Exercise ???

Hi Girls
Before 'V' I used to walk 5km everyday and was a healthy weight...6 years on I've put on nearly 20kg which is frightening and I can't exercise at all. Every couple of months I have a head rush and try to walk very slowly BUT the next day I'm in excruciating pain. Does any one else have trouble with exercise ???
Also my feet get just as sore as my vagina they burn and the pain is throbbing.

I feel like I don't know what to do anymore...my life is very hard going at present.

I mean the meds control the pain as long as I wear loose pants, don't sit for long, don't stand for long and don't exercise.
I wonder how fat I'll end up being ???
I know I'm lucky the meds work but I just can't imagine what my life is going to be like in another 5,10,15 years??
The pain is so bad at present just from a little walk 2 days ago.

That's my negative rant for the day...sorry.

Hey Zarli! I imagine it'd be quite frustrating to have things get worse with exercise, I'll see what I can suggest here to help out

1) You can get a lot of the health benefits of exercise from things that are less likely to cause vulvodynia flares. I recommend trying something like yoga or pilates which are virtually zero impact exercises, but still will allow you to maintain your fitness and reduce your stress levels. While things like biking and swimming are frequently totally out of the question with vulvodynia, elliptical trainers are a good zero impact way to get an intense cardiovascular workout.

2) Possibly a totally dumb question, but what do you wear to exercise? I very specifically must wear all-cotton, loose underwear and loose shorts when I exercise, or I will definitely get an increase in vulvodynia pain due to the friction and irritation.

3) The wonderful thing about losing weight is that anyone can do it. Seriously, anyone. It is very hard sometimes to reform how we eat, but I promise you that it can be done. Exercise has been shown by a huge body of research to be non-essential to the weight loss process, even though it has a ton of other health benefits. My recommendation is to use tools like MyFitnessPal or CalorieCount to determine how much you should be eating a day as a sedentary person, and you should not gain weight so long as you stick to the guidelines. (Plus, those apps/websites can provide a very useful opportunity for any vulvodynia sufferer to make a food diary. Start keeping track of your pain levels along with the food diary, and you might even discover that there is a food trigger that causes your pain that you hadn't even been aware of previously.) Even if you're unable to exercise, you can get back down to a weight where you feel healthy and happy with your body, it's just a matter of scaling your food intake down to your new energy needs. I know it sounds like a pretty crappy thing to have to do, on top of already having vulvodynia, but I'm sure you'll find before long that eating healthy and losing weight makes you feel better physically. I know it has hugely helped my pain levels to lose weight; though I still have it, it's not nearly as bad as it used to be.

Anyway, I am so sorry you are having a hard time, I know we've all been there before. It definitely can get better, just do whatever you can to remain positive and keep trying new things, okay?

Thank you Alessandria
I am so grateful for your wise words and the trouble you went to respond to my post.
I have taken on board your advise. I am going to start a food diary.
I just can't work out why every time I have followed strictly to a healthy diet eg. the dukan diet, my vulvodynia neauralgia pain is unbearable. I wonder how psychological this factors on my thinking ?? I lasted 5 weeks on this particular diet I lost 5kg with no exercise but the pain ended up beating me and I gave up. My normal diet is healthy I seldom eat fatty foods although I do indulge in chocolate and breads and pastas at times.

I will look into yoga as I haven't tried this while I have had Vulvodynia.

When I exercise I ware loose pants and I have tried tighter pants but they react the same way. I am just going to stay away from exercise that involves impact.

Once again I thank you for your response, it meant a lot to me while on this journey of hope.
Take Care
Zxxx