I thought id write yet another blog today.
This time its about weight loss with CF and the affects and consequences that can happen from losing weight
Being sick these past 12 days and being unable to eat for nearly 10 days is a huge nightmare for someone sufferering from CF.
I have been very ill this year and the past 10 months I have lost a huge chunk of weight. I lost nearly four and a half stone in the space of 4 months. I was 12 stone 4 pounds in october last year (I was a tad too heavy to be honest but nothing to worry about) When I went into hospital in August this year they officially weighed me in at 7 Stone 12 pounds and I had pretty much been that weight for the past 7 months.
Coming out of hospital and realizing the damage it had done and the consequences of that I had a good sit down with myself, told myself off and decided I would change my eatting habits my lack of feedback to sorting my own diabetes out and eat more food (Sensible I might add) and get this weight up.
Well Ive never been a big breakfast person but that was my first priority so I brought several different types of cereal and started to eat ceral every morning and if I got bored I just changed cereal to keep myself interested in eatting it.
This was most likely the biggest change for me food wise and appetite wise and has made the biggest difference to helping me gain weight and I have never been a breakfast person as I dont get an appetite for food until nearing lunch time. I then added more food to what I eat at Lunch and upped my food portions at dinner time.
This wasnt easy but slowly and surely the amount I could consume has now or had increased and I was very happy with the calories I was able to eat.
Now reading that before you think easy its not and took me over a month to change and improve my appetite and getting my body to actually want to eat breakfast in the morning but it had worked.
Before getting this viral infection Im still getting over I had put on a stone in weight and had the best appetite ive had in nearly a year.
Now though im gutted as due to the viral infection ive had over the past 12 days Ive lost that stone pretty much and my appetite I had built up.
Ive got to restart again build it up and prepare my metabolism all over again. Words Cant describe really how hard it is for someone like me to do that. Not because I dont want to but you have to make you body believe that it wants to eat more, to get your stomach expanded to be able to consume more and more often.
Losing that stone in twelve days is months of time wasted.
So now its time to rebuild. That started when I was able to eat my first solid foods again last thursday and will now continue for the future until such time I can get good weight back on.
Im struggling though as i just cannot eat breakfast AGAIN because my body is happy to go without it. I did manage a full english breakfast saturday but it was nearly midday basically lunch time before I wanted it.
Its funny of the body and mind work but unique how with good work it can be munipulated into changing its ways for the good.
Anyway enough rambling I hear you say. Why is weight lose such a bad thing for someone with Cf and diabetes.
Its simple
Every action causes a reaction.
Why because losing weight gives your body nothing to use when your ill. So for instance if your already light on weight and get ill your lose more weight which makes you become more ill (See what I mean about action and re-action).
then when you lose weight It can affect your immune system which in turn means your body is not protected and you become more at risk from picking a bug up getting ill and then losing weight AGAIN.
Losing weight and dropping your immune system then affects your chest so your body wont then try and help you clear the mucus thats already on your lungs which means that builds up more it becomes harder to clear that then makes you ill by getting a chest infection and then you start to lose Weight AGAIN
(Are you starting to see a pattern yet? a re-occurence of actions and reactions)
For me personally when I lose too much weight I have nothing to fuel my body so I have major problems keeping my body temperature up and constant I then get cold and if I dont get warm I get a cold which then gets on my chest gives me a cough I get more tired more ill less able to fend things off and lose weight AGAIN.
So you see if we dont keep at a good weight everything we do has a negative affect and it all comes down to one word WEIGHT. if we dont put it on we get ill and lose it. If we lose it we get more ill and lose more, losing more means we get more ill cant help our bodies at all and lose more weight.
It can be a never ending story and one that unfortunately some people with CF cannot do and some people even ignore and become ill as a consequence lose more and fall too ill for the body to fight anything off at all.
Some are lucky thanks to either determination or normally doctors intervention
But
Some are not so lucky and do not come back from that spiral. (People wont like me saying that but its true)
Im not saying food and weight is our saviour and the only thing we must concentrate on its not of course keeping a clear chest is another obvious area but without it we have no starting point to fight, no barrier to fend things off and more importantly nothing to lose when that time will undoubtly come and we fall ill and our body needs to consume extra to fight with.
One cannot fight against an attack without a weapon to fend them off with
Or some might say
Its like a knife in a gunfight
Or a blunt knife for cutting
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