What a lovely singing voice you must have.
Gas Bandit's Surgery Recovery Comedy Extravaganza
- Thread starter GasBandit
- Start date
GasBandit
Staff member
I'm having a rough morning. For some reason I'm extremely exhausted, and even drinking protein shake is a little uncomfortable. I considered calling in sick today, but started feeling a little less bad, so here I am. I'm hoping with small amounts of water and peanut butter, I'll make it through the day... but I might have to knock off early.
Have you been getting enough sleep? Are you allowed caffeine? Could you try taking a nap at lunch?
GasBandit
Staff member
Yes. No. Yes.
I think I didn't get enough calories last night, and this morning I'm paying for it.
What'd I have?
About 4 ounces of mixed fruit (Pineapple, peach, pear).
It was good. It was filling. It was about 70 calories and contained no protein whatsoever.
... Welp. Maybe you should keep a food journal for a little while, so you can keep an eye on your macros until you adjust? There's sites like MyFitnessPal that make it easier. That way you won't be waylaid by over/under-shooting.
GasBandit
Staff member
Yeah, I've got myfitnesspal's app on my phone. It's more difficult to use, however, when I'm no longer eating standard serving sizes. Like.... I just had some peanut butter to help me perk up, but I have no idea how much it was. Less than a serving, I think? I'm terrible at estimating ounces and stuff.
You can buy a little scale for that. I have one that measures pretty small portions of food.
I was on the same boat for a long while. I use a cheap 2000gx0.1g digital scale ($8-14 on amazon usually, plus the price of whatever weights you need to calibrate it) that can do grams and ounces (and tare) to check. Now I'm comfortable (and decently accurate) with estimating foods I know, but I still weigh them if I have the time, esp. ingredients when cooking complicated meals.
For ease of use in apps like MFP, you can experiment with weighing a few of your spoonfuls (with the spoon as tare) and averaging them out, then making a custom food item that is "1 spoonful (xy grams) of <brand> PB".
Low blood sugar?
Try to have some fruit for your next meal and see if you feel better. Can you have fruit juice instead of water?
GasBandit
Staff member
I think that is how I got into this mess in the first place.
But yeah, I can have fruit juice, in addition to water.
Healing up after surgery is probably just as metabolism-intensive as healing up after a workout.
You probably just need food and sleep. Try not to do either while behind the wheel.
--Patrick
Replacing one meal with fruit should not completely wipe you out unless you were dramatically under caloried. Because of the water content in fruit I wonder if you could replace one of your water times with fruit if you are eating fruit twice in one day.
I would also recommend asking your doctor/dietician for a specific eating schedule if you find yourself struggling, and also let them know that you are struggling to see if it's normal.
Could you be low on electrolytes or just salt? You've mentioned a multivitamin, but you could still be running low on sodium/potassium/magnesium/etc due to how little food you get. There's the little packets of them you can buy at pharmacies, or something pre-mixed like Powerade Zero.
+1 on talking with your doctors if possible, or going to a walk-in clinic to check your vitals if this continues.
+1 on talking with your doctors if possible, or going to a walk-in clinic to check your vitals if this continues.
GasBandit
Staff member
With all the peanut butter I'm eating, I doubt it's low sodium.
As for the rest, I'm getting 400mg of magnesium a day, but curiously, only 99mg of potassium, now that I look at the label.
Explains some of the cramps I've been experiencing in my legs recently.
Anyway I'm feeling better today. And it's friday! That means breakfast burrito day at work! Eggs! Woo!
Haha yeeeaaaah, there's either a law, an industry regulation, or a standard where 100+mg is supposed to be prescription-only in supplements due to the overdose risk (it's slightly more lethal than table salt by weight when ingested).
I would recommend picking up a tub of either Morton Lite Salt (50/50 table salt/potassium salt) or any brand of K-Salt (potassium salt). I like Morton's because I can't taste the potassium when mixed into food. The average American diet (and mine doubly so due to keto woes) seems pretty potassium-deficient, I don't think I've had a cramp since switching to it, and it's been years.
GasBandit
Staff member
To meet the U.S. RDA for potassium from bananas alone you'd need to eat about 10 a day. Or you could figure out how much potassium is in your current diet, and supplement with salt
Yeah, but see the link. Every population study I've seen shows that nearly everyone in the U.S. is not getting enough.
bolded relevant parts said:
MUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDADA!
GasBandit
Staff member
Ok, now that I'm getting my energy back to some degree, I also note I've switched from losing a pound a day to a pound every 3 or 4 days. DAS IST NICHT AUSGESEICHNET! I mean, it's to be expected I'd put back on some water weight, but this has been the trend for at least a week, and that's too long. Time to switch gears again. In addition to starting to try to exercise again (grumble), and back off the food some and go back to shakes and (ugh) yogurt. With my tiny, confused stomach, hopefully the 500 calorie diet won't take as much willpower to stick to as it used to. I'd like to get back to losing 5ish pounds a week.
Has one of your doctors given you an exercise plan? If not, what do you plan on doing?