Where To Start???

[GTLinFL]

Hello To All,

I'm new to the forum and in need of direction,insight,help, you name it, I probably need it, lol. I don't even know if I'm posting this in the right place. I had really gotten serious about working out a couple years ago and I thought I was doing well. I went from 160lbs to 185 at my biggest point and had explosive strength and speed. Then comes the bad part... In Sept of 2011 I was diagnosed with Severe Ulcerative Colitis and almost died from it 2 different times. I went from 185 down to 134lbs inside of 5wks. I had Severe internal bleeding and infection in my colon. Well, since then it has been an uphill extreme fight to get mostly stabilized and put any weight back on. My dilemma is this. I WAN'T SO DESPERATELY TO BE BACK WHERE I WAS pre-sickness, and be on my way to where I wanted to be which was in the 190-200lb range or bigger. Its is harder than ever now to get any gains in the gym due to mal-absorbtion of some nutrients. I've been thinking long and hard about getting good workout gear, but am clueless as to where to start or if it will even benefit me. Any insight would be a great help...

[Bouncer]

Are you limited to what you can eat? For example what cant you do compared to a person without your disease. Give me a bit of an idea so i can try and sort of tweak my advice to best fit your situation.

[GTLinFL]

I PM'd you earlier btw, I apologize.
I can't eat red meat, digestion process hurts to much. I can eat beans, dark and light red kidney beans. I eat the heck out of chicken, It seems to be mostly of what I can eat that doesn't hurt. I can take protein shakes like the myo-plex 42g protein type, no more than 2 a day at best. Little to no fiber. Before i got sick i would take in 180-200gr of protein per day, all food based, and then drink 2-3 shakes on top of that. Its just way to hard to digest that much food now...

[Bouncer]

I will get back to this thread in the morning bro. getting a bit late and i dont want to give you bs advice because i am tired. :)

[Scrumhalf]

If you can eat chicken, you pretty much have the food side of the equation covered. How many calories can you handle right now? Have you done a tally to see what your body can handle? Can you eat 2000 calories with 800 calories of protein, 800 calories of carbs and 400 calories of fat? That's a 40/40/20 split with 200g of protein, 200g of carbs and about 45g of fats. BTW, post your age/height/weight/gender.

[GTLinFL]

Thanks for getting back to my ?'s. I respect not wanting to give bs advice. Right now it's all trial and error. I'm sure I could bump the calories. I know I'm not taking in anywhere near that 2000 now. So, no on the tally at this time. I'm 34yr old Male, 5'11" and 165lbs, now, but the weight fluctuates weekly. Thanks again.

[Scrumhalf]

Best advice to you is to not change anything right now. For 1 week, record everything you eat using something like fitday.com. If you eat packaged food, the packaging should have info. If you eat stuff like rice, fitday should have per cup info. Add it all up and be honest. Make sure you include dressing, oil added, etc. See how many calories you take in.

At your age/ht/wt, assuming you are lightly active, you need to be eating about 2400 calories just to maintain. So obviously you need to figure out how many calories you are taking in currently and then make adjustments. Measure everything for 1 week and divide by 7 to get a reasonable average daily intake. After you get this estimate done, we can help you craft an eating and exercise schedule.

[FitnessBrat]

Slow and steady is going to be your best advice. I have digestion and malabsorption issues that don't even compare to what you are dealing with, so I feel for you. You sound excited to get moving, but it is going to be so important for you to go about this very slowly. It gets frustrating, you say screw it, you eat different things, and now you're stuck not knowing what did what. I know, because I do the same thing. :wacko:

You can eat chicken, so I assume you can eat turkey, too. You don't need red meat. :) What about fish?

I know certain vegetables are harder to digest than others, and probably the fiber doesn't help you. Have you learned of any greens that you handle well?

Carbs. Some nightshades cause people big problems. Do you have trouble with sweet potatoes? You haven't mentioned rice, but brown is much harder to digest than white. How about quinoa? It is a smaller "grain". Oats are hit or miss.

You mentioned you can handle certain protein powders. I personally can't handle milk well, but plant proteins are great. Have you tried any of those? They will probably be a lot easier on you.

I would avoid sugars for now, those seems do be a problem for people with digestive issues, as well.

Do you take any probiotics or anything? I know some people swear by them. I personally found the ones I was taking to be making things worse.

[Bouncer]

Scrum and FB pretty much covered it, not much more i can add.

only thing i will say is that i noticed you said "getting some workout gear". i would suggest you stay away from any drug at least until you get your diet figured out and how to eat with your disease and still making gaines.

[Scrumhalf]

I took it to mean he was going to get some new T-shirts and shorts... :D

[GTLinFL]

Yes Scrum, I did get new gym shorts and long sleeve t-shirts. And they didn't work. As for that matter. I bought the beat down fight gear and thats just what I got, LOL!!!

[GTLinFL]

ok, where to start. Once again, thank you all for your input and advice.
Slow and steady, I understand. but the problem with that is I am impatient... Yes unfortunately I do say screw it sometimes and eat whatever. But here is where we differ, I remember real quick what screwed up my system.

Here is the other problem. Where "normal" people take anywhere from 12-24hrs to digest food, my system does it in 6-8hrs. sometimes less depending on the food. So I pretty well know what I ate all the time. And alot of food cause pain. And to be honest with all of you, I'm getting quite sick of eating chicken, turkey and ham. Chicken used to be my favorite food and I always said I could eat it 7 days a wk without a problem. But now that I have to, I hate it!

As far as food I can eat goes...
I've tried fish before and it hurt. Fatty foods kill me, and yes fish ARE fatty, lol.
I can eat Broccolli and light amounts of tomato's and green leafy lettuce. Carrots are ok. Haven't tried sweet potatoes.

The only rice i can handle is white rice as well as white bread.
Quinoa? Lol, never heard of it until, well Dr. Oz a couple wks ago, and now you FB. Oatmeal, I LOVE!!! Oatmeal, I can not eat.

Protein Drinks: The ready made myoplex shakes, haven't tried the mix it yourself kind. I too can only handle milk in small quantities.

Plant Proteins: Overall, gluten does not sit well. I know broccoli is a plant protein but its an exception. Alot of plant proteins would be ok but the problem is the amounts of fiber that come with it.

I don't eat anything with alot of sugar in it, unless its natural sugars like from fruits. Apples, Strawberries, Bananas, you get the idea.

Probiotics: Can't do them at all. They are what contributed to my going into the hospital the 1st time.

Another problem, I now have this huge mental block that I'm having a hard time getting past. Alot of it stems from knowing where i was in the gym before and only being able to do less than half of what I could before, now. And that just makes me feel like an idiot. I try to tell myself it's ok considering everything that my body has been thru. Then there is the self-esteem problem that I now have, that I never had before. I can't stand to look at myself in the mirror, it jsut really pisses me off and is disheartening and it all plays off each other and makes me want to do nothing. I used to LOVE going to the gym. It's all I thought about doing while I was at work and couldn't wait to get off work to go. Now, all these problems, combined with the meds, make me want to do nothing and can't stand to look at myself...

[GTLinFL]

Something else I forgot to mention. Due to the meds I take, it is very hard for me to eat. They're an apetite killer, pain killer and well, a motivation killer for that matter.

[Scrumhalf]

White rice is fine. Quinoa is good. Stop watching Dr. Oz.

I realize you feel like you are a shadow of where you were and that can play on your mind. Stop comparing yourself to where you were before, or to others. The old "you" is someone else. Put on some music, get a notebook to keep track of progress in the gym and measure yourself only against your present self. See if week to week, you can improve either the number or reps or the weight or both. Zone out, don't look at others in the gym. The only person who matters is yourself. What you went through sounds rough, but hang in there. One day at a time.

[FitnessBrat]

ok, where to start. Once again, thank you all for your input and advice.
Slow and steady, I understand. but the problem with that is I am impatient... Yes unfortunately I do say screw it sometimes and eat whatever. But here is where we differ, I remember real quick what screwed up my system.

Here is the other problem. Where "normal" people take anywhere from 12-24hrs to digest food, my system does it in 6-8hrs. sometimes less depending on the food. So I pretty well know what I ate all the time. And alot of food cause pain. And to be honest with all of you, I'm getting quite sick of eating chicken, turkey and ham. Chicken used to be my favorite food and I always said I could eat it 7 days a wk without a problem. But now that I have to, I hate it!

As far as food I can eat goes...
I've tried fish before and it hurt. Fatty foods kill me, and yes fish ARE fatty, lol.
I can eat Broccolli and light amounts of tomato's and green leafy lettuce. Carrots are ok. Haven't tried sweet potatoes.

The only rice i can handle is white rice as well as white bread.
Quinoa? Lol, never heard of it until, well Dr. Oz a couple wks ago, and now you FB. Oatmeal, I LOVE!!! Oatmeal, I can not eat.

Protein Drinks: The ready made myoplex shakes, haven't tried the mix it yourself kind. I too can only handle milk in small quantities.

Plant Proteins: Overall, gluten does not sit well. I know broccoli is a plant protein but its an exception. Alot of plant proteins would be ok but the problem is the amounts of fiber that come with it.

I don't eat anything with alot of sugar in it, unless its natural sugars like from fruits. Apples, Strawberries, Bananas, you get the idea.

Probiotics: Can't do them at all. They are what contributed to my going into the hospital the 1st time.

Another problem, I now have this huge mental block that I'm having a hard time getting past. Alot of it stems from knowing where i was in the gym before and only being able to do less than half of what I could before, now. And that just makes me feel like an idiot. I try to tell myself it's ok considering everything that my body has been thru. Then there is the self-esteem problem that I now have, that I never had before. I can't stand to look at myself in the mirror, it jsut really pisses me off and is disheartening and it all plays off each other and makes me want to do nothing. I used to LOVE going to the gym. It's all I thought about doing while I was at work and couldn't wait to get off work to go. Now, all these problems, combined with the meds, make me want to do nothing and can't stand to look at myself...

I guess I'm confused about what you're asking, based on this post. You say you don't want to be patient and that you already know what you can/can't eat. Although you proceeded to list things you've never tried.

And unfortunately, yes I DO understand things like faster digestion, etc. I am in no way comparing myself to you, but I do share some similarities. If I eat something I shouldn't - I usually know fairly quick.

Plant proteins (the ones I am speaking of) do not contain gluten. I am on a gluten free diet, so I can say this with assurance. They also do not contain a lot of fiber. I'd highly recommend you at least try them before you discount them.

The diet gets old, I get that. But you are going to mentally have to take a new approach to it. You can't say "I'm tired of eating chicken" - you don't have a choice. Your food intake is fuel for your body, probably not so much anything all that "enjoyable" to you. If you want to get back to where you were, you're just going to have to stick to it. There are many ways to jazz up chicken and rice - you will find them once you get serious and start looking/experimenting. :)