Diet plans

[[Je...]]

Hi everyone,

 

My main symptoms throughout my withdrawal have been GI based, given GABA receptors go crazy in the gut.

 

I collapsed two weeks ago from malnutrition and dehydration, as I can't keep putting enough in before it comes back out.

 

Any tips dietary tips anyone can offer would be greatly appreciated.

[[pi...]]

Hello and welcome to the forum from me,

 

Have you tried probiotics?  A good quality Greek yogurt can help GI issues. I also take a capsule form of a probiotic. I did have GI problems during my taper, mainly diarrhea. The probiotics really helped me and also seemed to settle my IBS permanently, I had suffered with IBS for many long years.

 

Good luck with your taper, I read your introduction.  Yes, you have been on an extremely high dose of benzos  but with a sensible slow taper, you'll meet your goal of being benzo free. Be patient, it will take some time.

 

Were you put on high doses because of seizures?

 

pianogirl 

[[Je...]]

No,

 

Mainly for insomnia and anxiety, the seizures were a consequence of intra-dose withdrawal given the relatively half life of lorazepam and the high doses I was on.

 

I have tried yoghurt without it providing much assistance unfortunately.

 

I'm just ready for this to be over.

[[el...]]

We are all ready for this to be over, you are not alone. My gut is my temple, the one area that has been good to me so far on this journey.  However I had "ibs" for a good 10 yrs. many yrs ago. All healed, I think anyway. . . While gut sensitive watch your gluten, casein, and up that fiber. Probiotic is great advise from pianogirl also apple cider vinegar or fermented foods.  They are all the buzz right now. The microbiome in the gut!

[[We...]]

What does your typical day to day diet consist of currently ?

[[Je...]]

I'm vegetarian. Which makes it more difficult to get protein.

 

Breakfast is typically a chia seed based smoothie/juice with some yoghurt. I also take multi-vitimans in the morning.

 

Lunch - a vegetable and cheese sandwich. For snacks I'll have some nut and fruit mixes on hand or a protein bar.

 

Dinner - roasted veg of some kind.

 

For fluids I've been mixing half Gatorade/half sparkling water and having about 2.5 litres of that a day.

 

 

[[We...]]

Gatorade has no nutritional value. High calorie low nutrient content. 1.25L is around 20-22 teaspoons of table sugar which is putting a lot of stress on your pancreas.

 

Grab your potassium from bananas, carrots, potatoes. Potassium needs to be up around the 5,000mg mark.

Magnesium from pumpkin/sesame seeds, brazil nuts, spinach. A supplement isn't out of the question. 600-700mg mark is RDI. Brown Rice is excellent for complex carbs, fiber, magnesium, copper and protein!

Salt is overrated. You can add a 1/4tsp of sea salt to your foods throughout the day to get about 500mg. Salt is in the cheese and bread already. Keep it under 2,000mg.

 

For protein, eggs are great. 15g with 2 eggs. Not ideal everyday though. Luckily legumes/beans are packed with protein. They have a great protein/fat/carb balance and have tons of phytonutrients, vitamins and minerals.

 

I would recommend pulling the gatorade as it's 400-500 empty calories and replacing it with a nutrient dense option.

 

Bring up the nutrition, lower the empty calories!

http://i1123.photobucket.com/albums/l543/mitchell1982/calorie_zpseb3dd82a.png

[[Je...]]

I started on the Gatorade because we ran some blood and my glucose was virtually non-existent. Even factoring in the Gatorade, I'm already maybe getting in 1000 calories per day (I'm dropping about 2.2 lbs per week) and an already classed as underweight.

 

Thanks for the tips though. Some of them sound really great!