Is a diet a 'life-sentence'?

[Alleh]

I am a 54 year old female and have always been overweight/obese since I had an accident in a swimming pool. Last year I managed to loose 20+ kilo, but does keeping it off mean a 'life-sentence'? I have been eating salad for lunch and salad for dinner and porridge or weetabix for breakfast, but not much else! (No bread, potatoes, rice, pasta etc) Because of the accident exercising is not an option for me.(besides swimming, but that IS NOT really an option!) Can you please advice.
Alleh

[mark]

Hi Alleh,

losing 20+ kilos is a very good achievement! so very well done.

Is a diet a "life sentence". Yes, making positive choices towards nutrition is a great thing, and the first stage of digestion in my opinion is deciding what foods to put into your body. It is simply amazing deciding to eat only nutritious foods! Its important to get a varied balanced diet of all the main food groups. Fruits, Vegetables, Nuts, Seeds, Oats, etc. ( sugary foods , sweets and confectionary are non-foods in my opinion and should be not eaten at all ideally ) I know we have some nutritionist on the site it may be they can expand on this for you.

On the exercise front, exercise is movement so move as much as you can. If you can ask a friend to help it maybe you can use a theraband for resistance exercises. Using light weights ( wrist weights ) could possibly be an option along with stretching. I hope this helps.

[Wendy Green]

Hi Alleh,

Well done for losing 20 plus kilos

Rather than viewing healthy eating as a 'life sentence' try to look upon it as an essential part of a healthy, happy life.

The diet you have been following does sound rather strict and monotonous - which is probably why you now feel like it is a life sentence.

Why not introduce some different dishes to your diet? For example you could have fish, chicken, or turkey with lots of different cooked vegetables, or make stir fries using these ingredients with some garlic, chilli and herbs to add flavour. You could also make soups/broths from these same ingredients. Also, there is no reason why you can't reintroduce small amounts of bread, potatoes, pasta and rice - preferably wholegrain/brown, as these fill you up quicker and keep you feeling fuller for longer, so you are less tempted to snack in between meals. You could also have yogurt and fruit for dessert.

If you enjoy cooking I suggest you invest in a couple of Healthy Cookery books such as: The Hairy Dieters: How to Love Food and Lose Weight or Nadia Sawahala's Greedy Girl's Diet: Eat yourself slim with gorgeous guilt-free food. Both books are based on sound nutritional guidelines and offer tasty but healthy recipes, so you needn't feel like healthy eating is a life sentence ever again!

I don't know how bad your injuries are, but I agree with Mark - you could do some gentle exercise - e.g.chair exercises; for some examples of chair exercises you could try go to: http://www.livewellagewell.info/study/2 ... 113006.pdf

I hope you find my suggestions helpful.

Wendy

[Lisa Holmes]

Hello,
I agree that it sounds like increasing the variety and types of dishes you prepare will encourage you to continue with your fantastic weight loss. Making the food taste better and you more enthusiastic to keep having salad! All meals should be based on fruit and vegetables for everyone so it helps to promote health rather than feeling like a life sentence.
Good luck!

[Alleh]

Thanks to all of you for replying. Am scared to reintroduce pasta/bread/potatoes, as I don't want to gain any weight. Ideally I would like to loose another 5kg, but I just can't do it any more. I will try making soups though, as I can just use veg. By the way is it possible to be "allergic" i.e. those foods MAKE you gain wait, even in normal quantities?