[wendyland]

I've been trying to lose weight for a long, long time. I thought when my mom died at age 45, that it would be my turning point. Unfortunately, that was 4 1/2 years ago and I've Gained ten pounds since then. I've made a lot of small steps in that time that have helped, but not enough. I was diagnosed a couple months ago with a neurological disease where I have too much spinal fluid in my head. It's pushing on my eyes and ears and brain. It is most likely caused by my weight. Now, I can barely exercise or live a normal life. When I walk, I feel motion sickness to the point of almost falling down or feeling sick to my stomach.

I wish I had lost the weight years ago. I may have never developed this. But, I'm not going to let it stop me from living my life. I could get depressed and mope around, but I owe it to myself above all to regain my health. I've beat my sugar addiction with nutritious foods and changing the way I eat. I'm finally losing weight and I'm feeling so much better. I follow a paleo or anti inflammatory type diet. It's very hard at first to stop eating the carbs but they were making me sick and addicted. I never thought I could turn down a Reese's. I ate one the other day and spit it out. It tasted disgusting. I almost cried. I was so happy that I am no longer a slave to food.

It's taken me almost five years to beat it, but it was worth it. Take it a little at a time. I tried many times. I would do a week of no sugar and then back to bad eating. Then I made it thirty days a couple times. It's easy now. There's a good support group for trying the diet for thirty days. The website is whole9 life and the book is "it starts with food". It's changed my life. You can do it.

[Tiger Tears]

Im so sorry everyone. Its been so so long since my last reply. The 20th this month was my birthday and after watching how much i ate cake, it sickened me. Im at 400 pounds. My body hurts everyday now. I have set my mind, threw out the junk food, i need to lose the weight. But i need help. I need advice. I have vitamins now, but i want to try a belly wrap thing. I cant find one that fits tho. My waist is 56-58 inches sadly. Wat should i do? Im at my wits end. Please please help.

[Desiderata]

Happy belated birthday and !

Are you looking for a wrap to "lose" inches (it'll be very temporary) or something to alleviate your back issues?

I hope you do throw out the junk food. And if you have the time, go back and re-read kaplods excellent posts to you. I think there's a lot of amazing advice contained there.

[Tiger Tears]

I looking for something to help my back. I have started working out since sunday. But my back is a major issue. It hurts so much when i workout. Also, as a good side of this diet, im cutting all sugar drinks. Im sticking to water and gater/power aid. I do have another question. I was told that soaking in a tub with epson salt is good for your body. True or false? If true, how much is to be used? How often? Im done cutting corners, im sticking to it. Im going to lose this weight! Oh, one more question please. Since im just starting to work out, how often should i? How many times for those days? Do i stop when it hurts? Thank you for all of your time.

[Violet73]

Happy Bday! Epson salt is good for muscle aches and pains, but you have to be careful because some people feel weak after they soak in it due to the magnesium. It's never bothered me at all, but that is a warning about it.

[Kat117]

Hi Tiger,

Congratulations to you for wanting to change your life. It is hard to make that choice and I am glad for you that you did.

I too suffer with Fibromyalgia as well as Rheumatoid Arthritis and hypothyroidism. I am looking at losing a total of 160pounds. For those of us with a lot of weight to lose, and health issues it can be much harder to lose weight and we have to sometimes do things differently than those with say 20 or 40 pounds to drop.

How much weight are you looking to lose?

I am going to tell you how I am losing weight and perhaps some of this will information will be helpful to you.

1st - with Fibromyalgia I am sure you feel a bit overwhelmed with the simplest things. It is just part of the fibro problem. I found that I couldn’t keep track of all the changes I was “supposed to make” on any other plan and even simple things if there were too many confused me and got me so I couldn’t think at all. My doctor suggested this – find a food plan that you want to follow, say south beach or weight watchers for example.

Learn what you can about those programs first before you do any changes. Once you understand the requirements of the program, change one meal a day to follow the program. For example – change your breakfast to follow what the south beach program says. Do that until it feels natural to eat that way for that meal. Usually a week or so. Then change your second meal of the day (in addition to the first) until that feels natural.

So what you are doing is easing into that lifestyle while making those changes a permanent way of life for you. Within a few weeks you will be following the plan without out it being a shock to the system.

2nd – with Fibromyalgia and such a large amount of weight to lose and your other health issues, and I am sure you haven t been working out regularly all along – do not over do the physical activity. Literally start with just simply walking 5 minutes a day for 2 weeks. At week 3 add another 5 minutes so you arew walking for a total of 10 minutes. Continue at 10 minutes a day for several months. When you are able to walk those 10 minutes without pain at that time or after a couple of days (as we all know, Fibro pain can hit 2 days after exercise) then you are ready to increase to 15 minutes. Do that until you reach 20 minutes a day. Continue to do that amount, no more for now.

Items that are extremely helpful for the pains are Epsom salt baths (even a foot soak, ) magnesium and zinc supplements and large doses of omega 3s. Fibro sufferers tend to be low on all of those and they will help the inflammation in your body. If you are going to do a bath, use 2 cups of Epsom salts and soak in warm to hot water for 20-30 minutes. You will probably be sleepy afterwards.

So break this down into simple steps for yourself and create mini goals. Too much all at once can be discouraging and we don’t want that! Items to remove from your diet can come as you get comfortable with the food plan you choose.

Here is what I did for myself

Week 1 Goals
Follow Ideal Protein Plan for the week
Exercise –5 minutes of walking per day
Drink 60 ounces of water a day
How?
10 ounces when waking
10 ounces between breakfast and 9 am
20 ounces between 9 am – 1 pm
20 ounces between 1 pm – 6 pm


Week 2 Goals
If All goals above were met consistently for the week – do the following
(if goals were not all met, continue until you can meet them all for the full week to 2 weeks – so they become habit and become natural to do)

In addition to continuing week 1 goals - add

• Drink replace one diet drink per day with 20 ounces water
• Have one additional serving of vegetables a day

Follow Ideal Protein Plan for the week
Exercise –5 minutes of walking per day
Drink 60 ounces of water a day
How?
10 ounces when waking
10 ounces between breakfast and 9 am
20 ounces between 9 am – 1 pm
20 ounces between 1 pm – 6 pm
20 ounces between 6 pm and bedtime


Week 3 goals
If All goals above were met consistently for the week – do the following
(if goals were not all met, continue until you can meet them all for the full week to 2 weeks – so they become habit and become natural to do)

In addition continuing week 1 and week 2 goals this week I will

• Find one positive thing about myself every day and write it down in my journal
• Find one positive thing to be happy about or grateful every day for and write it in my journal

Drink replace one diet drink per day with 20 ounces water
Have one additional serving of vegetables a day
Follow Ideal Protein Plan for the week
Exercise –5 minutes of walking per day
Drink 60 ounces of water a day
How?
10 ounces when waking
10 ounces between breakfast and 9 am
20 ounces between 9 am – 1 pm
20 ounces between 1 pm – 6 pm
20 ounces between 6 pm and bedtime

I hope this gives you some food for thought. I know food plans are expensive, but perhaps a visit to the doctor to see if they can put you on a medically monitored food plan to help you get started could help as well.

All my best,

Kat

[Tiger Tears]

I am wanting to lose about 150 pounds. To get down to 250 at least before im laid to rest. (Sounds bad, i know) my first goal is 50 pounds. With the fibo and 3 slipped disks (and more), the simplest things like bending over to grab something off the floor, hurts so bad. And another factor that isn't helping is that i sleep on the floor. No lies. The couch was broken and old. My son has the only bed in the apt. And the apt is to small for another bed. With the stress of saying up for a couch, eating right, working out, and raising my son, its so so hard. My husband doesn't help to much, so that right there is hard. I also have a horrible sleep pattern and im trying to not eat past 7pm unless its a healthly snack. Im doing something wrong. Im trying to stay positive, even tho my depression is hard to control.

[Betba]

Calorie Counting! You can do it on any budget! You can eat what you want within your set allowance of calories. It's super easy! Don't be so hard on yourself about exercising! Just worry about what you put into your body. It's a one day at a time process.

[Kat117]

Tiger,

The folks here have given excellent advice. Losing weight isn't about jumping in the deep end before learning to swim. Find a diet plan that you can follow. Learn about it, make a plan. You have to have a plan of attack. You can't go from no exercise at all to 60 minute work outs every day. You build up to that. Make realistic small goals for yourself and work toward them.

If I may be so bold - I suggest you speak to your doctor about antidepressants. Cymbalta is fantastic for folks with fibromyalgia and depression. Until you mange that, I think this will always be a very difficult struggle for you.

All my best,
Kat

[Flowers]

Hi
I think i am very sorry for all those health conditions that are making life difficult and unbearable. One certain thing is that your excess weight is the main cause of those complications. If a way can be found of cutting the weight, i think most of the problems will disappear on their own. why cant you try watching what you eat and walking around the compound and short distances. Otherwise I wish you luck

[Tiger Tears]

Hi all. I have been cutting my intake of food to 2-3 small meals a day, no sugar snacks and drinking only water. I have also started taking vitamins. Such as fish oil, vitamin D, C, and others. I have also started taking an all natural diet pill so it wont affect my abilify med. Its been 4 days doing this and i feel about 10% better. Im awake a little longer then before during the day. I have been trying to work out cardio and can do about 7-8 mins a day. I have yet to check my weight (which ill do tomorrow at my doc) and see if anything has changed. If nothing has, ill just keep trying, not going to worry. I have been doing breathing exercises to help my anger issue. Thats doing very well. Starting next month, when i get my foodstamps, my food list will not contain any sugar snacks, no fatty foods, only lean affordable food, fresh and frozen fruits and vegies. I have also changed from white rice and bread to wheat. And no more fast food.

[simpletwistoffate]

WOW, I never thought I would find someone who, like myself, battles with multiple health problems.

I read your post and feel your frustration.

I am a chronic pain suffer (8 herniated discs in my back, chronic headaches, arthritis in joints especially bad R my hands and knees, and I have gout in my toes, and pain in my heels) I also has severe kidney disease WHICH means that I cannot take painkillers as they are destructive for my kidneys which are failing (I get 3-4 bladder/ kidney infections a month).

Also similar to you I am overweight - some due to my body's slow metabolism, some due to the medications that I need to take. Currently I weigh 215 (gained 25 lbs in less than a month from taking prednisone for my gout last december). I know I need to exercise BUT doing it in pain is hard - emotionally and physically. I also know I need to eat better - good portions and NO emotional eating.

It is hard. I see food as my enemy as I have always had to be SO cautious of what I eat due to my kidneys - salt and proteins R very very hard for kidneys to digest. So-much-so that during my teenage years I was bulimic (ate and then threw up the food; even did this during both my pregnancies!).

So, complaining aside, what do I do? I follow a strict food plan given to me by a dietician familiar with kidney disease, and I force myself to exercise!. I go to pilates as I find that it really doesn't hurt at all while I am working out. I also go to a gym where I work on core strength as that will help my back pain; and recently, I have started back to walking outside for cardio, as I HAVE TO DO CARDIO if I want to lose weight.

I have tried doing cardio in a gym setting - treadmill and bike. But I just find a total lack of an emotional sense of achievement doing that. So, I went back outside. You see, what I forgot to mention, was that after the birth of my last child (1993) I was paralyzed for 2 years from waist down. I met a trainer who helped me to walk again - then she helped me to run a 5K and a 10K. And I worked out with her power walking outside ... , she helped me conquer my body so that I could achieve what I wanted. And even though I am MUCH sicker now than I was then, she gave me the tools to achieve my goals and I know I can achieve them now ... using the same determination... I also know it will take A LOT longer to lose weight as i am fighting against medications that make me put on massive amount of weight and I am in MUCH more pain.

Now, like then, I get outside and say tonnes of things in my head to help me get through my power walk outside. I am in pain. From a scale of 1-10, I live at 8. And when I am walking, my legs go numb and feel like they are 1000 lbs of lead that are also on fire. And I know that I can do this ... if I want to. I make my will bigger than my pain.

Here are some things that I say to help me stay exercising:
1) I will not let my body win;
2) pain may have my body, but it will never have my soul;
3) whether I say I can, or say I cannot, each way I will be correct;
4) victory lies in the quality of the effort;
5) success is in the eye of the doer; and
the miracle is NOT that I finished; but rather that I had the courage to even start.

What I know for sure is that, for me, there will never be an end to my battles. they are lifelong and emotionally and physically punishing. I will never be one of those people who loses 100 lbs from proper eating and exercising because both are complicated for me because of my health and associated medications. AND, I know that I am more than a survivor ... I chose to thrive inside my life. And to do that I have to find a way to mind-over-body. And so do you. Is it easy? **** no sweetie ... but no one else can do it for us. AND, if you need a warrior friend ... here I am.

xo Jenn

[RavenIllusion]

I know that calorie counting has been mentioned, but I found good luck with keeping a food journal and was able to see where my excess eating was. I was shocked by how much I was actually eating and when. I am on Atkins now and use the food journal to track carbs.

As for exercising I found simple walking in place helps, every night I do as much as I can(I have fibro, arthritis and a few other things) I stated out with barely making five minutes, but I am up to 15-20 minutes a night, and getting longer every night. Good Luck.

[Tiger Tears]

Hi, sorry for taking so long to reply. I have been in so much pain. I cry inside lately, even when i try to sleep. My back, sides and abdomen hurts. My abdomen for about 3-4 days now. I believe i might need to go to the hospital. That scares me. Im so sick of food, so tired of trying. I say nasty things in my head just to walk to where i need to get to. I feel as if im fighting for my life.....and am losing. But, i wont give up. I need to keep trying. To keep fighting. I cant give up......i need something......someone for when i want to eat or don't feel like moving, i will get that help. Those motivating words i need.

[Violet73]

Tiger, are you on an antidepressant? I just started Lexapro a couple of weeks ago and I'm amazed at how much better I feel. It's helping with my fibro pain and fatigue and also my joint pain from rheumatoid arthritis. My spirits are lifted and I'm feeling normal again. If you are on one, then maybe it needs to be changed? Low serotonin can cause so many symptoms, not just depression.