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?
Here is an idea, have you seen the way the elderly exercise, start that way.
The media keeps wondering why Americans are fat/obese. Fast food and junk food are dirt cheap and highly convenient (drive-thrus, delivery, barely any preparation or spoilage). Also, many (affordable to many) neighborhoods are not conducive to the free exercise of walking or biking.
No sidewalks, traffic dangers, crime, loose dogs, loose people, and just plain borrrrring to walk through (no natural trails or tree-lined sidewalks near the water). The rich have no excuse to be fat (maybe if they worked 60 to 80 hours a week), they can afford neighborhoods that include scenic pathways or homes with large enough estate to create their own private nature trails and allow their dogs to run free next to them. Soooo, jealous, I mean envious.
