Anyone dieting and exercising with fibro? and how is it going?

I have been doing good, but the weird thing is, I took one week off of exercising to go to the beach and when I came back the second day I walked threw me into a flare!? Strange stuff! I didn't do anymore than I normally do. Fibro is sensitive to changes...it doesn't like it. I guess coming back and starting my treadmill was a bit to much. I didn't think a week off would do it. Guess so!

Yep, my fibro is definitely very sensitive to changes as well. Really any change in anything at all in my life, including changes in diet, weather, sleep patterns, stress...

I've been able to lose 105 lbs, and become much more active, but all the changes I've made have had to be slow and gradual - crazy slow in fact (it's taken me about 7 years to get this far).

Any time I make too drastic a change, fibro kicks my butt.

Hubby and I actually even track the weather so we know not to make any big plans or changes to my routine when the weather is about to change.

Routine helps a lot. I have to be flexible (can't go to the gym during a severe flare), but the more I try to change, the worse I feel, so I have to remember "stick to the schedule and make changes gradually."

I thought maybe losing some weight would help..haha..not. I have to be careful with changes too. I didn't expect what happened to me about the walking I mentioned. Sometimes I feel I have this thing in control then it lets me know that I don't. It is a beast that I don't want to wake up.

My fibro is much better than when I started the weight loss, diet changes and exercise. I think all three have helped (as has my medications, and my improved sleep patterns and the consistency I work towards keeping).

However absolutely everything that helps only has worked over the long haul and assuming that I made the changes very, very, very gradually.

Exercise helps tremendously, but only when I have slowly built up my strength and stamina in very small increments. One day of even only mildly "overdoing it" at the gym can put me in a ten day long in-bed flare.

So if I'm walking 30 minutes on the treadmil three times a week - I can't suddenly decide to double my time or my number of days. In fact even 10% increments are sometimes pushing it. When I started, I could only comfortably do 5 minutes on the treadmill, and every week I would add 1 minute.

Your analogy of waking the beast is exactly how I feel too. It's as if every change I've wanted to make, I've had to do it in tiny increments so as to "sneak it past the dragon, Fibro." I've been able to get the dragon to be less ferocious and even get it to sleep occasionally, but I constantly have to tip toe around the beast to get anything done at all."

If I get careless and try to do too much too soon, it provokes the beast,and I end up getting burned.

Yes!! You explained it perfectly! "the beast" I feel the same way. When I first started walking I did 10 minutes I think, then I tried 15...ha wrong. I had to go back down to 10, then do 12. Sometimes I feel so good on the treadmill and it's easy for me to overdo it, because I don't feel it until I get off and esp that night. I wake up in the middle of the night and ache and hurt sooo bad! I am slowly getting over the flare from Monday. I have only walked twice since then. It feels like someone hits me with a stupid stick with my flares. I get really foggy, can't think straight, memory stinks big time..and I feel like I am walking around with a "duh" look on my face lol. I get fed up with it though, and stubborn. I will push myself and say oh well. I guess I need to stop that! but I am tired of fibro being in the way.

Not much to add, want2bskine, except that there's another person out there who knows exactly what you're talking about. Kaplods, I LOVE the "sneak past the dragon" analogy. Great image and all too true.

I'm so glad there are other people that feel my pain. I will try to take long walks and it feels good while I'm out. But watch out, that night it feels like someone took a baseball bat to me everywhere. My husband doesn't understand, I think he thinks I'm trying to get out of sex!! hahahahaha. I need to learn to start slow, just taking care of my baby all day kicks my butt! Good luck girls, we can conquer FM

I'm in Illinois visiting my family, and I've been here a little over a week (I go home tomorrow). It's been incredibly fun, but the change in diet and routine is killing me. I've tried to stick to my basic routine, but I haven't gotten my nap in every day and I've walked more. We went to the local zoo one day, and even though it's a very, very tiny zoo (it fits into a medium sized city park), it was still more walking (at least out in the sun) than I've done in a long time.

Of all the changes, I think not having my own bed has been the worst. At home, I have a six inch memory foam mattress topper and sleeping on a regular mattress has been killing me. Every day I've woken stiffer and more sore than the day before.

My family would like me to stay another week, but there's absolutely no way that would work. As it is, I'm in for some major "recovery time" at home.

Before I left, hubby reminded me that while I can now "push myself" more than I used to be able to, my recovery time is still about the same. For every day I push myself, I have to "pay back" about three times as much in recover time.

When I was at my sickest, pushing myself meant taking a shower, getting dressed, and trying to do some housechores. And recovery time meant in-bed and heavily medicated.

Now my recovery time isn't as severe and usually doesn't require full day(s) of bedrest (unless I ignore for several days, all the signs my body is sending me to rest).

I'm sort of at the tipping point, so I'm hoping I haven't set myself up for a super flare, but even if it turns out that I have, I'm willing to "pay the piper(or the dragon to extend the metaphor)."

I knew I was going to have to pay, but it was worth it to me to get to see my brother who I haven't seen in almost ten years (He lives in Washington state). He and his wife were in Illinois for their son's Navy Boot Camp graduation (my brother is retired career Navy).

Except for the afternoon at the zoo, and a tiny bit of shopping (no more than a few hours total for the whole week), the pace here has been extremely low-key. My parents aren't very active, so we've spend most of the time just sitting and chatting or watching movies. They don't quite get that just being away from my home and my established routine wears me down.

For the first two days I felt pretty good, but I've been going to bed earlier and getting up later every day since.