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That Hernia.

N

NeverMore

New member
Bad news: I have a Hernia.:(
Good news: It might heal if I lose weight.:)
More bad news: if I do almost any sort of exercise to lose weight It'll get worse .:|
Even more bad news: Running is the only exercise available to me, and only in small doses. I hate running.:x

I could get surgery to have it help in the repair of it, but the heavier I am, the more likely that it'll reoccur. So... I'm essentially stuck to very light working out and calorie counting. This also essentially rules out my want to become a member of law enforcement. Now I'll have to go my secondary profession in the judiciary branch. Yay for dream crushing health problems!=( At least being a judge pays better... but now I gotta be a lawyer and kiss ass til I am a judge. *psycho*

Any tips you fit people of Alt Tab Me and Arx can give me so that I can get to a healthier weight and allow my hernia to heal would just be fabulous. Essentially just Dieting practices. Exercise is almost out of the question... (I'm going to miss you weight lifting ::'( )

~Oh and the reason I have to avoid strenuous exercise is because if some of my intestines push through the Hernia and get cut off from blood, I'll need immediate surgery involving my intestines being pushed back inside of me(if lucky) or being cut and stitched back together. *dead* ~



Emoticons to lessen my pain.*octo3**tantrum*

Edit: Even strenuous poops increase my chances of serious issues. I was asked if I'd be willing to take stool softeners but I figured I don't have a strenuous time on the toilet generally.

EDIT EDIT: I have an Inguinal Hernia
 
I know you're asking for dieting practices, but have you considered practicing yoga? While there are certainly exercises that you should avoid considering your condition, I'm pretty sure there are quite a few exercises that will help strengthen your abdominal muscles to a point where it can reduce the symptoms of your hernia significantly. Try to find a yoga practitioner who knows what she/he's doing - yoga along with a proper diet would be a very good mix to tackle the root of your problem, possibly (re)opening the door to other exercises that are currently out of the question.
 
Jia said:
I know you're asking for dieting practices, but have you considered practicing yoga? While there are certainly exercises that you should avoid considering your condition, I'm pretty sure there are quite a few exercises that will help strengthen your abdominal muscles to a point where it can reduce the symptoms of your hernia significantly. Try to find a yoga practitioner who knows what she/he's doing - yoga along with a proper diet would be a very good mix to tackle the root of your problem, possibly (re)opening the door to other exercises that are currently out of the question.
Click to expand...

Yoga would aggravate the condition. By working the muscles in that area they actually spread further apart (as they tighten and release)allowing more room for my intestines to slip out. Asked doctor about that while I was in the office actually.

Edit: Essentially It's like having to do very little physical activity and get skinny at the same time.
 
Good news is my friend has a very bad hernia that got fixed with a carbon fiber (I think) patch after it healed the first time. It essentially is a patch that holds the torn pieces together. He had the exact same problem as you. So there is a long term fix for that side of that.

As for diet. I got on the paleo diet, sometimes called primal. I went from 235 lbs to 191 before I got lazy and gained most of it back. No exercise at all only diet. I could have lost more too if I stuck with it.

Paleo is basically eating natural non processed foods. Animal and plant matter. Cutting out carbs, especially grain based carbs. You don't have to count calories at all and eat till you are full whenever you want as long as you eat the right foods.

It is based on the idea that we are genetically evolved to eat plant and animal matter that hasn't been processed by modern methods. Grains came on the scene in the last few thousand years when we have been evolving for a few million and our bodies are just not built to eat them in large doses.

The carb issue comes down to the fact that carbs deliver their energy payload into the system faster than we can utilize and the excess is then stored as fat. Foods that are low in carbs are processed and delivers the energy to our system in a relative trickle compared to high carb foods and we utilize the energy intake at close to the same speed as we get it from digestion so none or very little of it is turned to fat stores.

All I had to remember is to take in less than 100 grams of carbs per day and I was losing about a pound per week on average. I felt a million times better too. The 100 carb limit allowed me to have stuff that was off limits if I did it in small doses. Just read the nutrition info on the side of the box and it will tell you how many grams of carbs is in it.

The other thing I did that worked for me was to have a cheat day 1 day each week. I could eat anything I wanted and however much I wanted. This kept me sane during the week cause I knew I could last just a few more days to eat that cheesecake or pasta or pizza. Also this shocked my body each week into not getting used to the diet and plateauing with the weight loss.

Mark's Daily Apple is a great website for all your questions and stuff. Its got recipes and lots of science.
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/

If you read I also suggest these books
Primal Blueprint
http://www.amazon.com/The-Primal-Bl...d=1351774648&sr=8-1&keywords=primal+blueprint

Why We Get Fat
http://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Get-Fa...qid=1351774699&sr=1-1&keywords=why+we+get+fat

4 Hour Body
http://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Body-U...F8&qid=1351774717&sr=1-1&keywords=4+hour+body
 
Just found a great jumping on point for marksdailyapple.com

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-blueprint-101/#axzz2AyWewbo7

gives you all the basics from the book, and more. It also links a majority of his articles that he puts together on the science principals behind things like why eat this or not that, how things like stress or sunlight effect you, and how to make primal meals. All backed and notated with actual science not just someone saying it worked for them.
 
Too bad, I was pretty sure that yoga could offer some exercises that might even give your condition some relief.

As to your diet, if you don't mind a radical change, here's the advice that I can give you:
Avoid processed food.
Go back to the roots: each vegetables and fruit, don't buy anything that's not in its "raw" form. As a rule of thumb: If it's something that's being advertised in commercials, don't buy it.

If you can, avoid dairy products (we're not calfs, we don't need cows' milk!). Eat muesli with soy milk for breakfast (the type without added sugar!), get used to rice dishes (there's a reason why people in Asia are rarely overweight), eat poultry and fish for meat, and avoid anything fried like it's the plague.

Drink water. In fact, drink nothing but water. No soda, no juices (they're not as healthy as we're made to believe), no coffee, no alcohol (if possible). Tea is fine, depending on what tea it is (iced tea sold in bottles is a no-go!). Basically, water is all that your body needs, everything added is "pollution".

No sugar. Unless you're eating fruit, you don't need anything sweet. If you need a sugar substitute, try to get your hands on xylitol or stevia. (Interesting fact: Xylitol is just as sweet as sugar, but it actually protects your teeth from tooth decay. Sounds paradox, doesn't it? It's the sweetener that's in the chewing gum you chew for oral hygiene purposes. Makes you wonder how many trips to the dentist you could have avoided if the candy industry actually used a sweetener that puts dentists out of their jobs!)

I know all this sounds horrible at first, but I promise you that - if you manage to keep up this diet for a few weeks - you won't even miss the stuff that you were eating before.
Your body will change, as will your well-being, and at some point you'll actually feel what's good for you and what isn't. You just need to learn to listen to your body, it'll tell you what's good for it.

Edit: Oops, I wrote and posted this before I saw Tig's replies!
 
Swimming is fantastic cardio that gives resistance without the impact you get from running. Even doing normal exercises in the water increases the effectiveness due to the resistance and the bouyancy helps support and cushion your body more. Most YMCA's have water aerobic programs that you could look into.
 
Jia said:
-snip-
No sugar. Unless you're eating fruit, you don't need anything sweet. If you need a sugar substitute, try to get your hands on xylitol or stevia.
-snip-
Click to expand...
Be careful with any of the artificial sweeteners that end in "ol." They have a tendency to cause intestinal distress (if you know what I mean <_<). Stevia tastes a little different, but it might be the better choice.
 
Exactly what Tig said. Paleo is awesome. I highly recommend it.

Zevrix said:
Be careful with any of the artificial sweeteners that end in "ol." They have a tendency to cause intestinal distress (if you know what I mean <_<). Stevia tastes a little different, but it might be the better choice.
Click to expand...

There's a thing called Truvia that doesn't taste as weird as Stevia if you really can't get over the taste. Also there's a natural sweetener called Lo-Han that you can check out. I prefer the Truvia tho ^_^
 
I had surgery for a congenital umbilical hernia six months ago. The surgeon bolted a mesh screen to my ribs to hold my insides together. If possible, get laproscopic surgery, wherein they use a camera instead of cutting you all the way open. It incapacitated me pretty well for a few weeks, but I got out of it relatively quickly with only three small scars.
 
Agave also.

Nutrition has actually been one of my passions in life. Specifically nutrition's physiological effect on chronic or terminal diseases/illnesses (such as cancer or the auto-immune umbrella).

Paleo is a great start.

Avoid "fad" diets. (Atkins, Southbeach, etc. I could probably write essays on how terrible they all are for the body)

The ideal physiological diet for the human body is a raw vegan diet. Unfortunately, it's damn hard, and frankly not appealing without thorough knowledge of the lifestyle. Passionate as I am about nutrition, I couldn't keep up the raw foodist lifestyle for more than a month and a half. But the general rule of thumb for the body...

Organic > Conventional
Always buy organic. Though some foods are substantially worse in their "conventional" form (such as berries).

Whole foods > Processed
Read labels. You'd be surprised how often "High Fructose Corn Syrup" appears. Like in bread. Or Jam. Or Peanut Butter.

Raw food > Vegan > Paleo

Raw foodism, in a nutshell, is not eating anything that has ever been cooked over 115 degrees Fahrenheit. When balanced, it's uber healthy, and has been thoroughly documented to reverse severe cases of certain illnesses, such has Type 2 Diabetes and cancer, even in it's later stages. Balanced here means you simply eat a variety, and don't solely gorge only sweet fruits or only sweet vegetables. Some Raw Foodists like following what they call "The Rainbow Diet", which has some scientific support behind it. Balancing in "The Rainbow Diet" amounts to eating a variety of foods of naturally different colors. (Because, strange/cool enough, colors in the pigment of the food reflect the type of vitamin/mineral/essential nutrient that the plant is full of. So a wide range of colors consumed means a wide range of nutrients consumed.)

Vegan is simple. If it's an animal product, in any way/shape/form, do not consume it. Period.

There are an unimaginable number of diseases/chronic illnesses that are linked with 95%-99.9% statistical accuracy to the consumption of even small amounts of "animal product", regardless of it being meat or dairy in question.

(Though a number of other diseases are additionally linked only to meat, or only to dairy)

Paleo is also simple. Like Tig said, it's eating anything that isn't processed. You will absolutely lose weight if this is the route you go. Your body won't gain the same physiological benefits of going Vegan or Raw Foodist, but you'll absolutely lose weight.

One last note:

I'm not a fan of the sort of attention "carbs" have gotten in general. Carbohydrates come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and casting a blanket of thought over them all isn't accurate. Carbohydrates that aren't naturally occurring (sugar, refined flour) will absolutely be worse for the body than those that are (as in those found in fruits). The un-natural kind will spike your glucose, and convert to fat much quicker.

In a nutshell, carbs aren't something you have to pay attention to if you're eating a whole foods diet.

TL;DR

Y U NO READ POST??

Raw Foodism > Vegan > Paleo
Organic > Conventional
Whole Foods > Processed

And if you go Organic, Whole Foods, and Vegan, you'll shed weight like butter.

BONUS: Vegan is also high fiber, naturally. Your bowels (and hernia) will thank you.
 
I did way oversimplify the whole carb issue. There are good carbs out there. hell even broccoli has carbs in it. The factor you really want to keep an eye on is the glucose uptake and how each food effects that.

I personally believe that animal products, meats and fats, are good for you. We are an omnivorous species. All these suggestions in this thread are good starting points and you should def look into the ones that appeal to you. After all a diet that fits you is much better than one that works well but you will not stick to.
 
Tig!

Absolutely, a diet that someone enjoys is always better. :)

In re-reading my post I'm hoping you didn't think I was responding adversely to your post. The carb thing is just something I hear a lot. I'm vegan myself, and it's right up there with "Where do you get your protein?" and "Oh I can't do that I need iron in my diet."

Paleo is an awesome diet. Much healthier than most of the ones out there. :)
 
In Australia there are several companies that deliver nutritionally balanced, calorie controlled ready-meals to your door. If there's something like that in the US, then that might be a good way to lose weight. I do 6-8h of martial arts each week and I still struggle not to gain weight. Trouble is I can't afford the aforementioned service above :p
 
Thanks for all of the ideas. I actually read through all of them, and the paleo one sounds interesting. I think the hardest part of any diet is not being lazy. Laziness is why I always grab a burrito instead of making a sandwich xD. I'll take a look into all of these though. Except for the Vegan and raw food ones xD I may not like steak/beef/assorted cow meat, but I do enjoy meat like chicken, pork and fish. Fish is relatively expensive though.

I'll definitely be sticking to water.. most of the time.... Which is pretty much what I've done for the last few years so that's not a big change. I was also under the impression that a small amount of wine was a good thing.

I'll be working on all this and trying to take it easy.

EDIT: Also what I have is an Inguinal Hernia
 
MoDSec said:
Thanks for all of the ideas. I actually read through all of them, and the paleo one sounds interesting. I think the hardest part of any diet is not being lazy. Laziness is why I always grab a burrito instead of making a sandwich xD. I'll take a look into all of these though. Except for the Vegan and raw food ones xD I may not like steak/beef/assorted cow meat, but I do enjoy meat like chicken, pork and fish. Fish is relatively expensive though.

I'll definitely be sticking to water.. most of the time.... Which is pretty much what I've done for the last few years so that's not a big change. I was also under the impression that a small amount of wine was a good thing.

I'll be working on all this and trying to take it easy.

EDIT: Also what I have is an Inguinal Hernia
Click to expand...
I'm mad at myself for clicking that link. Ouch. I hope you feel better, and can get it sorted out. My dad just went through hernia surgery and he's all good now but there's some recovery time involved. If you're going on a paleo or whatever diet, lemme know, I'll be a diet buddy.. I've just started eating better, so I'm kicking off a healthy eating initiative. I have enough winter hibernation blubber as it is.


I recommend Lose It (http://www.loseit.com/). After putting in your initial stats, you simply plug in what you eat, and it let's you know how you're doing. It subtracts calories based off of exercise too, with lots of activities listed. They have web and smartphone interfaces, so it's super-easy and free. Yes, it's a basic calorie tracker, but it works. I lost a lot of weight using this. Unfortunately, I gained it all back recently due to work stress causing me to have a "fuck it all, eat ALL the things" attitude, but I'm fixing that now.. Wow, I feel like a salesman for the damn thing, but alas, I won't make any money if you use it (unless you send me some, which would be totally cool).
 
Dash said:
Tig!

Absolutely, a diet that someone enjoys is always better. :)

In re-reading my post I'm hoping you didn't think I was responding adversely to your post. The carb thing is just something I hear a lot. I'm vegan myself, and it's right up there with "Where do you get your protein?" and "Oh I can't do that I need iron in my diet."

Paleo is an awesome diet. Much healthier than most of the ones out there. :)
Click to expand...
Dash, I didn't think you were attacking me or my post. I do know vegan is a viable alternative an you can get everything you need from it, but I think it unnecessary to limit oneself that much from a purely health related point of view. If your reasons for going vegan are emotional or political at all (not killing animals) then I get it. I just believe we were built to have animal product in our diet.

My original post was very limited in its scope cause I didn't want to post a book. The M.D.A. links I gave can explain it so much better than I can. He also has lots of vegetarian/vegan related stuff. None of it tears down the vegetarian/vegan ideas because they are different from paleo.

The thing I love about the M.D.A site is that he finds the hard science that is based on good solid science like double blind tests and long term studies. If the science isn't there he says so and only posts on stuff he can prove or disprove, not what he or others believe without the science. In the times the science isn't there he makes it clear that this is so and says why he thinks the science will lean one way or the other.

On another track, I just remembered a website that will help anyone wanting to lose weight immensely.
http://Dailyburn.com

The site lets you input many many aspects of your health, from weight, to food you eat, to workouts, to daily activity. The free version only tracks up to 3 things at a time, but I was using it to track weight and body fat that I got from my digital bathroom scale every morning. Just being able to see my ups and downs kept me honest and on track.

Its free for the basic usage, I highly recommend it.
 
ThatOneGuy said:
On another track, I just remembered a website that will help anyone wanting to lose weight immensely.
http://Dailyburn.com

The site lets you input many many aspects of your health, from weight, to food you eat, to workouts, to daily activity. The free version only tracks up to 3 things at a time, but I was using it to track weight and body fat that I got from my digital bathroom scale every morning. Just being able to see my ups and downs kept me honest and on track.

Its free for the basic usage, I highly recommend it.
Click to expand...
Yeah, dailyburn is great too. Overall, I think that anything that makes it easy to track what you're eating and what activities you're doing helps immensely. You tend to start eating a little better once you sheepishly log your second Baconator for the week. Of course, none of these tools work unless you're completely honest with yourself and log everything.

It gets a lot easier over time, since you start eating healthier non-processed foods as a side effect of this, or at least I did. It's also kind of fun, to me, to see that weight line-chart angling down over the course of time. But that's just the gamer in me. :)
 
I'm going to go do more reading on MDA's website. I only had time to read three articles last night (One about dairy, and the two parter in defense of meat).

Interestingly enough, we have virtually the same viewpoint about dairy. :)

But I was really disappointed in the articles written in defense of meat. Remember that scene in "Thank You For Smoking" where Aaron Eckhart's character talks about winning an argument with his son? He goes on a long rant about how terrible vanilla ice cream is, and leaves it at that.

Son: "But you didn't prove that chocolate was better than vanilla. You just proved vanilla was bad."
Aaron: "Exactly."

It felt like he did that. Just disprove a bunch of the absurd mythos behind why vegan-ism is "better" (intestinal tract length, etc), while not putting forth any evidence that meat is a part of an ideal diet.

Either way, I've not yet found a good paleo diet resource (haven't really looked), and he seems an incredibly well educated author. I look forward to culling through the information.

Thank you for the reference Tig! :)

OH, and MoD. Be a bit careful with fish. It's generally recommended not to have more than a couple of meals of it a week because of heavy metal (mercury) content.

Good luck! :)
 
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