Creekimp13

-Mayo Clinic's answer: https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/are-you-getting-too-much-protein Cleveland Clinic: https://health.clevelandclinic.org/can-you-eat-too-much-protein/ Take what you like and leave the rest. I just plugged the question into the Google machine and tried to sort out a few of the more respected sources. People are gonna have strong feelings about this one. To each their own. In the end, we all pay our money and take our chances. Do your own evaluation of benefit-vs-risk.

Employed the patience of God. And waited. All you can do.

Bring lounge pants, and don't bother with a robe. Robe won't go on over your IV. Lounge pants WILL cover your butt in the hallways. You're gonna do great. Congrats!

Stop eating three bites and start eating healthy and following your program. Takes time. You didn't gain it all in a few months...takes a while to lose it. You cannot reestablish a healthy metabolism by starving yourself. Nor can you reestablish a healthy metabolism by eating too much of the wrong food. Quit with the extremes. Talk to your Dietician. Make a calorie goal and a protien goal. Get some suggestions for menus. Get off the scale for a full month and eat what is recommended. Exercise. Stop the number obsession and focus on healthy eating. You'll be ok. I lost weight SUPER slow. Stalled for weeks sometimes. But I got there. You will, too. If you're feeling like you're at the end of your rope with the process...it might be time to see the therapist. ****, I STILL need to see the therapist sometimes to stay on track. Breathe. Everyone stalls.

Go see your doctor and have some blood work done. If anything is badly out of whack, it should show up. If not, it's very likely just menopause and you can relax and chock it up to hormones run amuck. I'm in the throws of perimenopause now. I'm about to turn 49 and still regular as a freaking clock. Wish it would hurry up, in all honesty, I'm ready to be done! In the US, the average age for menopause is 51. (that's what my doc says, anywho) My bestie is 49 and it's been 8 months since she's had a period...lucky turd. She has had big issues with night sweats. Drenchers. Her physical was fine, though, nothing wrong......just menopause. It can't hurt to get checked out pronto, because as you know, night sweats can be an indication of something not so good... and I'm not talking just cancer. They can also be caused by certain vitamin deficiencies and other metabolic issues. (B12, D, autoimmune stuff) Best to get on top of it. You'll sleep better when you get to the bottom of it. Best wishes!

^ This:) Best wishes!

That is not, to the best of my knowledge, a routine thing they test for. No way of knowing for sure, though! I know they do test for nicotine, so maybe? If I were you, I'd quit ASAP. Take a big long break. Get through your surgery and recovery before you re-evaluate using it. If you don't quit at least a few weeks before surgery....fess up and tell your team. It's important information that they should have for your safety. Also....there is strong evidence that using cannabis under 25 years of age is less safe, due to possible negative effects while your brain is growing. Google....."smoking pot under 25". Not lecturing, just trying to bring awareness to something many people don't know about. Good luck with your surgery! Stay safe, and let us know how it goes.

Make sure you guys are getting ferritin levels checked, and not just depending on your RBCs and hemoglobin to make sure your iron is ok. Mine were on the edge, but still normal when my doctor ran ferritin levels and my iron was VERY low. This can cause fatigue and a host of other symptoms. And yep, I take my iron like I'm supposed to.....but managed to get iron deficiency without anemia anyway... because I donate blood a lot, still menstruate, and eat a mostly vegan diet. Anyone suffereing low BP, fatigue, lack of stamina....get the full iron panel. Since I've been taking more iron and watching my diet, quit donating so much blood....my stamina is off the chart...terrific energy...and my hair is amazing.

Another vote for journaling food and keeping track of calories instead of the crash diet. I, too, think the crash diets are ineffective. Here's what happens. You've been eating carbs for a while (which isn't a bad thing), so you have a certain amount of glucose stored in your liver with water...which isn't a bad idea...biology built us with these reserves to get us through a crisis/illness/injury. (The problem happens when we continue to add a ton of sugar and calories after we have a nice reserve..carbs are not the problem, too many calories are the problem) When you do your crash diet...you eliminate a lot of carbs and your body starts to use up it's emergency glucose reserves...which also releases the water it's stored in. Net result....you do this "crash diet" and see a sudden 2-4 pound weight loss as your liver shrinks and think you've been magically doing something right....when in fact you've just mostly lost some water and stripped out your emergency glucose reserve. That's why those 2-4 super easy to lose pounds....are also super easy to gain right back. Food journaling and calorie counting is my least favorite thing on Earth. I hate it and resent that I have to do it. But I'm a food addict....so I have to. Feels unfair, I resist it like a cage....but at the end of the day it's honestly the only way forward for me. (and it works. for me, anywho)

Here's what Harvard Medical School says: https://www.health.harvard.edu/nutrition/when-it-comes-to-protein-how-much-is-too-much

My 80 year old immunocompromised mom (with a ton of comorbidities) recovered from a nearly deadly case of pancreatitis during the big spike in January in a hospital that had over 60 active Covid patients. Staff took excellent precautions, visitors were severely limited, and she did just fine. Reputable hospitals do a great job. Best wishes on your surgery!

I'm rooting for you.

My weight came off in a painfully slow...but steady...trickle. You didn't gain it in six months. You gained it over years and years. Be patients. Slow weightloss is healthy and your skin will have more time to reduce...less dramatic bagging.

Letting go of addictions is hard. I'm a food addict. Meaning, I will use food for purposes other than what it is meant for...to the detriment of my quality of life. I medicate myself with it when I'm stressed, bored, sad, want to celebrate, when I'm angry, when i'm facing a huge decision, when i'm excited....there is always a self-justified reason to eat. And eat again. And again. (and have a little snack) And eat again. What does using food this way do to my body? A self injurer told me that my use of food was almost exactly like his use of cutting himself. It gave him relief, but it leaves ugly scars. My stretch marks used to look like a bear used me as a clawing post. Big ugly purple lines. Using food this way deteriorates my health and can cause serious illness that can threaten my life. Someone I loved died young of Covid because they used food like I used to. It could have been me. Sex starts and ends with food, right? A romantic dinner, an aftercare snack. Honey, go get me ice cream. A bath should have a cup of something and a little something sweet to eat with it. Might as well live it up, I deserve this home spa treatment. Woke up in the middle of the night? Better have a litttle snack to settle back down so your stomach doesn't keep you up. Got done doing the shopping...the crowds were awul, I still have to drive home, haul stuff in and put everything away. Who wants to cook? Easier to bring home KFC, and you know what goes great with that? A lemon cake and some Coke and look at the 60% off holiday candy! That's a great deal...lets buy 8 bags for the pantry! Kids will eat it! (they didn't need it either, so I would eat it to spare them) Speaking of holidays, lets make Grandma's favorite holiday treats...it's to remember Grandma! (not feed my addiction shamlessly) We're going on a 100 mile two hour car trip? Lets stop twice for fast food, and bring a box of snacks, too. Going to the movies? Lets stop at the dollar store and pack our pockets with snacks for $5...instead of paying $20! See how smart that is? We're clever! Lets have McDonalds for breakfast, Cracker Barrel for lunch and Chinese for dinner. it's healthy, it has vegetables. I get on the scale and if I've gained..... I go on a shame spiral and eat I get on the scale and if I've lost a pound I think....yippee! I bought myself some room in my diet, Let's eat! Let's be healthy and go apple picking....turns into....let's pick apples for a beautiful artisan homemade pie from the recipe book I found in their gift shop. And while we're at it, lets get cinnamon fried donuts and hot cider. We need to stop on the way home to buy ice cream for the pie. To hell with it, I bet I can eat an entire bowl of Halloween candy before the kids wake up. Make bargains that don't make sense. This homemade fresh bread has chia seeds in it. Clearly it is now healthfood. Four servings of healthfood is fine. When you are addicted, you have this complex pattern of behavior triggered by a million different things. You constantly need to evaluate if you are using food to medicate, cope, escape....or are you using it to build and maintain a healthy body. Am I eating for the right reasons? Am I eating the right foods? In the right amounts? And the worst part? You can't quit food. If you do, that's another deadly disorder. You have to make peace with it, get painfully honest about it, and forgive yourself a lot for your screw ups. You work on breaking the patterns every day. For a long, long time. Maybe forever. You have to wake up the next day and make the choice to get back on the horse and be accountable. If things start to get out of control, you get to the therapist before it gets worse. You don't obsess about your pride, and you don't beat yourself up over your screw up. You just go to therapy and get back on track. And you just keep doing that. If you're lucky, you eventually see all this crap clear enough to get ahead of it most of the time and make better choices. If you work hard, you can beat it. But it's not easy, it's not easy, it's not easy. Fixing your stomach does NOT fix your head. But it makes it just a little easier to get to where your head eventually needs to go. If any of this sounds familiar, I'm rooting for you in your daily fight. I hope you're rooting for me, too. We got this.

Can you explain why you believe this? Please help me to understand the physics involved. Because when I puzzle this one out...I think of packing solids into a balloon with a valve at one end. That valve is a lot more likely to release and let stuff slide through with some liquid lubing things up. Continuing to pack solids in with no lubrication, to me, sounds like a more realistic stretching situation. Not saying this is true or untrue...just saying I really want an explanation that makes sense other than "I heard this and you'll get fat if you don't." I don't follow the rule. I have not regained. My restriction is very much intact. And again...I'm not advising anyone to do what I do. Just reporting my experience.....3+ years out, so far so good.

Thinking about the time and energy it would take to accurately figure out how many calories I'm eating at restaurants at every meal, how to measure my protien, etc... Oye. That seems like much more effort than cooking and eating simple things at home. I genuinely hate tracking every freaking calorie...but it's a necessary evil. I understand not wanting to deal with food any more than you have to...I get that totally. But you DO need to learn to accurately keep track of every calorie and make sure you're getting enough protien...and that's gonna be hard eating out. My advice....Stick to the chain restaurants with published nutritional information. Cut those meals down to reasonable portions. Hit your protien and calorie goals.

Former nicotine addict here, too. Only I wasn't a smoker. I used the gum as a diet aide during my decades of yoyo dieting... and got hooked on the damned gum....which is stunningly bizarre, I know...but can happen. Have not had any nic gum in over four years. Once in a blue moon I crave it like mad, but for the most part the cravings have passed. I won't use it again.

Nothing worse than getting stuck or semi stuck. Been there and done it. My issue is corn on the cob. I can eat a big ole hunk of steak with few issues...but if I eat too much corn on the cob, look out. Not sure how or why it packs up...but it's the one food that I'm a little scared of....and it stinks, because I love it. Next time you're stuck, try this: put your hands on top of your head to open up your chest as much as possible, walk and take long deep breaths. Your diaphragm pulling down will stimulate your stomach peristalsis to move and try to budge what's stuck. The movement of walking and gravity can help it along. If you're only semi stuck and don't have saliva backing up, sips of warm water while you walk around and breathe can help. If your saliva is backing up, just keep breathing. Don't curl up or hold yourself, or bend forward at the waist if you can help it. Get your lungs full of air and keep moving. Not sure where I read this trick, and I've only been stuck/semistuck a handful of times....but it helped a lot and did the trick. I've never vomited. It's always eventually worked loose. Stay calm, walk and breathe.

The shakes sort of *are* a supplement. Are you on soft or pureed food yet? If so, you might be able to do Yasso bars (frozen greek yogurt), pureed/finely blended soup, potatoes, beans, bunch of protieny stuff.....Call your dietician on Monday and get some suggestions...they're great at problem solving.

At 24, you have the advantage of having some spring left in the connective tissue in your skin. You're already gorgeous! You won't have issues:) I had surgery at 46...and I'd been fat for so long, that my memories of me being thin....were me in my 20's. Somehow, I had this weird idea that I'd look like that again. "I want to look like I used to look"...but I was remembering a very young woman, you know? Somewhere in there....20 years or so happened...and it was shocking to notice that. So yes, I do look older. But I think part of that is just I AM older. I do not enjoy the little turkey neck wrinkles under my chin. They annoy me a little. Being almost 50 annoys me in general. LOL. I feel younger! But I LOVE being able to run again:) I LOVE being healthy. I LOVE how I look...a few wrinkles here and there be damned. No regrets. Not even for a microsecond.

So much just depends on how you do with surgery. I very honestly could have comfortably gone home 6 hours after the surgery with no problem. Other people get terribly sick and have very bad pain that lasts days. It's just individual. No way of knowing till you're there...which I know is a pain in the butt when you're trying to plan. Wishing you the best.

This. Overwhelmingly.

Dietary fiber is your friend. I take a bigger dose of iron, too....cause I don't eat a lot of meat and have heavy periods still (cross your fingers that perimenopause turns into total menopause for me soon...cause this whole menstruation thing is getting old) I find that when i'm getting 25g of dietary fiber every day and including fermented foods in my diet (pickles, yogurt, kombucha, tempeh)...my daily poo habit is normal. Also...this is weird, but it works. Eat a few sugar free Haribo gummy bears before you go to bed. Not too many...maybe 3-5 bears. They have maltitol (lycasin)...a sweet tasting sugar-alcohol that has the infamous side effect of giving unsuspecting people looking for a low calorie treat....massive diarrhea....when they eat the whole package. Just a few bears....will get things moving and make you super regular when needed. (least that how it affects me)

Seems to me like an office that services morbidly obese people should have safe chairs for them to sit in. Those chairs really are a joke for significantly heavy people. The poster, I agree, is just bizarre. Makes it feel like a Walmart or something. Seriously icky factor. All this said? If I were a patient there, only one thing would matter to me....if the doctor was excellent, had an excellent reputation and track record, and did an excellent job answering my questions. Those things would be extremely important. The rest? Not so much. Meh...I honestly am not that invested in how anonymous corporate entities decorate office spaces that doctors use. I'm guessing the first time an extremely fat person breaks one of those chairs, falls and gets impaled by a pipe...and gets a hefty settlement.....they'll grow a clue. In your shoes, IF I really liked the doctor, I'd just bring my own chair and not worry about the tacky decorations.

Woot! Well done!