Weighty Issue

Despite having increased my activity somewhat a few weeks ago, I was quite depressed to find I had put on five pounds. It may not sound much but it is really hard to shift since I can't just up my activity. I started eating less when I noticed waistbands tightening as the first couple of pounds went on butfrustratinigly put more on. Depressed I went back to the GI cookbook as I have to admit I had got into the habit of eating the same old stuff and not really cooking, and I was snacking, not necessarily on bad stuff, but still. So, on the fourth week into this I find that I have lost a couple of pounds and clothes feel better. I am eating more, am less tired and snacking less.I have been able to increase the swimming to 6 full lengths and 6 or seven half lengths of front crawl amongst the 36 lengths, the rest are breaststroke. On a Sunday I do the Salsa basic work out and the warm up and two circuits of the resistance DVD, making a 35 minute workout. It just goes to show what a difference the effort to eat properly makes, and I am enjoying food again. It's so important to get the right balance, and of course I feel much happier!

Slow progress, but progress nonetheless

It is difficult to know if fatgue after activity is part of the CFS or just down to a reduced level of fitness. I have found that I am not so dizzy and shaky after swimming now, so I decided to experiment by upping the odds a bit. Rather than trying to swim more lengths, I am now keeping to 30-36 but rather than doing all breaststroke am throwing in a bit of front and back crawl to make it more cardiovascular. On the first attempt a couple of weeks ago, I just did a few half lengths like this. I felt okay after. Today I swam six half lengths front crawl, four full lengths front crawl and approx 15 third of a  length back crawl (tricky due to an old twingy rotator cuff injury). Since this is proving quite successful I dusted off a couple of fitness DVDs. I looked at the basic section of a Rosemary Connelly Salsa DVD I would never have touched pre CFS as it was too basic and boring. It is 17 minutes and I managed it. Gentle though it is, I did feel I had done something. Then I tried a Matt Roberts DVD which has resistence and cardio mini workouts. These are designed to be combined but I haven't got that far! I have managed to do the warm up and one circuit of a resistance workout (approx 10 mins) he does the session with burst of activity with periods of rest (which I spend panting mostly). I also do a little 5 minute weight lifting thing that I adlib each day. The plan is to build on the stamina I have already put in place and try to increase my baseline a little more each month. We shall see....