Dealing with restriction and reflux

OK, so a little recap on this “sudden restriction increase” business.

As I wrote earlier, it started sometime around mid December – def. before 15^th, because that was the date of my first entry here about it. It hasn't changed since then and kept me on the edge all Christmas and New Year.

On Monday night, however I woke up for choking on some light reflux. It scared the hell out of me! I was actually dreaming that I’m drowning, and when that woke me up I WAS (well, not quite as dramatic, but you get my hint). It was scary! And made me spiral into a slight panic and not being able to fall back asleep all night. I know I have an appointment soon with Doc, but I just couldn’t not try to find some answers myself. I had to know what’s going on.

And that’s when the angel of LB made me get in touch with Lap Band Groupie. Her blog is full of advice, and she went through a scary night spew experience herself. As she’s now writing a book about LB much of the original material has been taken off the blog, so I pleaded my case in email. And low and behold: Band Groupie replied very quickly and was full of great ideas and advice. And also very reasonable, which made me stop panicking. I think that alone helped my situation a great deal. (Thank you again!)

Looking into and eliminating all the obvious culprits for increased restriction (TOM, flying, stress, etc.) she suggested that I might have eaten something which made my stomach/lining/pouch swell and/or getting inflamed – which is really a very straightforward cause-effect relationship, but never occurred to me (duhh... blonde moment(s)...). So I went through my food diary starting on 14^th December and  TA-DA: there it was, staring me in the face!

On 12^th  December:

• I had lunch in the Dorchester, and Michelin star chef here or there, I have no idea of the details of the menu they served.
• AND we had our company Christmas dinner in a Persian restaurant – a lots of strange, foreign but VERY tasty food. Although I liked it, there might have included some ingredients I've never tried before.
• ALSO around those days I splashed out on cheese, quite a lot. Now, I know for a fact that if I eat a lot of lovely French cheese (with all the fungi bits) my face puffs up and I start to shred my skin... That did not happen this time, I did not eat THAT much cheese, but the amount I consumed might have caused the swelling in my stomach.
• AND as the Christmas feeding frenzy started right after all these, my stomach never really had a chance to recover as I kept stuffing my face with food I don't normally eat.

So there, thanks a lot MyFitnessPal! I would have never remembered all this without the meticulous daily logging.

And for the reflux, which I’ve never had before: on Monday I’ve tried Banded Wendy’s 24hrs Holiday Detox, which included a lot of lemon juice and other juices (but nothing else) which might have upset my insides by being too acidic (and/or alkali).

For now I concluded the investigation. And learnt a heck of a lot from it.

As for the fix: I’m on liquids for a day or two to help the swelling subside, then start PROPERLY chewing my food. I don’t do that. Still. Slow learner. But trying.

On a different note: one of my colleagues lost 5lbs over the holidays. I believe I’ve found all of them... And that with the crazy restriction... I guess that’s the silver lining.

This morning I started to use my funky new scale – it even tells me how many calories I’m supposed to consume (no way I’m going to eat 2630kcal!). Clever thing, really. AND it comes with a software which is spreadsheet HEAVEN! Can’t wait to use it for a week so I can start doing all the shiny reports. (Geek, I know.) AND it told me the my visceral fat (that’s the fat layer in between your organs, not on the surface) is actually low-ish: it rates you between 1 and 59, normal being between 0-12, and I’m 6. I’ve never been in the normal range regarding my body, ever. AND my right arm is has much more fat% then my left. I’m a leftie, so that makes sense. Both of my legs are roughly at the same level. Gosh, I’m going to have a ball analysing all these magic data!

Now I know my:

• Weight
• Body fat % (full body, right arm, left arm, right leg, left leg, torso)
• Muscle mass (full body, right arm, left arm, right leg, left leg, torso)
• Bone mass
• BMI
• DCI (daily calorie intake)
• Metabolic age (shock horror: 49, people, 49!!!! – there is room for improvement)
• Total body water %
• Visceral fat level

Oh, how I love my gadgets!!!!