Hi all, Monday again! The days and weeks are just flying past. Anyway Robert, my son has flown back to NJ today and although he really didnt make much noise, wasnt in an awful lot and gave me all his dirty laundry to do I am missing him like crazy all ready. Still, next week I have my 13 year old grandaughter up for a week so that should liven the place up a bit.

We are still having really weird weather here. One minute the suns out, the next we have dark skies and hail and rain. My aches move round my body continually and I am sick of hearing myself moaning, so I am really feeling sorry for my husband who has to listen to me grumble. Mind you he can grumble just as much when it suits. What a couple. Hehe........

Well Angel whats the new thread going to be called? I tried to think of a new name but one just wouldnt come , bet you have a good name for it though. You really do sound quite excited at the prospect.

Ok I am off now to start cooking. ...I will look out for the new thread.

Hi,
I just found this site today, And I have R.A. I had lost 80 lbs from 2002 to 2003. Then I have gained it all back, and Have been trying to lose weight. I have ra in both my feet,ankles knees and now its moving up to my hips and shoulders. Yes It is a wonderful desease. I got it when I was 45 3 years later and still not at my best, I take humira alone not with methotrexate it messed up my blood cells . So I am just taking the humira and it is not working very well anymore. I can walk alot better than 2 years ago. But I want to be thinner and healthy again, or as healthy as I can be. I started to workout slowly, first I did pilates 2 times aweek, just needed help getting up and down from the floor. I did that for about a month or more than I got a aerobic rider and started riding this machine 3 times a week and now I am trying to add some resistance weight training to speed up my metabolism. Haven't lost much 3 lbs in 2 months, part of it I am sure is that my metabolism is really slow since I dropped so much weight so fast. Now my body is in this feast or famine phase where it wants to keep all the weight I gained in case I starve I guess. Part of it was not totally sticking to my eating plan I am detirmed to start again and drink some grapefruit juice hoping it will jump start my metabolism. I am eating low fat and low calorie. I could use some help and to see if anyone else has had problems losing weight. Please let me know I could use the incouragement. thanks laura (stirfried)

I may get stoned for this, because I don't know how many of the ladies here are on what plan.. but I follow Atkins. When I am being strict, my RA is much better. Stay away from nightshade vegetables like onions and eggplant. They have high inflammatory properties.

When I am not eating sugar, flower, potatoes, rice and other high sugar/starch vegetables ,my RA seems almost non existant. Most days anyway.

I do eat vegetables, just green leafies. And cauliflower, and asparagus, and string beans, and creamed spinach is my new favorite!

Oops, also forgot to add tomatoes as something I stay away from too many of. Also high on the list of inflammatory properties.

Hi Laura. Welcome! I too have RA and have put on major weight since being diagnosed about 41/2 years ago. I was taking Methotrexate for over three years and it really messed up my gastric system and I found that I was feeling sick all the time and eating to try and subdue the sickness. Then I stopped smoking in February 2003 and more weight went on. Well I have been on a healthy eating plan for eleven weeks. The first eight weeks I had lost 12 kg's .....about 26 lbs, I thought that was great. Then I hit a plateau and I am still there. I have RA in ALL the usual joints, hands, wrists, ankles, feet and then I have the grotty ones, jaw, neck, shoulders, even my head. Luckily they dont all play up together I have OA in my knees and hips and God only knows what in my back. Anyway I have realised that its good days and bad days and I do intend to lose this weight whatever. I have tried Richard Simmons videos and do which ever level suits the day and how my body feels. I walk most days but not great distances. I will do more but at the moment the weather is so up in the air and so changeable that it is really hard to up the exercise. I AM GONNA DO IT though...I am going to lose weight and I am sure you will too on this forum. Keep popping back and we can encourage each other. Talk to you soon......

hi all soo sorry for being missing in action for so long but what a month its been my gran died and my family decieded to turn on each other like a pack of wolves also the fact that she died on my 15th anniversary i felt really guilty and so after i got over the funeral {two hour reqiuem mass} i just couldnt get back in to the swing of things anyway still on the downwards slope back and legs been giving me major greif {i have two half shaved legs to prove it } but getting there if im forgiven for going m.i.a i will come back later and post more
speak soon kirsty

HI! everyone hope that today is apain free day for all thanks for the Oa on the new thread!!!!!!!!!! been busy sorting clothes getting ready for nice weatherwill be ahead this year when it does come LOL well have a great day Rita

Hi
Whats up? thank you all for welcoming me I really appreciated it. I am supposed to start my new eating plan today. But I am having bad day, lots of pain and feeling sick. with a small temp of 101. So I really want some Ice-cream from dairy queen.
Someone said that they can only exercise in water, but there was no place to go. Have you tried your hospital. I live in a small town with about 4000- 5000 people in it. Anyway the hopital will let me use there pool for exercise. I started using it for my fibromyalgia, And I thought that was bad,but R.A. seems to hurt more so now I use swimming pool for R.A. It cost 3.00$ a day. So You might ask at your local hospital.
So tomorrow I will jump back on the healthy eating train again, but this time I am going to try very very hard not to cheat. I know I can do it. I lost some on the scarsdale diet, but strict for me I could not stay on it. I will go back to low fat and low calorie and lots of water,and I will start to workout again slowly do I dont get burnt out. Or cause myself more pain. I have slacked off for almost 10 days or so. We moved to a different appt. and that took a lot out of me. So I have been trying to recoup from the move. I always seem to get fluey feeling along with my R.A. pain. Stress is the thing that makes me at my worst with pain and feeling yucky.
I hope everybody is feeling better today and no pain.
Laura (stirfried)
Somebody please write me back again so you can tell mw more about you guys here.

Sorry I used the wrong thing for (and) it should be &

hi stirfried im quite new here and im in a different position than you all seem to be i live in scotland and the local authority run local centres i sat and counted i have 8 full size swimming pools within half an hour of my house and one smaller one at the local high school about five minutes round the corner that the public can use when the school isnt and at nights as well and because im on benefits because of my illness i get a discount on everything there is a big centre about 10 mins a long the road that has a pool a full gym aerobics boxercise circuit training badminton a sauna a jacuzzi and massage centre and a beatician {you have to pay full price } there is also a couple of advisors one of which has physiotherapy training and can advise you what you can use and what you cant and to be quite honest i dont know how i would cope if i had to pay for everything i get my meds free my tens machine my walking aids and even the replacement pads for my tens machine i can even get free stop smoking prescriptions be it tablets or patches ar gum i can even get free support bandages or splints or braces is it very expensive for the things you require to cope with your illness? speak soon
kirsty

DON'T POST HERE!! EVERYONE LOOK FOR "FRIENDS WITH RA & OA"!!!

Kirsty. Hi how are you doing today.? Things sound very different in scotland, It sounds like it got a way better medical system than we do.
What is a ten machine? I don't know where that site is (friends with R.A. or O.A. Do you??
I havent been able to workout in 2 weeks because my r.a. is bad again. I mean I always have the pain, but now there is more pain and I feel sick too. Any way I am going to do 10 min of denise austins aerobic workout, just to get started again and workout my way back up to 20-30 min and somw resistance training. I am on a low calorie diet. I have only lost 4 lbs since feb. 13. I was cheating so much. I am recommited and so far this week I haven't cheated I plan to give myself 1 day next weds to eat normal food. not over induldge.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Laura (stirfried)

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=39078IF ANYONE GETS LOST.....CLICK HERE!

HI! everyone hope you all had a pain freeday well the weatger in Ohio hasnt helped my pain as all it has done is rainand supposed to tomorrow so got to think postive so have a great evening Rita