Hello

Trufflette

New member
Hi everyone
I am an English girl living in France. I thought I would find a forum to help me along with my new weightloss plan.

I am 34, 5'8", about 12st7. I am doing a slimfast style diet (the French equivalent!) with shakes for breakfast and lunch, a normal healthy dinner and yoghurt with fruit and fruit purees for whenever I want to nibble something sweet. Started 2 weeks ago and am only weighing myself every month.

I have no cartilage in my right knee and the other is going so I cannot do any exercise which involves my legs until I get it sorted so I have come up with an exercise regime using just my upper body and my gym equipment. I look rather silly but nobody can see and I work up a sweat and tone what I can so that is the goal!
:)
 
Hi everyone
I am an English girl living in France. I thought I would find a forum to help me along with my new weightloss plan.

I am 34, 5'8", about 12st7. I am doing a slimfast style diet (the French equivalent!) with shakes for breakfast and lunch, a normal healthy dinner and yoghurt with fruit and fruit purees for whenever I want to nibble something sweet. Started 2 weeks ago and am only weighing myself every month.

I have no cartilage in my right knee and the other is going so I cannot do any exercise which involves my legs until I get it sorted so I have come up with an exercise regime using just my upper body and my gym equipment. I look rather silly but nobody can see and I work up a sweat and tone what I can so that is the goal!
:)
Good luck, you can do it! Ive only been on my diet 3 days and I have a diary. Check mine out to see where Ive gone wrong. many experience people have given me tips on how to improve my diet and what to do.

Stay motivated!
 
Hey Trufflette, welcome to the forum. Congrats for taking charge of your health even though you have some pretty big obstacles to exercising! Do you know if swimming or water walking/running (in the deep part of the pool without letting your feet touch the bottom) would be OK on your knees?

Here is a good description on the Arthritis Foundation site:
 
Thank you for the nice welcome :)
My work is physical, I clean holiday apartments sometimes 2 hours a day sometimes 12 and often have weeks when I only work 2 days then others where I work every day, it is very seasonal and often involves stairs and heavy linen bag carrying. Due to this my doc says whenever I am not working I must just rest my legs as I am in constant pain. Bone is on bone so any movement at all is bad even if no weight is on it so no swimming or movement of any kind. It is a shame when I live by the sea and have use of a communal pool!

It is quite a pain, I used to be a gym instructor so I probably messed it up exercising! As a result of not being able to do cardio I have gained a lot of weight which of course makes the knee problem worse! Vicious circle! I've got to see a knee specialist and go from there but am tired of waiting until it is sorted. I decided to diet and do exercises as though I am unable to use my legs and see how I get on.

At least my gym knowledge is helpful with exercising each muscle group in my upper body. I am using a cross-trainer, rowing machine, weights, tummy toning frame and even a stepper with just my arms, back, chest and stomach! Yup I look like a nutter! But it is hard work and I work up a good sweat and tone with the weights. In theory I should still lose weight from all over, we shall see :)
 
I'm really sorry to hear that your knees are that bad and I really hope that it can be sorted out soon! It's great that you are keeping up your upper body strength though, it will help you in the long run!

As for cardio, do you have access to an arm cycle (sometimes called a hand cycle or arm ergometer)? They generally look like this: Arm Ergometer. This is typically how someone in a wheelchair or with a leg injury can get some cardiovascular exercise. Rowing machines (Row Ergometer) can also work, provided that you keep your knees still and only use your upper body. At the rec centre that I sometimes work at there is also a push/pull machine where you are seated upright and simply pushing and pulling against a light resistance for a period of time - I can't seem to find a picture or video of it though.
 
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