Friday 30 August 2013

Oops


Sorry for the lack of blogging, the summer holidays have been as always a non stop chaos fest

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Thursday 8 August 2013

Wednesday 3 July 2013

Oh joy

Apparently I have a nasty sinus infection and have been given Doxycycline to sort it. This is making me feel as sick as sick as a sick thing. Horrible antibiotic and I have a room to decorate and move today! Bugger

Tuesday 2 July 2013

Day 2 jillian Michaels Body Revolution

Was fairly easy really, though I know the following weeks are going to get tricky. Tomorrow I know will be tough as I spent the day filling holes in the kids walls and plastering generally. My arms are killing me, I should become a plasterer I would be super fit then!


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Monday 1 July 2013

Jillian Michaels Body Revolution

Generally I'm feeling a load better these days, but a short stint on steroids and a whole load of dull bed rest time has meant I've gained about 10 pounds. Not the end of the world, but I'm not comfortable. So I'm giving Jillian Michaels body revolution a go, today was day one and wasn't at all bad. The American cheer leader enthusiasm was a little grating but generally I like Jillian. The plan is to skip yoga this week while I get use to Jillian and then add in a few days practice the following week. I'm aware too much is simply too much for me, I don't have the luxury of pushing through something to see gains at the end, if I over do it I quite simply get sick for a fortnight by triggering a flare up. It's a pain but that's the way it is.

My little girl has been quite poorly the past few months too, she keeps throwing up. At first we thought it was a tummy bug, but it went on so long. The doctor thinks it could be ibs or colitis most likely triggered by something she is intolerant to, so she is on the gluten free, dairy free train with me but also avoiding nuts. I thank god I home cook or avoiding that list would be a nightmare! She did for all that ace here sports day and came 1st in two of her races and 2nd in her third.



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Friday 28 June 2013

Caffeine headache nearly gone

Thank fuck for that! I may as well stick caffiene   free now that I'm through it!

Thursday 27 June 2013

Holy Caffeine withdrawal batman

I had not planned on giving up caffeine it was literally by accident. I bought decaf filter coffee and hadn't noticed! After a day I had the worlds worst migraine, I still didn't realise what was causing it till two days later when I noticed the packaging..,doh! Still I'm three days into it I may as well run the course!

Sunday 23 June 2013

Rather fucked off

It's my 40th coming up yet it seems only a hand full of people can be arsed to come out. Which does kinda fuck me off as throughout my life I have organised things for others, made an effort on their special occasions etc. it would be nice if they could be bothered to return the favour.


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Friday 21 June 2013

Sons with a death wish

So earlier this week my eldest (16) announced he had been running with a weighted barbell on his neck...WTF way to try and break your neck son! Then today my younger son (11) went on a school trip and came home with a hole in his scalp, an actual hole and a scrape around his neck where he got "tangled" in chains...around his fricking neck. Now I can't even blame the school as he has nearly hung himself in blinds twice (we have none now) and a skipping rope once. Is it just my boys or do they all have a bloody death wish?




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Getting diagnosed or at least taken seriously

I have been ill on and off for ten years. Each time I fell ill it was put down to a virus or an ear infection or something of that ilk. I cannot tell you how many courses of anti-biotics I took during that time. When I mentioned crippling tiredness to the doctor the response was "oh it's your hormones" or "you have 3 kids what do you expect"  It was only when I kept a journal of the occasions I fell ill that I was able to notice a pattern and they did full blood tests. This of course showed by blood work wasn't quite right and I wasn't actually crazy. My top tips for getting a result are 

1) keep a detailed journal, what are your symptoms? Does anything precede them be it sun, stress, a new food. 
2) If there are visual symptoms such as rashes photograph them. Often by the time you have seen a doctor they are faded or gone. 
3) observe the people around you, do you get sick but no one else in the house does? In which case is more likely to be your own body doing something whacky than a viral or bacterial infection. 
4) look for patterns in the symptoms you have, if each time you are ill it's the same batch of symptoms again its unlikely to be a virus or other infection. They all tend to have their own MO.
5) Be persistent, no one knows you like you. If you feel consistently ill for no reason you have a right to know why. Don't let people make you feel like a malingerer or pain in the arse.

Day off, well everything

I'm pretty pooped today and have the blessing of a day off so later I'm going to practice the Ashtanga Rishi style (10 asanas held for 50 breaths) perhaps have a walk into town. Till then however I'm going to read Christopher Gladwell's book The Stream. I started it already and it's ace, incredibly descriptive which may or may not have been a good thing in the initial torture scene, but I love a bit of horror!




It's only I believe available direct from Chris right now
http://www.radikalfreedom.com/

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Clicky thumb and big toe and a high fat diet

For as long as I can remember I have had a thumb and big toe that feels like it need clicked all the time. To constant cries from my family of "oh if you do that you will get arthritis" now I've been eating a high fat diet with loads of nuts and coconut fat my joints are slowly feeling less and less like that. Interesting really. 

Thursday 20 June 2013

Raw chocolate cake- yum



So happy right now

Funny thing is my husband and I haven't had a single fall out since I cut grains out even when I'm premenstrual. Now I know he hasn't gotten less irritating so I must be less reactive, in fact I hardly even had pms the last few months. On the whole I just feel really level, content and happy even with all this going on.

Teaching yoga with Autoimmune

I have thought about this quite a lot recently and have been just now as I plan to teach yoga for a few hours this evening. There is this idea amongst many students that yoga teachers have to be paragons of health, that somehow yoga makes us immune to any illness or disease, catch a cold and the reaction is "oh I thought you did yoga" this has made me quite worried and reluctant to be open about being ill, I don't for example talk about it a huge amount on facebook. I don't want to put people off coming to class, it is after all my livelihood.

Then this afternoon I realised it should make people more keen to come to class, I have had this for ten years. It has taken that long for the doctors to actually figure out what was going on. During that whole time I practiced and a lot of it I taught. There have been good days and bad days as far as practice goes and weeks were I was bordering on comatose and couldn't practice. However I have consistently continued and am utterly convinced without it I would have been far, far worse. That I hope will lead people to realise that yes they can do it, you don't have to be a twenty years old gym body to be a yogi. Anyone can practice to their own degree, I have days where I have to slow it down, other days I can romp through a very strong practice. It's about listening to your body and doing what is right rather than following a set of rules. I hope that as I become more open my students will realise that I my personal experience puts me in a unique position to understand their struggles rather than it putting them off.


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It's ok to sob on the mat isn't it?

So I practiced, I knew my energy was a little low so used Matthew Sweeny's Chandra warm up, threw in a few standing poses then went onto back bends. I so needed back bends today and my theory is my body probably has a clue as to what it needs. I kept it simple with Shalbasana, Danurasana, Ustrasana followed by a bundle of Primary forward bends, I even had a go at Kapotasana, lets just say I may get there in 300 years! Having a burst of energy at this point I decided to arm balance and held Bakasana for 10 breaths and something resembling Tittibasana for 8 (probably wasnt pretty but my arse and feet were off the ground so hey!) at this point I dissolved on the mat and was suddenly so tired I just wanted to sob for a few minutes. Hey ho!




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Raw chocolate cheese cake in the freezer

For later after I have finished teaching evening classes...yum! Basically the same as the avocado cake but with orange juice rather than lime and a few decent tablespoons of cocoa :-)

Extreme food

I have as you will know found that various foods either make my autoimmune better or worse. I'm not quite paleo as I do like a lentil now and then (wild I know). I am kinda low carb as that seems to work but love a weekend cake. I do eat meat and I do practice yoga, in fact I would like to think of myself as yogini, an imperfect one indeed but trying my best (I once explained to my kids whilst ranting at them that they should have seen me before yoga!)

Now there seems to a bit of a war going on between the Paleo and the vegan camps, of course as I stand in the middle I see a lot of this on yoga blogs, paleo blogs, raw food and vegan blogs. I as I am now gluten free find great recipes on all of those. But good gosh there is some ferocity in this battle. In fact a site has appeared outing ex-vegans! Wowsers.

Now I agree we should look after animals and be kind and if possible avoid eating meat. I tried vegetarianism a number of times and became very ill, no doubt because grains seem to trigger my autoimmune thingy.

Has it never occured to anyone that there is no catch all diet that suits everyone. In fact Paleo and Vegan are not actually in such opposing camps, they both avoid processed food, they both believe in organic, they both believe in local sourcing. In fact they have more in common than not.

Must share quickly :- Andy Bailey's video diary on living with MS

Not only is this an incredible insight into living with MS but he is also really bloody funny, if you haven't had the pleasure I suggest you take a peek.





Holy f**k I'm rubbish at this internet stuff

So I want Ganesh as my header photo:-
                                                             A) because Ganesh rocks.
                                                             B) remover of obstacles, no wonder the dude is my favourite.    

Can I get it to the right size? Can I f**k, oh I give up

Today's question...To yoga or not to yoga?

I practiced twice yesterday, one hour of power yoga first thing in the morning before the kids woke up then a short Ashtanga in the evening whilst they played out. Today I feel pretty ok, but a bit pooped. The question is should I rest physically today, study, work on my website etc or should I attempt a yoga session. I kinda feel like it but am a little concerned that I could push my ridiculous body over the edge effectively wiping out a week to come. Hummmmm. I shall let you know what I decide and I guess tomorrow whether that was the right choice lol.

Gluten free dessert experiment - Raw avocado cheesecake



Crust
Blend 1 cup of almond meal with ¾ cup of Medjool dates, and then press into a pie dish.
Filling
2 medium/large avocados
6 tbshoney
1/2 cup lime juice
5 tablespoons melted coconut oil
½ cup shredded coconut
Blend all ingredients and spoon on top of the crust.
Transfer dish to fridge or freezer until it has set firm.

Gluten free dessert experiment :- Chocolate orange cake





Orange and almond cake

Add "Orange and almond cake" to FavouritesAdd "Orange and almond cake"to Favourites

Ingredients
2 large oranges
200g/7¼oz caster sugar
200g/7¼oz ground almonds
½ tsp baking powder
6 whole eggs
½ lemon, juice only
To serve
crème fraîche, to taste
1 small punnet of raspberries
Preparation method
Put the whole oranges in a pan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil, turn down the heat and simmer for up to two hours. Check the water to ensure they don't boil dry. After two hours, remove from the heat and leave to cool.
Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.
Remove the oranges from the water. Cut in half and remove the pips.
Place them in a food processor, skin and all, with all of the remaining ingredients and blend until mixed.
Put the mixture into a greased and lined cake tin (20cm/8in) and bake for 45 minutes



Taken from the BBC website


The plan

So over the past few months its been established I do have an auto immune disease, a non-specific auto immune. Not actually quite sure what that means. But it does explain why I have felt like crap on and off for the past ten years, why when I push my yoga practice I end up ill rather than a super yoga pretzel. When after a busy few weeks or fantastic time socially I'm cabbaged for weeks rather than flicking through photos of a great time.

I have read like a demon over the past few months and put a few things into practice already.
Things that seem to help :-

No gluten, none whatsoever, or pretty much any grains. As soon as I have any I am guaranteed a flare up.
No sugar, it doesn't cause a flare up to the same degree BUT leaves me really tired and cranky for days.
Lots of protein and good fats = no joint pain HURRAH!
Yoga when I have the bounce for it, rest when I need to. In other words pushing through tiredness does NOT work for me.
Of course no additives, but then that's a no brainer to anyone.

Now I'm trying low carb, not too low just around 50 grams a day. Loads of autoimmune sufferers swear by it.

Friday 14 June 2013

Thoughts on prednisone


I must admit I slightly worried at the idea of needing to take it, however infrequently. The side effects are well documented and serious from severe osteoporosis to huge weight gain. As I was only on a short course I shouldn't have had any of those, but I did retain water like a blimp. A lot of it on my face. Of course it was Sod's law that while I was imitating a hamster we had loads of family events, weddings, holy communions. All of which involved being photographed grrrr

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Amazing bouncy day


So after the glutening which caused a nasty flare up I feel super again. It took a few days of prednisone (nasty drug) and lots of healthy, healthy whole foods but Jesus I feel great. I'm now waiting for an appointment with the immunologist to figure out WHiCH autoimmune thing I have. That is not terribly important to though. I have it seems found a way to get myself back on track when things go awry and am super optimistic that within a few months I will be a "normal" person.

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Monday 3 June 2013

Glutened

So I was doing super well and feeling fairly fab, then we went to the Green Festival. A stall was selling gluten free cake. Now when asked which ones were gluten free they hesitated, bad sign. Then assured me one particular one was. Ok so I should have walked away, but I didn't. Roll on the next day and I feel like I have the worst hangover. Today I have water blisters on my hand, burning abdominal pain, a rash on my face, nausea and joint pains. FFS it wasn't even particularly nice cake!


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Monday 13 May 2013

Oh I have an appointment with the rheumatologist tonight


What that will bring who knows, it would be useful to know what autoimmune thingy is going on, that way I can research that particular area and target the holistic methods I am using. Really rather than expecting the doctor to fix anything I want them to signpost me in the right direction so I can do my thang ;-)

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Doing pretty good

The paleo diet seems to be working very well, I have more good days than bad. Last weekend I made it to a friends birthday party which was a very late night and this weekend just gone a fabulous yoga workshop. The pay off after doing such things is a day of being totally exhausted which is where I am today but each time that happens it seems to pass after a day of taking it easy. Hopefully that will be the case today! The teacher of the workshop was a guy called Christopher Gladwell, an ex Ashtanga teacher who has now found his own path. It was an amazing experience, very thought provoking and inspiring. He interweaves science with traditional yoga ideas to show how to use myths and allegories as tools for practice. I really liked that I have never really gotten on board with the idea that certain mantras or meditations have totes magic powers. Kudos to those who do but my logical brain just won't go with it. Using these ideas as tools for practice my logical brain was well up for it! Wish that I didn't live some 300 miles from that particular teacher! Bother and drats!


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Sunday 28 April 2013

Interesting article on the need for carbohydrates for female hormonal health

Taken from the December edition of Paleo Magazine


"Carbohydrates for Female Hormonal Health

By: Stefani Ruper
Paleolithic dieters often gravitate towards low carbohydrate diets, and not without good reason. Low carbohydrate diets (<50 g/day) are largely beneficial for people who have historically eaten the Standard American Diet. A low carbohydrate diet is a quick way to lose weight, a means by which to mitigate diabetes and sharpen insulin sensitivity, and a potent appetite suppressant in the short term.1 Low carbohydrate diets can also be therapeutic for cancer, migraines, and chronic infections or psychological disorders.

On the other hand, low carbohydrate diets can act as significant metabolic stressors, in particular, often causing negative effects on women’s hormonal health. The more restriction a woman undertakes-restriction of calories, restriction of energy, or restriction of macronutrients, for example-the more her body responds by shutting down hormonal activity. This is even more potently the case for women who are athletic and/or normal weight.

The hormonal shut-down that sometimes accompanies low carbohydrate diets does not of course apply to every woman. Many women, especially overweight women, undertake low-carbohydrate diets and experience great energy, life, and liberation from symptoms of their previous lifestyles. But women who experience infertility, hypothyroid symptoms, irregular or absent menstrual cycles, sleep and or mood and mental health related issues may find significant relief from adding carbohydrates (>100g/day) back into their diets.

There are two primary mechanisms by which carbohydrates promote female hormonal fitness.

Thyroid health

Hypothyroidism affects nearly 10 percent of American women. Ninety percent of this population has Hashiomoto’s Thyroiditis, which is an autoimmune thyroid condition. The remaining 10 percent suffer poor thyroid health via other mechanisms. One such mechanism is poor conversion of T4 (the inactive form of thyroid hormone) into T3, the active form. Outside of this population, there remains many more women who do not have clinically-low hypothyroidism, but who suffer low thyroid symptoms as an effect of poor T4 to T3 conversion.

This is in part because glucose is necessary for the conversion of T4 to T3. Many paleo dieters are aware that the liver is capable of producing its own glucose via gluconeogenesis. This process, however, can become taxed over time. Even the most efficient gluconeogenesis does not, in many women-especially women who are stressed, who practice caloric restriction, who fast, or who are recovering from poor nutrition, dieting, or disease-consistently produce enough glucose for optimal thyroid and hormonal function.

Regularly ingesting glucose assures that a woman’s liver does not have to work overtime. This helps the body function more efficiently and less stressfully in general, but it also specifically optimizes thyroid activity. Thyroid activity is crucial for reproductive function. Without thyroid hormone, the reproductive system does not have enough energy to produce hormones and to perform reproductive function. For this reason, hypothyroidism is strongly correlated with hormone disorders such as PCOS and hypothalamic amenorrhea. Moreover, hypothyroidism is implicated in mood disorders, skin conditions and in weight gain, among other things. Because of these multiple factors, many women, contrary to popular paleo belief, in fact lose weight once they add carbohydrates back into their diets.

One powerful and well-studied benefit of thyroid effects on reproductive health is the resumption of menstruation in women who have both low thyroid issues and polycystic ovaries. Clinical research studies have shown time and time again that if these women correct their thyroid function, either with T3 supplementation or with natural interventions such as a higher carbohydrate diet, their cysts diminish and they begin menstruating more regularly.

Glucose intake signals to the hypothalamus a “fed” state

From a low-carbohydrate diet perspective, insulin is a metabolic demon that needs to be avoided at all costs. And in some ways, it should be. Chronically elevated insulin levels can lead to diabetes and other sorts of metabolic disturbances. But insulin spikes, the type of insulin action that occurs with regularly eaten meals that can contain a wide variety of macronutrient ratios on the other hand, are well-tolerated. They are so well-tolerated, in fact, that they play an important role in ensuring female reproductive function.

When insulin levels spike, leptin levels spike right alongside them. Leptin is a crucial hormone. It rises both with fat stores and with ingestion of carbohydrates. What this means is that its primary role is to signal to the hypothalamus, the part of the brain which controls activity of the adrenal and pituitary glands, that a woman has access to sufficient energy resources. Without leptin, a woman’s brain thinks she is starving. The first action the brain then takes is to shut down hormone production in the pituitary glands. With depressed hormone levels, ovulation and menstruation do not occur. Worse however, is the fact that without sufficient hormone production, even more problems can dogpile on top of infertility. These include acne, depression, anxiety, and insomnia.

Different macronutrients have different effects on leptin spiking. Since leptin works in tandem with insulin, leptin levels do not rise in response to fat at all, and respond very little to fatty meals. Protein triggers leptin secretion, to an extent, but only carbohydrates have a significant leptin-elevating effect. Studies have shown on multiple occasions that a woman’s average leptin levels increase in parallel with the amount of carbohydrate she eats.2

Which carbohydrates to eat, and how

All whole carbohydrate foods-vegetables, fruits, white rice and starchy tubers such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, taro and cassava-are free of the toxic effects of the Standard American Diet.

The amount of carbohydrate that is appropriate for each woman to eat is of course particular to her own life, history, and preference. Women recovering from high stress or from highly restricted diets may need significant carbohydrate intake in order to recuperate thyroid and hypothalamic function. Women who are overweight probably need less.

At minimum, however, 100 g/day is a good and safe starting point from which women can experiment.

All this being said, what is most important for health is nourishment and adherence to paleo, non-toxic foods, not given macronutrient ratios or orthodoxy. Carbohydrate restriction may be appropriate in some cases, but in many it is not, and in others still, carbohydrates are vital. In all cases, it is safe, important, and potentially life-saving to experiment with them. Nourishment is the name of the game. For some of us, carbohydrates may play an important role in being on the winning team.

Footnotes

1 I refer to you the work of Dr. Stephan Guyenet at wholehealthsource.blogspot.com for more information.

2 Without question the most important source of leptin in the blood is fat cells. Carbohydrates can help raise leptin levels, but they cannot make up for the metabolic damage of having too little body fat or ingesting too few calories."

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Saturday 27 April 2013

Guilt


I wonder if anyone else feels guilty when they get sick. The past year while I was struggling with being ill and not knowing why (at the worst if feels like I have full blown flu, at the best a lingering cold but without the sneezing). I kept thinking "what am I doing wrong" "should I be eating better, exercising more? Less?" I work as a yoga teacher and have always been active. I ate fresh and organic, I didn't drink or eat junk food, so I kept thinking why. It didn't help much that people loved saying "god you are always ill" when I was at my worst and couldn't hide it. NOTE - saying that to anyone struggling with their health is the least fucking useful thing EVER. They know they are ill, they hate being ill and you can guarantee its not through choice. They also may well have something serious going on that shock horror they haven't told you.

I have not told anyone other than my direct family and two friends that I am waiting for a diagnosis for an auto immune disease. I don't want to talk about it, especially until I know which one it is, until I have a label. Even then I will want a chance to start figuring it out first.

Then as well as the "you are always ill" brigade there are the "oh you probably need to do ....." Then tell you some amazing homeopathic thing or something fucking obvious that you did 3 years ago like giving up fizzy pop. The underlying message being "you could choose to not be ill" "I did this and never caught a cold again" this is more well intentioned than the previous. But again have you considered that they may have something serious that they haven't told you or don't want to tell you. In fact this brigade is one of the reasons I don't talk about being sick to people I know. It's not polite to tell someone to fuck off to their face. I had a dear friend who had cancer and was told to her face that it was probably her fault for having too acid a diet, that she needs to eat an alkaline diet. That that had read on facebook that so wine ate alkaline and cured their cancer, oh and also on facebook was a miracle fruit that was "guaranteed" to cure cancer but the corrupt drug companies didn't want us to know. Sure because they wouldn't just turn it into a really expensive pill and make billions. She fought as hard as she could and later died leaving a young family behind her. I guess that was her fault.

That I think is why I feel guilty at being sick, because people can't cope with the idea that sometimes shit just happens. That good people clean living folk get ill and it's nothing they have done to deserve it. It scares the shit out of them.

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Gluten free fair today

Wonder if I will find anything fab and fascinating! Yesterday was a fairly good day I not only practiced yoga but found energy for Kettlebells. I'm back at work in two weeks which I'm rather dreading. I had hoped to sort out my flagging energy levels far better by now. I guess I was rather optimistic thinking I could fix an auto-immune disease in a month! Hey nothing wrong with optimism though.

I don't feel as fab today but I suspect is due to a row with husband last night sparked by me thinking he was being too hard on the teen. I'm not sure stress is much help right now, however I'm not sure it's avoidable with an Aspergers teen and Aspergers husband.


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Thursday 25 April 2013

Yoga Simbha sequence

I had planned on practicing Primary today, but when I reached the mat I realised my elbows hurt too much for a whole load of jump backs. So instead I practiced Matthew Sweeneys Simbha sequence. I kept it quite gentle, there were a few positions I omitted, the deepest back bends, the lotus back bends I modified to lotus each side lean back chest open. I really like this sequence actually, especially the variation on the Surya Namaskar and the standing leg balance the transition from Utthita padhagustasana to Natajarasana is quite lovely.

I didn't hold for as long as Matthew probably intended and my whole practice took and hour and a quarter. At the moment though gentle practice that can be consistent is more important than killing myself one day and spending the rest of the week in bed exhausted.

Today's gluten free, paleo style lunch was a grilled chicken breast, quinoa, asparagus and carrot.

I am going to use my valkee light device. It may help to make me feel a lot brighter as I am not getting much daylight. Of course if it turns out I have Lupus or mixed connective wotist with Lupus symptoms then the light could trigger an bout of feeling awful. It is I guess an experiment of sorts.


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Better today, yoga time!

I'm feeling much better today. The past few days I went back to gluten free Paleo style eating which seems to help. I still don't feel like an energiser bunny but will be able to get on the mat and shake my yoga tail. I have learned my lesson, no sugar binges! I realise that with whichever connective tissue thing I have it won't cure it, but it will I hope make day to day life liveable.

Right Primary Series Ashtanga time (or at least as far as I can get through lol)

Wednesday 24 April 2013

Just about made it through the day

Well today I managed the grand success of taking the kids to and from school, a few loads of washing and cooking dinner. The rest of the day was spent in a collapsed heap reading a book on Paleo. I think it is partly my fault, I had a massive chocolate binge on Monday and now I feel like utter shite. I feel the two are connected. That is annoying as I like chocolate. But I like yoga and having enough energy to get through a day more!

I have an appointment to see the rheumatologist on the 13 th of may to try to figure out what the hell is going on, the gp was quite funny when he made the referral he said "remember of the people who have this test come back positive 5% are perfectly healthy" ok that's reassuring so 95% aren't? And if I was perfectly healthy by would I feel ill which is why I came to you in the first place and you ran blood tests? Funny man


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Friday 19 April 2013

Knackered


Bed...sleep...zzzzzzzzz

Stupid husband falling into doors late at night then snoring loudly

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Thursday 18 April 2013

Yoga, yoga, yoga

The past two days have been great, which bizarrely makes me nervous in case I'm having a couple of good days before I feel ill again. I am however hoping that the dietry changes are making a real difference.

I realised about a week ago that I had not actually been gluten free, that I had still been having small amounts in herbal tea (four or five of the yogi teas have gluten).

Anyway I'm not going to knock it, yesterday I did an hours power yoga practice (with power yoga on demand) and today Primary series. The weird thing is I feel stronger and more flexible. It's hard to explain, I've always exercised as it made me feel better afterwards, but during I would feel like I was swimming in mud some days. My body felt so heavy, but it was always that way so I just thought that was the way it was. Today and yesterday I felt light, when my arm was over my head in uttitha parsvokonasana it was as it was weightless. In Baddha Konasana both knees came down to the ground with no effort, I have never I think gotten my knees to the ground without an assist.

It's as if I am able to engage all my muscle fibres and all my nerve endings.

Dear imaginary friends, keep your fingers crossed this is an improvement and not just a couple of good days followed by a crash.


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Monday 15 April 2013

Goddmitt

My elbow joints really, really hurt. There was me hoping to do some Primary Series tomorrow


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Food stuff

So far I have only been eating natural foods since I gave up gluten, meat, veg, naturally gluten free grains, cheese, eggs, fruit. I guess I kinda went sugar free too then really. But my mum brought me round some Mrs Crimbles bake we'll slices and well it would have seemed rude to say no. They are actually rather nice, I may well have to buy a box or two. Although I am generally trying to avoid sugar as that can increase inflammation along with spuds, tomatoes and mushrooms? No idea why but anything that might help I'm a trying.


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Bit Ropey

Woke up feeling a bit ropey to be honest, but managed to usher all three kids out the house with everything they need none the less. The boy starts a new school today (he had to leave the last one due to bullying) so fingers crossed that goes well, the teen has his music GCSE performance, lets just say that going by how much he has practiced I am not hopeful! The girl is just thrilled to be back at school. I limped through about 40 mins of yoga after they left, but HOLY SHIT my elbows are killing me today. Thankfully I'm not teaching today. In fact I have quite a quiet few weeks. A lot of my Pilates and yoga students are farmers or part of the industry so they are lambing and calving. Yup I am a yoga teacher with possible Rheumatoid Arthritis, that's a joy isn't it!

I'm hoping to keep enough energy after sorting the tip the kids left the house in to walk to collect the younger two from school. It's not far, only about 15 mins but some days that seem like miles away. It is so sunny though it would seem a shame to miss what might be our one day of daylight. Then I will probably have just about enough energy left to feed them before crawling into bed...rock n roll like! It would help a great deal if the teen contributed to, well anything but his idea of helping is doing fuck all then asking for food to eat whilst on the x box. Such a help ;-)

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Sunday 14 April 2013

To read or not to read

Having gone back to blogging as an outlet through this I find myself plodding through Ashtanga blogs once again. Years ago I had an Ashtanga blog, I love yoga, I still do. Up until about a year ago I was rocking some pretty fun arm balances. At the moment though all exercise is a creaky, groany thing. Which is ok. It's not the end of the world. BUT I have to face the fact I may never "progress" in asana again. This looks very much like an auto-immune disease in which case my yoga would become about staying mobile and healthy and progress would no longer be measured in lifts and jump backs but in good days vs bad. Is reading the Ashtanga blogs a form of re-immersing myself in a community in which I have met some amazing people? Or is it a way of torturing myself?


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Another side effect of going gluten free

I have stopped being hungry, not all together in a weird starve myself way. But I no longer feel the need for anything in between meals. Just before a meal I am pleasantly hungry, but if you told me I had to wait an hour or so I wouldn't chew your arm off. Towards the end of a meal I feel pleasantly full without clearing a plate. Interesting really.


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Achy day


It's been about three weeks since I had a flu type episode, I have to admit I'm quite nervous that I'm going to somehow trigger one. I have no idea what actually is going on, therefore no idea what triggers it, if anything. I'm keeping a journal of what I'm eating, doing etc in case anything significant stands out as a trigger. But it could be food, oversleeping, under sleeping, overdoing it anything! Anyway yesterday I woke up feeling relatively human so offered to take my mums dog for a walk (a large enthusiastic German Shepard) I took her and my my two younger kids on a woodland walk which is one of my favourites. I am very blessed to have stunning countryside on my doorstep. My motto right now is carpe diem. Should I feel human I damn we'll get out there and do something. It's only a two and a half mile walk slightly hilly walk but gosh do I feel achy and tired today. My hips and knees feel quite sore. I don't feel fluey just tired so to ease the aches I did a short yoga practice, Matthew Sweenys abridged moon sequence, which helped my back but not really the joints. It does seem like the most likely diagnosis is going to be Rheumatoid Arthritis, which would suck.

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First two weeks gluten free


Here is the weird thing after going gluten free

Within 4 days :-
6 pounds lost, it was clearly all water as my hands, ankles, feet and abdomen changed shape. By the end of the 4 days my rings all needed re-sized and my feet had gone down by half a size. By the way I'm not over weight I'm an English size 10 and was unaware that I had been gathering this extra water.

The sock trenches that had been left in my ankles every evening due no doubt to the edema were gone. They were trenches as well!

Within a week:-
The blepharitis I had been diagnosed with a few years ago, which was not serious but was irritating was gone (sore red itchy eyes)

Within two weeks:-
My poop had changed colour (TMI I know) but I hadn't even noticed that for the past however long it been yellow. Now it is a more regular shade.



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Going gluten free

After having the result and realising that I would be waiting a while for an appointment I decided to do everything I could to help my own body. I began by reading a number of books on Rheumatoid Arthritis, Lupus and other connective tissue diseases. Then I took the advice that appeared in all of them but was not contradicted by one disease. For example one book claims high doses of vitamin C help RA another claims it can trigger Lupus. As I have yet to receive a diagnosis I have to be cautious. One piece of advice that appeared over and over was quit gluten, so I have. In fact I have gone to the hygiene levels a celiac would (I believe if you want to give something a shot give it 100%)


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Saturday 13 April 2013

What the f**k is wrong with me

I have been feeling like crap on off for ages now. It comes out of the blue, this awful feels like flu but without the sneezing and coughing thing. Completely knocks the stuffing out of me for up to weeks at a time. I finally went to the doctors and explained what had been happening for the past year, maybe longer. I'm not sure I can remember feeling energetic in a long time, but that may be perception. He glazed over and I could tell he wanted to pass it off as hormones, being a parent yada yada. Anyway he took some blood tests and one came back high the Rheumatoid factor which indicates some kind of connective tissue disease. Oh joy!

I need to see a specialist to figure out exactly what is going on. In the meantime I'm going to do everything I can to give my body the correct environment it needs to heal.


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