Psoriatic Arthritis Journal - 2.5 year Update Page 63

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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby nicoles » Fri Aug 24, 2012 9:27 am

Michelle - Furball!!! :lol: :lol: :lol: I LOL'd

Furball's thing is a little obsessive compulsive, that is SO true. And harder to understand! There are some reasons beyond that which make it compelling for me, surprising since I am not obsessive compulsive, and I really dislike complicated things! I want to explain them more here, but they are involved and I am tired, so I'll do that later on.


Wow, sounds like that class was a hard time, glad you changed your story lines! I like your ideas...and yes, I am not the most patient person. Learning to be one more and more, though.

And you are right - I am very lucky they have an exchange, and that I have the freedom to do it. There are quite a few Bikram's around here, but this one is the only one with the barter thing.

Hey Moonwatcher! Thanks for persevering, I am glad to hear from you. Glad you enjoyed the trip to the night-beach, too. :)

I like your story lines too, and I cannot tell you how many times I have thought of my illness as just that - the canary in the coal mine!

Ha - renaissance or maybe...indecisive? That is actually what that horoscope I mentioned said -due Gemini's aspect/trine/something-or-other with Sagittarius, she will have a difficult time making decisions and often feel pulled in many directions - or something like that. I remember reading that and hanging my head, thinking, "So true!"
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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby nicoles » Fri Aug 24, 2012 12:16 pm

‎"The biggest human temptation
is to settle for too little."
~ Thomas Merton

Day...?

Ate well, not too much. Added more sweet potato to my regular diet today.

Exercise

40 minute walk
10 minutes low-impact cardio
30 minutes full body weights

Meditation

5 minutes am
20 Minutes pm

Day 29 (I think)

Smoothie and kale with beans for breakfast, plus sweet potato

Salad soup and sweet potato for lunch

Split pea soup and berries for dessert

Meditation

15 minuts am
21 minutes pm

Exercise

Walked an hour wearing the weight vest with 10 pounds in it.

Organized and cleaned our apartment, including getting rid of a bunch of junk, taking it dowstairs and putting things in garbange/recycling. Multiple trips, I count it as exercise! :lol:
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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby nicoles » Fri Aug 24, 2012 12:49 pm

Caloric Restriction

CR part of why I have been watching my overeating. Not because I want to live forever, but because I want to be as healthy as possible in the time I am alive. (Although I recognize I do not have tons of control over it, I am just doing my part)

I definitely do not weigh out or measure all my food portions, or count calories - that is just not my style - but part of me working on not overeating is to practice a relative degree of caloric restriction.

Some interesting videos related to CR/Fasting/Life Extension

Eat, Fast and Live Longer is a great BBC horizons documentary on recent science devoted to longevity promotion.

I definitely do not agree with all of the methods proposed in it, but seeing the 101-year old man finish the London Marathon in the beginning of the show - on no meds and who has never had surgery - got me hooked. Apparently that guy attributes some of his successful aging to the fact that he eats very small meals. Hmm...

How to Live to 101

Another BBC Horizonz documentary on longevity. Interesting, entertaining and informative, although us McDougallers might feel we alreay know a lot of it. But ya get sick of watching Forks Over Knives repeatedly, ya know? At this point I could probably lip-sync along with that whole movie :lol: :lol: :lol:

Do You Want To Live Forever?

This one is the wackiest one, IMHO. It is a documentary about Dr Aubrey de Grey, an British scientist (biogerontologist, actually) who is heck-bent on creating scientific and actual immortality in humans. Watched this while cleaning yesterday. I myself think he is nuts, and am not personally interested in immortality at all (just health!) but still, it was an interesting way to pass the time sorting through old books and papers and junk.

Anyway, just for fun, I posted those links.
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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby Rosey » Fri Aug 24, 2012 1:33 pm

I noticed you mentioned meditation. I've been trying to get into that but how do you clear your mind when your doing it? I keep getting told to clear my mind but it just wants to wonder everywhere.
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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby fulenn » Fri Aug 24, 2012 3:23 pm

I totally agree with the Thomas Merton quote! I look back at my life and see that many choices I made were out of the fear that I wouldn't just not get anything better, but might even lose the option that was in front of me. Settling for less.

I also meditate, about 15-20 minutes per day. Nice. :)

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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby absgirl » Sat Aug 25, 2012 5:22 pm

i dont weigh my food or anything..i dont watch calories...i feel like doin this program is enough for me to handle at the moment. i got to get a grip on the yellow n green veggy thing for first...im doin pretty good so far..takin baby steps ya know?

meditation? considering my kids just started back to school im just enjoying quiet time w my 4 legged babies

maybe after a while il give all this a whirl nut for now im just enjoyin feelin better.

n i dont wanna live forever either!!!!!!!!!!!
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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby nicoles » Mon Aug 27, 2012 12:19 pm

Rosey wrote:I noticed you mentioned meditation. I've been trying to get into that but how do you clear your mind when your doing it? I keep getting told to clear my mind but it just wants to wonder everywhere.


Rosey- I just saw that Michelle pretty much answered this, and since she is my sensei... :lol: :lol: :lol:

Seriously though, my mind is not quiet when I meditate. Honestly, I usually feel like I am horse wrangling and time traveling the whole time :lol: I just count my exhalations, in chunks of 10. If I lose track, I come back to 1 and start over.

I read somehwere that the days when your mind is going the craziest are the days the meditation can benefit you the most, even if you can't really tell it is helping. I use that idea to keep me sitting there instead of jumping up and doing like I really want to.


absgirl wrote:i dont weigh my food or anything..i dont watch calories...i feel like doin this program is enough for me to handle at the moment. i got to get a grip on the yellow n green veggy thing for first...im doin pretty good so far..takin baby steps ya know?


Totally Absgirl! I did not start doing anything extra until I had already been eating this way for a year and a half, and even still it feels kind of overwhelming sometimes.

absgirl wrote:meditation? considering my kids just started back to school im just enjoying quiet time w my 4 legged babies


That sounds as good as meditation if not better!

absgirl wrote:maybe after a while il give all this a whirl nut for now im just enjoyin feelin better.

n i dont wanna live forever either!!!!!!!!!!!


Glad you are feeling better! Yeah, living forever seems like a nightmare :lol:
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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby nicoles » Mon Aug 27, 2012 12:25 pm

The weekend

Was busy and full of stuff to do. My cousin's boyfriend is a rally racer, and they were in SoCal for a race, so we spent a lot of time with them, and driving to see them and watching the race. It was fun, but hot, dusty and dry! IU had to hike, which I mamaged to do surprisingly well.

Ate on plan, overate a little but not too much and since I have been adding more starches as per Michelle's advice, I must say it has been easier to not overeat.

Meditated about 15 minutes total on Saturday and not at all on Sunday.

Sunday after we got back I spent the whole day doing a super cleaning job on the apartment - the works! Had a lot of energy at first, then crashed before I was done and had to slog through what was still left out.

Today I feel a bit sore and achy, joint-wise, but I am not surprised. Taking it easy and recuperating seems like the thing to do.
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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby lmggallagher » Mon Aug 27, 2012 6:18 pm

Hey Nicole - heheehe that would be Dr. McD's advice, I am just another parrot :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

I wish I could get some of your house cleaning energy going up here - hopefully the pain level will be down some tomorrow, cuz I am just dying for clean and organized again!!!
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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby absgirl » Mon Aug 27, 2012 6:36 pm

wish yall would just come down here n clean..................
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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby Rosey » Mon Aug 27, 2012 8:54 pm

I've been being bad and playing more then cleaning.
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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby nicoles » Wed Aug 29, 2012 1:06 pm

Busy couple of days!

Just wanted to link to this article about new findings on caloric restriction - turns out, it might not add lifespan (makes sense, the original studies were on rats and not people) and may add only mixed health benefits.

Well, I can get off this "not-overeating" wagon train! :lol: :lol: :lol: Seriously though, I just want to not be ruled by food. I don't wanna live forever!
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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby nicoles » Thu Aug 30, 2012 1:24 pm

There is a lot of debate here, here and, for good measure, here in the forums over a study that Dr Fuhrman did on weight loss which originally had Dr Campbell's name on it. But Dr Campbell withdrew his name because of flaws in the research, while Dr Fuhrman did not and has continued to mislead others about the real result of the study, as well as profit off of it.

I have very much appreciated the learning I have received from Dr Fuhrman, and benefited from some of his unique advice, and so it saddens me to see his pedestal crumble.

On the other hand, I have also - and originally! - very much benefited from the advice and recommendations of Dr. McDougall, Dr. Campbell and Dr. Esselstyn.

Before I came down with psoriatic arthritis I worked (among other things) as a group fitness instructor and a yoga instructor. As Yoga gained mainstream popularity during the last couple of decades, many "yoga superstars" came to fame, and each and every one of them "fell" at some point. Bikram, most notably, but many others, were accused of profiting too much from an ancient and non-proprietary science. Rodney Yee was unfaithful to his wife. Gary Kraftsow was unfaithful to his wife. John Friend had many adulterous relationships, scammed his employees out of retirement money, and allegedly sold marijuana and was part of a Wiccan sex cult. I kid you not.

There are many more examples. In a nutshell, they taught a set of spiritual principles, and portrayed themselves as living up to those principles, when in reality they were not.

I had very much benefited - and still do - from the teachings of each of those fallen giants as well.

One of the greatest lessons they gave me is to try to sort out the message from the messenger, and glean the pearls of wisdom while leaving the debris of human frailty - greed, ego, hubris, megalomania, etc. - that seems to be a great temptation for those who become healers of reknown of any sort.

I am very sad to see Dr. Fuhrman succumb to these weaknesses, when so much power and responsibility lie in his hands - and I am very impressed by Dr Campbell's strength of character.

But I must get back to the simple, yet complicated, task of separating character from information, and using my own experience and trial and error to see which dietary advice works for me.

I recently discovered that I need more starch to stay full than Dr Fuhrman recommends.

I previously discovered that I need more dietary fats than Dr McDougall recommends, or I do not create adequate hormones (I have not talked much about this here.)

But most importantly, I am far healthier than I ever was, and I owe them all - for good or evil - a debt of gratitude. And I still hold out hope that Dr F will step up and do the right thing, even if that is unlikely.
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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby moonwatcher » Thu Aug 30, 2012 2:45 pm

HI Nicoles,

I finally got a chance to get over here and catch up on reading your journal a bit. I have been following the discussions on her about Dr. Fuhrman, Dr. Campbell and Dr. Esselstyn, too. I really appreciate very much what you write here about "fallen gurus or teachers. I can relate. My yoga teacher's teacher's successors (Indian from India, though I will not name names) became embroiled in subsequent power struggles and scandals. I wonder if anyone knows what the truth actually is. But, as you say, the things you learned still help you heal. It's one of those paradoxes. I used to tell my creative writing students when they'd complain about how "weird" some visiting writer was, that we learn best from our teacher's obsessions. Sometimes it's not what we thought we were going to learn, but it's all valuable. Even when laced with the disappointment of a fallen hero.

I never got around to or felt the need to explore Dr. Fuhrman's approach extensively, but I have enjoyed many recipes slanted towards his emphasis, and benefitted from his general description of how to treat fibromyalgia. Really it's very much (in its own way and style) in line with what Dr. McDougall says generally in his "McDougall Minute" about fibromyalgia. It would be nice if they could just all get along and work together, and it seems to me that Dr. McDougall, for all his seeming to have a confrontational style, has done the most to foster that, by inviting all of them to present at his Advanced Study Weekends.

Anyway, thanks for offering your valuable reflections on this. Good for us all to think about and remember.

I was interested in your posts about calorie restriction, too, but haven't had a chance to look at the links. Most interested to hear that it has mixed results. I guess for me, going toward my 5th year, after a while I've just gotten, even in spite of my tendencies to eat fast or too much, a MUCH more accurate grasp on when I'm full or hungry. So it's kind of taking care of itself, albeit in slow motion. But then that's my speed. :lol:

Like you, I found that eating more starch was key for me. I don't know if I eat more fat than Dr. McDougall would recommend, but I do know I've got to have my tablespoon of golden flax seeds (spread over each meal a teaspoon at at ime) as the minimum for me and my nervous system to cope. That's Dr. Esselstyn's advice, so go figure. :)

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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby nicoles » Thu Aug 30, 2012 4:27 pm

Hi Moonwatcher! Gearing up to watch the Blue Moon on Friday?

moonwatcher wrote: So it's kind of taking care of itself, albeit in slow motion. But then that's my speed. :lol:


:-D That's kind of my speed too! Especially if you ask my husband :lol:

moonwatcher wrote: Like you, I found that eating more starch was key for me. I don't know if I eat more fat than Dr. McDougall would recommend, but I do know I've got to have my tablespoon of golden flax seeds (spread over each meal a teaspoon at at ime) as the minimum for me and my nervous system to cope. That's Dr. Esselstyn's advice, so go figure. :)


They're all so good, those doctors, at least according to the information they provide! Which is not all that different when it comes down to it, especially compared to SAD.

Mix and match and everyone's different is my take on it. Like salt. I am very reactive to salt - I bloat, I have pain, I get sorta dizzy, blood pressure goes up. My Dad too. My Mom, on the other hand, is under reactive to salt -- she had hyponatremia once and really has to make sure she does not get it again, mostly by eating added salt. They both eat a blend of Dr M, Dr E and Dr F's diets.
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