3 replies to this topic

[shatta]

What do some of you do if youre overweight and paralyzed with injury below T-7?

[MrBump]

Eat less, exercise more.

[airart1]

yep, let's see, the doc says, no beer, pizza, bread-only whole wheat, lean meat, no potatoes, nor chips......basically if it taste's good, you can't have it! i hates my doctor.....but i got my cholesterol down! good luck...keep at it!

[ebeth]

There are so many things that you can do! Here are some of the things I've done - not all at once, though:

- for a while, I kept track of what I eat to see what I actually ate. I then compared that to the food guide and see where I needed to change.
- learn about nutrition. I follow the recommendations in the Canada Food Guide regarding serving sizes and getting the right amount from each food group.
- I was able to talk to a dietician about how to eat healthy, why I eat (It's not always about hunger), and she helped me set realistic goals. She also gave me 'projects' to do to help me learn how to eat healthy. For example, I started planning my meals in advance.
- I started counting calories on caloriecount.about.com. Another good website is sparkpeople.com.
- I started to slowly substitute unhealthy food for healthy food. This took time. Now I have a hard time eating greasy, salty or overly sweet foods.
- I started to exercise. When possible I wheel around outside. If not, I use my UBE. I also invested in some weights. I was also able to talk to an athletic therapist about what kinds of exercises I could do.

So far I've lost over 40 pounds and my BMI is not considered obese anymore. Being in a chair does not mean you can't loose weight.