dumb medical shit (mostly venting)

Ugh, that's really rough. I have the same kinda issues with exercise - swimming is great but you have to go out to a specific place to do it, and have appropriate clothes, which means getting appropriate clothes and it all just adds up to way too hard.

The food thing is tricky from all angles, and I wish you luck with it :c

 

*hugs*

Exercise and eating often get stuck because of other reasons, and we feel bad, but the truth is, even not-depressed and able people struggle with them. People get into something super heavily and then it tapers off again, over and over. It also seems that maybe the things you need aren't food regulation and exercise, at the moment.

How your family experiences these things also counts for a lot. I am also afraid to control my food too much, because I do not want to become like my mother (years of dieting have messed up her insides to a point where she can't even really drink black tea anymore without her body acting up).

*more hugs*

 

@Re Allyssa Unfortunately PCOS and pre-diabeticness (that's totally a word, right? :P) have a tendency to go together. If you want to have a look into a diet that shouldn't mess up your relationship with food too badly, have a look at a low glycemic index diet. (http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/spotlight-low-gi)

I know all about having a messed up relationship with food, and also about it being so much bother to exercise :( I hope everything works out the way you want it to :)

 

Yeah, blood draws can be fun like that :P I do blood donations, and they always have trouble finding a vein big enough to poke the needle in.

 

:( *hugs* good luck!

 

I'm kind of in a similar boat. I will say at least for me that going on a diet where I tracked my foods and calorie intake was a very very bad idea.. it can be really hard to not obsess over and hyper control your food intake. I was essentially making a game out of how low I could get my calories in a day and was eating about 700-800, which isn't at all healthy. And while I certainly lost weight, I also got a really bad rash because my carb intake was way too low.

One thing you could try in order to avoid all the tracking and obsessing and also to just start out slowly with a new diet is to just start eating less of what you normally eat. Making small changes into habits, it adds up a lot. I'm not sure what your dietary habits currently are, but for me, this is what I've kind of been trying. If it's something I make at home and I'd normally go back for seconds, I just don't. If it's something like tacos where I eat a few, I try to eat one or two less than I normally would have. If you regularly eat fast food and get double cheeseburgers or something, get the single cheeseburger for a while, then swap to something a bit less calorie heavy like nuggets. Try to go out to eat less often in general if you can manage that, but if you can't, just try to go for options that are 'healthier', and have more vegetables, more white meat instead of red meat, less add ons like extra cheeses. Even going for something like Subway over McDonalds is a decent enough calorie reduction, because their stuff isn't so greasy and you can get more vegetables. If you drink soda or sugary juice, jump ship from regular sodas/juices to diet sodas/juices, and gradually work more water drinking into your day until you can wean yourself off soda all together. Swap out some foods you eat for new ones to try that you know will be healthier. Try to think of this as a sort of fun exploratory exercise if you can.

Also one thing that is always daunting about diets is that most good for you foods just don't taste good, but that isn't entirely true. Always try to keep in mind that there are many many ways to prepare things like vegetables, so if you have texture issues, you might be able to work around them via different preparations to make them softer/mushier or crunchier. And of course flavor can be altered with seasoning and things like butter/cheese, and while you shouldn't go overboard and like, coat everything in a ton of butter or cheese, sometimes even knowing you're eating something in a way that's more calorie heavy than it would be just raw, it's still getting healthier foods into your diet, and it's still better than just not eating them at all. And it's also important to remember that if you really just genuinely hate a certain food.. you really just don't have to eat it. You should try new things if you are up for it in order to determine things you like and dislike, but if you really just cannot stomach, say, spinach, don't eat the spinach. Don't force yourself. It will just make the entire dieting experience harder and more sour and more of a struggle than it already is, and you don't need to do that to yourself, no matter how healthy or how much of a 'super food' something may be.

Another thing.. treat yourself. But keep it scheduled. Pick a day, one day of the week, where you get to eat whatever you want, and make sure it's also a day off from exercise if/when you start mixing that in. With this though do try to avoid just overeating a ton of unhealthy foods, but this is really honestly to avoid getting sick. I know for me it was kind of like 'today I will shovel as much garbage into my face as possible' and trust me that's just not a good idea, it can make you very ill which is not fun. But you know, do order a pizza and enjoy a few pieces of it. Do eat some ice cream and watch a movie that you enjoy. Eat some stuff you like and do some things you like. It's a nice self care day and it can really, really help you to get through a week of dieting early on. As you get more used to a new diet though the treat yourself days may seem less necessary, and you can always feel free to skip them or drop them. I'd just caution against doing that at the start, because one thing people do a lot of the time when starting a new diet and/or exercise regimen is to just really overwork themselves. They shove themselves face first into a new diet, force themselves to the gym every day of the week, and burnout after that week. Start slow. Treat yourself. Take care of yourself.

And also.. If you just want a loose rule of thumb of how much to eat without having to measure things out and read and track all the calories, consider just eating a serving amount that you'd estimate as a handful, and eat a few different things, trying to keep at least half of what you are eating in a meal one of the healthier options. If you want to do a few small meals a day, I know that helps some people out, but I know others can't manage it at all. I usually eat maybe once or twice a day which isn't that great but it's about all I can really get myself to do, and if you are only eating that amount of times per day, you'll want to eat more 'handfuls' at a time, maybe 3-4 or so.

I know I didn't really address exercise at all because idk. I'm really in the same boat as you with that. I'd love to swim because it'd be the least painful thing for me to do, but of course finding a place to do it and getting the clothes for it and so on is daunting. I'm doing some small changes there too though.. really just, trying to at least getting a walk around our apartment complex with my dog every other day. It's not much, but it's more than what I've been doing, and it's a good place to start. Might get some of those small hand weights too and just do the walk alone, could be an option for you also? Just again.. start slow and don't hurt yourself. Know your health limits, and know your mental health limits too. But even if, idk, you walk laps around your room until you get tired, it's still something that you wouldn't have normally done, you know?

Sorry if all of this is presumptuous or unnecessary. I know it's always easier said than done, and I'm honestly struggling with my weight now since my last dieting venture flopped because of my obsessive tracking of stuff, and now I'm really just back in the 'small changes' phase. I wish you luck with your doctor's visit, and with whatever you try to do diet/exercise wise.

 

Exercise!! I can give exercise advice probably :"0
It's good to find a few types of exercise that you like bc that way when one becomes too overwhelming to do you can switch to another!! And I totally understand the swimming thing, I enjoy exercise and I still often can't force myself to get dressed for it and go find a pool submerge myself in water, ugh x__x and every little bit helps; technically stuff that raises your heart rate is the best, but if you can't run for example, going for walks is good too! If you haven't tried it yet, I'd recommend a bike machine (or biking in general really, the machine makes it easier though because you don't have to deal with terrain, weather, etc.) or weight lifting or something, if you have access to a gym just sorta......futz around there for a few hours a week :"0 what Aniseed said about food applies to exercise too, start small! Every little change helps.
Good luck mang!!!!

 

do you have any data on how ellipticals are for you? cuz if not you might try them - they're designed to let you do the running thing without the high impact which i think is what tends to hurt people (bc instead of slamming your feet down constantly you're flailing them in continuous smooth circles).

also i'd be up for being workout buddies (even if it's just hey let's go for a walk), if that would help at all.

 

or we could do exercise buddies for just the non-swimming stuff. or, go over together on swimming days but you go to the pool and i go do regular gym things and we meet up again after.

 

I have ideas about this, and I want to talk about it some more, but I don't have time right now. Just, you know, hang in there.