Busting My Butt (In A Good Way!)

I've been pretty quiet lately - mostly because I have been completely obsessed with working out and tracking my calories. I am so determined to loose weight and get fit... and doing it the right way! :)

This week I'm down 2 lbs. I've been tracking everything and thus far I've burned 900 calories. That's this week. To say I'm proud is an understatement! I'm really working hard. My face has even started to slim down already... Thank goodness!!!



Autumn Jam

So in my usual fashion, when stressed, I turn to food. But today I made a jam I've never made before. Blackberry/Cranberry. HO-LY YUM.

2 6oz packages blackberries
12 oz cranberries
1/2 cup water (or apple cider)
2-3 Tbsp maple syrup
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Put everything in a pot and simmer until cranberries burst. Mash berries with potato masher and simmer for a couple more minutes. Cool or can as desired.

*adapted from Autumn Jam recipe on www.theculturedcook.com.

This is low sugar, gluten free, and full of amazing flavor.

Relief and Frustration

Relief - I do not have any of the other markers for Lupus, so that potential diagnosis is out. PHEW.

Frustration - There is nothing they can do regarding my joint instability syndrome. I just have to deal. I can continue to have surgeries that don't hold, or they can fuse my joints so they are no longer an issue, and that is it. No medications to slow it down, and they really don't know much of anything about it.

SO FRUSTRATING.

But I have my dietary focus now, so that is great news. And the Rheum wrote me a script for strictly pool work physical therapy. I asked the doc how he felt about a change in lifestyle and going 100% gluten free (I mentioned some of the research I had done) and he was completely supportive of me trying that avenue. "There have been reports of many people having great success managing their fibro pain and fatigue by cutting out gluten. I say give it a shot! It certainly won't hurt anything, thats for sure!"

So there I have it - an endorsement to take my health and well being into my own hands by a medical professional.

Turns out my Occupational Therapist is gluten free, can free, plastic free, pastured grass fed animal consuming, and raw milk drinking. 2 people in the last week have recommended the GAPS book to me, so I think I'll give it a look. It also turns out that a girl I went to middle school and high school with is a nutritional goddess and is very open to talking about health and wellness. My mom is going to go to the gluten free classes with me and she is looking into how much a membership is for us to use the pool at the local YMCA. I feel like all the puzzle pieces are falling into place to get this done right - and to be fully supported by family and friends. :-D

Food 102

I got home from my nutrition class about an hour ago and I am still SO excited about the changes that will be made in our household.

Todays class focused on how to blend this lifestyle into your current one. Again, Lisa did not disappoint with handouts that I can share with family and friends. I'm so excited to learn more. Its strange, I felt really connected to Lisa today... like the information she was sharing I just wanted to absorb and immediately share with others. Maybe once I've switched over our household and gained first hand results of wellness, teaching others might be in my future? I do love sharing information with others...

Take today for example: I got a ride to Whole Paycheck from my BFF. We are still down to one car, which makes simple tasks trying, but I digress. I had such a great time walking around the store with her, sharing what info I'd been learning. We talked about "organic cage-less" vs "pastured" eggs, the difference in nutritional value, and the cost of investing in your health.

Cost is a big stumping factor for most people. They way I look at it, I'm sitting on $5k of medical bills from AUGUST - PRESENT ALONE. $5,000 is a LOT of money!!! Thats an additional $96 a WEEK that I could be investing in better quality foods for my family that may reverse my pain and disability and keep my children safe from ever having to face this themselves.

If that isn't an eye opener, I don't know what is.

 

 



Stalemate...

I had an appointment with the surgeon this morning and it appears we have reached a stalemate. My surgery has basically undone itself already (damn) and she said it would be pointless to attempt another soft tissue reconstruction as my body would just tear it all apart again anyways. She said she wants to wait to see what the rheumatologist says on Thursday before we move forward. She is hoping they will put me on some kind of "biological medication" that will slow down my body's tendency to attack itself. After we get that figured out, we can move forward. Otherwise, she said she would have to fuse the bones in my wrist, and I would basically have to decide what motions I would be willing to give up: either flipping my hand over, or extension/flexion of the wrist.

Not exactly what I wanted to hear, by any means.

SO! Now is as good a time as any to get me back on track from the inside out. To see what I can help/reverse by taking care of myself and really pushing my family to accept the nutritional changes I want to see happen. When the surgeon said "biological medicine" a little trumpet went off in my brain - I can affect my biology through diet. Now, thats not to say that I will refuse medication. I'm falling apart - literally. I need to get that crap under control NOW. But I also know that once I get on a medication to stabilize my weirdness, I may be able to wean myself off should I also get all of the shit out of my diet too. Heal myself from the inside out.

Its worth a shot. It certainly couldn't get much worse...

Food 101 - You Are What You Eat

Having allowed myself a little wallow time, I feel remarkably inspired to get down and dirty with how I can do something about what is happening to me. I've decided to focus on diet. I've always had a bit of a food obsession to begin with (bulemia in my teens/early twenties) and I've tried more than once to do a diet overhaul. I've had 2 factors that always lead to their failure. 1) I didn't completely buy into what they were saying - Yes, a plant-based diet does have many many health benefits... but lets be honest here, I like how tush (animal products) taste. I just don't like how animal products are jam packed with hormones, pesticides, antibiotics... and don't get me started on the treatment of those poor souls. 2) Crappy support. So does this mean I can never eat meat or drink milk ever again??

Thankfully, the answer is no. I don't have to give these things up!

I went to a nutritional class on Tuesday with my mom called "One plate at a time: Eating to beat diabetes, inflammatory disease, and cancer" lead by Lisa (The Cultured Cook). She was AMAZING. I seriously can't wait for next weeks class!! Not only that, but she has a course on gluten-free living coming up next month... I can't wait!! But I digress...

In the class we talked about how diabetes and disease reek havok in the body. We only lightly touched on inflammatory diseases, but the following information was more than amazing. We talked about how the body processes what we eat and how we can directly effect our health with our diet. Omega 3's are anti-inflammatory. They are found in high concentrations in green grass. Humans do not produce Omega 3's, nor can we digest grass. So how the heck are we supposed to get these amazing little powerhouses into our systems? By consuming something that consumes the grass! Lisa then introduced the idea that "organic" milk only means no hormones and no pesticides were used in the cows feed or injected into their bodies... but those cows are typically grain fed, not pasture grass fed...

The old atteche "you are what you eat" is true. But you are also what the thing you're eating has been eating.

For a warm fuzzy example of this in nature: Brine shrimp eat red algae. Brine shrimp are pink. Flamingo's eat brine shrimp. Flamino's are... Pink! Flamingo's kept in captivity that are fed a shrimp alternative are... White! See? You are what you eat. ;)

Now for the less fuzzy example... Store bought chicken. Those chicken are fed corn (sprayed with pesticides), corn meal, bone meal (from other chickens, mind you), and chicken litter (ground up chicken parts, feathers, feces, and corn meal that has fallen on the ground). It's enough to make you sick, isnt it? The chickens too, so they are given an antibiotic to keep infection and disease to a minimum. And since those poor souls can't sustain life in those conditions for long, they are given growth hormone to speed up their growth rate so they can be slaughtered before dying from disease.

Yum yum. Dish me up a plate of THAT.

So I have decided no more regular old store bought meats, eggs and milk. I'm done with that. No thank you!

Last week I purchased an 1/8 of a pasture grass fed cow. I currently have just over 50 lbs of assorted cuts of meat in my upright freezer. That should last me a little while. I'm also joining a co-op for my milk, eggs, and poultry. These are all pastured, grass fed animals. Oh, and no antibiotics or growth hormones for these bad boys. The milk is raw whole milk. I know, I know, poo poo me on that one... but is your milk full of Omega 3's? Nope! They've been cooked right out with pastuerization, along with a slew of other vitamins and minerals. Is it a little pricey? Sure... but so are all these freakin medical bills!! If you're in the Metro Detroit Area, check out Family Farms Cooperative We are talking SUPER reasonable not to mention supporting local Michigan farmers. I'm also doing away with canned veggies and plastic bottles for my milk storage... More on that later. ;-)

I'm excited!! :-D

Fun fact for the day: Did you know that if you buy 1 gallon of whole milk and split it between 2 seperate gallon jugs and fill to the brim with water, you now have 2 gallons of 2% milk?? How's that for stretching a dollar??