Quote From: cluekeeperHow do you exercise when everything hurts? Your knees, ankles, back, hips, arms, head and your soul. Everything hurts. I don't have any real reason to try and lose weight. If I can't stand biking or walking because my knees hurt, how can I possibly climb stairs at work? If I can't bear to look at myself in the mirror, how can I stand to take a picture of myself as fat as I am? I am over 300 pounds. I lost 30 pounds last fall but put it back on. I can't afford to buy the "low fat" foods or pay the price the stores want for fish or chicken breast.
I have a full-time job, my husband works two jobs and mac and cheese is 4 for $1.00 where chicken breast is over $2.00 a pound. Our paychecks go out the door almost as fast as they come in. I'm behind on my house payment, my car payment, my loan payments (both student loans and one private loan for replacing a stove and refrigerator that were dying). I have no credit cards (except old ones that I am paying off to get them off my credit report). I don't have that much debt but getting 20 cent per hour annual pay raises at my job hasn't helped and the better paying jobs just aren't out there. I want to try and get a better job but that means I need to go back to college. I can't even afford the $50 application fee to see if I could get accepted, let alone the tuition and book fees.
SO, why try and lose weight if you can't afford to eat right? If the money isn't there to buy healthy food, what's the hope in losing weight? Why try and excercise if you still eat the same boring Hamburger Helper, pastas, etc? I can't afford the "good for you" stuff. My budget is tight enough. I have just about giving up hope.
I twisted my knee this weekend and my doctor, today, tells me that "It is either a strained ligament or torn miniscus. Let it heal for two weeks and if it still hurts, then we'll get an x-ray and see about doing something. But, you should lose weight. Do you excercise?" "No," I say. "I can't bear to do anything." I might as well die fat and ugly than have to hear some skinny, slim female doctor tell me to do something about my weight but not offer me any hope. I can't walk, ride a bike, or climb stairs. My knees kill me on a bicycle and stairs. Maybe it is my mood, as she suggested, but do you think she offered to help me with that either? Nope. I cried in their bathroom for 5 minutes before I left to go to work. Now, I'm all depressed and sitting here typing on a message board for Dr. Phil. What do you do when your life stinks and your mood smells even worse?
Most of the pain you are describing (NOTE, I am NOT a doctor.) sounds like it is brought on by the weight in the first place. If you can get moving and get some of the pounds off, things will improve. (I know, I know...sounds llike a catch 22.) The trick in the beginning is to TAKE IT EASY and work your way into exercising more.
If even walking is too hard, my best advice is to get yourself into a pool. I am not talking about swimming laps. I am talking about exercising in the water. The bouyancy the water provides cushions and eases the strain of gravity on your joints and muscles. Public pools don't cost too much, if you can find one in your area.
Another idea is sinply to move as much as you can. I am not talking about doing high impact aerobics. Do not lay down if you can sit up, do not sit if you can stand, and do not stand still if you can move. No one is going to advise someone in your situation to start jumping around like Richard Simmons, but only doing what you are already doing will only get you what you are already getting.
As to the food cost issue...I fully understand. I am trying to feed a family of 5 at a salary that is right at the poverty level, too little to buy much but too much for food stamps. You sited Mac and Cheese and meat. I know mac and cheese is cheap and meat can be expensive. I am not going to tell you to buy the "low fat" gimmick foods. You won't like them, you'll see the cost as a waste and go back to old habits. But what about what else you eat? Are you buying soda? cookies? Doritos? Junk food is EXPENSIVE! Go to the produce aisle instead of the snack aisle. Even if you are still eating the mac and cheese, if you can change one or two things for the healthier, you will be better off.
Your main question seemed to be why should I even try to lose weight? Well, the benefits are clear. Yes, it isn't going to be easy, but it is worth it. Being overweight is a killer. I am not being melodramatic. Being overweight can KILL you. It is already making your life miserable, we can tell by your post. It will only continue to do so as time goes on. Your knees are not going to get better by themselves. You aren't ever going to feel better looking in the mirror. It isn't going to get any easier to breathe. You could end up in a wheelchair, Type 2 diabetes can make you GO BLIND. You will almost certainly have respiratory and cardiac problems. The health problems will go away...when you die, which will almost certainly be sooner rather than later at over 300 pounds. There are a lot of fat people and there are a lot of old people, but there not a lot of fat, old people.
I am not trying to come down hard on you. I know how hard it is. But if you have a reason to live, and everyone does, whether they see it or not, then you have a reason to live healthy. It isn't easy, but it isn't impossible.
