Psoriatic Arthritis Journal - 2.5 year Update Page 63

Share your daily McDougall menus and/or keep a journal describing your personal progress.

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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby nicoles » Fri Aug 10, 2012 11:08 am

Oh no! not Argentine Ants! They are here, in fact as low as San Diego, but we are not plagued personally in our neighborhood. Ever tried Diatomaceous Earth? I don't know if it would work on ants, but it might, and is not so bad as pesticides.

Oh yes, Hubby is not to blame. Whenever I am truly tempted to play the blame game, I look at this quote from the Dalai Lama, which I have posted on my fridge:

"When you think everything is someone else's fault, you will suffer a lot. When you realize everything springs only from yourself, you will learn both peace and joy."


Which always makes me grumble a little, truth be told.

Go Nina Simone! I love her. :-D

Day 18 - Lost in the wash of getting back on track. Ate on plan but way too much. Felt the overload in my digestive system all night and into today. Meditated 10 minutes, at least this time I set the timer right! No exercise, unless you count serious amounts of housework. I think I will count it. I did about three hours total of Vacuuming, sweeping and mopping, and those are all hard!

Also dusted, and boy, was there a lot of dust! We live in L.A., and the pollution and dust here is serious. I washed the screens, the vents, the windows and windowsills - everything! And great dust clouds rose up. And I got an instant headache and sore throat, that lasted until about 3 am this morning. Price we pay to get the dust level down, something I have been neglecting for a few months.

Speaking of air quality, I have been slowly accumulating plants in our apartment to clean the air of odorless toxins like benzene, tuolene and formaldehyde, as studied by NASA, among others. A list of plants that can do this is available here, near the bottom of the page.

I figure it is cheaper and more attractive that HEPA filters running everywhere, and I love plants.


Did anyone ever read Where the Wild Things Are? I picture our apartment slowly transforming like in the book, getting wilder and wilder and wilder with assorted plants, until....A Jungle!

That would be so fun :-D

And my husband is such an absent-minded-academic-theater-of-the-mind-type guy that he probably wouldn't even notice as long as I did not ask him to take care of any of the plants!
Tough times don't last, tough people do

Read the results of my journey here: Nicole S. O'Shea vs. Psoriatic Arthritis

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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby nicoles » Fri Aug 10, 2012 7:19 pm

Day 19 - Back on the true hunger wagon!

I decided, after my face-stuffing for the last few days, to not eat on a schedule today, but to wait until I felt hungry to eat. Break my re-formed habit of eating as entertainment, not nourishment.

That "hungry" time did not come until about 3:30 pm, so I started "breakfast" at 4pm. Finished eating last night at 9 pm, so a 19-hour mini-fast, which felt completely normal.

I had -

* collard, bok choy and kale smoothie with 1/2 pomegranate, and some mixed berries, plus flax on top.

* Romaine, cabbage, peas and onions salad with shredded beets and apple on top and some ground sesame seeds and parsley

* veggie soup over cold cabbage

* the remaining half of the apple from the salad for dessert

Doubt I'll eat again today, but if so, there is leftover shake.

Meditation

10 minutes am and 10 minutes pm.
Last edited by nicoles on Sat Aug 11, 2012 5:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby nicoles » Fri Aug 10, 2012 7:39 pm

Just realized all this "not overeating" stuff is like practicing the Okinawan recommendation of Hara Hachi Bu - very interesting!
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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby nicoles » Sat Aug 11, 2012 5:41 pm

Day 20

Breakfast
- ate at 9:30 am, a 17-hour fast. Had the leftover shake from yesterday, some soup and some cabbage.

Lunch
- more soup, salad, and mixed berries plus odds and ends of leftover pomegranate and apple. Today is food shopping day, so I clear out the old. Ate a bit too little at breakfast and a bit too much at lunch. Finished lunch at 3:30.

Exercise

Walked three miles this morning out of necessity (car in shop) and boy, did that wipe me out, because it is HOT inside and out in LA this week. And I love the heat, so you KNOW it's hot. Just sitting makes you break a sweat.

Meditation
5 minutes am
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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby moonwatcher » Sat Aug 11, 2012 10:30 pm

hi nicoles,

I just wanted to say hi, and that I've been browsing in your journal. That sorbet you made with the raspberries and blueberries, pom juice and avocado sounds wonderful. And you made me laugh out loud with that quote of John Goodman and the life of the mind, even though I've never seen the movie--that SURE IS meditation at times!!

And I laughed about the Mars landing, too. I am actually an astrologer, though I don't do readings all the time. Just once in a while these days.

On a more serious note, when I read some of the beginning, I could so understand the trials you went through with no doctors finding and thus thinking anything was wrong with you. That is also common with MS. And most likely all auto-immune conditions.

Anyway, just thought I'd say hi. I used to live in southern California. Went to grad school at UC Irvine. Am originally from Sacramento up north.

And you moved furniture!! Bravo!

take care,

moonwatcher
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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby nicoles » Mon Aug 13, 2012 1:02 pm

Hi Moonwatcher! Yes, the sorbet is delicious - addictive, even! Ha! laugh out loud! It is a crazy thing, the life of the mind, oh yes. Love every crazy second of it, even that parts I hate :-D

Are you an astrologer? How interesting! My parent's had a friend when I was little who was a Vedic astrologer, and did my whole chart when I was born. Turned out to be uncannily accurate, as I learned when I found it in a box in my 30s and read over what could have been the biography of my life, somewhat abstracted.

Ugh, yes. The doctor merry-go-round of attempting to get a diagnosis with "unusual symptoms." I was very disillusioned about the entire medical profession after that experience, and subsequently am such a tough patient now! I ask questions, I am not passive, I do not tolerate patronizing attitudes, etc., etc.! :lol:

Yes, moving furniture. More and more I find I am able to do things that I do without thinking, then later say - "hey wait a minute! I just did such-and-such!" I could not do that 1 year ago!"

Food is powerful medicine. And that is an understatement.

Glad you stopped in to say hi! I am reading your journal, too, and with avid interest. Actually, I have been meaning to ask you - I have two friends who have been recently diagnosed with MS - would you mind if I sent them a link to your thread?

Take care, and Greetings from your old stomping grounds (sort of) :)
Tough times don't last, tough people do

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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby moonwatcher » Mon Aug 13, 2012 2:31 pm

hi nicoles,

"Ugh, yes. The doctor merry-go-round of attempting to get a diagnosis with "unusual symptoms." I was very disillusioned about the entire medical profession after that experience, and subsequently am such a tough patient now! I ask questions, I am not passive, I do not tolerate patronizing attitudes, etc., etc.! "

Yes indeed!!! I'm with ya on this all the way. :-) And you bet food is powerful medicine. Or poison. We can take our pick. :-)

And yes, I am an astrologer (one of my vocational hats, anyway). Western, though, not Vedic. I know a little about Vedic and have heard similar things from others who have had a Vedic reading. The western kind can also be enlightening, though it tends to have more of a psychological bent these days. I draw on my inutuition and my image reading skills as a poet and go from there. I have a web site that is not up to date, and that I don't know how to access myself. I designed the home page and wrote the stuff, but someone else did everything else. I used to do a radio spot on the new and full moon on our community radio station here, and I think the transcripts are up there, also maybe link to listen, not sure. Some day I plan to get around to getting some help with revamping it and being more "public." But it's not time for that just yet. :) If you'd like to take a look, though, here's the link:

http://www.stargardening.com

I am so glad things are going well for you. And sure, please pass the link to my thread on to your friends with MS. It's a good idea to give them the option to consider it. It would be wonderful for them to get going with it right from the start. But it has to be up to them. Thanks for reading my perspective and passing it along to others.

Okay, the day is calling me. Nice to chat with another "California girl" :-)

moonwatcher
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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby blue » Mon Aug 13, 2012 5:19 pm

Ugh, yes. The doctor merry-go-round of attempting to get a diagnosis with "unusual symptoms." I was very disillusioned about the entire medical profession after that experience, and subsequently am such a tough patient now! I ask questions, I am not passive, I do not tolerate patronizing attitudes, etc., etc.!


My rides on that merry-go-round have turned me into a very bad patient. I keep thinking I need to learn how to behave better and be a better patient...or do I? ;-)
Success using WFPB diet to avoid steroid treatment for polymyalgia rheumatica. I don't hurt anymore :)
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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby nicoles » Mon Aug 13, 2012 7:38 pm

blue wrote:
Ugh, yes. The doctor merry-go-round of attempting to get a diagnosis with "unusual symptoms." I was very disillusioned about the entire medical profession after that experience, and subsequently am such a tough patient now! I ask questions, I am not passive, I do not tolerate patronizing attitudes, etc., etc.!


My rides on that merry-go-round have turned me into a very bad patient. I keep thinking I need to learn how to behave better and be a better patient...or do I? ;-)



Oh no, Blue, you do not need to behave! The worst patient from a doctor's perspective gets the best results from a patient's perspective.

I say, make 'em work for it. :lol:
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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby moonwatcher » Mon Aug 13, 2012 8:19 pm

I'm with ya on that all the way, nicoles!!

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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby nicoles » Tue Aug 14, 2012 10:55 am

Day 21

Breakfast - 3/4 shake, and some steamed brussels sprouts with cold bean sauce.

Lunch/Dinner

Ate about 5 hours after breakfast. Had a salad, leftover breakfast shake, leftover brussels sprouts and green peas with bean sauce. for dessert - apples, blueberries and 1/2 pomegranate. finished eating at about 5:10 pm.

Sadly, I ate too many blueberries and was stuffed. Having a hard time not stuffing my face and I suspect it is largely hormonal, as in PMS hunger, although my pre-McD/plant-based eating PMS was much, much worse. Although this does not mean it is entirely hormonal. Just that the hormonal hunger seems to be pushing the outer limits of my willpower.

Exercise
40 minute walk with weight vest in the am.
20 minute walk without vest at midday
25 minutes weight training
60 minute walk with weight vest in the evening

Meditation
20 minutes am
20 minutes pm.
Tough times don't last, tough people do

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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby nicoles » Tue Aug 14, 2012 11:33 am

"It is very simple to be happy, but it is very difficult to be simple" - Rabindranath Tagore
Tough times don't last, tough people do

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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby moonwatcher » Tue Aug 14, 2012 11:48 am

great quote--thanks!

moonwatcher
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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby nicoles » Wed Aug 15, 2012 9:23 am

Hi Moonwatcher! Glad you liked the quote! Me too :-D

Day 22

Breakfast
- ate from 9:30-10:00am

1/2 shake (kale, collards, cucumber, slice white onion, 1 pomegranate and some blackberries, plys 2 tablespoons ground flax)

Veggie soup over raw romaine and cabbage

Steamed broccoli with bean sauce

Broccoli Steaming water as "tea"

Lunch

Salad
Leftover smoothie
leftover broccoli with bean sauce

Dinner

Steamed Kale and Cauliflower with bean sauce
apple, blueberry and raspberries for dessert

Meditation

20 minutes am.

20 minutes pm

I have been using the simple, beginner practice of counting my breaths, from one to ten, then starting over, throughout the duration of my meditation time.

Yesterday evening I also concentrated on allowing space between the exhale and the next inhale - not forcing it, but allowing a natural space to be there, and within that space, attending to the feel of my heart beating and blood moving throughout my body.

Exercise

30 minute walk with weight vest in the pm.
Tough times don't last, tough people do

Read the results of my journey here: Nicole S. O'Shea vs. Psoriatic Arthritis

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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby blue » Wed Aug 15, 2012 11:32 am

Seriously, reading about your meditation sessions is so calming! Would probably work even better if I set my butt down and started practicing it again myself!

And your food always looks so good! I am tired of cooking so I'd rather just come to your house! :-D Can you tell us what is the bean sauce you use on your steamed veggies??
Success using WFPB diet to avoid steroid treatment for polymyalgia rheumatica. I don't hurt anymore :)
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