Helppppp: Helpppp I am morbidly obese, type... - Kidney Disease

Kidney Disease

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Helppppp

Virus21 profile image
12 Replies

Helpppp

I am morbidly obese, type 2 diabetic with kidney disease.

Battled with food all my life. Need support to beat sugar addiction.

Need a better quality of life. Good at exercise but struggle with food management.

Continue to eat rubbish

Mother of 1. Need to live for my daughter who I absolutely adore

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Virus21 profile image
Virus21
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12 Replies

Don't bring the food you are not supposed to eat into the house. Then it is not there when you want to eat it. A healthy diet doesn't hurt anybody. Once you stop your sugar intake you will find the brain re educates itself into recognising it as poison and something it doesn't crave anymore and the same goes for salt. The want /need for sugar and salt are something we learn from being feed on it as we grow, it is not a natural craving. If you stick to a CKD and diabetes diet then you eliminate most of the crap food from your diet. I switched to natural and fresh food with only water to drink. No more off the self prepared foods and most definitely no soda's or soft drinks with sugar or no sugar as the substitute will kill your kidneys. Yes it is a crappy diet but you already know the alternative doesn't work. You really have to want to succeed, then it becomes doable. Sorry to throw it back at you, No one can help you to want to succeed, we can only tell you it is achievable and encourage you on your journey. If you still cannot cope see a dietitian but you will need to stick with the advice or you will be wasting everyone's time. Find something to do to occupy the mind and hands so the thought of snacking doesn't occur while you are busy.

Virus21 profile image
Virus21 in reply to

Appreciate your feedback. It's tough but willing to give it a go

in reply to Virus21

It is certainly tough to get started and stick with it. I'm coping with IBS and Osteoarthritis dietary restrictions as well. My wife gets blasted every time she brings forbidden foods into the house. Doesn't stop me eating them, but usually I get them binned before the lust kicks in. I now do the food shopping so the issue no longer happens unless I allow it! I used to eat Corn chips natural only and rice biscuits plain when I started. Then eventually dropped them. I look at food as something I have to eat to stay alive, not something I lust after anymore. It has changed the brains attitude to food and no longer craves food until I sit down to relax and do nothing. Then I might eat a carrot, or a food with little nutritional value, or drink water.

Virus21 profile image
Virus21 in reply to

You sound as though you have got it just right. Keep up the good work. I am putting all my energy into giving up SUGAR. It is a real battle but I am focusing on the prize!

in reply to Virus21

I can't say I have got it right as I still cheat, very occasionally. But I do know how much I can push the diet and get away with it now. I would have told anyone who tried to tell me vegetarian was the way to go, where to go, how to get there and what to do when they got there, years ago. But right now I couldn't, while I'm not vegetarian I guess I'm a close second and feeling the better for it. I monitor everything I can daily where possible. If my weight gains a few grams I cut back immediately to compensate so it doesn't creep up out of control. It is easier for me to control my health with small adjustments than to let it get too far out of control and have to do the hard yards all over again. You will need to get vitamin D supplements and that should be done with your Dr as too much can cause more damage than too little.The upside is many have done it before you, so we know it is possible to accomplish and not an impossible task. Unfortunately all these bad habits are learned, we are not born with them.

Strangely enough now too much sugar or salt actually puts me off.

Raji838 profile image
Raji838

Just set ur heart at it. it can be done. just got out of covid my sugars had sky rocketed. had to leave all sugars including various breads and rice. it worked. beginning it was difficult but when saw results it be came encouraging. its mind over matter. ul do it good luck more important ur baby is greatest motivation

Darlenia profile image
Darlenia in reply to Raji838

That's excellent. Much respect. Rice and bread are loaded with carbs which convert to sugar down the road. These are items actually supported by the "renal diet" which is so bad for diabetics. The vast majority of those on dialysis are diabetics.

Hello Virus21,

I understand that you struggle with a sort of food addiction that seems to get the better of you, despite your desire to stop and all the good reasons you already know, especially your daughter. I suspect it makes you feel weak, hopeless, and ashamed...and the endless loop continues. I’m so sorry you’re having this difficulty.

I wonder whether there might be some sort of Food Addiction Anonymous group that follows a similar program that those addicted to alcohol use. Something like a 12-step program that gives you support and help, so you don’t have to keep going down this road all alone. It might be worth investigating. It’s hard to be all alone in our battles. Thank you for reaching out for help. You’re worth it!

You need a hug,

GotaKidney

orangecity41 profile image
orangecity41NKF Ambassador

I am male 79 and was diagnosed at CKD 3b 5 years ago. My PD put me on a CKD diet based also on bloodwork for sodium, potassium and phosphorus , which has helped to slow the progression of CKD. I probably go over the top and track and plan my meals. Ask your Doctor about a CKD diet, or a referral to a dietitian. If you stick with it you will notice good results. I also have to watch what I eat for blood sugar. Keep us posted on your progress.

SkiingSailor profile image
SkiingSailor

Hi and welcome ! As has been said, the best place to break this cycle of food addiction is in the shop itself. If it doesn’t go in your trolley it won’t go home. Take your daughter with you so you have a contact reminder of why you’re doing this. Or take a friend who’d make you feel embarrassed to put the rubbish food in your trolley? Or order online food? Either way this might be hard but you can bet your bottom dollar that dialysis is harder.

Those is the wake up call you need health-wise to radically change your diet or it’s going to be a relatively quick slippery slope downhill.

Beware of the amount of animal proteins you consume, kidneys can’t cope, dark sodas are a big no-no as well as is salt. I promise your brain and body will become accustomed to the new diet.

Also your daughter doesn’t want to learn that food is a reward and to have her brain wired to crave this type of foods either so, break it before she gets addicted too.

Keep in touch and huge good luck.

SkiingSailor profile image
SkiingSailor

Also find a new hobby to keep your fingers busy.... cross stitch, knitting, sewing by hand or machine? Not something like reading as you can absent mindedly eat a packet of biscuits without even notice while reading !

Skeptix profile image
Skeptix

Hi Vy.

I don't know anything much about dieting for weight other than it appears to be a problematic area. It's seems that everyone and his brother has a diet idea. Yet they don't appear to work or can't be kept to.

It appears to that dieting centres around sustaining willpower and people (most people) can't sustain willpower for long/ever.

Now it happens that in the mid '80's, a guy called Allen Carr had come up against this willpower issue, where it concerned the problem of his being a smoker. He had tried to quit but always ended up caving in, no matter how hard he tried. He couldn't sustain willpower against the constant temptation and desire to smoke.

He eventually tripped across an understanding of the smoking trap and came up with an easy way to stop smoking.

This way that didn't involve application of willpower, either to quit smoking or stay quit smoking. None of the 'terrible withdrawal pangs, none of the wishing you could have just one cigarette, no more missing the best fag of the day (after a meal or after sex).

He called the method 'the easyway to stop smoking'. A few things to note:

1. Despite millions of people stopping since he wrote it in 1985, your doctor won't recommend the method. You'll still be told to do it the hard, willpower way. Famous people have quit and testify to it. The book has 4500 4.5 stars on Amazon. My whole family and circle of friends quit and stayed quit reading the same copy. It was falling of a log easy to quit and stay quit.

2. Sugar is addictive. Just as nicotinic addictive. But the physical addiction isn't the issue, it's the psychological addiction which is the hard thing to break.

3. Allen wrote a book called The easy way to stop drinking. An alcoholic friend read it and quit and is off drinking 10 odd years. He applied the same kind of method as he did to smoking, presumably understanding the nature of the drink trap and how to spring it without having to rely on willpower

4. He also wrote easy way to lose weight. As with the smoking book, some people swear by it and others don't. Having read smoking, I'm guessing those who find it doesn't work for them are not getting the message. They get irritated by seeming arrogance and bald statements of Allen, not realising or trusting that with so many successes on his part and so many failures on theirs, they should just trust him and focus on what he says. They might also speed read because he seems to say the same thing a number of times. But they are missing the point of reading everything however many times he says it.

If you find willpower methods don't work, it would be worth trying a method than doesn't rely on willpower. Just listen to everything he says and follow every instruction he gives you, they aren't hard to follow and take no willpower.

Glancing at Amazon reviews I see complaints about the book (I haven't read it) along the lines of Allen seemingly promoting a vegan or near vegan diet. I don't know whether he does or doesn't but a vegan diet is what the latest kidney research is pointing towards by way of preserving kidney function.

It might be that Allen Carr solves two problems: lose weight and lose a meat based diet.

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