Reversing the effects of a lifetime of drinking

[okiedog]

Haven't looked at this thread in a while. I am lucky to be one of those people who have little or no problem maintaining a normal weight my BMI is around 23. For my liver, I take Milk thistle every morning, and it keeps my triglycerides in check. It seems to work for me. I have a blood test about every 3 months, and my liver panel is always in the normal range (as long as I'm taking milk thistle, that is). Here's what I take: https://www.swansonvitamins.com/swanson-premium-milk-thistle-dandelion-yellow-dock-120-caps-SW1707

 

[day_trippr]

Why does one have a liver panel done every three months?

 

[Owly055]

Just an update..... I'm down to 160 lbs (approx, as I'm fasting enough that it's difficult to know what my "stable" weight is) now from a beginning weight of 202. I'm on fasting day 78 out of a total of 109 days since I began my "program". Blood pressure is no longer a concern, as I'm well within a reasonable range for my age (63.5). Yesterday was an eating day, at the end of a 4 day fast, today is a fasting day at the beginning of another 3 or 4 day fast. I'm beginning this fast with a dry fasting day (no liquids for 24 - 30 hours). I battled with a plateau around 170 for a couple of weeks, and just blew through that recently. I'm still well above my ideal BMI weight of 140-150..... but it's finally looking to be within reach.

I anticipate that short fasts will become a permanent part of my lifestyle.... probably 20 hour fasts to 2 day fasts to maintain the weight where I want it. "intermittent fasting".

H.W.

 

[okiedog]

Why does one have a liver panel done every three months?

I have Hemochromatosis.

 

[day_trippr]

Ah, yeah, ok, that would definitely do it.
Hope you're doing as well as possible

 

[okiedog]

Thanks, day trippr! I am doing well, considering. I have a good doctor, and feel quite good for a septuagenarian.

 

[day_trippr]

I grew up in the era where we were bombarded with the need for dietary iron supplements.
Considering what medicine now knows, the contrast is fairly stunning.
If anything everyone should be on uber-low iron diets...

Cheers - and stay well!

 

[Still Brewn]

EVERYTHING in moderation! 3 simple words to live by.

A few years ago I was sitting on my porch having a smoke and my morning coffee. A crusty old lady that rented an apartment down the street came up my side walk to my porch and proceeded to tell me that "those things will kill you" in a matter of fact voice with all the piety of a woman from the temperance movement that would outlaw all sex but that which is necessary for procreation. My simple reply was "I like peace and quiet while I'm having my coffee in the morning and trespassing on other people's property will kill you a lot faster. I plan on enjoying every moment of the short life I am destined to have and if I get lucky I will die befor my lovely wife has to change my diapers or I have no idea who she is, so please don't bother me again." She never walked her dog past my house again.

 

[Still Brewn]

I accident pressed the post button before I made my point, sorry about that.

The point is life is short, enjoy every moment you have with those that you cherish. You never know when life will end, you could be butting in to someone else's business or crossing the street. As long as you are happy with the life you have and those around you I say live it like it is the only day you will ever have. My family has a history of long life (90's) but having Alzheimer's and then nursing homes for years .... I plan on kicking, screaming and dancing with the wife until the day I forget who she is and taking the short bus to the crematorium the next day.

 

[MaxStout]

I'm on the Max Stout diet:

1. I eat the same stuff I always did, just in smaller portions. No more second helpings. Stop after 2 slices of pizza instead of 4, bring home leftovers at restaurants rather than scarfing down their oversized servings, etc.
2. One meal is much smaller than the other two--no more three full meals. Full breakfast? Then light snack for lunch. Or vice-versa.
3. I get a lot more exercise. Not even a gym rat, I just walk a few miles each day, take the stairs intead of the elevator, etc.
4. No more "boredom snacking." Don't even keep chips, cookies, etc., in the house anymore.
5. No more session drinking--two drinks tops at one sitting. Except in special circumstances once in a while.

I've dropped 21 lbs since January and went from a 38" to 36" in waist size. Would like to lose 10 more pounds, then maintain that +/- 5 lbs.

 

[carp]

IF - Intermittent fasting is my main weight control method. Years ago it would have been inconceivable to go without breakfast and then to skip my 10:00 snack of almonds. Now it's now problem to wait until noon to eat.
They key is to be very moderate with the amount of flour and sugar you eat - and beer. This allows you to be 'fat-adapted' which enables your body to burn its own fuel. And you have to be willing to tough it out for a while as your body resets its clock. If you eat at 7:30 am every day, it gets programmed to release a hormone called grehlin that signals hunger at about that time.

 

[okiedog]

Carp, if skipping breakfast works for you, more power to you. To me though, skipping breakfast seems counterproductive. Breakfast provides me the nutrition for my energy for the day, plus protein, choline, B vitamins, and more. Skipping or skimping on dinner is better, for me, anyway. My after dinner activities are fewer and require less energy. Smaller dinners give my digestive system a break. I am less likely to wake up in the middle of the night with acid indigestion or other such problems. I don't do well eating fewer meals, either. BTW, if you continually go longer without eating, your body can learn to store fat to compensate.

 

[NGD]

Carp, if skipping breakfast works for you, more power to you. To me though, skipping breakfast seems counterproductive. Breakfast provides me the nutrition for my energy for the day, plus protein, choline, B vitamins, and more. Skipping or skimping on dinner is better, for me, anyway. My after dinner activities are fewer and require less energy. Smaller dinners give my digestive system a break. I am less likely to wake up in the middle of the night with acid indigestion or other such problems. I don't do well eating fewer meals, either. BTW, if you continually go longer without eating, your body can learn to store fat to compensate.

Technically your not skipping breakfast, but condensing the amount of time you have to eat your daily caloric need/want from say 16hrs to 12hrs or less. Instead of slowing your metabolism down, its designed to have your body use it’s fat stores as a source of fuel until an external source is used. I’ve found it works best if your already fat adapted.
Several friends who have taken to fasting periods have reported more stable blood sugars throughout the day as well.
Obviously the main thing is whatever works well for you.

 

[okiedog]

Agreed. What works for one doesn't necessarily work for all. I was an Oklahoma farm boy. We got up early, fed the chickens and milked the cows. Then we ate a hearty breakfast. We raised or grew most of our own food. Our 3 meals for the day were: breakfast, dinner and supper. Supper was a light, easy to digest meal. That is not your typical American meal arrangement, but is not so uncommon in that region of the country (Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas). I think it's great that people are doing what they can to keep themselves healthy.

 

[Sioux Brew]

Yes I’m here to awake an older thread! I’d love to hear an update as I’ve been following this closely. I started intermittent fasting last week and have been loving how I feel!

 

[BBQB]

Yes I’m here to awake an older thread! I’d love to hear an update as I’ve been following this closely. I started intermittent fasting last week and have been loving how I feel!

What is your schedule?

 

[Owly055]

Just an update. I've logged 111 total fasting days, mostly 3 to 4 day fasts, all water fasts I'm down to my first target, 50 lbs down, with 7 pounds to my ultimate target, which I'm pursuing at a more leisurely pace. I've wrestled my way through several plateaus, and learned quite a few things about myself. I went through one scary spell of vertigo, caused by I don't know what. Lasted over a week, and made functioning difficult. It was not due to dehydration, and I reverted to eating until it passed........ I'd been taking Moringa powder at the time, and attribute it to a reaction to that.......rightly or wrongly........ I stopped using it right away (for arthritis).

Several weeks ago I went on an "intermittent fasting" routine where I skip 3 meals and eat one. I wanted longer fasting periods than the typical one meal a day people do, and I wanted to rotate meals instead of always the same time of day. Until recently my progress seemed to be stalled with that.

The challenge is the fact that my metabolism is down due to the fasting.... as with any sort of caloric reduction. Your body goes into survival mode, and tries to maintain or recover it's reserves. A fundamental survival strategy you have no control of. Since the beginning of time, an organism that is not winning (gaining) is losing.. stasis is not a natural or sustained situation. People who lose weight tend to gain it back fairly quickly, and it not necessarily due to reverting to bad habits, it's as much about your body wanting to return to "normal". That means that my eating habits / caloric intake will have to adjust to where my metabolism is. As a result of fasting, I cannot revert to eating "normally", or what would have been normal to maintain my previous weight. I have had to come to terms with the fact that I simply cannot drink more than one or two beers a week, and consuming any alcohol at home simply does not work. My home brewing days are over unfortunately, as I still love beer, and enjoyed brewing.... amazingly for nearly 50 years, more than that if you count making applejack using a washtub and baseball bat and pillowcase and bread yeast when I was 12 ;-)

This was not and is not simply about weight loss, it's about general health, and longevity, and the changes that I have wrought on my body as a result are all positive, some anticipated, and others not......... I feel better all around as a result, and I feel especially good when I look at the size of my grocery bill ;-)

If I neglected to this link before it is for a Utube video about fasting, mainly dealing with the work of one Russian doctor from the Soviet era, and a clinic that was established along the shores of Lake Baikal as a result. This was adopted in Europe, and especially Germany, and used to treat numerous conditions. It all stemmed from a doctor allowing a psychiatric patient who was not eating to just not eat, instead of force feeding as was usual. The results were so striking that he continued experimenting, including prescribing fasting, and discovered many physical benefits along with the psychiatric benefits. They do closely monitored clinical fasting, typically for stretches of 2-3 weeks taking vital signs, and blood and urine tests. In the US, a chance discovery with mice, fasting, and chemo, led to information escaping "into the wild", with the result that patients who are getting chemotherapy sometimes fast for several days prior, which entirely eliminates the negative effects........ it's all pretty exciting. The Utube is almost an hour long, but worth watching start to finish.

H.W.

 

[rhys333]

At 63, I've more or less quit drinking..... one or two social beers a week........ But I carry the effects of a lifetime of drinking.....though not to anything most folks would call "excess". My blood pressure is in the danger zone, ..... per my own measurement..... I refuse to go to doctors, and I am overweight. At 5'6", I was weighing in at 202 lbs, which is about 22 pounds higher than I was for many years. This is largely due to brewing and drinking beer, but I also love high carb foods.

Two weeks into my self designed program, I'm down to 193.8 stable. I've been intermittent fasting, and consuming virtually no carbs. I'm using something resembling a Keto diet. The fasts have been multi day mostly, though the last one was 24 hours. Tonight after two days of eating "normally", I will go on a fast that I hope to last Friday Night through Wednesday night of next week.

Interestingly, I find fasting mostly easy.... I have little difficulty with hunger, it's more a matter of the habit of eating. It's interesting to note that my main problem is thermal. I'm more sensitive to cold.

The objective here is not specifically weight loss, but fat removal.... belly fat, and liver fat. The liver is a very strong organ that will regenerate far more quickly than other organs in the body, only the lining of the intestines regenerates more rapidly.

These fasts are water fasts, with only vitamins. I break them with a cup of warm bone broth, followed by some kombucha (home brewed), and a kefir (also home brewed) based smoothie......... to regenerate my intestinal flora.

This is an extremely aggressive program......... It's life or death as far as I'm concerned. While I'm in good shape by most standards.... I'm not in good enough shape to satisfy myself. I have walked 2 miles a day for many years..... on my own trail through the woods to the post office. Last summer I took several long hikes in the mountains of Montana ranging from 15 to 20 miles in a day, climbing high in to the mountains, typically about 3000 to 4000 feet of elevation gain. I don't push myself..... but I keep going. I've always been like that. Not the fastest guy, but I'm still going when others have quit.

My longevity matters to me more than it once did, as I increasingly realize how much I want to do yet....

H.W.

You're on the right track with the exercise regimen, though I caution against fasting. It plays hell with your metabolism and can cause more weight gain in the long run as your body's natural response is to assume starvation and reduce metabolism in a bid to conserve energy.

I highly recommend adopting a diet that includes high amounts of beans and lentils. Also, eat breakfast, and choose oatmeal more often than not. It strips cholesterol from your system, regulates digestion, and keeps you feeling full longer while providing slow-burning energy to keep you going. And don't forget fermented foods like sauerkraut! You will not look back.