Going for a toe fusion op on Monday, which will be me in crutches for 6 weeks and then another 6 weeks till I can swim and ride again.

So apart for the obvious of eating less, any other sensible ideas ? Am thinking about an enforced alcohol abstinance too… currently at the 'right weight' and reasonably fit, but I swim and ride a few times a week. Also looking for excercises that will keep my shonky knees from siezing up…..

I couldn't do anything much for 6 weeks after the NHS hammered a couple of metal spikes into my hand.

If you are on the super strong codiene based painkillers I was on you will be fine, they block up your system so badly you won't want to eat for fear of it all backing up and coming out your ears.

I ended up buying one days worth of food at a time, it got me out of the house, which is maybe not a good solution for you.

Sorry – nothing sensible here !

speak to a physio and dietician.

a change of diet, including what food types at what time of day, and you should be able to eat 'more'
as far as exercise i cant imagine anything beyond floor exercises……

eat pies and pump iron?

I'd just accept the fact you are going to get fat and embrace it. Get stuck in to the pies and cakes and then spend the following three months working it off again.

If I didn't drink I wouldn't pile the flab on. I get the munchies summink rotten after a beer or 3.

just out of interest, why can't you swim? You can get waterproof covers for any cast you might have and you can get special floats to hold between your thighs so you don't need to kick your legs (assuming you swim crawl)…..(and assuming you kick your legs when swimming crawl).

If you are a member of a gym you could do upper body weights and some floor exercises. A friend of mine who had a foot op. got the gym staff to do him a programme whilst he was on crutches.

esselgruntfuttock – me too, hence the ideaa that stopping one might help the other !

samuri – hadn't thought of that – I was imagining hopping from changing room to pool and dinging my foot on the slippy tiles and being back at square 1. I'll have a look into waterproofing, cheers

Philby – good idea, but gave up the gym membership to fund the annual C2Work purchases -)

Let hunger be your friend. Not all the time of course but at least once a day get to enjoy the feeling of a hunger pang, and try to endure it for half an hour and then see how little you need to make it go away until your next meal.

Drink more water, hopefully to fill you up and taking away the hunger.
Don't eat after 8.00p.m.
Clean your teeth early in the evening, then you're not craving 'couch potato type snacks'.

Work on your guns for 12 weeks.

I find the hunger pang kicks in about 2-3 hours after a meal, get through the next hour and I could happily not eat all day (not healthy though).

My current routine (after giving up on cycling any real distances at the moment as my knees fubar'd still)

Breakfast: Smoothie/milkshake/yogurt drink
Ingredients- apple, bannana, (or any other 2 portions of fruit) about 150g natural yogurt (buy it cheep, about £1 a litre from supermarket), top upto about 600-700ml with milk to thin it down enough for the blender to do its magic, 24g of bannana flavoured whey protein (or any other flavour you think will go well).

Not overly filling, but gives a nice mix of instant energy for the morning and enough to get you through to lunch.

Lunch: Soup, and some kind of low fat (i.e. make it yourself) meat based sandwich. A big lump of tenderised steak in chabatta is a good start 🙂

Dinner: Whatever you feel like, just be sinsible and avoid unececary fat (spray oil rather than using 100's of calories of olive oil etc), keep carbs to a minimum (50-75g), and a good healthy amount of protein (to stop the body turning on itself whilst your inactive). Make sure it includes 2 portions of veg at least.

For excercise go to the gym and get big/strong (yes the two are different), it wont help much on the bike but will make you feel better.