A belated happy Thanksgiving to the Americans in the group! This was definitely a year to give thanks, for life and for reminders that life is short and we need to focus on what's really important.
Flower, poor thing, get yourself to the doctor ASAP! You should have gone to the ER instead of surfing the net!
I hope you get diagnosed and are feeling better very soon.
I don't have a lot to add to the menstruation discussion. I have found my periods changed about every decade. As a teenager and young adult, they were quite irregular. After giving birth, they were less painful and more regular, coming about every calendar month. In my early thirties, I began to experience PMS, which I never did before. Now I have 28-day periods and my breasts become EXTREMELY tender for about two weeks before my period, which is probably going to send me to the gyn eventually because it's very uncomfortable. Actually, the breast thing might have coincided with the weight gain, but I'm not sure. Other than that, I haven't noticed a change. I've been fat for about two years.
I have all my appointments set up to get started with Opti Fast on December 29 or 30. It's pretty rigorously supervised from a medical standpoint, which is good. I believe that exercise is going to be the key to how much weight I lose how quickly. I will be doing the 800 calorie/day full liquid fast. The clinic I'm going to requires full fast patients to attend a weekly group session where we discuss our eating habits, why we got fat, how to prevent re-gaining in the future, etc. I have to have a consult with a nutritionist and an exercise specialist. I get a full physical before starting, including lab work and an EKG, and the lab work and doctor checks continue throughout the course of the program. So I feel confident that it is safe and not a "quick fix." I'm glad I found this particular clinic, as I didn't at all like the tone of the woman who answered the phone at the first place I called. It's going to cost me a lot of money, but if it works it will absolutely be worth it. I am really psyched.
Since September 11, I have felt a growing urge to become more religious. It's not because of outright fear ... I can't really explain why. I think a lot of people in the US have felt the same way. So I have begun to return to the practice of my religion (I never lost faith, I just stopped sort of living the life, you know?). At any rate, I have been fasting for Ramadan, and in addition to it being a wonderful spiritual experience, my ability to successfully fast from dawn to sunset has demonstrated to me that I ought to be able to successfully do the Opti Fast program. Of course, Opti Fast is different, since I will always be consuming nothing but the liquid, whereas now I get to eat before sunrise and in the evening -- but the important thing is that I have been able to control and/or ignore my hunger and caffeine cravings, which is an important lesson before undertaking Opti Fast. So right now I feel incredibly psyched. I even feel better about myself -- even when I feel fat, I feel like it's really and truly temporary, as I will be resolving that problem over the first six months of next year. The more I have thought about it, the more I realize that this is my typical way of undertaking changes -- I kind of think and think and think about the problem, and then at the eleventh hour I rush in and address it with an extreme, gung-ho plan. So I am feeling confident in a way I never felt about just doing a normal diet and exercise program. I am just an extreme kind of person, I guess.
So do you guys mind if I continue posting from time to time while doing Opti Fast? I don't know why I feel funny about it, or why I feel like I need your blessing. I don't know, what do you guys think?