Chronic Fatigue Syndrome & OS

Penny-Wise_4

I am old style at heart – I was brought up that way. I have suffered from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome for about 10 years, since I was 15. I also work full time so it is really hard to be OS sometimes as I only have a limited amount of energy.

This last year my CFS has been really bad & I have completely fallen off the OS wagon, eaten take-aways & frozen pizza and hardly cleaned my house (OH is househusband but not that good at it & won’t cook :rolleyes: ). I have managed to keep my job though & so although we have started to live off our overdraft we aren’t in a terrible amount of debt (£500 ish).

I’ve started feeling really fed up with my situation & feeling sorry for myself. Went to see my GP last night & explained how I felt & he said he’d be worried if I wasn't feeling down! He has prescribed me some antidepressants & hopefully these will improve my mood and may give me more energy – but they won’t start working for another 4-6 weeks.

We really need to start living within our income & not use the overdraft as it is getting maxed out every month :eek: . So it’s back to hm meals, bm, cooking more when I have the energy & freezing stuff for when I don’t, etc, usual OS stuff.

I want to make a meal planner - can anyone recommend some recipes which are cheap, freezable, very quick & won’t take up much of my energy? They should also be pretty low fat as because I’m pretty sedentary I put on weight quite easily. :eek:

I’m also going to try the flylady system as the ‘you can do anything in 15 minutes’ thing appeals to me, as that’s all I can do sometimes .

Does anyone else suffer from this & try to be OS? I really need [STRIKE]a kick up the bum [/STRIKE]support

elona

Have you tried a slow cooker - just put diced meat and veg wirh chopped tomatoes and seasoning and a little boiling water in it during the morning on a low setting and hours later there is a stew or casserole or curry etc.

Gingham_Ribbon

There are just loads of slow cooker recipes in the mega index if you think that would be something that could help. There are also slimming recipes in there so have a good browse.

It depends on how much you can manage when you cook. A lot of the meals I cook take the same amount of time as shoving something in the oven, but involve standing over the cooker more, or chopping up veg, which is difficult if you're exhausted or in pain.

But there was a recipe on here recently for a very quick pasta sauce that I love. I'll try to find the recipe but it's basically just good olive oil, basil leaves, halved cherry tomatoes and maybe garlic? (I'm off my food at the moment so I don't remember but it's delicious.) You just put the ingredients together in the fridge for a couple of hours, then stick on some pasta and add the sauce at the end to heat through.

A big pan of bolognaise, chilli, curry or soup can be frozen down into several portions so I think it's often better to make a lot when you're feeling up to it and freeze it down in portions. (I'm lazy at that part.)

My basic, in a hurry recipes tend to be to fry an onion and some garlic, add some veg, some spices or dried herbs, some passata and maybe a tin of pulses and let it simmer. Cheap, quick curry, chilli, pasta sauce etc.

Penny-Wise_4

I had thought about getting a slow cooker last autumn but had decided against it as I am at my worst in the mornings, and it is enough for me just to get myself ready for work.

If I chop stuff the night before though, I guess I could keep it in the fridge & get DH to put it in the slow cooker all day.

It would eliminate the standing over the hob part of cooking which tires me – I can sit down & chop. One of the easiest meals for me is actually a roast dinner. As you just chop, shove it in the oven & an hour or two later you make gravy. Takes a long time to cook but little of my energy – takes up too much Powergen energy though.


I’ll have to get reading the slow cooker threads.

**purpleprincess**

Just wanted to say (((hugs))) as I too have CFS. Being OS is brilliant for me as batch cooking and fly ladying means that I don't have to go mad, and I have lush dinners in the freezer too when I need them and am too tired to cook! I have a slow cooker which is a godsend. Check out the indexes for lots of yummy recipes!! xx

**purpleprincess**

Sometimes I prepare all the stuff the night before, pop it in the fridge and then in the morning I pop it all in the slowcooker and voila when I get in it's done!! Although, I have to ask, if your OH is home all day why doesn't he cook and clean???

nabowla

Just had a thought. Sit down this evening and work out how much extra you are spending per week on takeaways and frozen pizza. My guess is that you must be spending at least £20-£30 per week more than you would if you were cooking OS. Take that money and divide it in half. Put one half back into the central spending pot so that you're not dipping into the overdraft. Use the other half to get a cleaner to come in for two hours per week to do the heavy-duty cleaning that you are too tired to do yourself (vacuuming, scrubbing floors etc). Your husband can do the smaller jobs (15 min flylady tidy blitz every day). That leaves you with just the OS cooking to manage yourself. On days when you've got a bit of energy, prepare a double portion of something like chilli, bolagnese or casserole, use half for dinner and freeze the other half for a day when you're exhausted. When cooking pasta, cook a double quantity and freeze half. Same for rice etc.

Hopefully this will give you a clean house, a healthy diet and a healthy bank balance!

Penny-Wise_4

**purpleprincess** wrote:

Sometimes I prepare all the stuff the night before, pop it in the fridge and then in the morning I pop it all in the slowcooker and voila when I get in it's done!! Although, I have to ask, if your OH is home all day why doesn't he cook and clean???

I thought someone may ask that! He does his best but is completely disorganised & just doesn’t know how to do it! I have to ring him up every day to remind him to have some lunch.

He was completely spoiled by his mother - she did absolutely everything for him – down to ironing his underpants & putting out his clothes for the day. She has apologised to me (several times) but she said that she wanted her lads to have a childhood & not have to worry about work.

He’s not lazy, in fact he works quite hard, but tends to make more mess than he tidies, gets distracted easily & can only concentrate on one thing at a time. He’s just starting to get better at it – he’s been trying to do housework for two years now while he was at uni, but he’s passed his HND now and is looking for a job. Hopefully his wage will be about the same as mine is now so I can work part time or be a housewife & will be able to cope better.

Keeping on top of the cleaning will be much easier when DH is working as he won’t be around to make a mess during the day & so there will be less to clean up. It was quite easy to do when he was working – but he was made redundant (on Valentines Day 2003, 5 months after we were married ).

**purpleprincess**

Penny-Wise wrote:

I thought someone may ask that! He does his best but is completely disorganised & just doesn’t know how to do it! I have to ring him up every day to remind him to have some lunch.

He was completely spoiled by his mother - she did absolutely everything for him – down to ironing his underpants & putting out his clothes for the day. She has apologised to me (several times) but she said that she wanted her lads to have a childhood & not have to worry about work.

He’s not lazy, in fact he works quite hard, but tends to make more mess than he tidies & can only concentrate on one thing at a time. He’s just starting to get better at it – he’s been trying to do housework for two years now while he was at uni, but he’s passed his HND now and is looking for a job. Hopefully his wage will be about the same as mine is now so I can work part time or be a housewife & will be able to cope better.

I see now!! You should get him to come on here!!

Penny-Wise_4

nabowla wrote:

Just had a thought. Sit down this evening and work out how much extra you are spending per week on takeaways and frozen pizza. My guess is that you must be spending at least £20-£30 per week more than you would if you were cooking OS. Take that money and divide it in half. Put one half back into the central spending pot so that you're not dipping into the overdraft. Use the other half to get a cleaner to come in for two hours per week to do the heavy-duty cleaning that you are too tired to do yourself (vacuuming, scrubbing floors etc). Your husband can do the smaller jobs (15 min flylady tidy blitz every day). That leaves you with just the OS cooking to manage yourself. On days when you've got a bit of energy, prepare a double portion of something like chilli, bolagnese or casserole, use half for dinner and freeze the other half for a day when you're exhausted. When cooking pasta, cook a double quantity and freeze half. Same for rice etc.

Hopefully this will give you a clean house, a healthy diet and a healthy bank balance!

:eek: :eek: :eek: But i'd have to make sure the house was tidy before the cleaner came!!!!!!!

Kazonline

Penny wise - just a quick note to send you hugs and encourage you to try a slow cooker. Eating 'junk' aggravates ME - the more fresh healthy food you eat the better for you. Another great thing about the S/c is that you can easily make double portions and build a nice stockpile for the freezer.
It's the one and only thing I like about winter!
hugs,
Kaz x