The Downside of Super Quick Weight Loss

This is just my own personal theory, but I think our bodies KNOW what size we're supposed to be, and if we try to trick them, or shock them, into a new size, without giving it time to really adjust - it will fight back like crazy! That's why you see people who lose 20 pounds in two weeks, then it comes right back! Their body was like, whaaaaa?

During my recovery from the tonsillectomy, I dropped 15 pounds in that first week. It felt GREAT. I felt great. I was in my closet trying on old clothes, fantasizing about how I would go back to work and everyone would be all over me, asking for my secret, lol. I didn't feel hunger or fatigue, I guess due to the IV and meds that were in my system. I even developed a plan to kepe the momentum going. When I was able to eat again, I started eating properly, strictly low carb, lots of water. I even ordered a bunch of Atkins shakes from Netrition since my throat was still pretty sore. I walked at least 2 miles every day, sometimes twice a day.

The scale dipped for a moment, but then slowly, it started inching back up. No matter what I did, each day, the scale showed a slight increase. I was so frustrated, but I wasn't about to do anything drastic. At this point, the only thing I could do was NOT eat. And I love food too much to even attempt that!

So today, two and a half weeks later, I've settled at about an eight pound loss. Not bad, considering I was sick and recovering and taking liquid Vicodin most of the time. I'm disappointed, sure, because I really wanted that 15 pound loss! But when I look at it logically, that's about 4 pounds a week - and that ain't bad!

What does this tell me? My body knew that it wasn't right to drop 15 pounds like that. Even though I was already in a low carb consistent weight loss mode, there was no fooling the boss! However, I'm happy that it quickly settled back into my original program and still rewarded me with a loss. It was just mind boggling to workout so hard, eat well, and then get up and see a pound gain!

Basically, don't let it control your life - its going to happen the way it should. Just stay consistent, stay motivated, keep your eyes on the prize, and all of the other cliches, lol.

low carb diet

The fat that doesn't end, it just goes on and on my friend!

Belly fat. What an ugly phrase. Those two words shouldn't even be allowed next to each other. It's almost a double negative - the word belly itself evokes images of St. Nick and hints at something huge and full.

According to Andrew Bicknell, this is the hardest area to trim down, despite diets and exercise, most people have the toughest time getting their stomach and abs area to be flat, tight and toned. Here, he presents 7 tried and true ways to get rid of this stubborn fat and achieve the perfect stomach - some of them might surprise you!

Getting rid of stomach fat can often be one of the hardest things to do. Diets, exercise, no matter what is done it stubbornly refuses to go away. Stomach fat can be hard to lose because it is the primary storage area for adipose (fat) tissue and is one of the last places that the body will give up its fat stores.

This means of course that losing stomach fat is not something that can happen quickly. More of a long term approach is needed; and no, long term does not mean years. By using the body's own internal engine, its metabolism, we can burn off that excess stomach fat over a period of time and if our metabolism stays at a higher rate we can keep the fat off.

Here are seven ways you can increase your metabolism and finally get rid of that stomach fat.

1. Get more sleep - 8 hours is the minimum for everyone. Research done into the effects of sleep show that people who get less then 8 hours of sleep have slower metabolisms then those who get a good nights rest. People who do not get enough rest also tend to eat more throughout the day to try and keep their energy levels up.

2. Exercise in the evening - This doesn't have to a full blown workout, just something to get the heart going and the blood flowing. The reason for this is that as the day wears on our metabolic rate declines. This means that we are no longer burning calories as quickly as we were in the morning.

3. Get moving - Anytime you can sneak in any form of physical activity like taking the stairs instead of the elevator you will use extra calories to fuel your activity.

4. Protein is good - Protein can help to stabilize how much insulin in the blood stream. Insulin levels that are to high or low can seriously affect your metabolism.

5. Eat more often - By eating 5 or 6 smaller meals throughout the day you will keep a steady supply of energy flowing through your body all day long. A constant flow of calories keeps your metabolism rolling. Skipping meals will actually cause a metabolism slow down.

6. Eat healthy - Those 5 or six meals should consist of nutrient rich, high fiber, high protein foods. A healthy diet gives your body everything it needs to run at its optimum level.

7. Resistance training - Lifting weights builds lean muscle mass which in turn requires lots of extra calories just to maintain. This is where resting metabolism is higher, burning extra calories in the process.The key to getting rid of stomach fat is increasing your metabolism for a total body fat wasting effect.

Use these 7 tips to get the firm trim stomach you always wanted.

Good luck - and let me know if any of these tips work for you!

low carb diet

Changing my focus

I've been trying to decide what to talk about after I've completely healed from my tonsillectomy nightmare. I keep changing the focus of this blog, but I really like the name and it can mean so many things. I participate in a lot of weight loss/nutrition forums and that seems to be something that everybody loves to discuss, no matter what end of the spectrum you are on or what you believe in. So I think I might start to talk about weight issues, diets, nutrition, health talk - that kind of thing.

I'm a woman of a certain age, and that's certainly a top concern for me these days. Should be interesting. I hope its enjoyable and informative.

low carb diet

I'm feeling much better now

Nearly two weeks later and I'm almost back to normal. Throat is still sore a bit but I'm almost eating normally. I'm still a bit hesitant when I swallow, and I havne't been able to guzzle liquids like I want to. It's summer, and there's nothing better than taking a big bottle of ice water to the head! But alas, I can only swallow, pause, swallow, pause. That sucks.

I return to work next week so I hope the soreness is gone completely by then. I did lose 15 pounds, but I think they're creeping back up on me now that I'm able to eat again. Figures. You can't lose weight that fast and keep it off, even if I tried, its just not normal. My body was in shock and now its like, ooooh, okay, you were just kidding around!!!

I've been researching what life is going to be like without my uvula and it appears there will be some adjustments necessary. The uvula keeps your throat moist, so I can look forward to various episodes of dry, raspy throat irritation which can lead to minor illnesses like strep throat and infection (at least that's what I read). Did I mention already that apparently if you have no uvula, you will not be able to drink out of a water fountain because it will run out of your nose???? How horrible! I'm also reading that this type of surgery could cause scar tissue and another surgery might be necessary to remove it. I really hope that's not the case because I'm not down for another surgery.

I've been advised to call a malpractice attorney just for a consultation because I was not aware that I was going to have a uvulaectomy and my doctor should not have done this without discussing it with me first. I'm not a big lawsuit filer (lol) so I don't know, but I do feel....violated. Like, I wish he had talked to me first, I can't even explain the feeling of going under anesthesia with one understanding, then waking up and finding out that something else took place and decisions were made while you were asleep. Decisions about your body - and things removed from your body. I could see if my uvula was diseased, but just because it was swollen???? Maybe it was swollen because my tonsils were swollen?

I need to think on this more.

Anyone else nervous about this upcoming operation, here's a great site I found that even has videos of the surgery - can you stand it??? I never watched the videos because I'm too squeamish, but they might help someone else. I dont' even want to see it now, I'm just glad its over!

http://www.entusa.com/tonsillectomy.htm

Uvulaectomy vs. Tonsillectomy

Today I'm having a bit of annoying irritation at the top of my mouth, and I realize its all coming from where the doc removed my uvula. (Did I mention that already?) There's virtually no pain with my tonsillar areas, but the top where I have the stitch is really painful and everything irritates it. I've had to go back to a soft diet, whereas I was ready to try things like eggs and toast and step it up a bit.

In case I didn't mention it already, once the doc started the surgery, he "decided" to just take out my uvula too! No, we hadn't discussed it beforehand, and I didn't even give my consent, neither did my husband who was waiting in the family room. But for reasons unknown, the doctor thought it needed to also come out. It wasn't swollen, and it wasn't bothering me in any way. Prior to starting the surgery, the doc stopped to see me but he didn't even look in my mouth, he just talked to me about my prescriptions. Seems like at that time, he could have looked at my tonsils and then saw if there was a problem with my uvula. So I don't know when or why he decided to take it out.

At any rate, he left me with just one stitch, supposedly dissolvable but I can feel it and it really bothers me. And everything I eat with a little bit of spice in it, burns. I tried Diet Coke and it burned. Beefaroni burned. Mashed potatoes with gravy burned (but not plain mashed potatoes, however, I lost my appetite for the white mush).

I feel nothing about the tonsils anymore, but the uvulaectomy is causing me problems. A Google search found a lot of people that had both procedures at the same time, experienced much more pain and discomfort and required longer recoveries due to the uvulaectomy than the tonsillectomy.

So now I've got to slow down my rush to recovery and go back to eating soft foods and liquids. I've ordered protein shakes, and I finally got my vaporizer, so I'm going to take it easy for the next few days. The mucus has cut down significantly, and for that I'm grateful! That was horrible, used to wake me up choking!

I've got to talk to someone about why my doctor just up and decided to cut out stuff without my consent....

adult tonsillectomy

Recovering

I'm back! This is what, day 2 or 3, depending on how you count. The surgery was Tuesday morning, this is Thursday, and I'm finally able to stay awake for a few hours at a time.

Let me start at the beginning - I was trying to assembly my list of products to help everything go better. I could not find the hypercal tincture! I stopped at the pharmacy on my way to surgery and asked the pharmacist about it, she'd never even heard of it. She even looked in the book and then online and couldn't find it. I told her that every reference I found for it online was in the UK, so she was really surprised about it. But she did recommend that I try some Viscous Lidocaine which is a pain numbing liquid that dentists use for major mouth surgeries. So I had to wait and ask my doctor for a prescription - he gave me the strangest look when I asked him! Then he says, did someone tell you to ask for that? I'm like, why? What's the problem? He gave me the prescription but goodness, why wouldn't he automatically be prescribing me anything that would help ease the pain? I don't get that. I was reading where someone else said their doctor warned them about all of the pain, then when they went back and told the doctor they couldn't stand it, he THEN gives them Viscous Lidocaine - why don't they just give it to you upfront?

Anyway, my concern was that I have all of this stuff for pain relief, but nothing that actually promotes HEALING. The nurse said that just swallowing water would help with healing, but I feel like I need something else, aloe vera gel, vitamin E, something.

The day of the surgery, I was really nervous. I wasn't scared at all when I went in for my gallbladder surgery, but for some reason, this surgery bothered me so much. The whole idea of someone working inside of my throat, was just unnerving. Then the nurses kept coming in to look at my tonsils, saying that I had the largest adult tonsils they had ever seen! They kept calling other people to come in and look at them, just grabbing random folks walking by, to come look in my mouth. The janitor, the family of the patient next door, lol. So basically, I really needed to get the tonsils out, despite trying to talk myself out of it. My throat was nearly completely closed up, and apparently I was in danger of a heart attack or some other issues.

It went quickly though, one minute they were talking to me, the next minute I was in recovery signaling for more pain medication because the pain was pretty bad. I had to ask for two more blasts of the good stuff until it was bearable, then they let me sleep for a couple of hours. I could have just stayed there all day, sleeping, but the nurse made me open my eyes so they could discharge me. I was loopy from the anesthesia, and a little nauseous, but the painkiller was working pretty effectively.

Luckily, my doctor did give me a script for liquid Vicodin, which I was prepared to fight for, because he had said he was giving me Tylenol with Codeine. I was sick for a while at home, I think just getting the anesthesia and blood out of my stomach, but that passed after the first night.

All I've done is sleep. Take meds. Sip water. More sleep. The pain is only really bad when the meds wear off so I've tried to take before the last dose wears off. But its nothing I can't deal with. I'm still not hungry, just the ice water and occasional popsicles are sustaining me. I weighed myself and I lost 10 pounds so that must be water. I feel a little more tired today than anything. I'm not so sure I'm going to need more than two weeks off work, and if I had to judge on how I feel today, I might be able to go back Monday, but I may as well take the full two weeks.

I hear the 4th through 8th days can be difficult because of the areas scabbing over and then the scabs come off, apparently that produces some amount of bleeding. So I don't want to dismiss this so soon, but I'm so glad that right now my experience hasn't been anywhere near what I read from others.

What I am concerned about though is that my surgeon went ahead and took my uvula out! I didn't ask him to, I didn't know he was going to, this wasn't even discussed, so why did he do it? He told my husband that it was swollen and that it would decrease my snoring by taking it out. But don't you need that???? I always thought you needed it to help with swallowing, now I'm afraid that when I go back to eating, the food might just slip right down my throat. It already feels funy when I drink water, like there's nothing back there to help guide it down my throat. It's kind of scary. I'll have to look more into this and see what the effects are at not having an uvula.

adult tonsillectomy

A Tonsillectomy at 40???

I've bounced around many different ideas for this blog, simply because I didn't want to let go of the name - I have a fondness for that drivethruonly title! It was supposed to be about signs, but it really takes too much effort to drive around taking pics of signs. I'm so focused when I'm driving that I get annoyed at having to document things. It's enough to just look at it and laugh.

Then I thought I'd talk about food - food online, the gourmet stuff we actually order and wait to be delivered because its just THAT good. I may still do that. But right now, I want to focus on something else - my tonsillectomy.

I'm a 40 year old woman having a tonsillectomy tomorrow, and I'm abso-tively terrified. I've done my research - probably over researched - and found a few really interesting links to message boards where they were discussing the horrors of this procedure on adults. This thread in particular http://www.healthboards.com/boards/showthread.php?t=119682&highlight=tonsillectomy+recovery+for+adults has been incredible in keeping me both informed and up all night shaking in fear. But it looks like it got so long that it was closed and the last post was from April of this year.

There's probably not much left to answer that hasn't been covered in there already, but I thought I'd document a bit about my own surgery in case there are others looking for information. What I'm trying to do is collect all of my remedies ahead of time, whereas most people go through the surgery, then start looking for help while they're in the throes of agony. So I'm trying to collect a list of things I will need immediately after surgery so I can keep the pain at bay.

Based on what I've read, this is what I think I'll need:

Nasal spray - one that alleviates the swelling that's expected from the trauma to my tonsils, since they're all connected back there. Apparently, it gets swollen pretty bad and makes you even more miserable

Hypercal tincture - this is an antiseptic/pain relieving mouth rinse made out of calendula and hypericum that's supposed to be really, really effective at numbing the pain. Problem is, I can't find it anywhere. All of the links I found point to sites in the UK, but the posts I read about it suggested that it could be found at health food stores, however, none around me have it. If anyone has upcoming surgery and has the time available, I'd say ORDER it online from the UK sites and just get it delivered. I didn't have that kind of time so I'm going to see if I can find a substitute mouth gargle. Don't know what that will be as of right now though....

Chloraseptic spray - I do have some of this already. Get extra strength if you can, its always been pretty good at numbing sore throat pain and I imagine it will feel good to spray down my tonsils - rather, the site of my former tonsils. Then again, it might burn like hell at first....however, I'm willing to be the guinea pig on this.

Penicillin or other antibiotic - make sure you get an antibiotic because apparently there's a high chance of infection after surgery. Your doctor should give you one, but just in case you don't, be sure to ask for one.

Something stronger than Tylenol! They're giving me Tylenol with codeine, but Tylenol does nothing for me whatsoever. So I'm asking for liquid Vicodin, and if they turn that down, I'm asking for something else like Percocet or whatever else.

Vaporizer - I'm told that the night air and especially air conditioning, wreaks havoc on your throat after the surgery, so I'm going to get a vaporizer to help me sleep.

Oticaine - for the ear pain from the intense muscle spasms after the surgery. If I can't get this, I'll just do sweet oil and aloe vera gel, which are both soothing.

Liquid vitamins - I already have some because I stopped being able to swallow pills some months ago.

Heating pad - it was suggested that warm heat compresses in the areas of the ears and throat will help the pain, as well as a hot shower.

Vibrating massager - this is my own idea that I'm going to try - I have one of those small robot looking massagers, the kind that look like little spaceships. I'm going to hold it to my ear when the pain starts, hopefully the vibrations will help, we'll see.

Some other suggestions from the board were:

Try to start medicating BEFORE the previous painkiller wears off. For instance, after coming home from surgery, you will have plenty of the painkiller in your body already, and that will last approximately 24 - 48 hours before real pain kicks in. Try to take something else around the time you feel the edge coming on.

Since swallowing will be extremely painful, spray first with Chloraseptic, wait, then take the liquid painkiller, wait until the numbness is there, then eat and/or take whatever pills you need, such as the antibiotic.

What I found interesting is that the American posts all indicated that they were given a diet of liquids and soft foods only, but the European posts mostly all said that they were told to eat regular foods as soon as comfortably possible - and they believe it helped their recovery to be much faster. They ate toast, oatmeal, pretzels, scrambled eggs, things like that (nothing rough like peanuts or fried foods) and the thought is that these foods helped regularly scrape the affected areas so the scabs didn't form as thick, helping to lessen the amount of bleeding and soreness when the scabs come off.

Constantly sip ice water, the coldness will help soothe the throat and keep it hydrated.

When the bleeding starts, gargle with ice water to stop the bleeding.

Several times a day, gargle with salt water (not sure if this should be warm or cold, I guess whatever you can stand) to promote healing.

Try to stay with your head elevated as much as possible for drainage. Sleep in an upright (or mostly upright) position, if you can stand it.

That's all I can think of for now, I'll add to it as I remember. The closer I get to the time, the more nervous I am. I really wish there was another way but I want to believe that my doctor would have suggested an alternative if it existed.

Pray for me.

adult tonsillectomy