Hi, everyone! This thread totally just motivated me to quit lurking on the site and join in.
Specifically, libertyRN, I wanted to address your post, b/c I can relate to a lot of what you're going through, and hopefully some of what I'm doing can be of help to you or someone else. I can relate to...
- Wearing maternity pants to fit my belly.
Yep. They're not exactly fashion fwd (tho Target has some ok ones). Aaand especially embarrassing to have in my possession b/c I've never even been pregnant! I prefer to wear skinny plus-size stretch jeans (Macy's), despite the fashion no-no of it all (for my particular shape). But if I don't wear something slim-fitting on my bottom half, I think I look blob-like from head to toe. And my legs aren't exactly shapely and nice, like some of you lovely laydeez.
- OMG When are you dueeeee?!?!!! comments from people.
To the question of whether or not I'm pregnant, I just say no, and let the chips fall, but once I lied and said yes. I was in an elevator with a bunch of strangers, and for the whole long slooow trip, this one woman went into a protracted monologue about 'how wonderful, babies being born in springtime' -- so mortifying. That's also when i stopped wearing those empire-waist tops.
- I could be your doppelganger in terms of your size.
Like you, I'm 5'2", and 220 was about the biggest I've been, as well. I've since dropped 20, but i tend to yo-yo around +/- 15 lbs without making any purposeful changes in my life. For me, weight gain is very much stress-related and doesn't have as much to do with what I eat (in fact, the less I eat, the bigger I get). Anyway, just wanted to let you know that size-wise, you're not alone.
- OK, hello, huge list of medical challenges, here, too.
It definitely makes things complicated across the board, so I get where you're coming from. And I have rather significant back problems, too, such that I often feel like i'm 88 years old, when I'm 36. Straightening up after I've been sitting or sleeping is virtually impossible sometimes, dang painful, and when I'm having a flare-up I look like an old crone all bent over. I have auto-immune probs, and we're looking into whether this might be ankylosing spondylitis. But, from experience I say this: you can feel better than you feel now, no matter what problems you are facing. Incremental improvement is always possible. And that keeps me going when it hurts like hellz.
BTW, I, too, have had crappy clueless doctors, who make matters worse not better (and why are these doctors the rule, rather than the exception?), but fire your doc. They work for you, so, if you can, find someone else, and get your file transferred ASAP. Rate MDs dot com is helpful. It's never worth sticking it out when you can't see eye-to-eye from the get-go, even if you've got an HMO, b/c it's your life on the line.
But here's where I really related to your post the most...
Quote:
Originally Posted by libertyRN
I have a very hard time with eating in general due to a whole long list of medical problems. I am very sensitive to smells, and I can't even cook anymore due to vomiting when I smell meats, and cooking smells.
I'm a vegetarian, so I don't have exposure to meat odors much, b/c aside for feeding our animal crew, we don't have meat in the house. However, two years ago I vomited every morning whether food was around me or not (not pregnant!), ALL food smells made me gag or vomit all day long, and I was having a real struggle daily to eat anything at all.
After a lot of trial and error, here's what helped:
1) Getting ACUPUNCTURE and herbs from a good clinic.
I know if you're like me, money is extraordinarily tight. But go to a local acu school if you have to, in order to get cheap clinic prices. No, it's not ideal, but it'll do. And it goes a long way toward balancing your organ system and addressing pain; plenty of double-blind studies have proven the efficacy of acupuncture. And, in my case, this alone helped my food smell-nausea issue completely. It took a series of visits before I was feeling a lot better, but now my appetite and sensitivity to food odors is normal, and I'm feeling much better pain-wise at my baseline! And I never vomit!! Sooo worth it! Western medical doctors couldn't figure it out, but in this area, acu and TCM did the trick.
2) SWIMMING, wading, or even just standing in the shallow end of the pool and doing basic movements gets you started. Worked for me.
Water exercise gives you a go at physical fitness without putting strain on your back/bones (since you're weightless!), thereby making exercise possible with minimal strain on your body. If you don't have a pool near your home, you can do this at a gym, a YMCA, or even an apartment complex or hotel's pool. Even better if you have a community pool nearby. You'll be getting in shape, you'll be teaching good habits to your kids, plus they'll have fun goofing off in the pool with you.
3) YOGA
Specifically kundalini yoga and pre-natal yoga, in my case. Try the Ravi & Ana (raviana.com) DVDs (check out Amazon reviews), and just do what you can, even if you can't do most of the poses at all at first, and you just have to do the breathing exercises alone. In my case, I've seen a lot of improvements from their DVDs (and some other kundalini vids on YouTube), as a lot of the exercises are designed to address your endocrine glands, which is key for metabolism and losing weight. And I can now do most of a DVD without having to stop, which is a huge improvement over when I started a month ago. I can't tell you how peaceful and mood-boosted I feel after I've done even part of one of their DVDs. I know I may sound doofy here, but...it's a bit magical, actually.
Hope this helps somewhat, somehow.
I'm really just getting going in addressing my health (including weight), so feel free to contact me if you want to commiserate or form a cheer squad or something.
Keep hanging in there!