Wishes for your healing.
Don’t fret, an occassional cheat day can lift your spirits, but homemade tacos et al, are So much better than The Bell.
If banana/yogurt for breakfast sounds appealing, you can branch out into variations of that. My usual weekday breakfast is frozen berries defrosted for 30 seconds in the microwave, topped with plan Greek yogurt, a drizzle of honey, walnuts, and homemade granola. The whole assembly job takes a couple of minutes. You can use any kind of frozen fruit, but berries defrost the fastest (sometimes I mix it up with mango chunks). I make giant batches of homemade granola every couple of weeks (my husband’s dietary restrictions mean he has to avoid most nuts, which makes commercially made granola difficult, plus homemade is much tastier and a lot cheaper). My usual version includes shredded unsweetened coconut, cardamom, and ground cloves. You won’t find that combo in commercial granola!
That all sounds very promising. Best wishes.
I think this paragraph really shows a lot of capacity of introspection … a “best of luck” to you (generic you, whoever thinks they might be on the edge of becoming an alcoholic)
{hugs}
As well as the positive thoughts might be.
Fuck that.
You need to quit drinking. Not just cut back. I was on naltrexone and cut back and never quit. Ask your doctor about Disulfiram (Antabuse). That’s what got me to stop. It makes you violently ill if you drink. I never drank after I started it so I don’t know how it feels.
There is no fucking way in hell your doctor told you just to cut back on alcohol and eat healthier with liver cirrhosis.
The eating healthier part is 1%. Quit fucking drinking is 99%.
So everyone giving diet tips should quit enabling him.
You don’t just magically jump up from fatty liver to cirrhosis.
Those posters who are doctors, tell me I’m wrong.
Ok. I’m a jerk, but with the OPs best interest in mind.
- For women—4 or more drinks on any day or 8 or more per week
- For men—5 or more drinks on any day or 15 or more per week
And if you go above these guidelines you got a problem too.
Been there, done that.
I believe I stated multiple times that I’ve done that. I haven’t had a drink in 24 days as of now.
So quit asking for skinless chicken breast with broccoli recipes. That is not your problem.
You fucking drink too much. Congratulations on making 24 days.
I didn’t ask for chicken recipes. People in this thread have chosen to provide them. What I did ask for is not to be lectured because I know I brought this on myself.
When I first saw the gastroenterologist I told him the truth - that I’d cut back to drinking once a week and was planning on stopping altogether. The topic of alcohol didn’t even come up when I saw him after the biopsy but as of that point I had already stopped altogether.
I don’t know why you’re so angry about this or would accuse me of lying about my health in a thread I started.
Dude, I’m truly impressed.
It’s not anger, it’s love.
Moderating:
You may believe you’re engaging in “tough love,” but it’s still a personal attack in a forum where personal attacks are not allowed. Dial it back. You can make your points without being a jerk. Or if not, then this isn’t the thread for you.
Further posts of this type will result in an official warning.
It sounds like if you can stop your drinking now, the toll on your liver is not yet too severe and may improve.
I can’t give you personal advice on best steps, but since you ask for general advice will suggest the following link. I would strive to eat more fresh whole fruit and vegetables and less ultra processed food. I wish you the best of luck in making these changes.
Ok. I’ll drop it. Just trying to help the guy. We can go back to eat more fruits and vegetables like the above post.
I wish the OP well.
This first article on cirrhosis may be more medically than you want. The second article shows that recent research shows fibrosis can be partially reversed by removing the cause. So there is hope.
Congrats on the progress you’ve made. Keep your eye on the goal, and remember that it’s a life-long change you’re aiming for.
One thing to help lose weight is to not drink your calories. Sweet drinks taste good, but the sweetness doesn’t provide much of a satiated feeling. Try drinking flavored carbonated water, unsweetened ice tea, and unsweetened coffee. Don’t be surprised if at first you don’t necessarily enjoy drinks without sweetness. Keep at it and eventually you’ll enjoy drinks even though they aren’t sweet. Even if you’re a diet soda drinker, wean yourself off of diet soda. The sweetness trains your brain to desire sweetness in the things you consume.
There’s a chance that sparkling water could help you stay sober. Here’s a reddit thread from a recovering alcoholic who posted a picture of all the sparking water he drank:
Reddit: 365 days worth of sparkling water for a recovering alcoholic. I have 1.5 years sober now.
Maybe you can try that and see if it works for you. Maybe it will help both with weight and staying sober.
One way to make healthy foods have more zing is to add spices with some kick. One thing I like to add is chili crisp. If you haven’t tried it, it’s fried chili in oil and can make anything taste great. Even though it’s in oil, you don’t need a lot. It has a lot of concentrated flavor. A little goes a long way.
For at-home meals, get some healthy frozen dinners and a bag of pre-cooked, diced chicken. Since the frozen meals often skimp on the meat, throw some of the diced chicken in when you heat up the dinner so they’re more filling. I like getting the Amy’s meals since they are tasty and good quality, but they are vegetarian. Throwing some chicken in with something like their pad thai makes a delicious meal.
Also get some cans of mixed vegetables. You can make a healthy, delicious, 2-minute meal by heating up a can of mixed vegetables and diced chicken and stirring in some of that chili crisp. The good thing about a recipe like this is that the ingredients will just be hanging around in your pantry/fridge until you decide to make them.
Commit to being more active. Exercise has many healthy benefits aside from weight loss. It helps a lot of your metabolic systems stay healthy, which will help greatly as your liver heals. You don’t need to work out super hard to get the benefits. Regular walking of 20-30 minutes a day can create big changes in your body. You won’t necessarily be burning a ton of calories, but your muscles, blood, organs, etc. will thank you. If you’re a social person, consider joining a group exercise class. They can be “fun” in their own way and can make the time go by quicker when you’re exercising.
Good luck! Sounds like things are going to work out pretty good.
That is the key- without that- nothing will cure. It killed my Mother.
There is no cure.
If you stop drinking and start a good diet- the scars won’t heal but the rest of the liver will improve.
Yes, hopefully.
Just cutting back- well, it can delay the problem. Maybe after cutting back for a while, quitting won’t be so hard. My best wishes for you on that.
And I am not pointing fingers- my Mother, with the best psychiatric and medical help available then, couldn’t stop- even after being admitted into Rehab several times. It is really tough, it isn’t a matter of someone saying “just stop drinking”. It isn’t that easy at all.
Cutting back is a decent first step. Eating right will help.
PS- I am not a real doctor.
I am certainly not a gastroenterologist. But I am a medical doctor, and it seems from the second article that the old thinking that liver scarring is not reversible is false. I can’t say it applies to every case; I am sure it doesn’t. But there seems to be hope for milder cases once the causative factor is removed, and taking positive steps now may pay dividends later. Best of luck. You have our support.
As I mentioned above, I’m waiting to hear back about a clinical trial for a new medication which can apparently reverse liver damage but hasn’t been approved for cirrhosis yet. If they don’t call me in the coming week I’m going to try contacting them myself.