Hi Dark Skies
Weight gain can be a problem for so many people … and I believe with some meds, the side effects are of weight gain. Damn handy don’t you think? We suffer depression and we then have to experience potential weight gain due to meds that we take. Start the vicious cycle.
When you reduced meds, was it because you were feeling better or because of your weight gain? Was it directed by your psych or GP who prescribed you the meds? Are you back on the original dosage now?
Going to the gym 3 to 4 times a week is excellent and walking your dog every day … HUGE ticks. 🙂 To me that’s got the exercise avenue covered … could I ask what are the things that you do at the gym? Is it mainly cardio or do you work with weights or a combo?
I’m addicted to the gym and in a past life, I was a personal trainer … but having that knowledge and experience is one thing, but to really get in and be able to advise someone via the interweb for what foods they should/could be is almost impossible. I wouldn’t feel comfortable in advising too much via a website. If you can afford it, a dietician would be a good thing to investigate. But I can give you some hints etc … a little like Stephen and Jo have done.
When you’ve got your metabolism working well and you’ve exercised, even just a little, well you’ve burned up some calories/unwanted body parts (commonly referred to as fat) and burning that up, it then needs to be expelled out of the body … and that’s commonly done via the water system in your body. Hence, if you can manage it, drinking water is so incredibly important for everyone, and do it every day.
Another tip is to try to eat good carbs such as oats (for brekkie – and there’s any number of things you can add to that to make it yummy) … is a good start. Avoid the commercial cereals … they do taste good, but that’s cause they’re laden with sugars, so oats for brekkie and other good carbs are sweet potato and brown rice; or even basmati rice of the white variety is very good. If it’s possible, try to have your carbs in the morning and up till mid-arve – so they’re there to fuel your body during the day, but as night falls, you don’t really want them sitting there with nothin’ much to do.
This leads me into the next tip: If it’s possible try to break up your meals to having them about 6 times a day. But reduced portions … say every 3 hours. So when you eat, you don’t feel full – plus you’re constantly drinking water (or green tea – a brilliant diuretic) to help with the full feeling – plus the aforementioned brilliant qualities that water brings to you – and the other thing is, the body is smart. It will soon realise that if you’re feeding it constantly every 3 or so hours, it doesn’t have to store any unwanted fuel that you’ve consumed … because let’s face it, unwanted food that can’t be used up will be stored as fat. If the body knows that it’s going to be fed often, it will automatically put its metabolism on a higher work rate to deal with the new routine. Higher metabolism is everyone’s friend.
I could go on, but I’ll stop for now.
Dark Skies, there is hope out there … you better believe it, because I believe it.
I do hope you can get back to us as well
Kind regards
Neil
