Pleasure to make your acquaintance.
My story, as brief as possible:
I have always been overweight but was always pretty healthy. I typically weighed somewhere around 220 pounds for most of my adult life (I am 30)and late teens. I looked pretty good at this weight, though I always wanted to lose more weight. I use to be very active and eat really healthy food. I think I am just predisposed to being fat.
A few years ago, around 2008, my life got very very difficult. Details would take forever but long story short, I was pretty much broke, always on the brink of being homeless (Though I managed to avoid it thank goodness) and for a large portion of that time I was living in a country that I had no legal status in and therefor had no rights or chance of any form of medical care, no social assistance options, nothing. This was because I was immigrating (to Canada) to be with my new husband.
Since I could not work or take classes, or do anything productive, I found myself sitting around a lot just feeling depressed and hopeless. My husband has cerebral palsy and try as he did, simply could not find a job. In the rare times we had a little money I would aim to buy the healthiest food I could, but I often had to opt for food that would provide as many calories per dollar spent as possible. We also were lucky enough to live near a food bank who gave out free food once a month that lasted a few days, but it was usually mac and cheese and canned pastas and other useless food like that. I went many days with little to no food and on other days I was eating mac and cheese from the food bank. Obviously I gained weight.
Occasionally, during the rough times, I would get it into my head to try to be more active to curb some of the weight gain I was experiencing. I guess I pushed my unconditioned muscles too far and ended up spraining the tendons on the bottoms of my feet while walking, after about the first year. They have never been reliable since and if I ever push myself too far (which could merely be a walk around the block), they re-sprain. This issue eventually found its way to my knees. One day my knees just decided that they had had enough of life and became useless, as if severely sprained, even though I had not done anything special and certainly didn't notice a moment of injury (it came on slowly over the course of a few days). This had me off of my feet for at least three months, which I am sure atrophied any last bit of muscle I had left. Since this happened I have not been able to walk well. I constantly have foot and knee and recently ankle pain as well. Sometimes my hips threaten to hurt as well but so far it has not gotten bad. One of my knees always feels tight. I stretch and do leg lifts to try to rebuild muscles and I have a small elliptical machine that fits under my desk and I use it while seated in my desk chair, but I do not know if I will ever regain full mobility.
Currently, Things a much better for us. I am immigrated and have rights and medical care now (though I have yet to find a doctor, a feat nearly impossible in Canada). My husband has a job that pays the bills and not much else, but this is fine for now. I have very little stress at the moment and feel hopefull and happy again. I just have this little problem that I am trapped in this 300 pound crippled body. I cannot work in this shape, and I can barely manage to do my housework. I have to do the dishes while seated. Standing for more than 5 minutes hurts my knees too much. I absolutely must lose weight. Almost every day my body just generally hurts more and more. Losing weight is hard for anyone, but even more so when you can't really exercise. At least I can afford healthy foods now.
The heaviest I got was 309, and that was two months ago. I now weigh 299 and have a long way to go. My main goal is to feel good again. I hope to one day have knees that don't throb. I don't know if it will be possible but all I can do is try, right? Has anyone else here done away with knee/ankle/foot/hip/back pain by losing weight and building muscle? Any tips on where to begin with exercise when you are always one step away from a sprained supportive joint?
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Wish I could help haha
