My Six Week Plan to Fight Edema and My Extra Weight
March 5, 2014
This is, “My six week (Plus) plan to fight edema,” by losing excess weight to be exact. Around early September, 2013 right after I was in the ICU for an unintentional overdose caused by my pain 
management specialist, is when the edema really started getting really bad to the point my doctor has me wearing compression socks and elevating my feet as much as possible. Up until then it was only very mild and controllable with monitoring my weight and controlling my salt intake. When talking salt, I don’t use it in cooking or add it to food other than on watermelon, tomatoes and the salt that comes already in food. What I’m going to do is work up a fit/fight plan to see about working on and getting rid of the extra body weight (15-17 lbs) and about 10 lbs of unwanted water weight.
FLUIDS: My first step is to control my fluid intake, this means coffee, tea, water, beer, wine, everything liquid to between 1 – 1-1/2 liters or 51 ounces per day and if that doesn’t work then I will need to reduce it to just one liter (34 oz.) per day. If I find a well-marked sports bottle then I will be able to keep track of my intake better. The idea here is to evacuate the same amount or more fluid as you take in. So take ion 50 oz. then to keep the excess water weight off you have to evacuate 50 + oz. daily, this is not a, “I’ll drink 3 extra drinks tonight and then go to the sweat lodge on Friday and spend 2 hours in the sauna to burn it off.” No, it’s a day to day process and if you stick to the process it works.
FOOD: This is a pretty easy area to monitor and still has to be split into groups. Meat should be eaten in moderation with more thought put on chicken and fish. The majority of these should also be baked, BBQ’s or boiled in place of frying. Fruits & Vegetables are pretty much open to the amounts you want, just go sparingly on the dressings which will get you with the fat and calorie to portion size ratio. Breads, high in carbohydrates and should be kept to a minimum, not “excluded” just monitored. Finally, desserts, here is where my plate will stop at the refrigerator door. I have stated that for, LENT I am planning to stay away from the junk food as well as the sweets and after the six week period only enjoy them once or twice a week, maximum. I know if I let myself get back to enjoying them then I will be right back to where I am now. Best to just keep them at arm’s length and have Trish (the wife) throw one to me every now and then.
EXERCISE: The dreaded “E” word, exercise. It’s funny because if you maintain your fluid, food and snack intake you don’t really have to exercise that much to lose weight. I didn’t say you didn’t have to 
exercise just not that much. With doing what’s shown and adding some walking, yoga, no jarring martial art such as Tai Chi you can increase your heart rate which in turn speeds up your metabolism and in that you obtain weight loss.
CALCULATIONS: To lose weight there are numerous calculations that are taking into account, as well as the medical field recommends for a healthy weight loss on average of no more than 2 lbs. per week be lost. It is also suggested that your calorie intake per day, which all depends on your gender, age, weight goal, current weight, height and you current activity level (sedentary, light, moderate or very active). All of these combined and calculated will determine what your calorie intake per day should be. Of course the closer your “weight goal date” the less calories you will be able to eat. Here are my results from the calculation:
Gender: Male, Age: 49, Weight Goal: 180, Current Weight: 207, Height: 5’ 9”, Activity Level: Light
With these figures, CalorieCount.about.com (3/5/2014, 4:14 pm) is showing that my daily caloric intake should not exceed 1,970 per day, which will give me a weight loss on average of just under a pound a week. It also states that to maintain a healthy weight loss men should not take in less than 1,500 calories a day and women 1,200 per day, this of course is on a balanced diet of foods and not all fast food. Grease and lard I’m sorry to say are in one of the four food groups. With the internet and smartphones everywhere there are numerous web sites and apps to monitor and calculate your calories, weight, sleep, steps, exercise and more.
MY FINAL WORDS, see if your take your meats and breads and reduce them to once or twice a weeks and in moderation then, add a few miles of walking every other day or make it yoga or riding a bike, even mix and match them to keep things interesting and you can lose weight. Think of it like this, if you were to only lose a pound a week for half a year (26 weeks) that’s 26 pounds at a pound a week now double that and your losing 2 pounds a week, 52 pounds in 6 months. That’s just about six and a half 1 gallon milk containers in size. Grab a friend (or two) and start a walking group and start out walking say half a mile to the local coffee shop, sit talk and then do the half mile home. Do this for about 2 weeks, then increase your walks to a mile and if you’re not sure of the distance, hop in your car, and zero out the odometer and drive the route your thinking about walking and when you reach the end the mileage will be right there. I’ve done this with five different routes, two are one mile routes, one is 1-1/2 miles and there is a ½ and ¾ mile routes. I can switch up my walks depending on the time I have available and the weather. I also have a stationary bike which I can ride as little or as much
as I want and add it in at the end of the day. So if you need a virtual walk buddy just let me know, lord knows I need someone checking up on me to keep me putting one foot in front of the other. Let me know what keeps you going when things are tough, the kids need homework help, husband/wife just added to the honey/sweetie list, what do you do for you? Are you exercising? How do you burn off the stresses of the day? Please share with us, because I guarantee there is someone else just like you wanting to know how to do the same thing.
– Richard0593
PickYourPain.org
iCareTalk.net 