I thought i said that?
Yeah, prefab spice mixes, curry pastes, etc. are a quick and easy way to add punch to otherwise basic meals. We have a ridiculous variety of them in the house. I like Penny’s and our local Middle eastern grocery for those.
@Smapti, I’m sorry you are dealing with this and I hope you are able to overcome. I won’t offer advice on diet except to say that simple and whole is the best and easiest way to go. However, I will offer this cautionary tale:
A close friend’s sister whom I knew nearly as well as my friend drank in secret for decades. She was a private sort of person and no one really tumbled to the extent of her problem. The day arrived when her doctor told her very bluntly that if she couldn’t give up the alcohol 100%, she would be dead soon. She couldn’t and she was. At 53 years of age, she died alone in a shabby place and her body was undiscovered for a couple of weeks. As bad as it gets.
I don’t want this fate for you and you don’t want this fate for you. Employ whatever means you must, but please, I implore you, get off the booze. There is no “safe” amount for someone in your predicament.
My best wishes to you for success.
It feels like milk thistle (silymarin) is a ‘can’t hurt, might help’ proposition:
Wishing you all the best.
My son died 7 years ago from cirhosis. He was only 24.
Hoping you can heal.
One can’t depend on that happening to any significant extent in the setting of cirrhosis, and again what regenerates may have limited function compared to liver regenerating after, say, partial resection.
Thank you for sharing and I am hoping for the best possibly outcome. In sharing there is help and support, so don’t give up.
The stopdrinking reddit is an amazing resource for information and support. There are a lot of people there who know exactly what you are going through and can provide advice.
I wish you the best.
Sorry to hear about your situation. I had a thought on this:
When my kid moved back from Japan in 2022, having lived with their mom for four years, they were pretty heavy. They had constantly eaten tasty homemade food there, along with frozen meals and junk food.
My first order of business was to wean them off of frozen food and get them eating less thrilling, but still tasty, home-cooked food. This was accomplished, and they lost about twenty pounds in six months.
The point I’m trying to make is that it’s OK for food to be boring. If you look at what keto and other diet gurus eat, the vast majority of them just eat the same few healthy things all of the time.
I agree with the other posters on batch cooking. Make a bunch of good, healthy, decent-tasting food, put it in containers in the freezer, and eat as much of it as you want. In my experience, the body gets fat and unhealthy not so much because it wants to overeat a single unhealthy thing, but because it craves a variety of unhealthy things. Making the one thing actually healthy is even better. So yes, eating chicken breast day in and day out will probably help you accomplish your health goals.
Also, alcohol is easy and empty calories, so that is another reason to give that up.
Thanks for the kind words so far. I don’t intend on leaving this plane of existence any time soon, so I’m dedicated to making the changes I need to make to make that happen. On Monday I’m calling the gastroenterologist to find out when I can meet him to go over the test results and find out what kind of treatment plan he wants me on. In the meanwhile, I need to eat through my existing stash of groceries and then start buying to make some healthier meals. I think I’m probably going to start cooking chicken curry and/or stirfry fairly often, since those tend to be very flavorful and spicy without necessarily having much fat or sodium in them. Most of the stuff I make with ground beef I can probably make healthier by switching to the extra-lean sirloin rather than the regular kind, and I can probably start incorporating more salad into my diet pretty easily, though I’ll have to cut back on the dressing.
I’m also going to cut fast food out of my diet (the Del Taco across the street from work has been my “breakfast” of choice for too long now). Someone mentioned a banana/yogurt breakfast. That sounds like a much healthier option.
I have zero interest in trying AA again - I found the meetings I went to in 2016 to be too much like some kind of Quaker church service, and the secular alternatives to it don’t really exist here in Olympia. Like I said in my OP, quitting drinking actually feels like the easy part right now - I’d already cut back to my 2 days off, and with the naltrexone it just winds up feeling like a waste of money that leaves me dehydrated and with a headache the next morning.
Whoever mentioned milk thistle - I’ve already been on that for awhile on my GP’s recommendation. I don’t know if it’s having a positive effect, but it’s probably not hurting anything.
I also advise an oatmeal/flax (or even all flax) hot breakfast option. The fiber is incredible, and the flax has real staying power. This is a representative option, but you can find a lot of variants online.
The weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wygovy have been helpful to some people who are addicted to alcohol. Here’s an article about it:
Perhaps you could talk to your doctor about this.
My fruit and fiber breakfast has been:
frozen berry mix (straw, black, blue, and rasp - because that’s what Publix sells as a mix)
3/4c almond milk
1/4c yogurt
1 scoop protein powder
1/2c raw rolled oatmeal
Sometimes I’ll add a dash of cinnamon.
Blend in magic bullet.
Drink.
Since the berries are frozen, it’s much more of a smoothie than a juice. I used to do 1c milk a and no yogurt, but I decided it was an opportunity to get some probiotics too.
First, I’m sorry to hear about your health problems. I know we don’t always see eye to eye on various topics but I very much value you as a fellow human being. I wish you well and many more years of healthy life.
My limited understanding is that stopping all alcohol should be your first priority. I urge to seek whatever support you can towards this. As a bonus - drop alcohol and you’ll be dropping calories, too, which will help with your goal(s) of improved diet and weight loss.
You didn’t mention what sort of budget you have for food. Another upside of giving up alcohol is that you can re-purpose the money you spent on that towards healthier food choices.
You can incorporate extra-lean beef, of course. You might want to try grass-fed beef. Bison is naturally leaner than beef. So is venison - farmed venison is less gamey than hunted and may be available at a store near you (it’s imported in the US, usually from New Zealand, so not the cheapest but it is good). Venison is so lean, in fact, that you usually have to add some fat to it to make it taste good. And that’s OK, because you don’t want to go fat free - your body actually does need some fats. The key is to eat a healthy amount of them and not an excess.
Try roasted vegetables. Potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots - root vegetables are especially good for this, but any vegetable is good. There is a lot of information on roasting times out there on the internet so, for example, if I’m roasting potatoes slices I toss them with a bit of olive oil, spread them on a baking sheet, roast for 30 minutes around 350-400 degrees, then add onions and peppers (also tossed in a bit of olive oil) for an additional 15-20 minutes. Sometimes I’ll add a dipping condiment, sometimes just a little salt and pepper, maybe garlic powder. Make in advance and you can reheat them in the microwave - won’t be quite as good as fresh from the oven but definitely edible and quick.
While you’re adjusting your diet a once-a-week “splurge” on a fast food meal won’t hurt and might make it easier to adjust since those items won’t be forbidden, just less frequent. Or do it cold turkey. You’ll have a better idea what works for you than I do.
Sometimes I’ll do a pot of beans in a very plain manner, then separate them into individual portions. When I reheat I’ll add spices/flavors for that meal so I don’t feel like I’m eating the same, bland thing all the time. That also works for chicken - roast plain, then when I reheat add something. Maybe lemon-pepper seasoning. Maybe a mix of Italian herbs. Maybe something like soy sauce and ginger.
Meanwhile, incorporate some exercise into your routine. I like walking, not everyone does, but it’s a good exercise. Join a cheap gym. Figure out some at-home exercises you can do. Ride a bike (either outside or a stationary one at a cheap gym). You’ll get better results combing better diet with exercise, even light to moderate exercise, than with either one alone.
That’s awful. I’m sorry.
Just want to add my best wishes to your difficult journey ahead.
Changing anything is hard.
Yeah, this was my neighbor, as well. He was able to enroll in a special experimental program (through UCLA IIRC), and he was the only one in his cohort for whom the treatment helped. Sadly, the effects didn’t last.
Good thoughts to you, @Smapti .
Got to see the gastroenterologist today, and the news isn’t terrible. He confirmed my understanding of the test results, which is that I have compensated cirrhosis, but at a low degree - he mentioned a score, I don’t know what it was called, where 14 or higher equals cirrhosis, and mine is 21, but he said the typical patient presents with a score of 50-60. He also mentioned, to my surprise, that he believes mine WASN’T caused primarily by alcohol, but as a consequence of having fatty liver disease, and for now my treatment is going to be based around weight loss. (Not that I’m going to use that as an excuse to drink- I haven’t had a drop since the biopsy and that’s the longest I’ve been sober since 2016, so I’m gonna stick with that.)
He’s referring me to a dietician, he wants me to ask my GP to prescribe me Ozempic, and I’m going to be getting an endoscopy and ultrasound in a few weeks to make sure there isn’t anything else going on we need to know about. He did also mention there’s a new medication that can reverse liver scarring (!) but that the FDA hasn’t approved it for cirrhosis yet. However, there’s currently a clinical research trial underway in Seattle for that drug as a cirrhosis treatment, so he’s going to refer me to them and see if I can get in on it.
All in all, he thinks that with treatment, weight loss, and keeping sober, there’s no reason my liver shouldn’t be able to keep working for decades to come, which is reassuring - I’m on track to have a couple million dollars in the bank when I retire 20 years from now and I don’t intend on dying before I get to enjoy it. The weight loss is gonna be the hardest part (indeed, I’m posting this from the lobby of a Taco Bell) but I’ve already cut way back on fast food, I’m eating a healthier breakfast, and I’m incorporating more green salad (with homemade balsamic vinaigrette) into my diet, and getting to work on a plan with a professional will certainly help even if I can’t get the Ozempic covered by my insurance.
This is still scary, but I’m feeling more optimistic than I was before this morning. I can do this and I will do this because I have no choice.
Congratulations! I am thrilled for yoy!
~VOW
That’s all really great news.
I wish you luck on this journey. The thing about ‘healthier’ lifestyle choices is that – just like unhealthy lifestyle choices – they tend to cascade and build on each other.
Meaning: once you start moving your body more, it feels good to eat better, then it gets a bit easier to shun alcohol, etc., etc.
Let’s hope it works that way for you!