Sorry for the long post but I know that I’m in the right place for people to take the time to read & respond.
Hopefully, the title of the thread will narrow it down to the people that are concerned and relate to my situation.
i’ve been into health and fitness for a long time, especially nutrition to avoid my dad’s faith who died at the age of 71 from a liver cancer that probably started in the colon but was unchecked until it was too late.
Despite my best effort to avoid it and a case of bad luck, colon cancer has found me.
At the time of writing this, i’m 3 weeks away from a rectal resection op.
The good news is that the tumour is small and hasn’t spread to neighbour organs, the bad is that it is very low down and know the implications of that.
I’m nearly at the point of giving up trying to work out what went wrong and what could have caused it, as i’ll need to focus & save my energy on my recovery instead.
Like a lot of people, i struggled with constant stomach pains and doctor visits in my adulthood, never got diagnosed for anything but given tons of medications instead.
In insight, the drinking, convenient foods, takeaways, the partying, late nights, lack of sleep, life stress and the medication to try to so sort this bad lifestyle maybe were all contributors.
About 10 years ago (i’m 55 now) i decided to take my life into my own hand.
I’ve started an healthy eating habit by adopting a mediterranean style diet, no alcohol, not too much processed foods and a bit of intermittent fasting.
I leave my eating life by the “80/20” rule (80% whole food, 20% whatever).
It took about 5 years to sort my stomach out and to gradually be pain free after eating.
I now can eat foods that used to be troublesome as long as i don’t go back to my old bad habits.
Little did i know that something else was happening at the same time.
Here comes the point of this thread, are you still there?
Because of the ideal weight for my size (68kgs/1.71m), my cancer nurse told me that i may loose at least half a stone or more post op and would be a good idea to put some weight on, mainly with protein.
The dilemma that i have is that because my body is very well regulated, i can’t put weight on with my current 80/20 lifestyle and find that eating more protein make me even less hungry afterwards.
I’m trying to put weight on by eating more of my current whole food diet but this doesn’t work.
In the body building world, it’s called “clean bulk” as opposed to easier high calorie foods like fast digesting carbs, chips, pastries etc and that is called“dirty bulking”
So, it would be easier for me to “dirty bulk” but feel that it will not help me with my recovery to have this type of extra calories as fat storage and reserve.
Even having protein powder with full fat milk (or other non dairy liquids) that are supposed to be easily digestible, keep me full for ages.
So, i want to avoid to “dirty bulk” and upset my stomach in the process (even though people are telling me to enjoy myself with foods that i have regulated for years as i may not be able to eat them for while post op)I’m still in 2 minds on how to proceed.
Do i carry on eating healthy, not able to put weight on but may help more with the recovery?
Or
Be a bit more liberal with the type of food and able to put a bit of weight on but maybe detrimental to recovery?
So far I’ve switch to about a 70% whole food and 30% higher calorific foods but still don’t find it easy as those foods can upset my stomach (old days style)
Have any of you post oppers think that it would have been beneficial to have put some more weight on pre op?
And
For those that have done, how did you do it and was it the right decision you think?
