Needing to Heal & Break the Starvation Cycle

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Mimzy_me
Mimzy_me Posts: 10 Member
in Introduce Yourself
I never realized that I had not been eating enough, I sorta figured that I must be over eating if I could not lose weight. Plus due to a knee injury, I stopped walking 5 miles or more each week. The doctor I had kept telling me to not walk so much and find some other kind of exercise. Due to that decision I gained even more weight!

Now I've a new doctor and hope that I'll get better care. I seem to have a problem with remembering to eat. My blood sugar doesn't drop low enough to make me feel hungry, so I don't feel like eating. Trouble is that by not eating at least 1200 calories I'm stuck in starvation mode.

So far I've had my blood work done and I'm using the tools here to help me start to heal. So far I'm really shocked at how much food I have to eat! I had to struggle to eat enough to get over 1200 calories, cause when I'm not hungry it's hard to just eat something. I have to space food out through the day to be able to eat as much as I'm supposed to be eating to break the cycle.

Then the exercise part isn't easy since I'm having trouble going up and down the stairs at home. I think I'll start with the stretches and then move up from there. So far cooking, cleaning and such is the exercise that I do now. I'll try to add in some walking as soon as I can. I get winded just going to my mail box and back now...I really need to work on my cardio health.

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  • Leviram
    Leviram Posts: 77
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    It will come to you slowly. Try adding a little more exercise everyday whether it be walking or weights or whatever. The food part yes it was hard for me too and now i understand why I had a hard time losing weight. I commend you for taking the first step in making yourself better! WElcome these people are a great support!
  • Heaven71
    Heaven71 Posts: 706 Member
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    Try working your arms and doing cardio that way. Like Jillian says "Punch it out!"
    I have a hard time with intake as well, just do the best you can. Hope your knee gets better soon.
  • cillytilly
    cillytilly Posts: 243
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    I think working with a new dr is a good start. We have to work on our health inside and out. Hopefully by focusing on nutrition and doing small exerciese you will be able to lose weight and eventually be able to do more cardio specific exerciese. REmember it is one day at a time and conquering the day at hand is the most important thing. I wish you a wonderful journey of discovery.
  • trish_043
    trish_043 Posts: 1
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    Mimzy_me,

    You are not alone in your plight. I am there with you; however, I'm fighting to get up to 1,000 calories a day. Understand, however, that unless others are having or have expericed this, they have no concept of it so don't let it get you down. I had a dietition who couldn't get his head around the whole thing. Got to know it to understand it.

    I too went to serveral Doctors because my weight was going up and was barely eating 800 calories a day. I was anoreix when I 16 and have fought to "like" food. I'll save you the details and just say that the main thing is that accepting that you have to eat to lose weight is true. I started eating more normal about 6 months ago and have lost about 15 pounds. Eat smart and do it consistantly and that will help your metabolism get a boost.
  • Mimzy_me
    Mimzy_me Posts: 10 Member
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    Wow, thanks for the great welcome....glad to know I'm not on my own.
    I've two more days before weighing in, but I have been getting better at getting up to the 1200+ to try and boost up my metabolism. I've also been working on reducing the amount of "stuff" we have accumulated in the past 13 years. I've been the free storage for my grown kids for a long time, often for some pals too. Time to either have the stuff picked up, donated, tossed or sold - or they start paying me to store the stuff. lol
    There's a lot of things that we don't need or use anymore, some of my other kids are a bit older, my youngest is now 9 and the twins are 15 already. So a bunch of the stuff for babies, little kids and such needs to go. Don't have any little ones on the way & my youngest grandchild is 9 too. And the oldest one is 15 so I'm hoping that it will still be some time before anyone starts making me a great grandmother...(they best not for at least 5+ years! More preferably...)

    So far out of all of my kids, only one has gotten overweight, my soon to be 19 yr old who takes after her grandmother more than I'd like! Physically, personality and love of food wise - including a stubborn streak that's difficult to deal with. My mother & I get along fine when we are in the same state, town...as long as we aren't too close by. Yet since I became disabled, I've missed being a lot more mobile. I haven't been able to get up north to visit her in 22 years and I really want to go see her. My father passed away in 1993 and I never got the chance to see him before the cancer took him away. I want my kids to meet their grandmother in person, several of them haven't and that bothers me since I'm big on family ties.

    I can't believe that I still have clothes that I'd had packed up that I haven't fit into in years. In 1994 I weighed 200 even and was wearing a size 18 jeans. I'd kill to be back at that size right now! Which is really sad. Most of my teens & early 20's I was a heavy 128-130 lbs. and had a 36-28-36 figure. Granted, the top number tended to flux along with the cup size due to feeding my babies - but after a couple kids I was still able to bounce back into shape. But later on, a few more bundles of joy & noise later, things weren't bouncing back so easily. After my daughter I got back to the 200 mark with a lot of walking, cycling and good eating. But after the twins things didn' t go so well and 6yrs later, I had my last. Now to give credit due, I nursed for 8 months! Due to that I shrank down to 235 really fast, and at the end of the 8months I was fluxing between 200 & 195! Plus I was wearing clothes I hadn't fit into in ages! But it went bad shortly there after....

    When you produce milk as a mother, you burn over 2000 calories, per side, per feeding...which is a great boost for appetite and feeling like a Capri sun juice box! I was forever drinking after a feeding trying to get liquid back in me. At least, that's what it felt like! The weight just fell off while nursing, but afterwards...milk stopped, I started to "not" get hungry....and the weight began to creep on again. For a short time, 6 months, my bust was bigger than my tummy! Unfortunately, after my knee injury and then last year finding out I've got arthritis in my hips...which aggravates my old back injury I got as a pre-teen, fell while horseback riding....things have continued downhill health wise.

    It's been a long, long time and I'm realizing that if I don't do something soon, things are just going to get worse. I really don't like the difficulty I have breathing when I'm doing simple tasks. I can hardly fold laundry, making a meal is tiring & I'm often finding it hard just to get a full breath. I've been using my inhaler a lot more now than I used to...even 6 months ago. So I really need to do something now...or I may not have a later to worry about.

    I kinda miss being active, being able to wear a bathing suit to go swimming would be nice...I've had to wear a t-shirt and shorts for a long time now. I'd like to go shopping for clothes and not feel like I need to go to the maternity section of the store to find something that "might" fit. I can't just wait for my doctor to get around to me, I need to start taking control of my own health care and getting my doctor(s) on board to do something to get me healthy instead of being a passive participant. It's past due time I started to get off my bum and get moving!

    Thanks again for all the support, it's great to know that I'm not the only one that's "undereating" herself overweight....no one seemed to understand, except a few doctors & nutritionists - it's not something that most can get their head wrapped around.
    Wish you all luck, stay safe and enjoy a healthy Thanksgiving to come...

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