Morbidly obese and Chronic illness - how to start?

[Valerrie]

Hi, I'm looking for some advice please.

I'm morbidly obese with a BMI of about 46. I'm 5ft1 and I weigh 17.5 stone. I struggle with my weight due to eating crap, comfort eating, convenience eating due to disabilities and no exercise.

I have fibromyalgia and a spinal injury, osteoarthritis all over, cervical spondylosis, Peri-menopausal, celiac and ibs. I'm 35

I know I need to change my diet. Due to the fact that I'm in bed most of the time, I find it too hard to go downstairs, stand and make food. This means I'm eating sugary cereal for breakfast, a sandwich my husband leaves me with crisps and chocolate, a couple of pieces of food and then a takeaway or something that can be oven cooked quickly for tea like gf nuggets and chips, steak and mash, ready meals etc. My husband is ill himself and works full time so can't spend much time cooking.

I'm now finding it difficult to just move the minimal amount. If I go downstairs and walk back up I'm incredibly breathless and my heart races and pounds. Even walking to the bathroom leaves me breathless.

I really want to tackle my problems but I don't know how. I have severe health anxiety so can't see a GP because I can't leave the house. My blood pressure is fine. If I start moving around and I feel my pulse elevate I have panic attacks. I'm limited to what I can do because of neck and spine pain and knee pain.

I'm so, so miserable and scared. I can't seem to get a grip and make healthy food choices but then we never have healthy food here. My husband does the shopping and he's underweight so buys junk. DD eats healthily but is starting to notice my poor choices.

What can I do? I've spent the morning in a state of extreme panic because I walked up the stairs and I thought my heart was coming out of my chest.

Do muster all your willpower to go cold turkey on cutting out sugar and processed carbs. It will take a few days and you might experience headaches and a feeling of flu, but it is the ONLY way you will beat this.
You've got this. It starts now. The chocolate bars and crisps are not your friend - throw them away from you as if they're radioactive material...they might as well be for the damage they are causing.
Read
https://www.dietdoctor.com - delicious low carb way of eating, whilst feeling satiated by all the good fats
And read the science behind sugar cravings on:
https://thebloodsugardiet.com

Exercise and low calorie diets won't be sustainable, or eliminate your cravings.
Drink lots and lots of water while you're going cold turkey and after. A hot bovril drink will help replace electrolytes and salt when you increase your water intake.
Can you stop taking the mini-pill if that caused problems?
Good luck! You are worth it and you can do this

Thank you everyone.

I do need scales, not in the position to get any this week but maybe next week. I tend to get a bit obsessive though and weigh every day then get sad if I haven't lost, binge and enter that vicious circle.

I stopped taking the pill months ago. It's helped the random panic attacks a lot but not the triggered ones.

I feel like I'm coming down with something today so will mainly be having lemsips and soup!

I really hope you're right about being me again. There just seems to be something awful wrong with me every day and I feel so ill and hopeless, whether it's heavy bleeding, muscle pain, upset stomach, dizziness from my ear etc.

I'll be asking DH to post my letter to my GP tomorrow for suggestions of help.

If you think the scales might be triggering maybe don't buy any. If you are eating well and not getting sugar crashes you will start to feel better. You will know by your clothes and how much more energy you have. Losing weight is important but it will come with eating right and feeling better. Just concentrate on eating well meal by meal, snack by snack.

This might seem silly but hiw about getting a notebook and having a page per day. Keep a food diary. What you eat for every meal and snack. Use the traffic light system - green for healthy foods that you can eat freely, orange for slightly less healthy and foods that you can eat but in limited quantities and red for things like crisps sweets etc - things that you shouldn't eat or if you do it's very little. The aim per day will be to have as much green as you can by the end of the day. You could use colouring pencils and just shade over the word - carrot would be green, Haribos would be red, peanut butter would be orange. If your days are mostly green with a some orange and hardly any red you know just by looking that you are eating well. You are nourishing your body with healthy foods that will make you feel better. Maybe it might be better to focus on that rather than weight loss at this stage. And as you feel better and your body adjusts to healthy food and you have more energy the weight loss will follow.

I can't have scales in the house. They screw with my head. Besides, it's behaviour I had to change (to deal with my eating disorder). The scales didn't add any useful info whatsoever.

I think you're trying to run before you can wallk and the thought of excercie is completely overwhelming.

How about you start off small?
Go on youtube and look up armchair excercises, or armchair aerobics.
Such as (there are others) Find one that suits.

Try and do those for a couple of weeks until you build up your confindence, , then you can gradually work up to some indoor walking.
I can swear by this one:

Sound like a plan?

By the way, the first step is wanting to do something about it. So you have already done the hard bit.
Good luck!

The Lesley Sansone one is brilliant for lifting your mood.
But you might want to try the seated ones first for a few weeks and then gradually build up to the indoor walking.

How are things going valerrie?

I have CFS, had it for 17 years.
I felt so ill all the time. Craved sugar for energy constantly.

I started a low carb high fat and fibre diet a year ago for health reasons.
I now never crave sugar or even think about food.
I've lost two stone taking me down to 8st and now walk people's dogs for a living.

Top tips
Don't buy new scales, weigh or chart your weight.
Only eat food under 5g of carb per 100g that makes shopping really simple.
Eat as much of that as you like. Very liberating.
Fill up on good fats and fibre.
Remember fruit, porridge popcorn etc are high carb and will just convert to sugar and keep you craving.

And you have a dog! I would make your dog your fitness goal. Start just taking her to the end of the road. Your dog will love you for it which is a far more rewarding than any app.

You can do this! Your life this time next year could be so different.

I ended up eating low carb high fat this year too due to gestational diabetes and I lost a load of weight on it and felt so much better. I want to continue that way. I don't do it to extremes (I am the kind of person who can't handle that, I never give up anything completely but cutting back is fine) so altering proportions within meals to have only minimal carbs. It made me realise I was eating much of it out of habit when for example I enjoyed a bunless burger more than usual. High fat and protein is soooo satisfying and making changes like having way less pasta and more sauce becomes easy.

I have fibro and CFS but I have a better base fitness level due to losing weight and reducing sugar (again not cutting out, I wouldn't beat yourself up over five haribo for example). I am getting a lot of pain at the moment but I am for the first time in six years finding that I actually feel better for moving about and I am enjoying walking. Honestly thought it would never happen again. I'm sure it can for you too!

I have a DVD from the hospital I had my specialist treatment at. The exercises are specifically designed for us sufferers and much can be done seated. I didn't even start doing all of it, just one section a day would be brilliant. I'd be happy to send you it if you'd like. :)

Also agree those little bike pedal things are fab, I use mine watching telly.

How are you doing ?

How are things, OP?