I'm in a Catch 22 situation that is driving me crazy!

[Serial Mom]

About 7 years ago my life began to change a lot - moved to different city, then 2 years later I quit smoking, went thru menopause, and I believe had a mild depression for about 2-3 years because of the stress of the situations - I gained a LOT of weight.

I had exercised on and off for about 2-3 months at a time in the past, but never got weight loss results probably cause I did it only 3-4 times a week.

So this January I was determined to lose it slowly by both eating better and exercising 5-6 days a week. The first 9 weeks went well - lost about 8 lb (slowly, which is good way), and I built up to 45 minutes on the treadmill at 3.5 mph.

Then I got a really bad ankle - Dr. thought tendinitis from overuse - and couldn't do much for 3 weeks. So I bought an inexpensive recumbent bike to cross train between the two machines. Built back up to about 45 - 60 minutes 5 days a week for about 5 weeks and got gout!

After 2-1/2 weeks started again and after 6 weeks got achilles tendinitis (and possibly plantars faciitis with it)!

Dr. says I am heavy to overuse my feet so much, but can't seem to lose weight without exercise! Suggested swimming, but no place close to house to swim that is convenient. At Dr. lost a total of 14 lb year to date, but that is really slow.

After 3 weeks off again, I started yesterday just on the recumbent bike 20 minutes yesterday and 25 minutes today.

Any suggestions how I can improve my exercising and try to prevent this tendinitis flare ups?

[wildeyed]

1. I had a girlfriend who was really prone to tendinitis.

So some of it is probably genetic.

Maybe try rotating through different exercises on different days of the week. Walk one day, bike one day and do the stair stepper one day. That way you don't overuse a single joint and hopefully don't get injured.

Also, there are supplements that are supposed to be anti-inflammatory. Off hand, I don't know what they are, but maybe worth doing a little research.

And drink lots of water. Helps keeps the joint lubricated and the tendons running smoothly.

[Serial Mom]

2. Thanks ...

I will be staying on the recumbant bike for a couple weeks - keeps my weight off my ankles and then will gradually cross train on the other machines.

We have really bad tap water at work (lots of radon in the ground water) so I drink LaCroix ...I recall the first time with tendinitis was when they ran out of LaCroix and for a couple days I wasn't drinking as much.