I need help

[Patty64]

How do I exercise with excruciating pain in my foot and hip. I am on pain killers and I walk with a trolley, until I can`t think straight as in so much pain. I need to get fitter lose weight but I am feeling so low and sorry for myself that I cannot seem to find my way out of this awful downward cycle .I Need help.

[BridgeGirl Administrator 2 stone]

That sounds awful, Patty64, no wonder it's getting you down. You're the best judge of how to manage your pain and mobility, and I hope you're keeping in touch with your GP or whoever prescribes your painkillers.

Fortunately, in terms of weight loss, that is much more related to what and how we eat. Have a look at the daily diary and chat to people there about their food choices, then join in and share your own plans. And I can see you were a member of the Monday Mass Movers weigh in when you were last here: you could join them again and I can guarantee you'll have great team support.

You'll find everything you need in Pinned Posts healthunlocked.com/weight-l... so head over there and have a look at everything on offer.

All the best

BG

[Patty64 in reply to BridgeGirl]

Thank you for your kind reply. I will take your advice.

[TheTabbyCat Administrator 16kg]

Hello Patty64 and welcome back to the forum.

I'm afraid the answer to your question is short and sweet, you can't and definitely shouldn't exercise when you're in extreme pain.

I suggest that there's another way of losing weight and it's by changing what you eat.

I can't exercise enough to lose weight ,my smart watch tells me I've burned 400+ calories, I must be eating around 1,800 so that doesn't help much.

I've lost weight by cutting out obvious/white carbs such as bread and pasta. I haven't lost as much as I should have because during January I've drunk wine!!

I suggest that you join our Daily Diary so that you can see for yourself what other members are doing. In particular springersrule who is showing us all how to lose in spite of mobility problems.

If you need anymore help just shout. There's always someone about.

[springersrule Moderator 76kg in reply to TheTabbyCat]

Thanks TabbyCat xx

[Patty64 in reply to TheTabbyCat]

Thank you.

[Hopalong1 Host 3 stone]

Hi Patty, Have you had help from physiotherapy? Our region has a self refer scheme, but the doctor can refer you too. I agree with TabbyCat, you don't have to exercise to lose weight. Hope to see you on the Daily Diary, great for ideas about what you can eat. x

[Patty64 in reply to Hopalong1]

Thank you. I will certainly look into that.

[springersrule Moderator 76kg]

Hi Patty64.. I know exactly the position you are in. This is going to be a long reply but i think its important to know the background on starting my healthy eating lifestyle, so please bear with me 😊.

Mid July last year i was walking round the car to get in it when i got the most excruciating pain in my knee, worse than having had sciatica down both legs at the same time for 4 years while they worked out the best way to deal with me.

I was 153kg on that day. it took 3 months to get a diagnosis plus another month to get the right pain killers for me. Just for information, the diagnosis was a torn and protruding meniscus, an impaction fracture of the femur and a grade 2 (i think) sprain of the inside ligaments of my knee.

The week before it happened my rheumatologist referred me to the bariatric surgeons as he didnt think i had the proverbial cats chance of losing weight myself due to the other medical conditions i already had, and to be honest neither did I.

To cut a long story short, i trawled utube for videos on diets and healthy eating to see what i could do. I still wanted to enjoy eating. I joined the nhs 12 week plan and the easy meals app. There were only a few meals on there that i thought i liked so back to utube and its videos.

There were 2 things that i took away from those videos. 1. Maybe i was eating too many carbs and 2. There was a woman in america who ate just one meal a day across a 3 hour window that was a basic salad with other stuff chucked in and it was in the biggest bowl you've ever seen.

So thats what i based my eating around. 3 healthy meals a day, less carbs, no snacks at all, no pudding or treats. Tea was my biggest mixing bowl full of salad, mushrooms, chicken or egg, fruit or seeds. I had basically the same food every day for a month and also found this forum.

My only exercise from july to late november was from my door to the car and back, from sitting in my rollator to picking up a dog poo (i have 3 dogs to care for) and from my car into school where i work to sit with kids for 3 hours. That was it. I couldn't even go upstairs during this time and luckily had a portapotty from camping!!

From joining this forum at the beginning of september i learned more about what was good food and what would be best to avoid. The strictness is set by me because i dont want to fall back into bad habits. I have lost weight every week since the day i started and last monday, my weigh in day, I hit a total loss of 45.3 kg so i now weigh 107.7 kg.

I have brought some physio approved exercise into my daily routine over the lasts 2 months. If you pop across onto the Daily Chat post for today its about exercise and i have linked videos of what i do on there.

So, after all that waffling on 😂😂 my advice is, whilst you're in pain dont start doing exercise other than a bit of pottering about with walking aids. Get to see or speak to a physio and a doc to see if there's a better pain killer for you. Look at what you eat and knock something out each week that isnt healthy and replace it with veg or salad or both. The veg i have that accompanies my main meal covers 3/4 of my plate and is heaped. I actually eat more now than i ever did but its virtually all fresh produce that i cook from scratch. I was a very inexperienced cook when i started and i would happily call myself a good amateur now. If you click on my avatar (picture) and scroll down you should see some of the meals i have made and the portion sizes that i eat.

I hope i havent bored you, i know thats a lot to read but i wanted to try and show you that i'm just an ordinary person who hasnt been dealt the best hand health wise but has still managed what was though to be impossible. I'm also off that list to see the bariatric surgeon 😁.

If there's anything you want to ask please do. I will try and help however i can xx

[PedallingMinstrel Restart April 2024 in reply to springersrule]

That’s a great reply springers and it sums up effectively how to eat well and healthily to reduce your weight.

[springersrule Moderator 76kg in reply to PedallingMinstrel]

Thank you xx

[BridgeGirl Administrator 2 stone in reply to springersrule]

Great reply and thank you for taking the time I'm sure Patty64 will appreciate it

[springersrule Moderator 76kg in reply to BridgeGirl]

Thank you. xx

[Patty64 in reply to springersrule]

Thank you for your time and advice much appreciated. Certainly a lot to think about.

[Hidden]

I’m sorry to hear you’re in that much pain Patty64 , like the lovely folks above have said don’t push too hard atm. I would suggest trying to work on diet first, if you can. This is a lovely forum with very supportive folks, who will be here for all the ups and downs. So you’ve already taken a great step! Keep taking small steps that you can feel like you’ve made progress whatever they maybe for you, and you’ll build momentum. Hang in there x

[Patty64 in reply to Hidden]

Thank you for your advice.

[Pulmonaria68]

If you can exercise your top half, there are chair based exercises on youtube

[Patty64 in reply to Pulmonaria68]

Thank you . I have accessed this and I have done these on occasion but not as much probably as I should. Will try harder.

[focused1 Maintainer 13kg]

Is there a practice nurse at your GP surgery who can put you in touch with physio. You need a tailored exercise programme . I know they do home visits even now . If you phoned I feel sure you would get a positive response . You also need guidance how to do these exercises properly as technique is half the battle . Preventative medicine is high on the agenda at the moment . I would phone .

[Patty64 in reply to focused1]

Thank you, I will certainly look into this.👍