Ugh! Struggle…struggle…struggle. That’s me trying to lose weight. I have such a hard time with that. Recently I wrote to a slender gorgeous friend who has a post-polio disability and is a power wheelchair user. I asked her how she stays so slim. She shared her secrets. What do you think? What have you tried that worked? We need good ideas! 

Here’s what Linda writes…

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Oh, Sunny, where shall I begin?

I “work” on my weight 24/7 so have many various techniques. My program is post polio friendly; and as you know, I am a full-time powerchair user, so my weight program must be pretty much solely comprised of caloric restriction. Nevertheless, energy is important to polio survivors, so I do a number of things to keep my energy up. My nutrition heroes are Dr. Joel Fuhrman (who often does ‘specials’ for PBS), Dr. Mehmet Oz, and Adelle Davis whom I latched onto in the Sixties and never let go. Her main book is Let’s Eat Right to Keep Fit  and it is really amazing how true her information is today in 2014 as it was in 1954. Good grief, that is 60 years ago!

When friends ask me what I do, I start by saying I gave up everything white, which I did. No white bread, no cake (well, duh), no white rice, no white potato, no white pasta, etc. What else that I do NOT eat: no dairy, no sugar, no exceptions.

That is an easy way to explain it in telegram format. Then if they want more detail, and they usually do, I go into more depth explaining what 5 things I DO eat daily. So here goes.

(1)  I eat a large green salad every day, and put some raw onion and add in some shredded cruciferous veggies. I dress it with walnut oil and apple cider vinegar. That is my principle meal of the day and I really look forward to it.

(2)  I eat ½ to 1 cup of hot soup or stew containing beans and other low-glycemic vegetables (no potatoes). I prepare it on the weekend and then have some each weekday. Here is the low-glycemic veggie list that Dr. Oz suggests. http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/low-glycemic-vegetable-list

(3)  I eat 1-3 fresh fruits a day, especially berries, plums, apples, and oranges. Not sure that those fruits are the absolute best for nutrition and weight loss, but they are the ones I like best. 🙂

(4)  I eat about an ounce of roasted or raw nuts and seeds daily, utilizing some chia seeds, flax seeds, and walnuts. I splurged on a Vitamix Blender and formerly used a Nutri-Bullet blender to pulverize these foods into smoothies.

(5)  I eat a large serving of steamed greens daily, and add onions in all of these dishes since Dr Joel Fuhrman writes about how healthy onions are and he raves about their anti-cancer properties. Besides that, I like their taste so it is easy to incorporate them into all my meals.

You may be wondering, “Where’s the beef?”  Well, I do eat animal protein, but just in small quantities. I mostly eat salmon and chicken and then dice it and put it into my green salad. That is where the “post polio friendly” bit comes in. I remember a wonderful article by Dr. Lauro Halstead saying how protein at each meal helped him with weight loss and energy; it was probably in Managing Post-Polio: A Guide to Living and Aging Well with Post-Polio Syndrome.

Now, I must conclude by saying you seem to be an ideal weight to me, Sunny. However, friends used to say that about me and only I knew what I was hiding under all those baggy clothes. Ha ha.

Any more questions? I am more than happy to answer them.

Hugs and Happiness,

Linda
Linda Wheeler Donahue
President, The Polio Outreach of CT
Director, Independence Northwest
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