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I was excited when I found out that I’d be seeing a nutritionist at the in-patient rehab center where I was staying.
Surely, they could give me some concrete advice on foods that would help me in stroke recovery.
As we made our way through the nutritionist’s initial assessment, she suggested I might be interested in using a new calorie-counting app called Carbon Diet Coach.
As quickly as I could at the time, I sat up straight in my bed pointing at her and saying something along the lines of “I love that app!”
What is Carbon Diet Coach?
Carbon Diet Coach is a calorie tracking and nutrition coaching app that provides recommended weekly calorie counts for those seeking to gain, lose or maintain weight. The app’s weekly recommendations are based on your weight and eating habits from the week prior.
There’s no restriction on the types of food you can eat, just how much you should eat in moderation.
I started using Carbon a few months prior to my stroke after never tracking my macros previously.
Like many others, I tried to eat healthy, but I never really knew how many calories I should be eating or many of the other details that come with a healthy diet.
Carbon Diet Coach helped me solve that problem.
How Carbon Helped Me Before Stroke
As a former high school and college cross country runner, I assumed I was destined to always be skinny and frail.
However, my improvements in the gym were noticeable after just a few months of using Carbon to increase my protein and calorie intake higher than they’ve ever been.
Not only were my one-rep max numbers nearing all-time personal bests, my weight on the scale was finally trickling upwards, and I felt as strong and athletic as ever. With a solid training program and nutrition guidance from Carbon, this former distance runner could jump up and grab the rim of a basketball hoop with ease.
However, in the midst of what was exciting progress for me, I had a hemorrhagic stroke and all of those gains were washed away.
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Carbon’s Impact on My Stroke Recovery
One of the most frustrating aspects of stroke recovery has been that I don’t always feel up for physical activity, or I’m just kind of going through the motions of an exercise like I’m a zombie.
Since neuro-fatigue is one of the most common challenges faced by stroke survivors, I had to shift my goals away from training the way that I used to.
When I realized my energy levels would be an ongoing challenge, my mindset shifted to “Well, I can’t work out the way that I want to, but I can still eat right.”
That’s when Carbon Diet Coach became one of the most effective tools in my recovery after stroke. Carbon has been instrumental in helping me not only rebuild strength post-stroke, but also in keeping me positive in recovery.
Carbon Diet Coach has been instrumental in helping me not only rebuild strength post-stroke, but also in keeping me positive in recovery.
Each weekly check-in gave me a small win, giving me the reassurance that I was eating appropriately to help me regain my strength after stroke.
Feeling Stronger After Stroke
A few months after my stroke, I started using Carbon’s reverse diet option to slowly regain my strength and the 15 pounds I lost during my hospital stay.
Considering our brains use about 20-25% of all the energy we get from food, making sure I was eating enough in my recovery was a priority for me.
In a reverse diet, you incrementally increase your total calories each week at a level low enough for minimal weight gain.
It took about 9 months, but by the one-year anniversary of my stroke, I was back to my pre-stroke weight and running on the beach.
On the mental side of recovery, it’s beyond frustrating that my physical goals and abilities changed in an instant following the stroke.
As stroke survivors, we want all of our abilities back overnight, but unfortunately recovery is most accurately measured in months and years, not in days.
With that in mind, having a plan to eat right to regain my weight and strength levels gave me a goal to reach every week that provided a feeling that I was always progressing in recovery regardless of how poor I felt physically.
Getting Started with Carbon Diet Coach
Simply tracking your calories for just a short period of time like a few weeks can be incredibly helpful to improve your nutritional choices.
However, counting calories, also known as flexible dieting, isn’t for everyone.
If you’d like to improve your nutritional choices, download the Carbon app and track your calories for 3 to 4 weeks. You’ll learn a lot about your eating habits.
Our individual personalities largely dictate how we’ll respond to particular training and nutrition programs like counting calories.
If tracking your macros is something you’re interested in, there’s no better option available than the Carbon app for a simple-to-use solution that will teach you an appropriate nutritional framework and provide measurable results.
Carbon has helped me both before and after my stroke to eat in a manner that supported my specific goals at the time.
Without it, I don’t believe my recovery after stroke would have progressed as well as it has.
Stroke Recovery Rehab 