Q: Dear Tanja, I am 40 years old, 5’8″ tall and I weigh 143 lbs. For the last 20 years I have been fighting with my weight.

My first problem is I cannot do cardio training anymore as I have extreme pain in my knees and hips. The doctors told me I should quit or take it easy, but I cannot afford that. Secondly, I cannot train in the evenings because than I stay awake all night. I am bipolar and maybe because of that when I overtrain my body I cannot sleep.

What I do now is one hour of fat burning yoga every morning, but that is not enough. I am thinking of plastic surgery, but I know even if I do liposuction, I will still need some effective sport in order to maintain the weight and my body shape. Do you have any idea what can I do? Thank you! –Irina

A: Hi Irina, I react the same way when I train in the evenings, so I always try to schedule my workouts before 5 pm if possible! It’s not clear what is going on with your hips and knees, but there are a few things I can recommend for someone in your situation. Yoga, pilates, and swimming are things that are in combination highly effective and keep you fit and healthy, when you do them on a regular basis. Swimming is great because it takes the pressure off joints and since you have so much help from the water, which keeps you buoyant, you can move in different ways and not only have to swim. I’m confident that this can be a great option for you!

The other part of maintaining weight is diet. Your diet needs to be tailored to your needs, and there is no space for emotional eating, which can be a problem if you have a bipolar diagnosis. The quality of the food is highly important here, too, as it really affects your overall experience of health, and all functions in your brain and body! There might be some tips for you in my book Your Life Force about eating and how to find a good balance.

Lastly, I want to say that liposuction brings a whole other set of problems or risks with it, but if that is your last resort, and you have really tried everything, you would definitely want to spend time researching and interviewing several doctors to find a GREAT one.

Tanja

Do you have a question? Don’t be shy – ask it here!