High BP, time to lose weight!

[chimchiminey]

Nurse today. Need to take two weeks of home blood pressure readings and then go back and get weighed each fortnight.

Have piled weight on so quickly, having a surgically-induced early menopause and it just seems to make me insanely hungry.
So…accountability!!! Anyone more than welcome to come on board for mutual support.

Today, not brilliant but far far more in control than it has been:
B - 2 x toast with lime curd
L - chicken salad sandwich, innocent smoothie, millionaires shortbread,
D - mince and potatoes, 3 x side vegetables

@PieonaBarm that sounds interesting! Hope it works out. I have a friend on Ozempic who says that's what it does for her - stops her thinking about food. I may end up there but I'm really reluctant to spend all that unless I really get nowhere in a few months.

@PermanentTemporary never even considered tinned fruit thanks for that

@PermanentTemporary a friend is on Mounjaro and to be fair she had around 8 stone to loose, it's working for her although she is finding it tough this week with nausea. I have explored it and would qualify however one of the rare side effects can be kidney failure. Which I had following Covid and ended up on dialysis. Thankfully it was very acute and after about 6 weeks of dialysis my kidneys kicked back in and I'm ok now. It was horrific and I don't want to risk that again, I doubt I would be lucky enough to recover pretty much all my kidney function again.

I absolutely support anyone who needs to and that takes the injections option though, it's been life changing already for my friend.

@Kobrakid be careful with chocolate if you have high potassium. When mine was low my Renal Consultant suggested bananas, which, quite frankly, in my opinion, should be illegal. So she laughed and told me "to gorge on chocolate for a week". I duly followed her advice with boxes of Lindt balls (supplied by my lovely MIL) which I ended up forcing down I had that many, and the next week my potassium was back up. Could be a coincidence, but it had the desired effect.

You are still food focused! Just have normal foods available and monitor how much you eat. There are no good foods or bad foods just healthy foods.

Op, are you taking hrt? Balancing your hormones is going to help a lot with appetite and energy.

@PieonaBarm i got diagnosed beginning of March and I’ve eaten chocolate three times by then. I just don’t eat it because if I have a little bit I want a lot. I find it easier to think of it in terms of it’ll harm my kidneys rather than it’s unhealthy. In my head it makes it easier to stay away from it. I have changed my diet quite a lot.
I'm sorry you had to have dialysis though but glad you’re ok now. I’ve been told very bluntly this week that dialysis and transplant is my future and it’s terrifying but also a good motivator for doing everything I can.

Have done my 10k steps again today. Not sure how I'm going to do it in the week, but it's all progress in the right direction.

Have got a lovely but somewhat dangerous evening ahead (pizza and fizz with friends). If I can keep to a moderate amount at that, I'll be doing well.

@Kobrakid ah I'm sorry to hear your news. I was very lucky, and I know I was. What I will say is that I found dialysis "easy" for want of a better word, I physically tolerated it well, but it can be boring. One of my slots was a Friday evening and it was a younger set of patients and the nurses often had dance music on quite loudly. Make sure you've got an iPad and iplayer/netflix or some good books as it can be long. I used to save up Eastenders and watch a couple of episodes. If they haven't yet they will offer you appointments with a psychologist to help you come to terms with what's happening. The nurses are lovely and really do look after you and try to get you in and out as quickly as they can.

@PieonaBarm thank you it’s a few years off yet and fingers crossed I’m starting a new treatment Thursday which would put off needing steroids. I really don’t want the steroids. At first I was losing the weight because we knew I’d put it back on with the steroids but I do feel so much better for losing it. I’m losing motivation a bit at the minute just need to get that back.

@Kobrakid with everything you're dealing with you're doing amazingly, little at a time, don't try and win the war all at once, they're won in smaller battles. One meal or snack at a time when it comes to weight loss, and if the last one wasn't great, try and make the next one better x

@PieonaBarm hello, let us know how the hypnotherapy goes - my exH did it to stop smoking.

@Kobrakid could you rethink snacks as small meals and have little portions of leftovers ready maybe? Or bulk up your lunch a bit more with a jacket potato say? In the past I’ve snacked on roasted carrot/sweet potato, roasted chickpeas (they keep well in a Tupperware and you can use whatever spices you like), oatcakes and cheese spread.

Today I’m planning to slowly start up intermittent fasting, recommended by GP and I know once I get in to it it can stop a lot of my food noise…just hard to find the energy to start! I actually think I’ll do best only having breakfast and lunch, so today’s food:

B - porridge with pumpkin/sunflower seeds /coconut and prunes.
L - salmon and roasted veg

must up my water.

Have a good Monday everyone.

I hear a lot of good things about intermittent fasting @chimchiminey, hope it goes well.

I've just walked ten miles, so that's dealt with my steps for now. It was distressing how difficult it got to hail all my extra kilos in the last 3 miles though. Only about 4 years ago I would have thought of ten miles as an easy weekend walk.

@PermanentTemporary I bet the walk was nice, and the fitness will come back. My joints are now so bad I can barely manage 1 mile but I did use ti love long walks.

Found out I’m anaemic, explains why I’ve been trying to self medicate the tiredness with crap food in a way 😆. Now on meds.

Today’s food plans:

seedy porridge with prunes
beef stew, lots of veg

I'm sorry to hear about your joints. I can feel mine aren't what they were. The effects of time are annoying.

Another 8k steps today (though the plan was to walk to the pool, have a swim and walk back - the walking happened but the pool was closed...) However, I'm struggling to stick to plans with the food. A bit better today so perhaps I'm turning it around.

Scrambled eggs and pear
Cold sausage and apple (sausages were defrosted for ds at the weekend but he didn't eat them so i had to cook them!)
Stir fried prawns and veggies with about 100g cooked rice
Yogurt with honey and nuts
All good but then I had more cold sausages...

AT LAST I've got a tiny shift in the numbers in the right direction. Thanks again for this thread @chimchiminey. 22kg to go! How are you doing?

I've got a dinner out on Saturday so am going to have to be very careful. However, I managed to stay moderate for the pizza evening last Sunday so it can be done.

So I had my first session of hypnotherapy yesterday. I don't think I was "out of it" completely at any point but by the same token I didn't feel I could move during it. I've had a friend have it for smoking and she said the same.

I have the recording to listen to every night for a month too.

I don't know if I'm readying too much into it just yet but I went shopping afterwards and I only realised afterwards that I didn't wander down the sweet/crisp aisle wondering what I could buy to eat in the car on the way home, which is exactly what I do every single time. Also didn't reach for anything sweet after my tea which again is something that I do without thinking. I guess only time will tell.

You absolutely can do it. A good friend had a medically induced menopause before she was 40 and piled on weight. 10+ years on she’s fit, healthy, toned and has been off bp meds for years. We trained for a marathon walk together and it changed her life. A year after starting, she wad different person and completely embraces a healthy lifestyle. I don’t think she’ll ever go back.

Would seriously advise you to cut out the millionaires shortbread at this stage. You can enjoy those again occasionally when you’ve reached your goal.

Cut down the empty carbs (white bread, white rice, white pasta, etc.), cut out the sugar as much as possible and get back to walking as much as you can.

You can do it. All the best.

Also had a small shift down in the numbers. Which is a massive surprise given the amount of take always we’ve had this week. Started a new treatment yesterday and I’m drained but onwards and upwards!

Today - boiled egg, apple, pear, coffee
Hard boiled eggs, tomatoes, banana
Salmon with herbs, new potatoes, stir fried greens, broad beans, tomatoes
Glass of wine... the trick is to have one