Michelle’s Loosing Fibromyalgia and Weight Journal

[lmggallagher]

You're completely right Rosie - it took a while but changing to this WOE eliminated so much of the fibro! I try to tell people with it but no one is willing. But I listened to you when you mentioned it here. I also have to avoid fruits and veggies that have certain sugars (polyols and oglios) - like watermelon will put me in a huge, huge flare! Nicole turned me on to the FODMAPS diet which eliminates those foods - the two diets together vanquished my pain. It really limits me foodwise - but pain decides what I eat now. Another thing that's not food is a change in barometric pressure which will flare me. We are having a big storm now the barometer is steady but before the storms start and it's going down there's not a thing I can do about the pain. That's probably why I had the recent arm pain but today I don't have one bit of fibro pain.

[Rosey]

You're completely right Rosie - it took a while but changing to this WOE eliminated so much of the fibro! I try to tell people with it but no one is willing. But I listened to you when you mentioned it here. I also have to avoid fruits and veggies that have certain sugars (polyols and oglios) - like watermelon will put me in a huge, huge flare! Nicole turned me on to the FODMAPS diet which eliminates those foods - the two diets together vanquished my pain. It really limits me foodwise - but pain decides what I eat now. Another thing that's not food is a change in barometric pressure which will flare me. We are having a big storm now the barometer is steady but before the storms start and it's going down there's not a thing I can do about the pain. That's probably why I had the recent arm pain but today I don't have one bit of fibro pain.

Yeah I hate the things we can't control. I have a few conditions that weather affects big time.

[lmggallagher]

Doing pretty well with eating - but chocolate keeps slipping into the mix. I have a good chocolate cherry smoothie I need to replace the other chocolate with - and soon. I meant to weigh myself today - but got distracted. My clothes tell me I am loosing though

My fibro symptoms are up but much more manageable than in years past. Sleeping is still not good - I have to be super careful about the eating and get both exercise and sunlight in to get a good night's sleep. I blew it yesterday though - once a week I meet a friend for coffee. I get a decaf, almond milk latte at the only place that can make me a compliant coffee. Again I got distracted ordering and forgot to double check the order was decaf. It wasn't I couldn't fall asleep until 3:45 am last night!

I find my fibromyalgia sleep issues are really triggered by even the tiniest amount of caffeine - even a decaf coffee afternoon will keep me awake a good part of the night. I REALLY miss coffee - but not so much I'll give up sleep for it!

Other than I've been kind of a basket case in not remembering to weigh or order coffee correctly - things are good - all is well

[lmggallagher]

I'm back but can't type today - more later.

Placeholder for information I need on bone density

Hi Alycia,

I Google'd the following: "Dr. McDougall Bone Density" and the first search result is this:

https://www.drmcdougall.com/health/educ ... eoporosis/

The second result is this:
Placeholder for information I need on bone density


https://www.drmcdougall.com/health/educ ... eoporosis/

And the third result is this:

https://www.drmcdougall.com/health/educ ... ry-splady/

Within the first result, are links to tons of other Dr. McDougall articles, newsletters, videos, etc discussing this topic; including this great newsletter:

https://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2012nl/jan/fav5.htm

Google is your friend and an excellent tool to use to find all things McDougall

Cheers,
Scott

[lmggallagher]

A 10-POINT CHECKLIST FOR MAXIMUM WEIGHT LOSS (MWL)

1) Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.  

2) Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals, filling half your plate (by visual volume) with non-starchy vegetables and 50% (by visual volume) with minimally processed starches.

2) Choose fruit for desert.

3) Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and added salts.  This includes gourmet sugars and salts too.  If either is troublesome for you, you can eliminate them.

4) Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood).

5) Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy).

6) Eliminate any added oil.

7) Eliminate all higher calorie-dense foods including flour products (i.e. bread, bagels, muffins, crackers, dry cereals, cookies, cakes), puffed cereals, air-popped popcorn and dried fruit.

8 ) Don’t drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages).

9) Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full.   Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself.

10) Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).

[lmggallagher]

I'm back after a year's hiatus. I left about the time I was diagnosed with my second round of breast cancer. The last year has been pretty staggeringly awful and now I'm stuck in home isolation due to the Coronavirus. That means I'm 67 and a risk group - so, I can't go out even for shopping for at least 3 weeks, but we are thinking it's likely to be more. Kids will be out of school for the rest of the year here - it's a huge impact on families! Luckily it's just me - I no longer even have my beloved Evil Siamese Twins

I watched Dr. McDougall's Coronavirus video - bless his heart - he covered all the issues and I decided if I'm stuck here it's time to get very serious about getting healthy. I have been plant-based but there has been deli food. In times of exhaustion going through radiation treatment I wasn't cooking and take out became a thing. But I'm being whole foods now too and close to MWL. The only variation is my kale smoothies.

The kale smoothies aren't permanent they are just a reflection of my current health crisis. This new one was after a scare of breast lumps and possible metastasis my oncologist got me to agree to bone density drug injections. Long story short: the lumps were benign but like so many other drugs I am allergic to this injected drug too. Now I have 6 months of it in my system.

I won't highlight all the side effects but there was a major impact to my eyes. The opthamologist - another bless her heart person - stayed with me through video conference, phone calls and emails through the weekend and the worst of it. We can no longer go into our health facilities unless it is a dire emergency or CV19. Part of my eye regime as prescribed are drops ointments, selenium, blueberries and kale. It's affected my appetite too so the kale and blueberries are a smoothie until my appetite comes back. Meanwhile - I'm losing weight and it's looking good on my tracker for a change

I have another reason to be losing weight - I have figured out how to get a good night's sleep - including sufficient deep sleep. This is horrendously important and I owe it to McDougall and the eating as well as a new addition of an Apple Watch and it's amazing additive sleep app!

The watch tracks various aspects of my sleep and grades it. Comes with charts and so much detail it's boggling. This has allowed me to experiment with different things to see what works best. Just recently - I added this regime to my sleep protocol that begins nightly at 9 PM: A glass of Almond Breeze almond milk, 4000 IU of vitamin D3, and a cup (two bags) of chamomile tea.

I had insomnia for years and the fibromyalgia I have suffered is, by many Doctors, deemed a sleep disorder. I got rid of some of my pain etc. on McDougall - by about 50%, but I still had huge flares especially during storm events. No longer - I sleep deeply for hours and wake farless than ever. We just had a series of storms here and other than some very bad localized pain - nothing whole bodywise!

Mostly, it's the chamomile - considering all the sleep training, aids, supplements, drugs and what have you turns out chamomile is the thing. Both of my Grandmothers were nurses one and RN and the other what was called a practical nurse. Both had always said chamomile was the ticket for sleep - I always thought that sounded lightweight - ah, they were completely right - of course!

Now that I am sleeping I'm also finally losing weight. I was so discouraged that I struggled to get the results that others did on McDougall. Now it's easy. I'm losing about a pound a week and this week it's even higher than that. I think the higher than that was my tiny, thin - runs 6 miles a day neighbor is doing my shopping and I wasn't going to put any vegan junk food on that list for her! I had a thing for vegan crackers - oh my!

Anyway - that's where I am right now - lots of challenges: healthwise but improving, home isolation and just the general state of affairs we all face these days. Glad to be back and hoping to meet others now who are doing all they can for their health and our tiny green planet.

[bunsofaluminum]

so glad you found something to help you sleep. My mom recently discovered Chamomile herself...now I'm wondering if I might want to give it a try. This self-isolation is something, isn't it...whew. Working from home.

[Daydream]

my sleep protocol that begins nightly at 9 PM: A glass of Almond Breeze almond milk, 4000 IU of vitamin D3, and a cup (two bags) of chamomile tea.

You caught my attention since I have terrible insomnia! Am I understanding you correctly that you drink a total of 16 ounces at 9pm (8oz of Almond Milk and 8oz of chamomile tea)? Does that cause you to get up during the night to use the bathroom?

[lmggallagher]

Yes - Day Dream - you are right about that. I drink the last of the bunch the tea at 9PM and try for a 10 pm bedtime. Most I eliminate before bed, but inevitably I will wake once after sleeping about an hour and have to head for the bathroom. However, this is nowhere near the 3 or 4 times I was getting up in the night before. Also - I fall right back to sleep after getting up - that too is a new phenomenon for me.

I surmise the reason for that is now I am getting the deep sleep that eluded me previously. In deep sleep the urge to urinate is controlled.

This is one explanation of what happens:

By inducing paralysis (atonia). While all the mechanisms are unknown, it is largely a shift in brain chemistry that prevents certain neurons from communicating to each other. This peaks during deep dreamless sleep when brainwave activity is at its lowest. During REM sleep, spikes of higher beta activity occur when the brain can register a full bladder and wake you up to urinate.

So, before I hit deep sleep I get up once and then - I sleep straight through the night. Seriously, before this I was up and down all night some nights.

[Daydream]

lmggallagher, thank you so much for your detailed response. I will have to try this and see if it helps the quality of my sleep!

[lmggallagher]

Hoping it will Day Dream - you can leave out the almond milk and vitamin D3 and just try the tea, as the first approach - I just found that combo works for me - but the tea might do the trick for other folks. Also I use Bigalow Chamomile Tea - seems to be most potent but others worked similarly. Here's to Sweet Dreams

[Daydream]

I use Bigalow Chamomile Tea

Thanks for the tip! I don't drink almond milk (don't have any here at the moment) so I'll try just the double tea bag of Chamomile at 9pm first.

[lmggallagher]

Yesterday
Weight: 231
Sleep:10
Fibro: 0
Fatigue: 5
Meditation: 30 mins
Egoscue/Exercise: no
MWL/low FODMAPS:no
Friends, family and fun: phone call with Cousin - who is not coming here now but heading home to Wisconsin before interstate travel is locked down. His 91 YO Mom is here isolated in her home and was expecting him to come in a week. She going to be despondent. She's going to get a call from me this week!

Food
B: oatmeal w/flax, blueberries,alm milk, blueberries, turmeric
L: broccoli & hummus
D: McD pea soup + frozen veg + flax meal + quinoa + turmeric/pepper/cumin
S: banana

Today:
Weight: 232 up but ate late
Resting pulse on waking: 68
BP 8 am 122/68/71
Sleep: 10
Fibro:0
Barometer -
Other symptoms:
Meditation: 20
Egoscue/Exercise: no
MWL/low FODMAPS:no
Friends, family and fun: call friend PM

Food planned/actual
Food
B:oatmeal/kale/blueberries/flax meal/alm milk
L: kitchen sink salad
D: McD Veg soup
S: fruit

Well - this is me back and tracking I may change this method b/c it was hugely about my fibromyalgia ups and downs. Now that I seem to have solved sleep - both the fibro and weight loss are nil to vastly improved. I'm still a bit tired and I think that is the response to the Zometa infusion problems.

Those were huge - first all the flu-like symptoms: fever, chills, aches, sore throat and huge fatigue. Really disconcerting to have those as pretty much the same as CV-19! My medical facility is closed to patients now except dire emergencies - but 3 Docs (including an ER doc) were monitoring me through this - so I still love my health care providers no end. The worst were when the sore throat turned to throat swelling, and then my eyes became swollen, painful and bloodshot.

So we were watching and waiting to see if my breathing became impaired and the vision thing was hives-like or a rare 1% of cases reaction that can cause blindness. To say the least - I was not my calm composed self about this. I mean I was fine with the Docs but my head was internally churning worst case scenarios non-stop.

Meditation at times like this is HUGE - and did calm me eventually. When I started getting a skin rash - it became clear to me this was more a hives-type thing then all the other terrible things it could have been. I'm still tired, my eyes look like I have been on a month long drinking binge and I still have the rash on my hands - but getting better!

On top of all of this I am monitoring every little health thing I can and since I am stuck at home in ordered CV-19 isolation along with 7 million of my Bay Area neighbors. So, I have nothing else to do but get all of my health straight! So far the weight and my blood pressure coming down to normal range are the areas where I am making the most improvement. In the year I was away I did solve the fibro and the sleep. The sleep resolution is the biggest thing because it was clearly the key to the fibro and the weight loss for me. No hurdles now to an improved health scenario now - unless this pandemic is taken into consideration. That's one pretty big hurdle for us - and day by day it's so much worse here. TG food can still be brought in!

[lmggallagher]

A reminder on doing SNAP meals

OK, I have experimented some more with the concept and here is my updated "guidelines"

1- 28 oz Can No Salt Added Tomatoes
1- 16 oz Bag Frozen Mixed Veggies (any type)
1- 4 oz Frozen Green Leafy Vegetables (collard, turnip, mustard, etc)
1- Around 200-250 Calories of a Cooked Starch (Brown rice, Yam, Potato, WW Pasta, etc)
1- Seasoning (to your preference)

This makes one meal of about 600-650 calories. Add in 1-2 tsp of flax and a couple pieces of fruit during the day or as a dessert if desired. You can repeat the process 2-3x a day for a simple meal plan of around 1300-1950 calories.

This will surpass every single RDA/DRI for every nutrient. The only ones that may occasionally look slightly low (85-95%) will be Zinc, Selenium and Vit E, all of which will not be issues and have been covered in this forum.

As some of you have mentioned, this is a large volume of food. But, what better problem to have then to have SO MUCH food to eat and enjoy!

200- 250 Calories Of Starch options
~ 1.25 to 1.5 Medium Potatoes
~ 1.25 to 1.5 Cups (Cooked) Whole Wheat Penne Pasta
~ 1 to 1.25 Cups (Cooked) Brown Rice

I just made it again for lunch with potatoes, collards and a mix of California style frozen veggies.

Enjoy!

In Health
Jeff

[lmggallagher]

Today's MWL weigh in:

Thanks for the welcomes Mark and Wildgoose - it's good to be back!


Weight Loss this week: 2.6

A 10-Point Checklist for Maximum Weight Loss

Start each meal with a soup and/or salad and/or fruit.
My breakfast includes fruit/oatmeal, my lunch is a salad and my dinners for now are McDougall low sodium soups
Follow the 50/50 plate method for your meals, filling half your plate (by visual volume) with non-starchy vegetables and 50% (by visual volume) with minimally processed starches. Choose fruit for dessert.
Doing!
Greatly reduce or eliminate added sugars and added salts. This includes gourmet sugars and salts, too. If either is troublesome for you, you can eliminate them.
Done.
Eliminate all animal foods (dairy, meat, eggs, fish, seafood).
Done.
Eliminate all higher fat plant foods (i.e., nuts, seeds, avocados, tofu, soy).
Done
Eliminate any added oil.
Done.
Eliminate all higher calorie-dense foods including flour products (i.e., bread, bagels, muffins, crackers, dry cereals, cookies, cakes), puffed cereals, air-popped popcorn and dried fruit.
Was perfect all week -- but my neighbor who is bringing me my grocery list of completely McDougall MWL compliant food (b/c I am on strict home isolation) treated me with a gift bag of 4 homemade chocolate chip cookies. I ate them all this morning. I will get back on the wagon and send her a text abt. what I'm doing. She'll laugh and be happy with my progress!
Don't drink your calories (especially from juices & sugar-sweetened beverages).
Last of my kale smoothie will be today. Kale/blueberries recommended by the opthamologist who has been helping me get through the terrible eye problems caused by a recent Zometa injection (bone density drug). Apparently I got all the bad drug interactions right down to the eye problems that only present in 1% of all patients
Follow these principles, eating whenever you are hungry until you are comfortably full. Don't starve yourself and don't stuff yourself.
Following,
Avoid being sedentary and aim for at least 30 minutes or more of moderate exercise daily (i.e., brisk walking).
Hope to start walking tomorrow - I am concerned though I'm getting over the bad drug reaction and have a left knee that needs to be replaced. Hoping I have both the energy and not much pain so I can do this.

Comments

For the last week my California County (San Mateo) has been in "shelter in place" due to the Coronavirus outbreak, as of last night we in California are all in "lock down" on Governor's orders. It's miserable, we're very committed to do the right thing here but terribly worried for our health care providers and neighbors. I watched both Doctor McDougall Covid-19 videos AFTER I had made the commitment in February to do all I could to get as healthy as I possibly can. There is no way to say that this virus is has a silver lining, but as Doctor McD points out it is our chance to hear the "wake up call" by making our commitments to the best personal health we can achieve.

Since I jumped back in and before we were technically isolated I began and this month I lost 10 pounds total so far. Also bringing my blood pressure down from the 130s over the 80s to 117/70/71 this morning. I was also found to be prediabetic in February and I know from my past experience 3 weeks of McDougall and a tiny bit of weight loss erases that completely. I also know that this weight loss amount won't be this high going forward, but doing this is my way of protecting myself, my neighbors and my health care providers to the very best of my ability - not just for weight loss. This program, along with all the tips Dr. McD and Mary have shared with us to keep safe from the virus as best we know how, are my goals. Be healthy, happy and vigilant friends! Thanks - Michelle