Weight Debby/Anita

[Guest guest]

Good morning:)

I too struggle with the weight. I was about 30 - 40 lbs overweight to begin

with and I have gained about 60 pounds

with this and because my numbers on my LFT's bounce up and down so does the

amount of pred that I take. I saw a

dietican and writing down every single thing I put in my mouth was step #1,

then finding a regular exercise

program that was managable was # 2.

What we came up with was walking (10 min to start) and I now do my exercises at

home. I got some hand weights,

we already had an exercise bike and I got a couple of simple Yoga videos and I

dug out some old 60's rock and roll

music. Going to a gym was just to much for me, I did have a couple of trainers

who tried to be helpful but they just

did not get it either. I tried a yoga class (had done yoga for years at a

fairly intense level) but it was too much as

was even the beginners Tai Chi after having spent 6 years at the advanced level.

So now, because I am not working,

I move from about 7:45am to 8:45 am. It does not matter what, though I usually

finish off with the yoga (it is 16

min. with a relaxation part at the end. I go outside every afternoon, just

before I sleep (still needing afternoon

naps) and some days I just phutz around the yard and sometimes I walk anywhere

from 10 min. to 30 min. I have

just started going to the pool twice a week (well I have been 3 times) and can

manage 15 min of very slow laps.

This is the third year I have gotten to this point and this time I am not going

back to work so if I can get the pred

down, it might work. A year after my dx I was sent back to work full time

(teaching) and had a relapse in Nov. and

had to dig my self back up out of the hole. Last year I went back half time and

made it to Feb. before I caught

something that was going around and that led to complications and was back again

where I started.

For the past 18 months I have been up and down on the pred, never below 15 mg.

and I gained back most of the

weight I had lost. I find when I am on the pred at a high level all I want to

eat is a bunch of carbs, so those I cut

way, way, way back on. And when I am really tired and restless and can't sleep,

it is carbs again. I have been

eating carefully for several weeks now and exercising most days at some level.

And most important of all not

beating myself up when I don't reach my expectations and have lost 3 pounds.

Too much exercise is almost as bad as none at all, I have been told, for

someone who is ill. A book I find helps me is

Eight Weeks to Optimun Health By Dr. Weil, but you have to watch the

chapter on tonics, some of the stuff

he mentions are immune boosters, a very bad idea for us. I also have a eating

plan or diet that is healthy (showed

it to the dietician) for a few days to get you started eating correctly and I

find if I do it for three or four days it

helps me lose the cravings and I can be satisfied with salad etc. If you are

interested, let me know and i will send it

to you, it is too long to post here.

I stll have a long way to go - once again- about 80 pounds - but the only way

is too keep at it, do it in a healthy

way and not try to do it all at once. Drink those eight glasses of water every

day as well.

Debby, if you are going back to teaching after Christmas I need to tell you that

when I did, I was just too tired every

day to care about what I ate and definitely too tired to exercise. It was

really hard and I gained back most of what I

lost. Good luck and don't give up.

Anita, is there anywhere that you could go to a warm pool and get yourself

moving gently at first, it helped me with

the fibromylgia when I went to the hot tub at our rec centre and just did gentle

exercises while sittin