm today while doing some cleans or snatches. Not really sure when it happened but it's a first for me. I wrapped some masking tape around my hand and tried to salvage the workout (somewhat successfully).

On a brighter note, I weighed 160 yesterday so I'm pleased with my gains so far. I also am starting LDN next week so I'll be on lialda+naltrexone for crohns. I'll keep a journal of how I do on it, might make a different thread though.

Today was deadlift day...always gets me excited to pull I did 175 as planned for a set of 5, then loaded 205. I was shooting for 1-2 reps but ended up doing another set of 5. I wanted to stop but the weight just didn't feel very heavy. After that I did a little arm work and ended with a bunch of push ups.

Very productive workout, although I'll have to be careful not to overdue it too much. I might need a few days until my back forgives me haha.

nogutsnoglory said:

I admire your determination. How do you find the energy? You said the other day you could barely walk past your driveway and got the paper. I get so weak and dizzy just going downstairs I don't know how I'd actually do anything meaningful.

Click to expand...

How's your blood pressure? If too low, you get dizzy! Also anti anxiety drugs can make you get dizzy spells.

I slipped in some water on the kitchen floor last night and broke my collarbone. Unfortunately this little project is going to the back burner for now.

Holly shit bro. I hope you recover quickly, that really sucks. Maybe you can still do abs and legs to keep the momentum going? I was planning on fallowing your thread as inspiration. Yesterday was my first day lifting, back, bis and forearms. Im so damn sore from the deadlifts this morning.

Hope you get well soon man. Sorry to hear :/

This isn't exactly how I wanted to conclude this thread but my doctor told me I should expect to be out of the use of my arm for at least 1 month.

Regardless I made good progress in the short period I had in July and I feel it was effort well spent. On the 9th of July I was 145 lbs. I went to the gym for the first day on the 11th. Today I weigh 165 lbs. You will notice that is about 1 lb of mass per day. Unfortunately I find it difficult to take a picture and I cannot take my shirt off so you will just have to believe me when I say it is not a bunch of fat or water weight that I put on. I still look very lean of course because of my height, but the change in my body is obvious.

Along with my weight gain I worked up to decent weights on my main lifts:

Squat 155 x 3
Deadlift 205 x 5
Overhead press 95 x 3
Clean 135 x 1

Also I worked up to doing 3 sets of 5 dips with my body weight, and 10 sets of 5 push ups with my feet elevated (makes it harder).

Kel, I'm so sorry to hear about your collarbone! That's a tough bone to break, they don't always heal so easily. I hope yours heals well and quickly so that you can get back to the gym.

Other than the break, the gains you've made sound very encouraging. Any plans to re-start this experiment once you've healed up? And like Derek asked, I'm also wondering if there are any plans to work on your legs/abs in the meantime?

Oh crap! Sorry to hear about your collarbone. Hopefully you can find something to maintain some of the gain you've worked so hard for while your out healing.

No, I'll probably just rest completely for at least a week or 2. This wasn't really an experiment so much as a demonstration - 'look at what I did! You can do it too!' I've gained large amounts of weight before after flares or surgeries but I just had the idea to share my approach this time.

Hi kel,

I felt pain just looking at your pics. Not sure what you're going for weight wise, but my husband is 6'2", weighs 165, which as far as I'm concerned, is pretty much perfect. He's lean, but far from skinny. I think a lot of it's just his genetics, because he's pretty well built whether he works out or not, while I have to exercise like a demon, just to maintain.

You mentioned that you're doing paleo, and adding veggies and fruit? I hope you're consuming (lots of) meat as well? Although it is possible for vegetarians to follow a paleo diet, I would think it would be difficult to bulk up that way.

Best of luck!

Yes I am eating piles of dead animal. For the first time in my life I'd say I actually look top heavy. Much more so than I did when I was 200 lbs, mostly because I was doing lots of squats and had thicker legs and torso.