Beginning in the second week of September (starting Monday the 9th), I had returned from the hospital and was starting the first full week back to school.
Professionally, I was hoping I’d be able to get through a full day. I had been so tired, but needed to work so I was determined to make it happen.
My personal job was simple: keep my liquids at 50 ounces per day or lower, keep my sodium at or under 2000 grams per day, and no alcohol.
Everyone is most surprised by the 50 ounces of all liquids per day. It seems counter-intuitive. In my case the combination of poor nutrition and alcohol damage to my body led to my body not being able to process liquids properly in my liver. As a result, the liquids were “over-flowing” from my liver causing issues in other places.
Other organs were being affected and I had water retention in my legs down to my feet. It was recommended I get compression socks or runners socks and wear them as often as possible. I was also to elevate my feet as often as I could.
My stomach was distended from this overflow of liquids and in the hospital they drained about a half a liter by injecting a needle in my side and letting it flow out. This helped as I could barely put my socks on previously because the bending was a challenge with the distension.
I was drinking two or three Ensure protein shakes a day to get my nutrients up fast. These were 8 ounce bottles so they comprised about half my liquid intake a day. I had one before work and another after. I’d try to have one every other day at either dinner or in the evening.
I started drinking a 16 ounce Powerade thinking it was good for my electrolytes. A ten or twelve ounce drink then put me at 50 or 52, so that was pretty much all I had everyday in terms of liquids.
In doing more research later, I switched to BodyArmor from Powerade. Powerade had too much sodium. Overall, BodyArmor was the best nutritional, hydration drink I could find that fit my needs. Its base is coconut water, which I would later also make a regular staple of my intake, but I’ll address that later.
The sodium was a killer. I was told that restaurants and take-out were the first things to cut-out. The more I could make myself the better off I’d be. This meant avoiding processed foods, which were higher in sodium and lower in protein.
To get to my sodium levels, though, I found it easiest to get processed meals like Amy’s, Healthy Choice, Marie Calander’s, and Smart Ones. These were roughly 10 ounces of food with most between 500 and 750 grams of sodium depending on the meal.
Ensure had 210 grams of sodium so times two or three and I was at 420 to 630 grams of sodium.
Put the two together and I was floating around 920 at a low and 1380, leaving me with a total of 620 to 1080 grams for everything else I’d eat in a day.
The calories for the same were between a low of 570 and a high of 1030. A good rule of thumb is that the body requires 15 calories per pound to maintain at a steady state. More than 15 calories per pound and you gain weight, under 15 calories and you lose weight.
Every 3500 calories under maintain target equals one pound of body weight lost.
The long and short was that I was getting my nutrients, keeping my sodium down and as a result my calories were down.
I was writing down the foods I was eating, but not the detailed nutrients contained in them.
Lessons Learned
This goes to my project management work, If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. You really have to know what you are taking in and how much. Thinking you know isn’t good enough. My index cards with items were an improvement, but not good.
Question for You
Have you tried to do something and guestimated if you were getting there or not? How did it work out? Was it working or was it inconsistent?
Preview
I’m going to continue for the next few posts to address how I fine tuned my routines and how it helped me work harder as I saw positive results.
Ross Raymond Nunamaker 