to ask- if you needed to overhaul your health, where would you start?

[GFLoser]

I know there's a lot of posts like this at this time of year. I haven't posted in weight loss chat because that's not particularly my aim but I can struggle to stay on top of my weight/keep within a healthy BMI. This might be long but I'm overwhelmed with where and how to start.
I'm nearing my mid-thirties and it feels like my body is falling apart!
My biggest issue is my digestion. I seem to have developed an intolerance to gluten, and potentially something else that I've yet to work out. Nausea, bloat, constipation/diarrhea you get the idea. Spend a lot of time feeling like I've picked up a bug.
My hair is a state. Thinning, breaking, excessive shedding.
My skin is dull, spots in random places- usually only get them on my chin. Terrible dark circles and bags.
I don't sleep well, wake at least 5 times in the night for no apparent reason. Don't always get back to sleep either so I'm tired a lot.
I've had bloods done, all fine, I've checked levels not just taken Dr word for it. I haven't had coeliac screen as I'd have to eat gluten again and it makes me feel so ill.
My body aches, everywhere. It feels so draining. I have an old injury that can't be operated on so exercise is challenging and coupled with the tiredness, the school run is about all I manage.
Where would you start and wwyd?

Yes outdoor exercise and fresh air is brilliant. Hard at this time of year if you work all day as it’s dark so much of the time but even if you can get out for a 20 min walk at lunchtime it’s beneficial.

Mattress?
I was told by GP in my early 40's that I was just getting older when stiff in the mornings (took 5-10m of 'walking' from bed to straighten up)
Disappeared with a new mattress overnight
And if your mattress is wrong, your sleep quality won't be as good and has lots of knock on effects

It absolutely sounds to me like you’re coeliac. It can take a couple of years for your digestive system to recover.

I totally understand not wanting to eat gluten again to have a test; my sister felt exactly the same so just cut gluten out of her diet, but did go to a dietitian who helped her ensure she was getting all the nutrients she needed from other sources.

I would say don't try and tackle everything all at once. Start really small (eg pint of water after waking) for a week, then keep doing that but add another micro habit like 5 mins of stretching in the morning etc. Build it up slowly and sustainably until you're doing lots of small but good things for your health. An app called fabulous is amazing to help with this. I recommend it constantly 😆

I would aim for slow, small changes that are sustainable

It can't be good for you only eating 1 meal per day so I'd look at that first

Have you been checked for coeliac disease? If you are completely gluten free you can't as you need to have been eating gluten to have the markers present.

If you have ruled that out I would recommend going completely GF not even having a molecule (this means checking every single label) for 6 weeks. Then having a slice of toast and seeing if you react. Many of your symptoms align with a gluten intolerance. Quite often people like you avoid gluten but have bits now and again. If you are truly GF then you shouldn't do this as you will react and it can last several days.
Also beware of some GF products as you may not be gluten in tolerant but wheat intolerant. Where you can be intolerant of a different protein from gluten. Some gf products (especially by schlar, as well as many beers) contain wheat with the gluten removed by an enzyme. If you are intolerant of a different protein you will still get symptoms.
I agree many gf replacements are horrible. Therefore don't have many of them instead have different carbs (rice, potatoes, buckwheat, quinoa, sweet potato, polenta, gf oats).
Going gf completely revolutionised my life so good luck.

Habits. You need to build habits and routines. Don't try to change everything at once as you'll crash and burn.

Lots of good advice given such as 30 different veg a week but you need to build up to that otherwise it's overwhelming.

Start off with 5 habits you can stick to, day in day out. You decide. For example:

1. Drink 6 glasses of water a day
2. Take multivitamin
3. Take a walk every day
4. Eat 3 square meals a day. Even if you breakfast at 10 am and have lunch at 3pm
5. Have a bed time routine so you go to bed at same time every night and get up at same time every morning.

Doing a habit/routine ever day NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS IN THE REST OF YOUR LIFE will build your confidence as you will stick to it and you can add more habits to help your health.

With the walking, build up to 30 mins/1 hour if you are unfit. The habit of just getting out every day is the important bit first. Even if it's for 5/10 mins. You can work with that.

Use the same principle for everything else.

If I was an insomniac who ate one meal a day I’d feel awful too.

I’m peri way before my dm and I started my periods late too.

Probiotic: bio-kult
Collagen here too. I use marine collagen with co Q10 called collagen bio10 from evolution slimming. I don't use it for slimming 🙂

It's a lot of fab advice & posters saying add in a bit at a time are right. You can do this xx

I never really thought about one meal a day being terribly unhealthy, I gather some people do it for health reasons/fasting type thing. I thought the worst part of that was that more often than not I just overeat at that meal.
I used to be big on breakfast, and lunch, but gradually my appetite has just disappeared. Like many of you are saying about habits, eating these meals has just fallen out of habit for me. Sometimes I'm hungry at lunch and will have some soup or crackers with cheese. I tended to slump afterwards though, couldn't focus on work (from home) and more often than not it'd knock me sick. So I gave up on it and pushed through to evening meal.
I do also get concerned that I'd gain weight. In that respect my eating is possibly on the disordered side.
I'm still undecided on the coeliac testing front. I couldn't face 6+ weeks of feeling ill, but to be honest I feel dreadful most of the time anyway and am questioning how much worse it could even be.
Small habits and consistency seem to be the consensus, I just need to work out what I can prioritize and do straight away.

I have read that men and women have very different responses to fasting, biologically speaking. It's more complicated for us and not straightforwardly good. And women need a bit of body fat to be healthy. Women's health isn't the same as people's health.

Agreed @Crackof.

OP. Eating one meal a day, every day is unhealthy - how would you get all your nutrients in? Also, it's probably contributing to your digestive issues. And finally, it's probably a contributing factor to your mental well-being too.

I really think even small but significant changes will have a big impact on your health and well-being.

In terms of food, I personally think you're on the right track not eating gluten free products. I don't eat them either. There's plenty of carbs/grains to replace wheat: rice, potatoes, quinoa, millet, buckwheat etc. to have with your 3 square meals. Plus dark chocolate and/or fruit if you need a sweet hit.

I can see you're going to get lots of conflicting advice OP! I can't recommend the app Second Nature highly enough. It deals with diet (as in, what you eat), sleep, stress, exercise and much more. It basically advocates cooking from scratch, 3 good meals a day, low (but not no) carbs, low/no caffeine. I have lost weight - like you that wasn't my main intention- and sleep so much better. Do have a look.

I'd exercise, the rest will follow from that. You can find exercise that works with your injury - maybe a cross trainer, boxercise, swimming. Get into a habit of exercising every day.

Concentrate on your gut health/ microbiome.
Aim for lots of different veg/ plants/ seeds a week and some fermented foods (even yoghurt/ cheese)

More protein and healthy fats such as nuts/ avocado/ fish

Reduce processed foods/ sugar/ refined carbs

Multivitamin (I use Lidl's berocca every morning)

Plenty of water

Prioritise sleep

Walk instead of bus

Eat your main meal at lunch or at least early evening. Big meals late in the evening are well known to be an issue for guts and sleep quality.

Walk. It doesn't have to be long, but just a 20 minute walk with no headphones on and no distractions everyday did absolute wonders for me. Allowed me to be more in tune with my body and listen to it, and also helped both mentally and physically prepare me for doing more then, so then doing a 30 minute walk, and then a 45 minute walk up to now where it's a 5km walk in just over an hour. It's just about starting somewhere. I used to have all sorts of gut issues, and the walking really helped my digestion and also anxiety etc which can affect your tummy.

Thank you all for the thoughts, advice and a bit of a reality check that my eating habits are a little more dysfunctional than I realised.
I've got a bit of thinking space away from life/stress this weekend so I'll go through the thread a bit more closely, make some notes and come up with a plan.
Think I'll order some vitamins too and maybe an app or two in order.

Might be good to jot down how you're feeling every day, see if you can track improvements and see what works best for you. Good luck!

Just to add, I do think most if not all my health complaints are linked. I think if could improve in certain areas, the rest would start to follow e.g. if my digestion and aches/exercise issues were resolved, sleep and better skin would follow.

X-posted with you there @Crackof yes I will start to keep a bit of a journal to see if there is another intolerance at play, and I do think it's all negatively impacting my mood- accidental gluten makes me feel really anxious for a start.. I'm just praying it's not dairy!

That would be a pain!
Everything is linked .... I really think that's true.

Its all linked to what you are eating imo.

I had

Sleepless nights
Bad skin
Overweight
Acid reflux - Multiple packs of Rennies per week
Bloated
Blood in poo
Lack of energy
Bad moods

I knew exactly what caused most of it but i carried on regardless. Until one night 6months ago i decided to sort it out. I now avoid

Pizza
Bread
Fast food
Coke

I say avoid, there is nothing wrong with once in a while but before it was pretty much all the time. Now its mainly proper meals and salads and every so often something off the list. Funny thing is i straight away get that horrible feeling now if i do have a pizza or some bread.

Every single one of those issues above disappeared. I have lost 13kg in weight without doing any cardio.

Sort the eating out first and everything else falls into place without having to make too much extra effort.

Tessasanderson

Would you mind giving us a rough idea of what you eat now? Great to hear people's transformations!