Weight and RA

Body weight can be a sensitive topic under any normal conditions.  When you add RA in the mix, in can get even more sensitive, touchy, very confusing, and very, very important.

I had always been fairly thin as a kid.  It’s not surprising since I was active with sports and farm life.  When I moved out of my parents’ house my second semester of college, I gained the typical freshmen 15, but I think I was more like freshmen 20, in only a few months.

When I started to feel the aches and pains that would ultimately lead to my RA diagnosis, I started to lose weight.  My appetite had decreased because I wasn’t feeling well, I was constantly cold and shivering, and every move I made used extra energy because it was so strenuous.  I lost those 20 pounds plus some very quickly.

Even though that kind of weight loss was extreme, my weight was one of the last things on my mind at the time.  I was too busy being in pain, trying not to flunk out of college, trying to keep my job, and taking many hot showers to try and get warm. 

Once I got diagnosed and began taking several medications to ease my pain and other symptoms, I was able to stop my weight loss and stayed at a pretty steady weight for a few years.

My husband took a college course from a professor who claimed he “cured” his RA by adjusting his diet and using certain supplements.  I was very interested in how he did it, because, well, it’s obvious why I was interested.  He subscribed to the “yeast syndrome” idea and followed a candida diet.  I did a bit of research and, being a nutrition major, I had some doubts about an extreme diet like that, but I figured I could at least try it out.  I started eating a diet of meat, eggs, vegetables, and yogurt, and avoided sugar, dairy (except for yogurt), flour, yeast products (breads, aged cheese…), and fruits and fruit juices.  After a few weeks of a very strict diet, I was able to begin incorporating other foods such as grains and fruit, while still avoiding sugar and yeast products.

There were a few RA and non-RA issues that were alleviated while I was on this diet (about 18 months).  Before the diet, I craved sugar and bread all the time.  My body and joints were very tender to the touch.  If I bumped a joint, I would burst into tears because it hurt so badly.  I had a lot of stomach issues that were embarrassing and that’s all I’m going to say about that topic.  I was also having a lot of headaches and migraines.  If you have never had a migraine before, let’s just say they’re terrible.

Shortly after starting that diet, my joints weren’t so tender.  It was great to not want to wrap my body in bubble wrap to avoid bumping into things.  My stomach issues were alleviated which was awesome.  I still craved sugar and bread in the beginning, but the cravings subsided after several months.  Probably the greatest improvement I saw, was that my headaches and migraines went away!  I went from having 4-5 headaches per week to 1-2 headaches per month.  And I went from 2-3 migraines per month to 2-3 migraines per year!  It was heavenly!  Even though I am no longer on that diet, I still get very few headaches and migraines.  If I start to feel one coming on, I stop eating sugar and bread for a few days and things calm down.  Now, back to my diet and weight…

As one might expect with an extreme diet like that, I lost some weight.  I was quite thin to begin with, about 120 pounds.  At 5’7” I didn’t have a whole lot to lose but my body found some anyway.  I got down to 100 pounds before I realized that things were going too far.  I started drinking Atkins shakes to help me gain weight, but it didn’t work.  It stopped my weight loss, but didn’t help me gain.  I was drinking 3-4 shakes a day plus eating my regular meals and snacks of eggs and vegetables.  I started to get bone spurs from all of the calcium I was getting from the shakes, so I decreased to 1-2 shakes a day.  

 

Scary thin

When I looked at myself in a mirror, I didn’t notice how thin I was.  I definitely saw it on the scale, but my reflection didn’t show what other people could see.  It wasn’t until I saw a photo of myself that I was able to see what others could, that I was scary thin.  People would constantly ask my husband if I was ok because I looked sick.  I started incorporating more grains and fruit in my diet which helped me get back up to a whopping 115 pounds.  I was still thin, but not scary thin.

 

Scary spider sculpture, not scary thin

There were definitely benefits of that diet that my body appreciated, and I found some awesome foods and recipes while on that diet, but my love of sugar and bread started overpowering things, and I didn’t get the “miracle” results that the books and articles I read were promising me.  I don’t really remember what got me off of that diet, but I know it wasn’t instant.  I slowly started eating things like regular bread, a piece of chocolate here and there, milk with meals, getting very tired of eating eggs all of the time.  All of those things combined got me back on a “western” diet, which is very tasty, but quite unhealthy. 

Fast forward a few years, lots of prednisone and other meds with weight gain side effects, a couple of kids, and a sedentary job, and I am currently at my highest weight ever.  I need to lose some weight, and I need to do it fast!  I scheduled a photo shoot for next April.  I’m doing it for a project I want to do for this blog and I’m super excited!  But there’s no way I feel comfortable doing it while I’m at this weight.  I’m hoping that will give me a deadline and help me be more dedicated to losing this weight.

Do I dare reveal my weight?

I hope you will follow along with me and help me be accountable for what I do and eat.  I already know that I won’t be “cured” of my arthritis, but I hope that losing weight will help me feel a bit better and help my joint implants last longer. 

To be continued…  

Riley