When Cleaning Up Your Eating May Be Worth It for Auto-Immune Issues

It’s been a while. I’ve been thinking about resurfacing but life has been busy! Not that it has changed but apparently I found time!

While I’ve not been posting I have still been encountering a few things worth sharing. I’ll try to share them out as I have time.

First, a bit of background for anyone unfamiliar.

I have rheumatoid arthritis, or what I’ll refer to as RA in this post. I am trying to remember how long I’ve had it but I can’t remember. It’s probably been since 2013 or 2014 but that is just a guess.

At first it was annoying, I had a few flared up fingers, and sometimes it was frustrating that it made me felt limited in my life. Any pains or inconveniences that I experienced I was willing to tolerate them as opposed to letting them change my life.

To complicate things I was hit by a car I believe a year and change ago while biking to work.

While I walked away with any major injuries what did happen was that it sent my RA into cycles of rage. What annoying at first turned into almost unbearable .. and they started to happen more often. Sometimes I’d get hurt and sometimes it would just ‘happen’ .. I’d go through a week work of moving pains. It usually started in an extremity (i.e. ankles, hands, etc) for a day and a half, take a day off then move in closer to the center, and repeat the cycle all the way in. It would last about a week on and off. I’d be up miserable all night screeching in pain and by 4pm the next day I was back to normal until the ‘next cycle.’

So, a few things happened.

#1 I went to my doctor and he bumped my meds up, although I said ‘just a bit’ for now because I don’t want to medicate more than I need to. After xx weeks the flare ups would still surface but they weren’t as bad. They would, however, limit my ability to function and teach classes.

#2 I started taking probiotics consistently. I read an article that mentioned that probiotics may be linked to RA and figured it can’t hurt to see if they help with it or not.

#3 I start cleaning up my eating. I will admit to occasionally being tired or lazy and opting for quick food .. not necessarily fast food but quick and convenient food at home.

One day I looked down and noticed that the swelling in my hand was better.

One day I noticed that it had been months since my last flare up.

One day I noticed that my joint mobility limitations were .. all but gone.

I can’t say for sure that anything in #2 or #3 above helped with this but I have no reason to steer off course. Since noticing this I have also been talking to my mother, who has IBS (another autoimmune disease), about probiotics and cleaning her diet up. I am hopeful that it helps her out in the same way.

If this makes life a bit more normal than before then I have no problem keeping all of this momentum going!

I’ll check back in later!

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How to Survive Thanksgiving .. and all of that food ..

How to Survive Thanksgiving … we think about all of that amazing, tasty food and some of us cringe knowing we are about to throw our eating habits OUT THE WINDOW without thinking twice.

Well, for 2 years straight I’ve managed to survive feeling that I both enjoyed it and did not suffer one way or the other. What did I do? Let’s talk …

1.) Plan the day out, eating wise, ahead of time — This may sound silly but for the most part we know what to expect, food wise, each Thanksgiving … it rarely changes. So, think about how you can eat and get through the meal, or meals, of the day without causing complete chaos to your eating plan. Is it smaller portions, is it picking and choosing? You decide, but it’s good to have a game plan … and then stick with it.

2.) Pre-burn — if you know that you are eating more than normal that day then why not knock out a good workout to burn extra calories ahead of time. Whether it’s outside, at home, or at a gym think about what you can do that day to get a workout in, then you gain those calories on top of your daily allowance to use later on.

3.) Skip the seconds — So you finish your plate and really, really want to go back for more? Try this .. drink a glass of water, maybe walk away from the table, and give it 15 minutes. If you’re still hungry then maybe get a touch more but most likely the cravings will be gone by then 🙂

4.) Don’t feel guilty — I am the WORST at beating myself up any time my eating goes off track. Guess what? If it happened, it happened. The moment has passed. Pick yourself, regroup, refocus, and get back on track.

5.) H2O — think about all of that sodium that we take in over Thanksgiving. Feel bloated? I bet that sodium is not helping. Drink water and start flushing some of that out of your system. It’s a good detox for the system so sip away!

6.) Try and balance those calories out over the long weekend — Things did not go as planned or you ate a bit more than your daily allowance? Well .. maybe you workout a time or three over the weekend and try to balance those numbers back out. Everything helps!

Enjoy the holiday and thanks for reading!

Christina

When they say “Run” they don’t mean “Run”

I have been working with my coworker for a couple of years now. He’s tried every diet and every exercise habit you should, and should not, try.

A few times he tried to run .. and failed. He did the couch to 5k plan and, like most people, freaked out at week 5 day 3 and stopped.

He’s a contractor and lately has been working remotely from home until last week. When he came in we were playing ‘catch up’ on how things have been. He mentions that he’s been running and has found a bit of enjoyment out of it.

WHAT?

WHAT?

What did he do? He learned that running did not mean running. It instead meant to find *your* pace above a walk and go with it.

So, today he walks up to me and mentions that he’s mad that no one ever told him that running did not mean running (I’m sure I said it to him a few times, but he never listens to me!). Finally he’s found something that he can do, that’s exercise, and that’s not a voluntary form of torture.

Nice!

So … if you’re scratching your head on all of this, let me explain.

If you’re trying out running for the first time these are your Dos and Don’ts …

• Don’t think you should walk out the door and run like a Nigerian. My sister did this .. she started the Couch to 5k program and on the first day, at every interval she bolted like someone was trying to rob her. Silly rabbit was sore for days. Go slow .. there is no need to rush. Remember your legs and body are not conditioned for running.
• Don’t have any expectations and don’t be in a hurry. The goal and the key is no pressure. Remember that it just needs to be better than what you do now. That’s it.
• Do give yourself recovery time after running. Again, your body is new to this. Even if you run slowly those muscles are getting a new workout and need time to repair.
• Take it slow, keep an open mind, and give it time. Take the expectations, pressure, and pace away .. try it xx amount of times and see how it goes. One time is not enough to decide on much of anything, I promise.

Years ago I used to run and was OBSESSED with my pace. I was always racing EVERYONE, especially myself. Running turned into disappointment and torture at one time until I through those out the window and decided to find the fun. Now, it’s something I love.

Will my pace every be as fast as before? Probably not. Do I enjoy the miles more than I did? Absolutely.

Happy day and thanks for reading!

I have tons of playlists on Spotify, by BPMs, by moves (i.e. seated flats, standing climbs, etc). Feel free to follow me as I am constantly adding to my playlists 🙂

Christina

Feel free to follow me on social media!

Follow @joschmoblo

Follow @_findingfitness – my blog’s twitter

Keeping Things Interesting For Your Body

I believe that I have a bit of a reputation .. I never say ‘no’ when people ask me to sub classes for them. I do it for a few reasons ..

1. I handle excessive free time poorly. I will admit it. I am lazy in my spare time and I like to munch. While I need to learn to manage my down time in the meanwhile I never say no to the chance to eliminate a bit of it.

2. For instructors it always feels good when people ask you to sub. At the gyms I teach at it is usually a compliment. When I find subs I will ask only those people that I know will give the class as good of a workout in my absence.

3. It’s always good to throw a wrench into your ‘typical’ fitness regimen. It keeps the body guessing a bit more often. Guessing leads to changing and adjusting. That usually leads to good stuff!

Number 3 is what we’ll talk about.

Most people who have exercise as part of their lifestyle tend to find what they love, and they stick with it. We get comfortable and we tend to not only stick to those workouts but we also develop a pattern with exercising.

What happens? The body learns the patterns, knows what to expect, and may stop responding as much as we’d like it to.

How can we avoid this? Throw some wrenches in the mix. Maybe add a new workout in there, do things out of order (or in reverse), change the intensity and focus. Find a way to throw your workout out of what you expect it to be. Then, do it again.

Make those changes start happening for you once again because, after all, that is what we work so hard for!

Happy day and thanks for reading!

I have tons of playlists on Spotify, by BPMs, by moves (i.e. seated flats, standing climbs, etc). Feel free to follow me as I am constantly adding to my playlists 🙂

Christina

Feel free to follow me on social media!

Follow @joschmoblo

Follow @_findingfitness – my blog’s twitter