Fighting Fibro with Fire

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about my weight loss plan, so rather than try to respond to each of them individually, I thought it would be easier to answer them all at once :).

I’ve been using the My Fitness Pal app to keep track of my daily calorie count. The app is amazingly easy to use, you can use a bar code scanner to enter foods and the app keeps track of everything for you. You enter in your height and weight, then the app calculates your daily calorie goal based on how much you want to lose and how quickly.

The hard part is watching what I eat. It’s true that I have given up some things, but I don’t feel like I’m starving all the time or that I can’t treat myself every now and then. If I know that I’m going to go out to eat, I try to make room in my calorie budget ahead of time, this way, I can enjoy my meal without feeling guilty about breaking my diet. I am proud to say that I’ve successfully managed to stay at or under my calorie goal for the last 50 days!

I have had to cut back on sweets, which is tough, since I’m a serious chocoholic, but I adore dark chocolate and it doesn’t take much of it to cure a craving. Other than that, I haven’t really given up anything major. I’ve been studying several different light/healthy cookbooks and amazingly, they’re not all full of bizarre ingredients. The Hungry Girl books by Lisa Lillien are amazing! Some of the recipes are a bit odd, but she offers a ton of advice on healthy and low calorie substitutions that help to make a serious dent in the calorie counts for many meals. I even managed to make a super yummy shepherd’s pie that came out to have only 290 calories in a very generous serving. The other book I like is The Biggest Loser Family Cookbook; it’s hard to fault a cookbook that offers a healthy version of a meatball sub, without using some weird meat substitute!

Healthy eating isn’t all salads and tofu and you certainly don’t have to starve. It does help to increase the amount of fiber and protein in your diet, but you don’t have to eat a bunch of things you don’t like. I have to say, I’m really enjoying the challenge of re-learning how to cook. I’m still able to make (and eat!) the things I love, and I love that they’re healthier for me to enjoy.

As proof, here’s a look at a typical day’s menu:

Breakfast:

2/3 cup Special K Oats & Honey 100 calories

1/4 cup Craisins 130 calories

Cup of tea, sweetened with Splenda and 2 tsp Benefiber 15 calories
__________
Lunch:

Ham Sandwich (Sandwich Rounds, 2 oz deli ham, lettuce) 170 calories

1/2 cup cottage cheese 90 calories

Celery Sticks 18 calories
__________
Dinner:

Grilled Chicken Parmesan 307 calories

2 ounces spaghetti noodles 180 calories
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Snacks:

Yoplait Light Yogurt 90 calories

This day came to a total of 1100 calories and since my daily budget is 1430, I came in 330 calories under my allowance, without exercising at all! Even if I’m having a bad day and can’t exercise, I can still work towards my goal weight. Obviously, exercise helps tremendously with weight loss and it does give me some wiggle room in my diet if I absolutely cannot resist those chocolate chip cookies, but it’s not something that has to be done every single day.

I know that exercise is pretty much a “bad” word for most of us with fibromyalgia, so for those of you who would like to lose some weight and are unable to get much exercise there is still hope.