Started 5/31

[skyhunter]

Hi there,

Probably my story is no different from anyone else's who found their way here.

I have yo-yo dieted all my life, tried, low fat, low carb, etc. Had a lap band for 10 years and had to have it removed when it caused GERD that scarred my esophagus shut (13 dilations later, I can eat again). Gained 40 lbs in 6 months after LB removal and only 5-10 of it were legitimate (I was also recovering from a hip replacement so I indulged a bit and also baked daughter's wedding cakes and taste tested. But that was only for three weeks out of 6 months, which is why I own up to 5-10 pounds being legitimate. No one can eat 140,000 extra calories in three weeks!). Doctor shrugs and says, "So get a gastric bypass!". Not a good answer.

Read something about leptin and insulin resistance and started looking for books to and this one had everything I was looking for, so here I am!

59yo, moderately active desk job type. Starting weight 250 (same weight as when I got the lap band).

Lynne

[skyhunter]

Actually, this was my post to a bunch of low-carb friends on Facebook thursday:

OK, so I am here to whine. Since December 10 (removal of lap band and hip replacement) I have gained about 40 pounds. I have not substantially changed my eating habits so I am pretty much mystified, since if you do the math that's 140,000 EXTRA calories. I'm not sure I've eaten 140,000 calories in the last year! I think I ate more WITH the lap band. Still have GERD though, which lap band removal was supposed to fix.

So, my mother the supplement queen suggests raspberry ketones, probiotics and garcinia cambogia. I dutifully take those for a week, gaining another 2 pounds while I do. Then she says maybe I am leptin and insulin resistant. So I research those, but everything I find sets off my bullshit-o-meter except the article from mayo about leptin and rats.

So off I trundle to a new internist with an interest in endocrinology and she basically says leptin is BS, maybe I am having problems with my thyroid dosage or am pre-diabetic so she orders a spectrum of tests for thyroid and also one for blood glucose (AC1?). Anyway, we are still waiting on those results a week later (and another pound up). She grunts politely when I tell her that I have been told by multiple doctors and nutritionists have said I couldn't lose weight with the lap band because I couldn't eat enough and my starvation reflex had become extremely well developed. Obviously a believer in calories=weight. Time to find a new internist. But I digress.

Meanwhile, I am trying to do end runs around the middle so I call my bariatric surgeon and say that I am ready for that gastric sleeve now, just to get the ball moving. I have an appt for the infomercial meeting in June and another with the doctor a few days later - two 300-mile round trips to Flagstaff in one week. Meanwhile, I find a book called "It All Starts with Food" and I was reading about that. So just for kicks, I am going to start following their meal plan in the morning, after I shop tonight for veggies (screw my warfarin that says I can't eat broccoli). Honestly, I'd rather die of a blood clot than live like this. Not that's it's likely, don't punch me. I also have an appointment with an endocrinologist at Mayo in Scottsdale July 5.

So here I am, every joint aching and swollen, back at my pre-lap-band weight and retrieving my fat clothes, contemplating a grilled grass-fed steak for which I will have to sell my daughter's first born (no, she's not pregnant, maybe they'll take a raincheck). But hey, if this way of eating resets all my chemical processes then it's worth 30 days of no grain, dairy, alcohol, sugars in any form, or legumes. I'll try anything!

Other than that, life is good. How are you all today?

Follow-up to this is that Friday (my first day of Whole30) I was diagnosed with diabetes with a reading of 6.7 after A1C test. She wants me to take Metformin. I think I will wait until I have been on WHole30 for the first 30 and then see about taking it. She also said that all my thyroid readings are within statistical norms, and she did do the whole scan including reverse T3 and antibodies. So that's not my weight problem, probably.

[skyhunter]

Day 30 and I made it! I feel better and have less visible inflammation - when I started I had cankles every day, and now I can see tendons and veins (no offense to those whom Mother Nature gave cankles). My hair looks fabulous (I am a silver fox and I love the texture and shine in my hair right now). My joints still hurt but less. Not much weight loss if any, but that's ok - I have decades to untrain including a firmly set starvation reflex, the result of my lap band which was removed 12/10/12. When I started Whole30 I was gaining about a pound a week without eating anything actively bad like junk food or sweets, so I was pretty unhappy. I don't think I have gained during this experience, which must be counted as a win. Oh, and my GERD seems to be gone. Big win!

 

I am taking a staycation this week and have committed to not taking a sleeping pill during the week so that I can see if this readjusting the circadian cycle business works (I was always a night owl and had to take a pill to sleep, and didn't dare NOT do it during the Whole30 because I mess up my cycle for days if I don't sleep). I didn't fall asleep until 3am this morning, but we'll just see how it goes.

 

I am taking an active role in my health now, and will be seeing a new endo this week who specializes in metabolism (I am hypothyroid and diabetic). If she uses conventional wisdom, I will be moving on, because I know from ISWF and other reading that everyone works differently and many doctors treat statistics, not people. I will find the answers I need, but meanwhile, I will help myself by eating palleo/Primal while on the journey.

 

Thanks again to everyone here at Whole30. You have shown an old dog new tricks, and I appreciate the thought and caring that went into this website.

 

Be well and try to be the best person you can be every day! That's the commitment to myself that I am taking out of this.

[skyhunter]

Note to self - your Circadian rhythm is fixed after 60 years. You are a night owl.

 

I haven't taken a sleeping pill all week, earliest I was able to fall asleep was 12 midnight and latest was 5am. Then I sleep 6-8 hours and have trouble sleeping the next night. Ah well, the WOE can't be everything!

 

I will be back to taking half a pill for work starting tomorrow night, until I retire in a year or two, then no more pills.