As mentioned on Tuesday, I have put a good chunk of weight back on and I’m now starting the process of fighting it back off. Here is my plan:
Exercise: I have reached out to the personal trainers at my gym to inquire to see who would be the best fit for me to set up an exercise regime for me to follow. I’m more likely to do so if it’s set out for me. Part of what helped me lose weight last time was running but I hate running.. At least running for running sake.
Comfort Food: I am no longer bringing in food that I consider to be comfort food that is deadly to the waistline. This means no more cookies or pudding or chocolate. It also means no more ordering pizza or other fast food.
Portion control: I have to return to watching exactly how much I eat. So if I make a pizza from scratch I can’t eat the whole damn thing in one sitting. That is no longer allowed.
Over the last few months, my mental health has not necessarily been the greatest.
Motivation has been down, so getting to do things that aren’t scheduled has been a challenge.
Fatigue has been high, so having the energy to do even the things that are scheduled has been a challenge. I should follow up with my doctor to ensure it’s not just the fibro cuz it’s been more as of late & I am getting my B12 shots done regularly now.
Pain has been escalating. It hasn’t been high enough to warrant a visit to the ER, but it is higher than it was before Christmas. It’s usually been muscular pain in my leggs, sciatica pain in my lower back or just plan old headaches or migraines (a bit of both). Pain doc can’t help with the first or last beyond medications, and I’ve been getting epidurals for the sciatica. Unfortunately my back popped a month or so ago, so the epi hasn’t been as effective (yes, I’m following up with my GP on that when they return my call)
Comfort food has been the go to lately, most of which has not been healthy. Junk food, cookies mostly leftover from Christmas, candy, chips, etc . Not the best choices.
The accumulation of all these factors has resulted in significant weight gain..
I know you’re trying to be helpful but your suggestions of yoga or CBD or massage or med XYZ, but I’ve tried it all already..
Medications.
In my case, I have tried all the meds. The only one I haven’t tried is one that’s available in the States but not in approved for use here in Canada. It’s called Sabella.. Specific medications for fibro include lyrica and gabapentin did not help and in fact, the gabapentin made me significantly worse – not good
I’ve been on any number of narcotic medications, starting at 20 Tylenol 3’s a month (that was a joke, way too insignificant) to high dosages of codeine contin & Fentanyl.. Fortunately, those were not at the same time.
I’ve also been on several muscle relaxing medications. Unfortunately, the one that works the absolute best is not covered my government benefits, but the one that is covered is adequate unlike many others.
i have been on anti-inflammatoriez for many many years due to Endo then the arthritis. Unfortunately, it seems to have started causing increased bruising in the last year or longer. As a result, my GP has taken me off my regular double daily dose. I now take an otc anti-inflammatory “as needed. “
I have actually been on various forms of medical marijuana and just as I’m finding the perfect balance to help, I start having issues, problems that might be due to cannabis products. We are still trying to figure out the cause because even tho I’m off *all* marijuana products, synthetics oils and otherwise, I’m still having regular issues. So the docs got no idea what’s going on. Read more here.
Exercise!
You’re kidding me, right? Do you know how hard it is to exercise when your body is screaming at you? Even Yoga.. Or swimming.. Or walking.. Even these simple every day activities, when you have severe Fibromyalgia can be unbelievably difficult. While it can help some it does impact others in a negative way, deteriorating their health.. I am lucky. I made a decision 10 years ago when I hit 303lbs on the scale at my doctor’s office. So I did start the long and painful, excruciating process of doing a smidge more activity, very slowly increasing what I was doing.
So yes, now I can go swimming.. well, walk in the pool, lol.. Before COVID I could participate in an aquafit class, but sometimes no more than bobbing in the water but I made the effort to be there.
Yes I can walk further, but that happened with great encouragement from my sister. Over the last six years, we would get together weekly to walk. On some days I can’t walk very far, but I try. This encouragement has led us to talking and we have become very good friends now. An excellent side bonus!
Yoga can still be very painful, depending on the speed, the instructor, the modifications, the positions we use and the flows (God I hate flows). I do have favourite positions like bridge & pidgeon that surprise people. But it took me 10 years to get to this point and it can still very much hurt.
Was at the gym, stepping around in an Arriba class earlier this week and crashed out that night… Barely made it to the time I take my night meds. Even took extra early pain meds to help dampen the pain so I could sleep.
The advantage of me having the gym membership at my local YMCA is the plus membership I fork out the extra for the plus membership because it includes additional99lounge, steam room & the infamous hot tub. The hot tub is my life saver. Can’t wait for my tat to finish healing so I can send all the way in to my neck
Diet.
These include gluten free, Keto, vegetarian, vegan, anti-inflammatory, Noom, high protein, Mediterranean, Weight watchers, diabetic, South Beach, intermittent fasting, paleo, raw foods, Aktins, etc… While some of these would works for some, none of these really helped me or could help me. Between complexity, my will power (or lack thereof), cravings and food sensitivities, none of these actually worked for me. My choice of “diet” is moderation and avoiding a lot of prepackaged foods. The closest to this would probably be the weight watchers program but I found their point system to be complicated especially with the cognitive issues with my Fibro. This adaptation has also helped me lose weight. So I still do drink Coke, probably still too much, but significantly less. I’ve almost 100% restricted out the xanthan gum, guar gum and carrageenan additives as they typically cause my IBS to flare which would start putting me in starvation mode, which makes maintaining, let alone losing weight even more difficult. Not to mention get some of these diets require me to eat foods with these additives in them.
I do treat myself every once in a while with a bowl of sorbet. Very infrequent use of these chemicals it is permitted because my body can tolerate them in very very small doses.
Alternative treatments
We’re talking massage, acupuncture, physio, osteopathy, chiro, etc. Physiotherapy does not really help the fibro other than adjusting exercises that could be beneficial to help increase strength, endurance or flexibility. In many cases this does not improve the pain due to fiibro in patients.
While chiropractic medicine helps some with fibro, it actually made my situation significantly worse.
Osteopath does help but it mostly treats my other conditions like post concussion syndrome, migraines or endometriosis and general health and wellness. Does not help fibromyalgia specifically that I know of.
Acupuncture does absolutely nothing for me or any of my medical conditions. I have tried it a number of occasions and hasn’t worked with any of the practitioners. One lady treated my Endo & gave me migraines. Any further attempts for any other issues have resulted in absolutely not relief
Massage can wonderful. If you get an appropriate RMT who understands fibromyalgia and will listen to you & adjust when you say “Ow!” it can help. Unfortunately it also tends to be very short-term
Injections.
For 15 years now, give or take, I have been getting injections of a medication called Marcaine which is a sibling medication to lidocaine. These I get with my pain physician who was initially in Scarborough and is now in Oshawa. These shots have helped over the years for anywhere between 4 days and 4+ weeks depending on the level of my pain
In the winter I also get epidurals up to three times each winter depending on my pain levels at that time. This tends to treat my osteoarthritis in my lower back, not the fibro pain. In doing that however, it reduces the OA pain, making the fibro pain more manageable.
lidocaine infusion. This is the one last treatment I know of. This is when they attach an IV and add lidocaine to your blood system. This is my next course of action for treatment. I have an ECG scheduled for next week so that I can access this treatment. Once it’s been verified that my heart is ok, I can and will book the treatment. I will let you know how it went.
Thank You, But..
Thank you for your concern for me and your helpful intentions, I’ve been dealing with this a long. Thank you for your pearls of wisdom persistent unsolicited advice is actually inconsiderate & thoughtless. I *do* know my body & I do know what works for me. It comes across to those of use dealing with these issues like we don’t know anything about my fibro and that you know more than me & my doctor. Honestly, in most cases, I do know more than my doctor. So please stop making suggestions cuz what worked for your friend’s cousin, Sally, I have already tried. or that your Dad’s friend’s daughter was cured, because it can’t be. I don’t need anyone telling me how other people’s treatment going to work for me because her fibro is not my fibro.
In the Winter of 2012, I stepped on the scale at my pain physician’s office, CPM Scarborough and was flabbergasted when the number came up. 303.6. I was absolutely horrified.
From there I started to eat less and to get moving more and slowly over the years, the weight has slowly and consistently, bar some plateaus, come off..
While my regular pain physician is no longer in that office, I do, in the winter, see her colleague in that Scarborough location This Wednesday I stepped on that same scale that years ago said 303.6.
It read 189.2.
Do you know what that means? As it is the same scale, it means I have lost 114½ pounds so far.
Do you know what else that means? I’m at high school weight. No just able to fit in high school clothes, but the actual numbers?! I’ve not been this light since I graduated highschool. At the end of Grade 13 I was 191lb. So I am about the same weight I was in my highschool graduations pictures .
I’m the same weight, give or take, in these 2 pictures..
The one other thing that many Fibromites have is common, but varies greatly is MCS – Multiple Chemical Sensitivities.
MCS is considered, in the most part, an environmental illness – a condition activated by the things in the world around us . Possible triggers that set off people’s symptoms vary including tobacco smoke, auto exhaust, perfume, insecticide, new carpet, chlorine, and more. Other chemicals that can set someone of are also in food or beauty products like moisturizers, or facial cleaners..
But there are also chemicals in our food.. Some of those chemicals are pretty scary.. I’m allergic to a binding chemical in food, but its also in the adhesive in bandaids & the other is found in moisturizers.. So makes you wonder..
My MCS issues in the way of food are Xanthan Gum, Guar Gum & Carrageenan.. This limits my food so I cant eat:
Ice Cream / Frozen Yogurt
Breaded foods like Chicken fingers & fish sticks
Sauces including mayo, bbq sauce & salad dressing
Most dessert
Most premade meals
Foods most take for granted that I shouldnt even touch
I also react to certain products but i dont know why such as KD. The brand name Mac & Cheese does a number on me, but other brands dont.. Another example is Campbell’s Chunky Soup – Beef, but I can eat any other chunky soup by Campbell’s.
As you can see, I cant eat alot of pre-processed food.. Whats sucks the most is the Ice cream & desserts. Only ice cream I can have is Haagen-Dazs.
And yet every one is different. Some people react to sulphites, some to food dyes, and others are sensitive to certain products like milk but not cheese. It makes no sence but there it is.
Sugar is a kind of cellulose, that is to say, a material that offers energy for the body. This perk often appeals to people whose fibro symptoms leave them exhausted. In large amounts, sugar can pack on the pounds, causing fibro patients to experience even more pain. An article in the Journal of Pain found that overweight FM patients agonized more extreme symptoms, including sleep problems, stiffness, and pain. If you are yearning anything sweet, Batayneh says, go for the things having natural sugars, like a slice of fruit.
Sugar…Sweet, sweet sugar…
i definitely agree that with being smaller does help with the physical stress on my body and significantly lowered my pain level.
While I have lost a shit-ton of weight, I still very much have my sweet tooth..Yum!! Probably why I’m stalled for over a year..
Dairy products, unless lactose intolerant, for many people, whether or not they have FM, are lactose deprived and have gas and bloating that can slow them down after they eat dairy merchandises or drink milk. Try excluding milk based merchandises like yogurt, cheese & frozen desserts from your diet for some weeks to see whether your symptoms progress.
Milk, cream, butter, yogurt (natural and strawberry), cottage cheese and cheeses
If you do feel recovering, look for calcium rich dairy substitutes, like soy milk, along with tuna, broccoli, and salmon.
The study also showed that low alcohol drinkers have lower severity of fibromyalgia symptoms and better quality of life than non-drinkers.
Alcohol intolerance is a rarely seen symptom yet most people who have FM or ME/CFS find that they can no longer drink much, if any, alcohol.
Alcohol, no matter the kind, can be devastating to Fibromites.
While a few are able to occasionally have one or two drinks with only minimal problems, for others even a very small alcoholic beverage can trigger a severe flare or relapse that may last for days, weeks or sometimes even months.
So, for most, alcohol is so obvious that it’s was not even originally in the list. So, you have to stop drinking alcohol.
On that note, I also have a fairly high alcohol tolerance (when not mixed with THC) that I inherited from my father.. I used to be able to drink most of my friends under the table.. For the most part I still can. But I have noticed at the club I am toast for days afterwards but have since realized that it’s the dancing at the club, not the alcohol that is responsible for that.. My BFF, as she has increased in weight has been slowly had her alcohol tolerance increase. I don’t know if she realizes that it from the weight gain & when she loses it again her tolerance will drop. ☹️
While it might be appealing to battle FM symptoms like fatigue with a balanced dose of cola drinks, chocolate, tea or coffee, but caffeine can impede with your capability to get the relaxing and restorative sleep that we require. This is a big issue in diminishing painful FM symptoms. The journal, Arthritis & Rheumatism, also advises that sleep difficulties might in fact play a vital role in FM development. If you enjoy drinking caffeinated drinks or highly caffeinated foods, ingest them through the first half of the day merely to abate sleep issues.
Caffeine in its many forms, Pop, chocolate, energy drinks, Coffee/Tea/ Hot Chocolate
Again, because of the Coke products that I like this is another Achilles heel. Fortunately I have recently found Coca-Cola flavored Tic Tacs it actually taste like Coke. They don”t have the high amount of sugar or caffeine which is a good thing but it also does not have the fluid and hydrating aspects to help keep my body hydrated (yes, I know there’s also salt & stuff in there)
Pop (Soda) is enormously harmful for your body. The acids in them can destroy the stomach, the additives can destroy your entire body and the sugars are very harmful too. Still, when thinking of unhealthy sodas, most of the people believe that only those which contain sugar are bad for them but aspartame is just as bad.
Coke vs Pepsi
This is my Achilles heel… I’m a fan of Coca Cola. Mind you I drink of much less of it now than I used to..Used to go through a 6pack of 710mL in a week or less. Now, it usually takes a month or more to go through those same 6 pack.
Fibromyalgia 
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