Weight Loss whilst Disabled

[AdoraDreams]

Hiya,

Bit of background - I was anorexic as a teenager, but I went straight from being a student to being a mummy, whilst fighting ill mental health, so had an extremely poor diet that has only continued. I went from a size 12 to a size 20 in the past 3 years and honestly I'm sick of buying new bigger clothes.

I would really like to lose weight, but I have a few obstacles. I can't calorie count, because that's very dangerous for me and can result in an anorexic relapse. Due to disability I also don't prepare many of my own meals so I kinda get stuck with what I'm given, or eat v poorly and super bad because I don't have the energy to make real food.

I would prefer to exercise to lose weight, but I'm not entirely sure how to do it safely; I'm mostly in a wheelchair when out of the house and can't walk more than around the corner without aid. I was recently given a Wii and Wii Fit as a way to do it - am I on the right lines or way off?

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to cross post but I'm going to put this on the disability forum as well.

Weight loss is 80% what you eat. Exercise has loads of amazing benefits to health but really, weight loss shouldn't be counted as one of them.

Calorie counting is not the only way. Have a look at Zoe harcombe. Easy to follow , lots to eat ( but with a structure ) and based on real eating.

Thanks for this - I've been wondering how to achieve this myself, so I shall check it now! :)

My position isn't so dissimilar to yours. I wanted to lose weight but found it difficult to manage with the demands of a new baby, my own tiredness and disability that meant walks/runs/pilates were basically impossible. I decided to focus on food first. Not by weighing myself - we don't have scales in our house - just by eating healthy, working out what a healthy portion looks like, putting some care into sourcing foods and putting meals together. In time I enjoyed the challenge and the camaraderie of cooking vast batches of apricot chicken and so on, in order that they could be doled out in little portions as and when, on all those days when the energy wasn't there. Purely for my own health (I'd been feeling sick a lot) I cut out all dairy and most wheat and sugar. That took away a lot of convenience foods and gave me and hubbie a new reason to come up with different meals I could eat instead (think avocado, smoked salmon, omelette, chicken etc..

I'm losing weight quite quickly.

thank you for comments. working on my diet is difficult mostly because I really struggle to cook these days and my wife is an absolutely terrible cook (she once burnt a salad) so we can't get creative or clever, and she's also vegetarian so a lot of what we eat is cheesetacular. I'm trying to think of a way to do it but it's something of a struggle without me magically finding extra spoons down the back of the sofa with which to cook (and not the ones that our son has shoved down there, either)

I'm low carbing, it is slowly falling off me :)

(Very similar, disordered eating when younger, struggle to exercise)

Smoked salmon, beansprouts, avocados, chickpeas can all be eaten cold and are really healthy (and not meat!). if the problem is partly that your wife doesn't want to cook meat, there are plenty of healthy alternatives using eggs - scrambled eggs with tomato/omelette plus some nuts/oat porridge for breakfast, chilli made with quorn for lunch, salmon with roasted peppers and a little rice for tea. Chilli can be made ahead in huge batches with very, very little effort. Provided you eat sensible portions, cut out sugar and don't add bread to that menu, I'd find it difficult to imagine your not losing weight - if you currently need to.