Getting "thinner" in the wrong places and a question about gluten.

I was on a cross country flight recently and it wasn't until I made a trip to the plane's restroom that I noticed that I can see my scalp through my thinning hair! Let me tell you 35,000 feet is no place to make such a horrifying discovery. It's not super noticeable but I won't be getting my hair cut anytime soon. I'm not exactly in "Trump comb-over" territory but I'm keeping my options open!

Also I don't care how much weight I lose I will never again voluntarily pick a window seat unless it's a emergency exit row or facing the bulkhead. As soon as I sat down I thought to myself "Oh this was a big mistake"

So the Autumnal equinox will mark my 6 month surgiversary and the honeymoon is certainly on the downhill. I can eat sorta normal and I definitely get hungry. It's somewhat sobering but I can still get "stuck" complete with the foamies so i know there's still an element of restriction and I can go long periods without food although that's not exactly the best way to go about things. Anyway flying home from the West coast I took a red eye and between fatigue from that, jet lag, vacation etc I went off the wagon so to speak for a day or two and I probably consumed more white flour products than I have since surgery. And my digestive system went south in a big way. Constipation, bloating, gas.... the works. I really think it was from the white flour products as things normalized once I cut them out. Could I have developed a gluten intolerance? Maybe I was before and I just didn't notice? And it's fine with me if this is the new normal. Nothing good is going to come from me consuming copious amounts of white flour. But has anybody else had this sort of thing happen?

Just curious.

Hi Scott, I'm sorry to laugh but, "35,000 feet is no place to make such a horrifying discovery" cracked me up!!

So I've been LC/wheat free for the most part of 17 years--with time out for VERY poor behavior. When I do fork-up and take my love to town with wheatalicious things I have the same exact symptoms + I wake up with joint/bone pain that I walk like a 90+ year old crohn. I always thought it was maybe insulin and a small sensitivity to wheat that did it. And believe me, it was enough of a deterrent to keep me on the straight and narrow when I might otherwise stray. I had an EGD for WLS quals and behold! They brought me tidings of great sorrow. My duodenum has cellular changes consistent with celiac. And suddenly my whole life makes sense! Now, having a cheat has taken on a much more serious consequence. I also had high levels of inflammation in my gut from esophagus to duodenum. And I haven't had a speck of wheat/gluten related anything since a little before May 3. I mean, crap! It's (inflammation) still there???

So, yeah, I think it's DEF possible that you have a gluten issue. Did you have joint pain/stiffness after you ate it? I think you are wise to avoid floury stuff, cuz the internal inflammatory response clearly hangs around a while after each exposure. Hope you get to feeling better soon.

(And remember, some of us girls actually like it when our "hair challenged" men cut their hair short short! Mr. Fluffy looks way more awesome with his short cut rather than when it gets long and um, (pssst I didn't say this...) weedy.

Thanks Fluffy. I think I'm gonna go GF for a while and then test the waters with something "wheatalicious" (great word!) I didn't notice any extra joint stiffness but then again there's always a degree of that going on somewhere so I don't really know for sure.

I generally keep my hair short so no mullets for me!

Be careful. You sound like you are playing with fire and forgetting how you got to the point of your surgery. Addiction is addiction and you sound addicted and active vs. in recovery. Be careful.

Is it because I used the term "off the wagon" ? I mean I guess my relationship with food is as complicated as anyone else in here but knock on wood, no Yodels yet.

The bloating and gas have nothing to do with gluten. It's just simple carbs. Eat a bunch of simple carbs and you'll be lighting up the area with gas.

Or cherries. I ate a bag of cherries. I had to sleep upstairs...

Sure I guess it's just that the simple carbs I consumed happened to be mostly things with flour. "Lighting up the area" is putting it mildly. Even the cats were running for the hills.

Breads will spike blood sugar higher and faster than anything. Even sugar. Potatoes are next on the list. That's the same reaction that converts all of those carbs into gas. They are are also tops on the list for things that will give you increasingly bad reactive hypoglycemia further down the road.

Am I wrong in assuming that eating a healthy dose of real protein helps mitigate RH? As in eating a burger would be better than eating just the bun. At least in terms of blood sugar.