So I am a 30 year old woman who has suffered with systemic lupus since I was 13. I have dieted and exercised before and I have always failed mainly due to my all or nothing mentality. My body can not keep up with my mind and enthusiasm. Its tough to limit myself but when I push too hard i get sick and then i can't do anything at all for weeks. How can i learn to accept my limitations and keep going? Im results motivated you know and i want to drop big numbers and lots of inches. Does anyone with a chronic illness have any advice? I really want to succeed and not set myself up to fail

Hello. This is my first day on this site and I'm also dealing with lupus. I was diagnosed about 8 years ago and I'm in my 30s. I also have difficulty with the physicial limitations versus what I think I can do. I tend to try to do something 100%, which is my nature, and then end up with a flare and then I have to start back at square one. The bursts of prednisone don't help with weight loss either. I saw some success by changing my diet, but I'm just not able to really exercise like I would like and I am left with stretching and really low impact exercises as my only options. I can't do outdoor activities during the day because of the effect of the sun on my lupus. I have been at a plateau for a while now and I'm hoping to find something to kick start the weight loss again to reach my goal.
I hope you can find a balance between your desire and the obstacles that the lupus and associated symptoms present. For me, the biggest thing has been thinking in terms of health and not necessarily weight loss. For instance changing to whole foods and reducing refined sugar is very good in reducing inflammation which has a positive impact on lupus and your weight. Stretching and low impact exercise, though not really bang for the buck in terms of pounds, is also really good for symptom relief, especially joint pain and stiffness. One of the tools I use is to think what do I want to achieve, what is realistic for my personal situation, and what is 1 thing I can do today to be a healthier me and I don't use a number for any of those things (such as pounds or inches), but rather choose an action-based goal such as I can do my stretching video today, or I can drink 8 glasses of water, or I can go for a walk this evening. Good luck and let me know how you are doing.

I have Lupus as well, and since my last hospitalisation last month I gained 17lbs. I was on IV solumedrol in the hospital and had to be on 40mgs of prednisone which I weaned downed... I hate steroids, I hate the fact that they make me feel better but somehow I cannot stop the weight gain. My rheumy put me on the ideal protein diet which I started last Thursday.. I am hoping that this helps. I want to get the weight off to ease my joint pain and get off the pain meds...

I wish you all healing thoughts and hope you are doing well!!1

cheers,
Judi

I was diagnosed almost 20 years ago and I consider myself to currently be in remission although I have considerable joint pain and I am struggling with hair loss.

On August 28, 2010 I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. I embarked on a health journey by making the dietary and excercise changes to control my blood sugar. I have lost more than 50 pounds. I don't do any dietary extremes and I don't have fast weight loss goals. If I lose 4 pounds per month I am happy and I only weigh myself once a month.

Excercise has always been tough because my main symptom was joint pain, particularly in the mornings. I started doing low impact aerobics with old tapes and the wii. At first, I could only go for 10 minutes! Now I do about an hour a day, first thing in the morning.

My joint pain has dramatically improved. I feel so much better and the fatigue rarely takes me out anymore. I think of it this way: (farm girl metaphor) my disease would have prevented me from carrying a 50 lb bag of corn everywhere but that was what I was doing.

The worst part is that there are NO easy or FAST answers. I know that if you can start the journey, you will begin to feel better most days. I honestly believe that many of my symptoms have been reduced by a healthier lifestyle. I don't think the medical profession has been good about investigating the effects of sugar and processed foods on Lupus.

Finally, having lupus always made me feel slightly "damaged" or fragile. I don't feel that way anymore. I still can't be in the sun, but I can feel like a normal person most of the time. I wish you all good luck and healing energy.

Riemontana, It sounds like you have a great attitude. I definitely agree with you about sugar and processed foods/preservatives. I think it makes a huge difference. I'm now starting to have regrowth from a bout of hair loss. Sun sensitivity still remains an issue. I'm currently limited in my ability to exercise because of dizziness and the fact that if I overwork a muscle it results in painful spasms. What exercise do you find works well for you?

Hello! I too have a chronic illness, though I've got ME/CFIDS. I don't know much about lupus, but I do know that it's where spoon theory came from, so I presume you have similar problems with fatigue and pacing to us.

Pacing has been key. I've exercised myself into relapses more times than I can count, even with really modest exercise regimes, because I got over-enthusiastic. I'm using software which doesn't just calculate calories and protein and such, it also allows you to customise your activity levels and log every activity separately. I've found this fantastic for pacing, and while the amount of exercise I get won't make a blind bit of difference to my weight loss as it's so tiny (I'm severely affected by the ME, housebound and so forth), I finally feel like I'm getting properly on top of pacing. The software I use is called FitDay. It has its quirks which I've had to get used to, but now that I've settled in I'm very happy with it, and steadily losing a pound a week. I'm sure there are other types of dieting software with appropriate methods of logging exercise as well.

Stop thinking about trying to drop weight fast, you already know that it won't work for you (and rarely works for anyone, come to that). Aim for a good steady rate of 1-2lb a week. It may seem slower, but in the long term you lose weight much faster, not to mention more healthily, than you would if you were to lose a lot of weight fast, put it back on, have to lose it again, get discouraged and so forth.

I had not heard of spoon theory prior to your post but just read about it and WOW... that describes my life. It is interesting to have someting tangible to describe the struggle that you have to face everyday. Thanks for sharing that.

I myself dont have lupus, but my mom was diagnosed with it in '78, and passed away from it (and a multitude of other things) in '06. She had several other health problems, which made the lupus worse. (She had diabetes, RA, raynauds, CHF... the list goes on, lol.) She would always say that because she couldn't get much exercise, she had to keep "things in check" with her diet. She had diabetes pretty badly, and kept with the glycemic index diet. (sort of like this: http://www.glycemicindex.com/) She had a little print out on the fridge. She ate mostly veggies and protien. The days she kept up with her way of eating, she felt better, which led her to not have as many flares. She took several vitamins daily, and made sure that her breakfast was high in protein.

She always had a good attitude about things, which also helped her feel better, I think. Being positive and thinking you CAN do something is a huge help. I'm glad that she taught me to do that. She never let any of her diseases keep her from doing things that she wanted... she just did them in her own time.

I guess I just wanted to offer some support! You ladies are brave and amazing!