General Chat

Liz

when physio a hospital couldnt do anymore for me and he fibro they put me on a community fitness programme and now mean to do swimming and gym. We have a paspart to leisure card that cost £10 a year but i get gym and swimming free as am classed as disabled because of the fibro and cfs.

They have stopped me doing weights as that tears muscles to repair them to make them sronger and he says am in so much pain and my fatigue is so bad he wont risk it on me so just cardio stuff. Bike for 5 mins rowing for 3 mins cross trainer for 2 mins and then hopefully can build it up. Swimming inbetween not easy when its given me swimmers shoulder but am determined to lose some of this weight and get muscles working again as they have just wasted away

Pauline keep with the slimming world plan.
You must know it inside out so keep with it and well done for giving up the ciggies.

Teresa

hi
i drink skinny cow hot chocolate only 37 cals a cup and takes away my chocolate craving.

AuntySherlock you can get on your soapbox anytime lots of good advice there.
I used to go to slimming world and lost weight, I cant be doing with all this "this is yours, that's mine, mustn't have this,cant have that" I found S.W. advocated healthy lifestyle and not to think of it as a "diet" and I think that's the way to go because its for life and its not faffy and fiddling and its not about depriving your self of an occasional treat
Fortunately or unfortunately which ever way you want to look at it I have not long packed in smoking and I am told to expect putting some weight not if I can help it

Lol Julie, I feel the same way, but as I've just packed in smoking I'm expecting to gain a few pounds or at least that's what I'm told to expect.
I'm going to do a food diary cos I cant cope with packing in smoking "and" putting on weight so I'm going to try a spot of damage limitation.
Chin up hun

Oh yes, imagine those little piggies lying on the carpet lol I have seen those long handled scissors but not sure I could get them to work for me. My little toe is just that, very little and the nail is tiny and at a strange angle, always has been so I would have a real problem with my dodgy shoulders getting even long handled things at the right angle to cut the nail. I also have one sort of hammer toe, inherited from my Dad, and that one's nail is hard to cut too.

I don't eat between meals but as I sleep at a different time to my o.h. and he works shifts, I am sort of restricted to certain meal times when he is here. Am definitely eating less than I used to tho and as I mentioned, my shape is changing a bit, I also seem to get less bloated for some reason so that helps, I am eating less bread too

Lizx

I have an immage in my head of your toenails. gives me the shudders.
Not very good with fingers and toes!!!
no probs with other injued body parts.
Off to clear the area known as the garden.
Spent 3 hours out thereyesterday and although compost bin and green wheely bin full it doesnt look much different.

Where is groundforce when you need them?

Teresa

maybe Liz the best way is just 3 meals a day. Cereal for breakfast sandwich or soup for lunch and normal tea and no deserts.

When we were younger and very hard up we ate like that and weight was less of a problem to my husband. I was always on a diet anyway inn some shape or form!!

Hubbie at over 6 foot needs to loose a stone.

Im sorry about the arthritis my mother had it and said it was very wearing.

Teresa

Good. And just remember you have to want to do it. And only you can do it.

And speaking of toenails. There is a set of toenail scissors available which have long handles like garden shears. Made especially for elderly people who can no longer reach their toes.

Oh I can just see all those little toes lying on my carpet as I trim my nails from a great distance.

Until about three years ago I was doing several cleaning jobs and walking a lot more and the weight piled on, I haven't added any more since stopping the work (couldn't continue because of the constant pain from vaccuuming and stretching up to dust, struggled to get up and still do if I get down on my knees to wipe floors etc because of the arthritis in knees.)
I had a mammogram yesterday afternoon and she twisted and turned me to get my bits in the right position, I am now really suffering in my back, neck and shoulders as I have arthritis there too. I was always very active, worked two jobs for years when young, one day time office job and an evening one as waitress or barmaid and walked most places as no car for a long time.

I can't join a slimming group as I couldn't always get there, depends on what shift o.h. is onand whether I could have the car as well as can't afford the cost of these slimming clubs.

I am not that unhealthy except for the fm etc, in that I don't have high cholesterol or high blood pressure or heart problems apparently, having been checked out often and don't have diabetes, all things my Mum had, but I will make more effort to say no to chocolate, don't have cakes or biscuits in the house - well biscuits sometimes but not often and have semiskimmed milk, low fat spread which I don't slather on bread, if I have jacket potatoes which is often, I don't add butter or such, might have it with scrambled egg and a little cheese as a filling with tomatoes, and such.
Don't eat lots of desserts, mainly yogourts or sometimes a Lidl's icecream cone, or fruit.
I do think it is genes as so many of my aunts were the same shape too, but I know I have to try harder to eat more of the right things and less of the naughty stuff.

Today I met a woman I knew more than 20 yrs ago, she was a tv presenter on local tv and was an older Mum like me. She is much fatter than I am and looked as if she was about to give birth, she was so big round the tum, but as she is probably a pensioner or close, so my age group, she isn't pregnant. She said she has to go to the doctor to get her toenails cut (wish mine would do my toenails lol) and really struggles with illhealth. She is still attractive but very bloated round the face, which is a shame and I felt a bit sad for her, her son that I know lives in London a lot of the time, and sounds as tho she lives alone now, so her other son must be away too. I left her feeling a bit better about the way I look but do still want to lose my spare tyre.
Will let you know when I manage to lose some lbs

Lizx

Liz you are so right about the weight going on as you get older.
my sister and I were fat children in the 1960s and 70s It was rare in those days and my Mum must have packed it in us because we didnt have a car and walked everywhere.
Managed to loose 2 stone to get me down to 9 stone when I left home at 18 living on a student diet of jacket potatoe and beans and ham omlettes
I kept it off till first child at 28 by dieting and then had 2nd child at 35 and then things went down hill when I got to 40
Now back to 11 stone and I work in an active job and walk loads.
I was always a pear shape but now it is more round the middle Not good for the health according to experts.
My late mother was always thin until she became unwell and immobile and her weight was all round the middle with skinny legs and her mother the same.
Could be a genetic thing. Its hard work and dispiriting but I feel that I have to plod on
Not sure if we ars allowed to endorse slimming clubs but slimming world have a plan called extra easy.
You have one dairy chice ie 250mls semi skimmed milk or 28g cheese etc and a carbohydrate choice
such as 28g cereal or 2 slices wholemeal bread etc.
The rest of the meals are normal everyday foods ie roasts pasta dishes but cooked low fat and the plan encourages to avoid processed ready meals etc.
They do have treats which can be anything fron a choc bar to cook in sauce in small amounts.
People at the club I go to do generally well unless they go off plan as we all do.
There is an on line club for people who may want to go it alone.I stayed the same weight last night but AuntySherlocks tough talking makes sense Wont power sounds better than Will power. A bit more pro active and less passive.
I will take her words of advice and now off to go and dig the garden. It is sunny and it looks a bit neglected. Also got to get small child to go under hedges and get several footballs out.
Didnt know he had so many!

Teresa

There is also this little bit of advice. It occurs frequently through articles on managing the fm condition.

Read it and then think about what you are eating. Give it a go for two weeks.

http://www.prohealth.com/library/showarticle.cfm?id=3425&t=cfids_fm

Gets on soap box. Not a warm fuzzy person. Thought about how to say this. No diplomacy in me. Talking to the doctor is an excellent beginning. After that you need to stop talking and start doing.

You need to find a strategy which decreases your weight and stick to that strategy. Be guided by your doctor's advice but most of all understand this....

You must want to lose the weight. Not short term for the sake of a social engagement but forever.

You need won't power. Not will power. I won't eat that because if I do I will need to run up and down the stairs four times.

You need to stick to a healthy eating plan and not deviate from it. Don't listen to those skinny health experts who say "an occasional treat is OK" while waving a 200g block of chocolate under your nose.

Those skinny health people will get their comeuppence when they reach 45.

You need to exercise. You need to find a way of burning off some of your food intake.


And you need to know that losing the weight will improve the very quality of your life. I acknowledge you have additional challenges to face. Put your grit and determination in charge of your brain and make it happen.

You are the only person who can make it happen. Nothing I or anyone else says will do it for you.

Go look in your mirror. Ask yourself if this is how you wish to be. Then get mad, determined and take action.

Gets off soap box.

Teresa, until I hit my forties I was fine, was like Olive Oyl when really youngand then was under 9 stone till I had my son, got back with no effort to under 9 stone again when he was small and was always on the go, doing several jobs and childminding too. Neighbours used to say they couldn't believe how much I crammed into the day as I was modernising a house too and looking after elderly relatives and neighbours, but I think depression, hrt and coming up to my fifties with a teenage son must have done something to my metabolism and I started to pile on the pounds so by the time I met o.h. at 49, I was a size 14. Since then I have turned into my later Mother, with all my weight round the middle and increased to a size 20/22 which I hate being.
I think I actually have that book somewhere Aunty, but it's hard to do things differently when there is such a variety of food in the house, I try to eat less and differently in the week o.h. is on late shift so I can cook just what I want.
I don't have the strength to do much at all now with the fm etc but have to be sure to eat something or I just feel so ill, and sick. My shape is changing a little and I am losing a bit off the tum so not sure why but must be getting something right lol

Did an omelette last evening with four small fresh eggs between the two of us, an ounce of cheddar, mushrooms, peppers, chopped onion, spinach, broccoli, green beans and peas (all frozen veg cooked in a tablespoon of mild and light olive oil) with a few oven chips on the side.
I also drink a lot of water flavoured with a tiny splash of hijuice squash, not the sort with aspartame in.

Will ring the doc and get an apptmt and ask about the gym thing.

Now we have the wedding invite through I have a bit of an incentive to lose a few pounds at least.

Lizx

Sounds ok for 3 days and then get back on track. Just got back from an hours walk and my skinny offsprings are scoffing chocolate.
Why oh why are they eating all day and not putting on weight
. Dont know how they manage in lessons at school and uni.
The eldest drives everywhere and still stays the same size!!!!!!!!!

Teresa

PSD!!! Go find yourself a copy of the book Detox, Regaining your health and Vitality by Penelope Sach.

No you do not have to do the detox. Just use the hints and eating guides in the book and read all about what foods help in what situations.

Yes I have done the detox. It only lasts for three days and involves eating vegetable soup. My stomach turns over whenever I think about eating vegetable soup. I would rather eat healthy than have to survive for three days on vegetable soup, and apples and pears.

Hi Liz the salmon sounds nice.
Back to slimming club tonight
Hopefully will have lost the some of the weight I lost before christmas and put on again.
Need to loose 1 stone and keep loosing and regaining

Teresa

LadyinRed, hmm, worth asking, I don't think my doctor has dared mention it to me lol, she wouldn't want me to have a heart attack at the thought lol

Julie, what a cop out!

Deanna, it's a pretty colour pink!

Teresa, oh good thing I don't live near there then I love bread!

Just had cold smoked mackerel in a piece of granary baguette with a mere scraping of spread on the bread, it was tasty.

Salmon cooked in foil with oven roast potatoes, broccoli, green beans, peas and sweetcorn for dinner earlier and before that a cinnamon and raisin bagel dunked in coffee for my 'breakfast', the mackerel mentioned above and my earlier dessert was a chocolate icecream cone from Lidls, naughty but nice. Have also had a yogourt and two of my mint chocolates from Easter. I did have a quick walk to the shops and back at 7pm and have been up and down stairs several times, haven't tried the band yet lol

Lizx

Purple Sparkly Diamond - don't know where you live but if in Uk have you asked your doctor about "exercise on prescription"? That way they pay for you to access a gym. Might be worth looking at if money tight

Bread!!!!!
We have a family run bakery in our town which has just celebrated 50 years of baking. They bake in the traditional way and still have two generations to hand down to.
They have seen off competition from 3 major supermarkets in our small market town.

I keep it sliced in the freezer out of harms way

Teresa.
They do wicked cakes as well