Diets NO WAY

[Joyce65]

To the person who is worried about dieting

I could not believe my eyes when I seen that your worrying about a diet

There are hundreds od diets out there, u can go and join a group to have diet and support

And being slimmer does help with pain

Most doctors now a days sent u to the local gym, were they give u ur own workout plan taking in consideration ur illness pain etc, and it cost nothing for 20 weeks, after this it is only a pound every time u go for the next year, then u get a discount pass depending on your life style

After years of worrying about diets I find the best thing to do is eat small and often drink plenty of water

I am sorry to say my days worrying about diets have gone out the window, as PAIN is always the. Top of my list, I cannot worry wen about diets wen at two in morning I am walking around house coz of pain, surely trying to sort ur pain out comes first

[TheAuthor]

Thank you so much for that and I sincerely hope that the member in question sees your post. It is best to click on the reply box below the post content and send the message directly to the thread in question for the member to get the message.

I personally believe that diet can be just as important a tool in fighting Fibro or being taken seriously by a doctor as anything else in the war on Fibro arsenal. As if you turn up for a GP appointment and you are overweight then there is a good possibility that your GP could in fact blame your weight for the reason that you are in pain and cannot walk too well. I have read this on the forum from other members.

Many of the drugs used to treat Fibro can also increase your weight such as Pregabalin and Gabapentin. So sometimes it can feel like a war on two fronts.

I want to genuinely and sincerely wish you all the best of luck.

Ken

[Redhots7]

Yes, is it mental or physical pain that keeps you up ? Surely they have given you pain meds for physical but side effects can lead to mental anguish . Make it a priority to get to the place you can live with ! 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻for you . 😘

[rosie-2015]

I don't know if this is aimed at me but i find the post hurtful. There is a lot of reasons for dieting and one reason is to help with pain and mobility which are only two of my reasons, i have a lot of health issues arthritis being up there with the fibro. My mobility is nil I'm nearly 64 and over 16 st I'm sorry for going on about it but i suppose it's because I'm vulnerable that i took it personally. My hopes are that if i lose weight. My mobility will improve and i can start gentle exercises including stretches and my pain and RLS will improve gentle hugs Rosie x

[kmc-cudsleepforaweek]

I actually don't know who this is aimed at but I take this post quite personally.

I am 9half stone, 5'5 with excellent BMI, yet I hate the weight I have put on since being in medication, especially as it's around my waist. I have FMS, CFS and RLS and I am in constant pain, it just varies in degrees. I am being treated for depression now, something I wanted to put off for as long as possible but the pain and the other consequences that come from FM became overwhelming. I do as best as I can with diet etc., not only on the off chance that it might help with the symptoms but also that it may help me with my weight gain. Exercise is another matter, I manage to regiment myself daily with at least half an hour of whatever my body will allow, but most of the time, that could be a gentle walk around the house. I consider myself a relatively healthy person, both bodily and mentally, however my weight is a big problem for me. This may come across as superficial to some but this is my reality and my issues with FM and the medication I have to take are just as valid as the next persons.

I come on this site to feel supported and hopefully do the same for someone else. I don't want to feel as if I can't be open about my issues with FM, CFS and RLS for fear of them being considered as being petty.

The old adage comes to mind 'think before you speak' or in this case 'think before you write'.

Karen x

[1TeiaMarie]

No I don't worry about diet because I'm in so much pain an the littlest of movement hurt so bad... But my rheumatologist doesn't care about the pain just weight loss and if I can't find the time between pain and sleep to do when I have to every day I don't have time for a gym or the money (yes $ 10.00 a week does matter when people live paycheck to paycheck bills come first )I know I have posted on here that my rheumatologist says to loose weight an the fibromyalgia will be better however my point was my rheumatologist said there is no meds for fibromyalgia an he will not give me any thing for pain he just wants me to loose weight! Well a lot of the meds I am on from my regular dr the side effects are weight gain an my regular dr knows this and does not have a problem with it! My point was how am I supposed to loose weight when I eat right, small portions... I try and work out but with the fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis in feet and in lower back there's not much I can do especially with nothing for pain! And any bending or twisting of my back slips the disk and when on my feet they feel like they are breaking, let alone the fibromyalgia pain!! An I can't just change rheumatologist I live in the US an have no insurance and to see the rheumatologist cost me $2,500 and I owe more every time I go back and he is the only rheumatologist with in 50 miles that will take someone with no ins?(in less I want to make an appointment for 8 months from now and my regular dr said I had to be seen NOW)... Regular dr did blood work and said lupus with out a doubt put me on all the lupus meds pain level went down a little 3-4 months later went to rheumatologist he told me to be quite he didn't know me or what was wrong he was going to do his own blood work and said I don't think it's lupus I think it's fibromyalgia (well that appointment was a waste of time) a month later went back to him he said my blood work was good an did the fibromyalgia pressure test (I almost passed out from pain) he said yes fibromyalgia you need to loose 70 or more lbs and at least 10 lbs next time I see you (that will be a week after Christmas) and went on about how there is no meds he can give me for fibromyalgia or pain besides loose weight! How ever I think I do have lupus just I had all the meds in my system and not in a flair so everything looked normal( but he said no) an yes I do have fibromyalgia I have all the tender points but when I talked to people that have lupus or lupus and fibromyalgia I have all the systems they do even the butterfly rash! Sorry so long I just wanted to make sure everyone understands where I'm coming from!😖😱😤😪😲😴🤒😷😮😳

[TwinklingStar]

It is absolutely essential that people who are in pain look at their eating and life style choices. If you are over weight you will be putting a strain on almost every muscle and joint in your body including your spine. So it is extremely important to try to keep your weight under control. Although I don't like to use the word "diet" but I prefer people to think of making life style changes and eliminate food that can definitely increase inflammation, trigger pain and cause a host of other problems. Small amounts of food frequently is an essential pattern to adopt. I have around 6 - 8 times when I eat at least something.

Rosie is very sensible in wanting to try to get her weight under control and this will in turn improve her pain levels. I can now only go on to say the foods which I have eliminated from my diet to assist in pain control. I have read a great deal of research on the subject but I am not a Doctor.

I try to not have any food which have any added sugar in. Although, I believe having a third of a teaspoon of sugar in a mug of hot milk once a day before bed helps with sleeping. I believe pure sugar in extremely small amounts to be better than other sweeteners. I find it difficult to drink the amount of fluids I need by drinking pure water. I therefore tried non-carbonated artificially sweetened water. These drinks are usually not very sweet tasting and are just called flavoured water in such flavours as Strawberry, Orange, ,etc. These all affected my Liver and I discovered these drinks were causing my health to be worse and increased pain levels. I stopped drinking these and returned to the Blackcurrant cordial labelled as "NO ADDED SUGAR". Now this does not mean it has no sugar so it is crucial that if you cannot bring yourself to have enough fluid by drinking plain water that you only use the smallest amount possible of this cordial to flavour your water. Sugar is known to increase inflammation and is one of the most important foods to try to eliminate.

It is also important to attempt to have foods which do not have added salt. If you discover that the reduction of salt causes you to have muscle cramps you should immediately eat something high in salt such as a SMALL packet of crisps. Then you should increase your salt intake by a very small amount until you have no further problems with muscle cramps.

I also have excluded all foods from the Deadly Nightshade Family. These foods include Peppers, Potatoes, Tomatoes, all products containing Tomato such as Tomato Sauce, etc. (for a complete list please google "Deadly Nightshade Foods"). The reason for excluding these foods are more connected to my Liver Disease than to pain. However, Peppers always caused me severe head pains the day after I consumed even tiny amounts. For this reason when it was recommended that I exclude these foods I did find that my Liver seemed less loaded with toxins, resulting in less inflammation and less pain. This may not be necessary for those of you who do not have Liver problems.

I have recently seen on the Television advertisements encouraging people to only eat foods that consist of one food. I realised that this is basically what my "healthy eating plan" seems to be. All my meals are made up of foods which are only one food each. For example, I eat maybe a Cheese bake. I am lucky as I have a Carer so he prepares these meals in bulk for me. This cuts down on electricity costs. People may be able to prepare maybe 15 to 30 meals in one day and freeze them. My Carer generally prepares around 15 at a time. He often uses my large slow cooker - so all you do is bung it all in and leave it go slow cook overnight or all day (time it so you can divide into containers when your energy levels are at their best). So tonight my meal consisted of cauliflower, swede, carrots, broccoli, peas which had been covered with a sprinkling of cheese or two thin slices of cheese. (Make sure the cheese has no colouring and is JUST cheese with no added ingredients.

So you see each food is just a pure food in its own right. So milk is JUST milk, sugar is JUST sugar, cheese is JUST cheese, apples are JUST apples. I do eat Yoghurt but I only eat Natural Yoghurt with no added ingredients so my Yoghurt is JUST yoghurt - I use Onken Natural Set Bio Yoghurt. Now I don't like the taste of just natural yoghurt so my goal is to find something pure to add to it. Something like pure crushed strawberries or something similar. I have not tried pure chocolate powder - not sure if that would work. We cannot cope with work such as juicing of fresh foods etc. It creates too much work, means it is not available at the times I need it, too much washing up, etc. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. I cannot tolerate the taste of honey! Even a third of teaspoon of pure sugar would be better than eating the flavoured yoghurts that seem to be available. Have not yet found a flavoured yoghurt that is not incredibly high in sugar content.

So this means excluding all tinned foods, all prepared meals, etc. If you have no-one to prepare the vegetables for you it would probably mean you would need to use frozen vegetables and these are almost as good as using fresh foods. Fresh food seems to have a less watery taste when compared to frozen for meals such as this. When he adds a meat or poultry I usually stick to plain chicken breast, turkey breast or minced beef as I have great difficulty chewing meat. These can all be purchased as frozen foods and compared to the time involved in cooking a whole chicken helps to reduce electricity costs and work and washing up etc. as it can all be thrown straight into the large slow cooker which provides 12 to 15 meals. This means there is very little work and very little washing up. I have found a large slow cooker provides the most tender chicken or meat and preserves the taste and benefits of eating plenty of vegetables. I don't allow gravy powder to be added. I just allow one or two oxo type cubes to help give a little extra flavour to the "gravy" (make sure they do not contain Monsodium Glutamate).

Controlling weight, controlling inflammation and hence controlling levels of pain will all lead to more chance of improving your overall health and help towards a life with less pain. Last year I was put on Steroids for my Lung Disease. I had three life threatening incidents whilst I was on the drug but as most of you know you are not allowed to just stop taking it when you are started on a dose as high as 40 or 50 mg of Prednisolone. This drug caused me to put on 5 stone in just three weeks and I could barely move. The burden of carrying all that extra weight caused a massive deterioration in my general health and pain levels. It has taken a long time to return to my original weight. Now I have got rid of the adverse reaction 5 stone I can now return to working at reducing my weight down to the recommended guide lines.

I should add although I do suffer from three extremely painful conditions I do not have Fibromyalgia.

Hoping we can all get our pain under control and losing weight and reducing things like sugar which cause inflammation is absolutely essential in the journey of trying to get our pain under control. Although I believe a small amount of sugar is far less damaging than other types of sweeteners but you do need to remember - ONLY VERY SMALL AMOUNTS!

It is so hard when we are limited in what we can do. I am bedridden for over 95% of my life so little exercises like moving my feet to the left, then to the right, then up, then down, are essential. Same with wrists/hands. No circular movements for me. When exercising your neck/head turn left, turn right, press chin down to chest BUT NO LEANING YOUR HEAD BACK and NO CIRCULAR MOVEMENTS. Breathing exercises are great and also tightening up/flexing then relaxing each muscle including pelvic floor, all private parts etc because even when we are bedridden we need to find ways of keeping our muscles strong! Short periods of exercise at frequent intervals throughout the day.

To Rosie and anyone else who needs to lose weight, I wish you all well in your battle to lose that extra weight. You are so right in treating this as a top priority to regaining control of your pain levels.

Sending each and every one of you loads of love and hugs.

Keep Smiling or in my case Keep Twinkling

Love from Twinkling Star. Xxxxxx

PS Remember, baby steps - one thing at a time. No trying to do everything all at once. Eating habits need to be achieved gradually. Maybe exclude and substitute one food at a time. Drastic changes are not advised. Exercise must also be increased gradually otherwise you will just make yourself have a massive flare up of pain. Good Luck everyone!