Psoriatic Arthritis Journal - 2.5 year Update Page 63

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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby nicoles » Tue Jul 31, 2012 7:32 pm

Chile, I am glad to hear it went well, and that you'll be meditating instead of panicking while you wait for the ultrasound. No need to flood your body with stress hormones!

I hope it is no big deal, which is probably the case. let me know how it goes!
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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby nicoles » Wed Aug 01, 2012 10:05 am

Day 10

I am trying a new approach. I have so far been waiting to eat until hungry, but this is rather inconvenient, especially for work and exercise scheduling.

Instead, I am now going to eat at set meal times, and try not to overeat at each meal, so that I do not feel stuffed at the end, and that I am hungry in time for the next meal.

Breakfast

Ate breakfast from 8:30 am to 8:40 am (pretty quick, huh?,) a 16 hour gap from dinner last night until breakfast. Mostly had a smoothie - about 1/2 of what I would have had, pre-true-hunger-searching. Also had a very small amount of split pea soup, but was not hungry for any more than that.

Lunch

Ate lunch from about 1:15- 1:45, about 4 1/2 hours after my light breakfast. Seems reasonable. Managed to eat until happily full but not stuffed, partially, I think, because I was not regarding it in my mind as my "last meal of the day" and stuffing myself like there was no tomorrow.

Had the leftover smoothie from breakfast, salad and kale with beans. plus a little more than 1/2 apple.

Dinner

Ate dinner from 5:30- 6pm. 4 and a little hour gap between lunch and dinner, A-OK with me. I feel like I ate little enough at lunch to be hungry by dinner.

Had salad with chopped pears and apples, Brussels sprouts and bean sauce, and split pea soup with sweet potato and cabbage. For dessert I made the YUMMIEST sorbet in the Cuisinart - frozen raspberries and blueberries blended with a little pomegranate juice and a slice of avocado until creamy and smooth. Really amazing flavor and I think I ate just enough - not too full, not too hungry. Although maybe I am a slight bit too full, now that it is settling. Not as full as yesterday night, though! Work in progress.

Meditation

I have been meditating now for a few fays, morning as soon as I wake up, and right before I go to bed. Let me tell you, my dreams have been something else!

An old friend who is a long-time meditator tells me that one you open the can of writhing thoughts, things get interesting for awhile. It feels like that scene from the movie, Barton Fink, when John Goodman is walking down the hallway, swirlingly aflame, bellowing "I WILL SHOW YOU THE LIFE OF THE MIND!!" :lol: :lol: :lol:

Exercise

Walked 45 minutes briskly wearing 9 pounds of weight vest in the morning before work.

Walked about 40 minutes, briskly, without the weight vest after dinner, then did some gentle yoga.
Last edited by nicoles on Wed Aug 01, 2012 9:25 pm, edited 5 times in total.
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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby nicoles » Wed Aug 01, 2012 11:02 am

This article posted by Katydid on this thread explains a bit about why I try to eat as many cruciferous vegetables as possible. The positive effects on DNA protection and repair of the isothyocyanates in cruciferous veggies, mentioned in the article, also apply to autoimmune diseases.
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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby nicoles » Fri Aug 03, 2012 10:15 am

Day 11

Breakfast

Did not sleep great last night, and so I got up a little late and ate a little late. I blame the full moon - I can never sleep deeply under a full moon!
Ate about 3/4 of a smoothie with ground flax. That was all I felt like eating. Ate from 9:00-9:30 am, a 15-ish-hour fast between dinner and breakfast


Lunch

Ate lunch from 2:00 - 2:30 pm. Had salad, soup, and kale with bean sauce,, then I made cooked apples and blueberries for dessert! (Thanks to Michelle, for making me think of it!) I was pretty hungry, as I usually am the day after a bad night's sleep. But not terribly hungry! just pretty hungry.

Made it through the meal without stuffing myself. All good!

Dinner

Ate at 6:30pm. Salad, Steamed rutabaga, broccoli and white beans. SO TASTY! Had leftover apple and blueberry "pie" for dessert, plus a half regular apple. Ate just enough. Finished eating around 7:30.

Meditation

30 minutes meditation right after awakening. 30 minutes meditation right before bed. 30 minutes seems to be the magic number for me, because I get about 25 minutes of high mental drama before I settle into my breathe and then the timer goes off!

Exercise

Walked 40 minutes with weight vest in the morning. Did 8 sets of going up and down a flight of stairs after the walk.

Walked about an hour after dinner, no weight vest. Then I did gentle yoga.
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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby nicoles » Fri Aug 03, 2012 7:04 pm

Day 12

Breakfast
Ate breakfast from 10:30- am. About a 14-hour "fast" between dinner and breakfast. Breakfast was veggie juice (about 6 ounces - kale, collard, parsley, celery, cucumber and 1/2 apple), 2/3rds smoothie (blueberry, blackberry and pomegranate seeds with kale and frozen broccoli) with ground flax on top. Then I had an apple and about 1/2 cup sweet potato.



Lunch/Dinner

Ended up being the same meal, since I ate breakfast so early. Salad, soup, kale and beans, plus the berry sorbet I make.

Then - I blew it. Ate 1-1/2 bags frozen raspberries. Definitely overate - I am stuffed.

Finished eating at 6 pm

Mediation

30 minutes right after getting up. Mostly mental drama, probably really settled into the breathe about 30 seconds before the timer went off :lol:

Exercise

Nothing really - very tired today, and had work to do, plus prepping for a weekend trip, which always takes a ton of time.
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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby lmggallagher » Sat Aug 04, 2012 10:12 pm

Nicole - how does one eat a bag and 1/2 of frozen raspberries???????

Cool that you are doing the meditation 8) I find it really helps me - but because it's fibro and no deep sleep for me - I hardly dream at all. How the heck I am I supposed to solve my life's dilemmas without dreaming, I ask you!

I am glad your logging your food - I always love to see how we all approach this.

Hope your trip is going well too - Michelle
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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby nicoles » Sun Aug 05, 2012 12:02 pm

hey Michelle - I eat a bag and half of berries compulsively, no other way to describe it! And I do not think that it helps my digestive system one bit :oops: Cool to hear that you meditate, too! I really like it, although my foot fell asleep yesterday and I fell on my face getting up from my seat 8)

Day 13

Am
- green smoothie, kale and beans.
snack - cucumber, kale, apple and wheatgreass juice from Whole foods, where my husband was picking up organic skirt steak that he could tolerate grilling for his folks for their anniversary.

Dinner - veggie soup and cabbage, salad with beets and apples, and homemade veggie sushi - 1/2 roll of brown rice, seet potato and apple "sushi," and 1/2-roll of black rice, avocado and red onion sushi. Apple and berries for dessert. Definitely overate at dinner, but I was planning to, since we were at th in-laws.

Post-swimming/Olympic watching snack: Apples and Berries

My husband made marinated grilled skirt steak for the in-laws, and steamd corn without butter - which they ate happily without butter! He got vegan quinoa salad and potato salad as sides from Whole Foods, using the Health Starts Here options without oil or salt. Apperently they were pretty good.
He also made a large salad with mixed baby greens, red onion and a delectable single heirloom purple tomato, chopped, then dressed with red wine vinegar.

Huzz used PsyOps on his parents for the dinner in regard to proportions - He got a lot of salad, and small amounts of steak and sides, and they started with corn on the cob. Then they had watermelon for dessert.

As he anticipated, they ate the most of what there was the most of - three helpings each of salad, amybe 2-3 ounces per person of meat, and 1/2 cup of the sides each, the n A LOT of watermelon for dessert. He mentioned nothing about eating healthy or being vegan, and They actually cvommented on how glad they were to not be forced to eat a "healthy meal." :lol: :lol: :lol: Little do they know, it was probably the healthiest meal they've had in a long time, even if not perfect.

And they loved the corn and the tomato! As my lovely FIL said, "What can you tell me about this tomato?'" which for him is like saying "This is amazing!!!" :-D

FIL also praised the Irish Soda bread I made for his birthday the other week - saying it was his new gold standard and he was officially entering me in his family reunion's Soda Bread Competition next year. Highest praise, considering it was his own mother's recipe I used. Too bad I'll never be able to taste it, hehe :evil:

My husband had a little steak for the first time in a long time, and a first was like,"it wasn't all that good." Thenlater he wondered if maybe meat was just not as palatable to him as it used to be, after not having it for so long! I hope that was what it was! :lol:

Meditation
30 mintues in the morning. 10 minutes before bed (it's the weekend)

Exercise

Hour long walk after dinner with the Huzz in the hilly paseos in the in-laws' neighborhood.

1/2 hour of fun SWIMMING in the community pool after the sun went down, since no-one was in the pool and I was not about to get a burn at 8:30pm :lol:
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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

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

Day 14

Breakfast:

Romaine, cucumber, parsley, onion and raspberry smoothie with a little slice of avocado and some ground flax, and hot, steamed cauliflower and beans.

Snack:

1 apple

Lunch

Salad with beets and apples and peas, black rice, avocado and red onion sushi

Dinner:

More of the same sushi, butternut squash, sweet potato and kale soup with some split peas, raspberries.


Mediation:

10 minutes in the morning
15 minutes before bed.

Exercise:

Swimming for an hour, mostly doing breast stroke or freestyle laps, then I treaded (trod? :lol: ) water when I got tired, inspired by Olympic water polo watching. It's hard!
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Overate a bit yesterday, I think, but then again, I was hungrier from the exercise Saturday and Sunday. Had a lot to do when we got home from the in-laws - food shopping, prepping meals for the week, cleaning the kitchen and making more Irish Soda Bread for my husband's boss's birthday, since he is allergic to yeast and cannot eat most breads, so he loves the Soda Bread. So much he never shares it when I make it, much to my husband's sadness.
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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby nicoles » Mon Aug 06, 2012 8:13 pm

Day 15

Breakfast


did not get hungry until about noon, probably because I ate dinner at 9 pm last night! About a 15-hour fast between the two meals.

Green smoothie (kale, berries, pomegranate, broccoli) veggie soup from last night, and some leftover turnips and brussels' sprouts. Added flax to the smoothie.

Lunch and Dinner

Were the same meal - ate at 5:30pm. Big salad, steamed cauliflower with sweet potato and squash, raspberries.

Meditation

15 minutes in the morning (got up late)

Exercise

Nothing really. Did a lot of physical work at work, though. Moving boxes and furniture.

Yep, that's right. Moving furniture! I can do that now. :-D
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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby blue » Mon Aug 06, 2012 8:51 pm

Yep, that's right. Moving furniture! I can do that now


Good for you, Nicole! Does it ever make you giddy thinking about how much better you feel and what you're capable of due to diet? Does me! lol It's just a really good feeling. Almost like a special power :unibrow:
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 fulenn » Tue Aug 07, 2012 10:52 pm

So excited to hear that you are moving furniture! It's a great feeling to be able to do the things that you thought were gone forever, even moving furniture.

You go!!

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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby nicoles » Thu Aug 09, 2012 10:32 am

Blue and Fulenn - I am so giddy I cannot even express it in words! I marvel at each and every thing, which I had already mourned the forever loss of, that returns.

I want to tell everyone I meet - "Do you know how incredible this is?! Do you realize I am living a miracle?!"

Because, of course, most people don't realize this at all. They have no clue how much pain I was in or how much pain I am in now - pain is invisible, after all - and they take for granted that normally people "get sick" and then, in a predicatble manner, "get better."

And autoimmune stuff is so very different than that, since we allegedly never "get better." But this is not how people think of illness. Ah well. We live our secret miracle, and are blessed to never again take for granted the smallest of things that others consider completely normal: their right, so to speak. I feel very lucky in that way.

Days 16 and 17

The last 2 days were a little crazy - circumstances at work and at home conspired to make things difficult at every step, and not just for eating!

Modem broke. Wireless router ALSO broke! Car broke down. Water got turned off in the neighborhood. Big project at work must be done over; I got chewed out unnecessarily. Sink stopped up and overflowed, abusive downstairs neighbor lost it and came up and cursed me out. (Dude, it is plumbing, not an act of aggression against YOU! He is nuts :roll: ) Debit card identity theft. New debit card still not arrived so cannot pay bills, which could not be paid when we had the card because the internet was down and we did not know we had to pay them during normal biz hours until too late, because we did not know the modem would break. Etc., etc., ad nauseum!

Plus it has been HOT and, relatively humid, and the power was out, so no fans or AC!

I don't know what the Curiosity landing on Mars did to my star chart, but things have been Kablooie! :lol: :lol: :lol:

Anyway, I did not eat anything like I normally do, in terms of schedule and amount, but I did stay on plan. I definitely ate too much due to the stress of all these things happening at once.


Did not get to exercise much either. Only meditated maybe 10 minutes each day - not sure because BOTH TIMES I was so distracted I forgot to set the timer, and was just sitting there, breathing, until I finally was like, "Um....this seems really long..."and looked at the timer, all sitting there, peaceful-like, waiting for me to hit the start button. :lol:

It has really been a very funny couple of days. :lol: Can't say for sure whether it is over yet, as a matter of fact, but at least now I can access the interwebs from home. :-D
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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby lmggallagher » Thu Aug 09, 2012 12:11 pm

Nichol:

OMG - I have had the worst couple of days too. culminating with a a fire in our town that folks were sure was coming our way. I just sort of took it for granted it would, because that was the type of week I was having!

Actually, I have friends that email me frequently and this week everyone of us was ranting about all the broken stuff, crazy people and well ants. If you haven't been taken over by the latest new species of ants - you better count yourself lucky! Maybe they just aren't in SoCal yet!

So we are supposed to blame it on the Mar's landing. Hey, as long as there is something to blame it on I am OK.

Meanwhile: there is the miracle of our bodies healing and as they say if you've got your health you have got everything!
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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby nicoles » Thu Aug 09, 2012 8:42 pm

lmggallagher wrote:
...Actually, I have friends that email me frequently and this week everyone of us was ranting about all the broken stuff, crazy people and well ants. If you haven't been taken over by the latest new species of ants - you better count yourself lucky! Maybe they just aren't in SoCal yet!


Are those ants you speak of Argentinian ants, the Genghis Khan of ant species? I hear they are a monster to deal with!

lmggallagher wrote:So we are supposed to blame it on the Mar's landing. Hey, as long as there is something to blame it on I am OK.


:lol: To which my husband added - and as long s you aren't blaming it on me, then I am OK.

lmggallagher wrote:Meanwhile: there is the miracle of our bodies healing and as they say if you've got your health you have got everything!

I cannot say how many times I thought just this exact thing in the last couple of days! I was like, "World, you really cannot get me down now. I am feeling good!"
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Re: Nicoles Psoriatic Arthritis Journal

Postby lmggallagher » Fri Aug 10, 2012 9:21 am

Yep the Argentine's are here - I am calling an exterminators today nothing works and the gents at the local hardware store say there's nothing on their shelves that has been effective yet. I hate to but I think there is going to be spraying. The poor cats can't even get through their dinner without ants crawling all on their food. I have to move food bowls into the bedrooms and if one sits on the floor for more than 20 mins the ant are all over it. Before this I hadn't even seen an ant here ever!

Good your hubby has divested himself from all blame too. I have freinds a couple who do it this way - she is always to blame but there are no consequences. Personally, I could never agree to that - but it seems to work for them.

Mostly, I loved the Nina Simone - I just created a Pandora station for her earlier this week - funny that you should post a link to her on youtube :lol: :lol: ;-) ;-)
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