Psoriatic Arthritis Journal - 2.5 year Update Page 63

[nicoles]

Hey Ladies! So nice of you to warm my place with tales of wildly beasties and such!

I am well, DH and I absolutely love our new place and our new neighbors and the only thing is...we need to get a tree trimmed in order to get the Internet set up. I have been going to the library to use their computers, but they don't let us log on to this board for some reason, so I haven't been able to read or write or catch up.

Now, however, I am in the local laundromat, cleaning all the blankets my cat peed on to let us know how "pissed off" she is about all the chaos, and they have free wifi, so I brought the iPad makes chores so much better to be able to noodle here in the land of McD!

Our new apartment is beyond wonderful, and I feel soooooo at home the, it is really quite remarkable. And tht makes life in general so
much better.

Uh oh-battery is running low and I am caught without a charger. Ack. I will be back soon! Much love to you!xoxoxoxoxo

Nicole

[nicoles]

OK, I am back online! Whoo hoo!

Things are great here. Me, DH and the gatti all love, love, love our new place and neighborhood. In fact, everyone who has come by so far feels the same. We are soooo lucky!!!

DH has a long-term temp job and lots of good job prospects on the horizon, and I am feeling good and excited about getting back into my own business prospects.

My health is great, and other than it being SO HOT in LA the last few days, and me spending too much time outside yesterday and getting a wee sunburn, I am feeling very well.

Also - interesting update: Carrots and rice no longer bother me. Whaddaya know? These things can change...

[moonwatcher]

HI Nicole!!

Welcome back!! All great to hear. So so happy for you!

And that's great about the carrots and the rice, too. And yes, I agree very much that these things can change. I just had some strawberries over the last few days, and. . .all fine!!

xoxoxo

moonwatcher

[lmggallagher]

Hey Nicole:

Let me add to Moonwatcher's happiness - I am thrilled that you guys are in such a great place and that his temp job is - well permanent and lots of prospects too! I love how you all just turned around your seemingly bad luck to all of this huge improvement! Fantastic! I think it's your mind sets - really you two just never would accept defeats!

Great about the reversal on the rice and carrots too! This gives me hope that my rice issues are just caused by my past over reliance on rice as my main starch source. I am sure that you mentioned this before - but what problems were apparent to you from eating the rice? I wonder if we have similar reactions???

Your place sounds so great for you. I kind of know the neighborhood you speak of. I was the LA Metro Branch Chief for the Agency I worked for. Oddly, as it turned out I did this job without living there, but had to know the area fairly well as part of the job. Anyway, this gives me an idea of where your new hood is.

Glad you are back amongst us too of course!!!!

[nicoles]

Hi Moonwatcher and Michelle!

Moonwatcher - so fascinating to hear about the strawberries for you! You know, it is interesting, lately I have been craving all kinds of (healthy) foods, and I sort of wonder if that is my body kind of intuitively "knowing" that I am able to expand the diet a bit now.

Michelle - I am happy to be back, too. And how cool that you know the neighborhood! Funsies.

Yes, we really won't accept defeat, and things did truly turn around about the time we decided to truly shift our own attitudes. I think it probably has to do with the quantum leap or something like that

When I ate rice, I would get stuffed up and asthma-y, which would ultimately lead to a sinus issue and related headaches, and then get sort of out-of-control hungry. When I ate carrots, my mouth would burn and tummy hurt.

Nice to be done with that!



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This thread on Angelina Jolie's decision to have a preventative double mastectomy and to share it with the public is...many things, but worth a read if you haven't already.


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And some words of wisdom from my cousin (or really Steve MAraboli) who recently had her heart attack:



(^^^)

[moonwatcher]

Wow, that is an interesting thread about Angelina Jolie. . .read about a page of it so far. I agree with you it is many things. . still haven't read her article. More on this and all it brings to mind and heart another time.

So glad you are enjoying an expanded choice of foods and feeling great!!

xo

moonwatcher

[Lesliec1]

So awesome about your new place and that you can eat carrots and rice again! Shows that it's good to re-test things on occasion.

You really weathered your little storm so well and now it looks like the sun is shining. So it sounds like physically you feel good as new?

[nicoles]

Hi Moonwatcher! Thanks BTW, I have been trying to post on you blog for days but for some reason it never goes through. Really loved the pear tree/blossom post!

Hi Leslie Yes I think it is good to retest things every few months (maybe every 6?) This healing is a changing thing.

Yup, the sun is shining! I feel pretty good, although right now I just came off of a 2.5-day water fast (I am really trying to follow that fast-briefly-every-6-8-weeks thing for awhile to see what, if any, difference it makes) so I am feeling pretty tired, physically.

The fast was nothing special, nothing to report. I can't say I love fasting, just like how it helps me. Mostly it is boring. I played Bejewled and Tetris for a large portion of the time

I also read, and am still reading, Whole, by T. Colin Campbell. I very much recommend it, and it is inspiring m even more to add more variety to my diet, as possible.

On another note, this thread (and article) about the gut microbes and the microbiome is fascinating!

[lmggallagher]

Hey Nicole:

So good to have you back among us!

OK here we go again - we are reading the same things now too!!!

I finished the Pollan Gut article - it's long- yesterday and my nose is also in "Whole". I completely over shot my book budget this month. I got a cook book that is recommended in the list of references in Kaiser Newsletter to it's docs and recommending WFPB to it's patients (I am so jazzed about that). This list also included McDougall's 1997 cookbook, though I wish it had been "Starch Solution"!

I also bought "Happy Hebivore Abroad", "Fresh Vegan Crock Pot" and "Greens" by Nava Atlas for me and FOK, Ornish and Dr. Esselstyn for my Aunt's bf, he had a stent placed this year! I am hoping for the kind of success you have had in your family - where folks you never thought would see the light do - but I think my family is a harder nut to crack.

My Aunt is a dedicated Atkin's diet person - she doesn't get that she never looses weight - and the fact really is she is just addicted to fat. OTOH, my weight loss has not been stellar, so I think she sees what I am doing as not very effective either. It's hard to explain that I am more interested in my lab results - which keep improving than the weight coming off in piles

Anyway, thought it was funny that we are even reading the same stuff and this was also a good place to confess I am addicted to purchasing books!!!! But, sheesh, I got rid of the old standards on the cookbook shelf last week (Rombaur and Childs are banished, among many others) and had some holes to fill in

[moonwatcher]

HI NIcole,

Thanks for telling me about the trouble posting comments. I just wrote Susan to let her know. I've missed your replies and was glad to see you could get through for the Pear Tree post.

Nicole and Michelle, I have been thinking and thinking I need and want to read Whole, but haven't gotten around to it yet, there's so much going on. My usual strategy is to bug the library for it, and they always get me this stuff, then I see if I want to buy it. I of course bought the China Study after reading it. So maybe I'll skip that library part. . .but maybe not!! My favorite thing in China Study was the explanation of the complexity of nutrients in whole foods working together, and I gather this next book concentrates on that.

I'll have to check out the microbe thread when I get a chance.

And Michelle, I loved your Kaiser thread and news--just haven't had a chance to post that in your own journal!!

xoxoxo

moonwatcher

[nicoles]

Michelle I have overshot my book budget this month, too!(And now I want to read The Last Best Cure, too!) Something about moving while eating this way - I needed a lot of distraction and mental stimulation to keep me away from wanting coffee and take-out, which I just cannot do*! It was interesting - this move is the first "major upheaval" since I switched to this WOE, and I was stunned at how strong my "eating during a push" cravings were!

Of course, I used to eat loads of Kraft Macaroni and cheese with vienna sausages (yup, I was classy like that) or frozen pizza or takeout (Not to mentions LOADS of coffee with cream and SUGAR) any time I had a big deadline or a move before. Now all this food planning really takes a bite out of the whole "treating myself like garbage to get sh*t done" tendencies )

*Which, incidentally, is why I tried rice again - we have two rice cookers and some rice mixed with some chopped greens, scallions and a bit of cucumber plus sushi nori and a little bit of avocado was my "fast food." But now that I hear about your slow cooker adventures with potatoes (we got a slow cooker for X-mas a couple of years ago, which I have yet to try out) I am thinking sweet potatoes cooked all day might be my new fast food.

Moonwatcher I am glad I could get through, too! I kept trying on the other ones, but I dunno, maybe it was the library PCs or the iPad that were blocking the comments for me? Although I have posted comments on your blog from the ipad before...

Maria if you have a kindle I think there is a way for me to loan you books on there somewhere. (I'll have to look into that) So if there is and you want to read Whole, I have it on the kindle. But yes, you are right, it goes into much more depth about the complexity of nutritional interactions, the impossibility of tracking everything with reductionist methods, and much more (I am only halfway through and I feel like I've read two books!)
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Totally on another subject, my discovery the other day was that we live very close to a Super King Grocery store! This place has AMAZING prices for non-organic produce, and as I don't buy EVERYTHING organic, it will help our food budget out quite a bit.

[nicoles]

Also - my new favorite quick go-to meal is cooked butternut squash cubes mixed with browned onion, plus brown rice and peas mixed with browned onion, topped with a small amount of ground sesame seeds and served with steamed greens. YUM.

[moonwatcher]

HI Nicole--

Wow, that Last Best Cure sounds really good and one I better read, since I hope to make my blog into a book someday. Thanks for the recommendation!

Alas, I do not have kindle, but PMed you about that and the blog difficulties.

Both your fast food meal while moving and your butternut squash meal sound wonderful and very familiar. I love that kind of stuff!!

Okay, better at least check in to Michelle's journal for a minute.

hugs,

moonwatcher

ps: That's awesome about the super cool prices on produce near you.

[eri]

OMG, that book looks really good. Now I want it!

[nicoles]

OMG, that book looks really good. Now I want it!

I broke down and bought it on kindle last night!! Stayed up kinda late reading it - it IS really, really good. Lots of good evidence of the brain body connection, lots of evidence that things like meditation and yoga can really change the plastic DNA of the brain, along the lines of epigenetics.

And she really does do a wonderful job of blending her personal story with the science in ways that makes it so much richer to read about. I am inspired! and I think I am only halfway through the book.