[Rein]

Patrick

I feel for you, brother! I also have gained weight since my disc rupture, mostly due to decreased ability to exercise. The fact that Walker is losing weight is probably a good thing, as anyone wanting to undergo ADR should be at optimum weight for best chance of good results.

I can confirm that drinking lots of water will help, for a number of reasons. Helping to flush out your body and decreasing the desire to snack so much are just two. Since the first time I went to Weight Watchers with my wife several years ago I have kept a large plastic juice container on the kitchen counter right where I go by it all the time. This jar is the right size to ensure that, if I drink it all each day, I've drunk enough water. As a general rule, maybe something like a half gallon (for most people of average size) would be about right, although you can certainly research this and figure out a correct amount for yourself.

The other thing to bear in mind is what you eat. If you're hungry a lot and go for celery, carrots, apples, etc., you're not going to hurt your body at all and you will likely lose weight. If you really want to be proactive, spend a few minutes every couple days washing and cutting up these good snack foods into edible portions you store in ziplocs and grab from the fridge whenever the urge hits you. These foods plus granola/bars will help also because they take a fair amount of mastication and satisfy the urge to eat/chew something.

Something else that may help is a healthy intake of milk or milk products each day. Milk will not only help to curb your desire for too much food, but before bedtime it will help you ease into sleep.

On the other hand, although chocolate hasn't been proven to reinflate a degenerated disc (yet), it sure makes me feel good! ;-) I'd go for the good stuff; Belgian dark chocolate or Godiva. If you treat yourself well once in a while you'll feel a lot better about the situation you're in.