Alarming physical symptoms
 

Long post, sorry. I’m 43 days sober today. And overall in 2020 I’ve not drank nearly as much as years prior. My mental health feels good. Anxiety is much decreased. I’m grateful for the life I have. I don’t feel depressed or like I’m missing out. I’m not lonely like I was...that loneliness has shifted to a faith that when the time is right I will be social again.

BUT, I’ve been having really bad physical problems. Usually when I stop drinking I feel better and lose weight, have energy, etc. However, for the past 3 months or so I have been dealing with EXTREME fatigue and some significant weight gain. It is important to note that I have not changed my diet or activity level. In fact I have removed thousands of calories of booze. I am eating slightly less than normal and my activity is essentially the same. I feel like my metabolism has ground to a halt. I feel like my food just sits in my stomach and doesn’t digest. I’ve gained a good 12-15 pounds which is a lot for someone that walks around at 165-170. And my pants fee very tight throughout. I constantly have a headache. I am very tired all day until about 6pm when I finally have some energy.

I went to the doctor and they took blood. Finally got the results back today. I was convinced my thyroid was acting up, but for the most part all
of my blood work looks good. Some slightly high cholesterol (which I plan to address with diet), but everything looks good. Blood pressure is good and resting heart rate has been on a steady decline since quitting drinking and now sits at about 62. I know when I was drinking my heart rate was always up and my Fitbit told me I was basically in a fat burning phase all day. So maybe that’s a part of it, but I always lost weight and felt better when I quit drinking. Right now I feel physically as bad as I’ve ever felt. I’m starting to get some anxiety about it.

Any ideas?

Hi BABM. My thoughts are you are doing amazingly well and I am so pleased your mental health is improving.

As for the physical stuff, you did the right thing going to the Dr.

How long did you drink for? I drank for 20 years, thousands of days. I think it may take your body a while to settle down...I still sleep LOADS and have to rest more than I did when I was drinking, and that's in month seven.

Have you tried eating porridge for breakfast 🤷‍♂️😉

Hey Be, I'm pleased with my mental health too. I'm really accepting life as it comes and it makes my whole life more serene. And don't laugh at me, but I don't even know what porridge is other than Goldilocks liked it.

I have never been a big breakfast eater. I've been eating sugary cereals lately which I plan to stop immediately. Today I drank a protein shake and a peeled cucumber.

How old are you?

BABM, I'm glad that you've talked to your doctor. Did he address your health concerns or have any ideas to offer you as to why you are gaining weight and are so tired? You are still fairly early on in your recovery and it takes time for things to change. It's great that your mental health is good. If you are still concerned about your physical health in a few weeks, it might be an idea to go back to the doctor. But, I hope that things will settle.

Porridge is oatmeal, which has 0 cholesterol and will help maintain a good blood sugar level. :)

Mid 40s.

BABM - did you have the HbA1c blood-test, which measures your average blood glucose (sugar) level over the previous 2–3 months?

sugar has been my fix since the day I quit. It gives me energy and lifts my mood and then I feel tired. It’s only now after 8 months sober that I’m able to back off a bit. I’ve done a little reading on pure maple syrup which actually has some nutrients but it’s expensive. If you crave, eat the sugar. There’s a whole scientist side to it around how alcohol affects glucose in our bodies.

Night time eating, especially junk food, really messes with my energy level too. But that’s not going to stop me tonight! It’s Friday after all.

Might want to try to eat some fruit. Maybe try juicing?

It’s fun, not expensive and you can juice pretty much any fruit or vegetable. Maybe try Korean food or something with some kick to it.

There is a movie on YouTube called fat, sick and nearly dead. Might be worth a watch.

When I’ve quit in the past and went to ice cream it was a bad idea. All that fat and sugar is bad for your liver and the rest of your body too.

Im 46 real soon.

I've had quite a bit of success with the keto diet. Diet, for lack of a better term. I plan living like this indefinitely. When I'm not losing weight I'm gaining weight so I've learned to live with one cheat day or really 2 cheat meals a week.

I generally fast 16 to 18 hours a day and 2 days I fast for 23 (one meal a day). Ive always been on some kind of diet since late teens. This is the lightest I've been. Its so much easier without those drinking binges getting in the way. I almost have abs and look really good with a shirt on.

I use a little caffeine. This can be a little dangerous for us, balancing out HALT while not going overboard on caffeine. I have a pretty good system down for the food and caffeine combo for when I need high performance strength and/orspeed or whatever im doing at a given moment.

I think the fasting is good for giving the body a break from digesting food so it can heal itself in other ways.

There is so much info on keto out there i took it all in and found a way to make it work for me.

I have been really hitting the caffeine hard, so I'm backing off it. What does a typical meal look like to you on keto?

I don't think so. What is the purpose of that? Diabetes? or something similar? I do feel low energy like my glucose is messed up. But again, the onset is pretty sudden and I'm otherwise healthy. Hmm.

Since you had blood tests done recently, would your doctor have mentioned if anything was off in your results? I think he probably would have, but you could check back to be sure.

I did keto for 6 months and it really did sort me out, energy levels were through the roof, impossible to do when drinking too..so that was another weapon in keeping me focused and off the booze. It did get quite restrictive and time consuming so I had to drop it in the end. Nowadays I use huel for breakfast and lunch and eat well in an evening..not quite as transformative as keto but fits my current lifestyle better.
diet is so important for repairing years of abuse and also for mental health

I just got the results and I’ve scoured them. Docs haven’t seen them I’m yet. Everything looks to be within optimal ranges. I have appointments with two docs next week to discuss results and go forward plan.

You mean you do Huel powder/shakes for both meals? Do you mix with water/milk?

I use huel black. 2 scoops With water for breakfast, same for lunch and have a normal meal in the evening. If I get hungry at any point I will just have a one scoop with water as a snack

I was gaining weight after I quit booze as I leaned heavily on peanut m&ms 😂.. so I needed to do something and keto and now huel was where I landed..everyone has different needs so I can’t say it works for everyone and it is a bit dull after a while, but it took the thinking out of eating and helps me Take control

Okay - you're mid 40s and you wrote "BUT, I’ve been having really bad physical problems. Usually when I stop drinking I feel better and lose weight, have energy, etc. However, for the past 3 months or so I have been dealing with EXTREME fatigue and some significant weight gain. It is important to note that I have not changed my diet or activity level. In fact I have removed thousands of calories of booze. I am eating slightly less than normal and my activity is essentially the same. I feel like my metabolism has ground to a halt. I feel like my food just sits in my stomach and doesn’t digest. I’ve gained a good 12-15 pounds which is a lot for someone that walks around at 165-170. And my pants fee very tight throughout. I constantly have a headache. I am very tired all day until about 6pm when I finally have some energy."

I'm 50 and once I quit drinking this time - my body said "Check out what I can do" and it fell to pot. I looked in the mirror and said WTF?!?!?! This past June, I started exercising and walking about 10 miles a week and I'm religious about both. That's a lot of movement compared to all the leaning over I did to reach for my drink. So far, I haven't lost one single solitary pound. And I shot up from 107lbs to 120. I'm 5'5". The only difference I've noticed as a result of the exercise is stronger legs. No complaints, but I'm not about to buy a new wardrobe just because my body has taken on a mind of it's own.

In addition, my sleep is whacked out, my dreams are taking me on roller coaster rides, my mood is wonky, and my appetite is either ravenous or non-existent. What I'm getting at, because your results look nice and healthy, you could just be GETTING O L D.

:)

I found that I didn't bounce back as fast or as well at the end of my drinking days as I did in the beginning, or even the middle years.
I hope you'll see improvement soon BABM. :)

D