u/5ft4vietnam

I fell into the trap of food delivery and eating out
Both resulted in greasier food with excessive oils plus wild American portions. Not only that but my lifestyle costs have increased.

Although I’m approaching my target amount for LEANFIRE, it is getting boring and I have a 32 BMI so to avoid burning out in the boring middle I switched my goals to something that will make it quicker and post FIRE will also reduce the burn rate

Some recent changes I’ve made materially and habitually

1. Buying stainless steel kitchen kitchenware and specifically smaller sizes like 1 QRT sauce pans, 8 inch pans and 9.5 pans). Teflon phasing out due to concerns
   1.1) Being forced to learn how to use stainless steel was annoying
2. Portion control on the smaller pans helped reduce my caloric intake along with a digital scale.
   2.1) Smaller pans are easier to wash and bring to heat it seems
3. reduced entree food costs - it would cost me $30 for an entree normally however I’ve noticed I can get a good cut meat at $9 1 LBs and I’m small enough that 0.50 LBs/230g works them with some sides it might be a $7 meal. With stuff like frozen shrimp, I’m able to get bigger portions with control over how much oil to use
4. reducing appetizer food costs - steamed or oven baked frozen food with an Asian stainless steel steamer and air fryer reduced the premium on eating out and the sogginess of food delivery
5. maintaining fitness - ive done walks to nearby stores for core ingredients like green onions, limes, and sauces when I’m running. Although I’m not in a walkable city it’s around a 3-5 miles trip, during these walks I’m able to plan out my portion control of the frozen food and maintain mentally the target protein i will weigh later
6. accepting lack of perfection in food choices - sometimes the food won’t taste good however that gives a foundation next time to experiment. My dietitian (the licensed type) said that eating is often treated as an entertainment activity out of Boredom/lack of stimulation/depression, by cooking my food I’m able to target all three and avoid the cycle of changing my choice fails, instead I can simply make a smaller portion or finishing the edible food and accept that today’s poor option does not require a replacement.
   6.1) improved food relationship - Cooking has improved my relationship with food, by being able to understand how the ingredients got here and the effort to cook and clean, it has been a positive therapeutic experience. Food is often the language of love, being able to control my portion and styles of cooking of what is going in and out of my body has been going on my mental health

Overall I had a positive experience however the opioids definitely caused constipation. I had a blood clot that formed briefly for a day I went to the ER but they quickly sent me away.

I had gotten this surgery specifically for sleep apnea. After a sleep study, it appears that my AHI resulted in no change. I had requested this surgery for a multitude of reasons but sleep apnea was the primary one. The out of pocket cost was $5,700, insurance covered it simply due to the size of my tonsils.

Benefits so far
- Drooling went from every night to an infrequent (but not rare) issue. My tonsils might’ve been preventing me from swallowing saliva when I slept
- Major drop in snoring without CPAP machine, partner observed this major change immediately after the surgery and post recovery.
- Noticeable improvement in verbal communication. I am autistic so potentially the tonsils had an effect on my sleep or gut biome.
- Permanent loss of a few LBs/Forced diet for 10 days
- No tonsil stones going forward, tongue appears to be getting less residual now
- I believe that going forward I will no longer get major flus or airborne illness as frequently. This is something I deal with every flu season or after an international, but my recent one I had no impact.
- immediately after the surgery majority of my acne fell off via scabs. My acne came back but seems to be less frequent and less active

Cons
- Sleep Apnea not cured, incorrect treatment
- Jaw surgery is preferred however insurance requires higher AHI/RDI for coverage
- Recovery time was approximately 10 days total. It took maybe 7 days to be comfortably verbal without being scared of a hemorrhage.
- I took around 4 days off WFH job for this recovery

Overall the tonsillectomy did not resolve my issues but there were enough immediate benefits and future potential benefits I would still recommend it despite the cost and failure to treat sleep apnea.