Day #21

Whoa!  Has it really been that long?!

Minus one major temptation cave-in (Domino's breadsticks) that I regretted the next day when my knees started cracking again, my head started pounding, and generally just not feeling well I can proudly say I have stuck to this Paleo thing.

My bread recipes have turned out to be disastrous.  I found one that used a box recipe that tasted okay, but that costs $5 per box!! With that type of money I'd prefer to just buy GF bread from the store that's pre-made.  However, I just came across a cracker recipe I have a lot of faith in.

The recipe calls for butter, and I refuse to do milk yet (still have another 9 days to go before I try adding it back in).  I found a recipe for Clarified Butter (basically it's butter with the milk proteins, sugars, and water removed).  So all you have left is simply butter.  It looks fairly simple to make, and at least in the future I'll have some butter to mask the horrible taste of my bread failures...

If it tastes anything like butter I'll post the recipe on here later.

So today I made some beef stew for myself and my sore throat.

A lot of recipes call for this bone broth mixture which I haven't tried yet...I do have a chicken carcass in my fridge awaiting my Mother's assistance.  The recipe to make it is like 2 pages long and uses a lot of words I don't understand.  So this way...if it turns out horribly, I can say it was  'we' failure instead of a 'me' failure.

But since I don't have any bone broth stuff made up this is what I did:

I helped Dad can some deer meat yesterday.  I then took some canned deer meat with me when I left...perhaps more than what he realized I took.  ;-)

Then I opened up the canned meat, and plopped it into a pan.  I added some water, some carrots, and some spices.  I put in some grilling seasoning, some parsley, and some black pepper.  I stirred it up, and waited for the meat to cook.

Then I ate it.  Yum.

Lucky Day #13

So it really hasn't been "lucky" per se, I've just always wanted to have a post called "Lucky Day #13".  I've been looking forward to this post for the past week and a half.  lol

But I'm officially the energizer bunny on steroids!  I've always been overly energetic, but lately I've had way more energy than usual.

Here's what I've had thus far today:

Breakfast:
Paleo Pancakes.   YUM!

Lunch:
Tilapia and some steamed broccoli. I was really busy with work today, so I didn't have enough time to chop up some almonds for my tilapia toppings.  I must say, after having this dish a few times and playing around with the ingredients, the way to really make it taste good is to add some season salt.  The more the merrier.

Supper:
You know, I haven't really sat down today to eat a full meal.  I've been snacking since 2ish or so.  I've consumed:  a banana, an apple, an orange, some cashews, a salad (no dressing--but I did chop up some bacon to make it a bit tastier), a handful of almonds, and a GF DF (gluten-free, dairy free) brownie.  Which for the record, tastes WAY better than what it sounds.

I'm also about to consume some apple chips.  There's another 10 minutes left on the oven until they're done. I'm not sure how they'll taste, but they smell AMAZING!!!

here's the recipe for the brownies:
1.  Go to the store.
2.  Purchase a GF DF brownie mix.
3.  Add an egg, 1/4 C water, and 1/2 C unsweetened apple sauce.
4.   Add in an additional 1/2 C chocolate chips (in addition to what the recipe tells you to add)
5.  Bake at 350 degrees for 18 minutes.
6.  Enjoy!  :)

I bought a bunch of flour--tapioca and coconut in the hopes that I'll find the world's greatest GF bread recipe.  I've got a list of 5 different bread recipes I plan on trying (all claiming to be the greatest GF bread recipe out there).  No worries--I will wade through the dirty dishes, hours of sifting and baking in order to let you know what REALLY is the greatest GF bread recipe in the world.  I got ya covered.  :-)

Day #5-#12

Wow. I'm waaay behind on my blogs.  Been rather busy lately with a variety of things--went out of town for work, had a hurricane come pay a visit, it started raining in my bathroom....you know, minor things like that.

Overall, I'd say I feel better in some aspects, and worse in others.

Pros of the last week:
-Swelling has gone done A LOT
-I feel pretty awesome when grocery shopping...I'm probably the only one in the store buying only healthy stuff--I have to fight the urge to go parade around the store showing off my healthy purchases.
-I have more energy than before
-I no longer need caffeine to operate (and anyone who has known me, knows that's something pretty spectacular in and of itself)
-I have discovered a love for researching new recipes, and......cooking! *gasp*
-I now realize there IS a life that exists without sweet tea!  And I gotta say--it's a much cheaper one, too.
-I looked at my budget today and realized I have almost $60 more than usual!  Most people complain about how expensive eating paleo is, but when a person eats out as much as I used to I'm actually saving money by doing this.
-I have zero idea if there is any scientific evidence of this for other people...but I have yet to have a Raynauds flare-up since day #3 of this thing.  And I've been in some pretty cold places.
-Paleo Pancakes.  They are God's gift to people everywhere, male and female alike.


Cons:
-I'm hallucinating--two days ago while I was at work, my pen miraculously turned into a bread stick from Olive Garden.  I had it halfway to my mouth before I realized it was my pen.
-I no longer sleep only 4-5 hours/night.  I'm now out for the count by 10P, and sleep like a log until 7:30 the next morning when my dog decides it's time to wake me up (30 minutes BEFORE my alarm goes off).  Therefore, I'm not getting as much done. I now understand the saying "there's not enough hours in the day"
-The whole having to cook thing is beginning to get old, especially on days when I work until 5, then have to rush out the door by 5:05 in order to be on time somewhere by 5:30.
-Chili. I love chili.  I tried a Paleo friendly recipe, and the word "suckage" doesn't even begin to describe it.  I'd post the recipe on here so you can avoid it, but if you're anything like me you'll try it out just to see if it's as bad as I claim it to be--trust me, it is.
-Bread.  It's all but disappeared from my diet.  If I'm going to last much longer I NEED to find a paleo-friendly bread recipe.

Anyways....I gotta run. I have a date with a ping pong paddle and some friends.  Hope you're having a good day!

Day #4

Weird things that's happening to me that's different than before....

Weird Thing #1:  My sleep cycle has drastically changed.

 For instance, yesterday I woke up at 4A....FOUR AM!!!....bouncing out of bed ready for the day.  I kept up the same, high energy level (without coffee *gasp*) for the whole day until about 8 that night.  Then I fell asleep around 9, and slept like a rock until 6 this morning.  This is pretty big coming from a girl that only slept 4-6 hours/night.

Weird Thing #2: No more cracking knees, baby!

Before my knees constantly ached, and cracked every time I moved them.  It occurred to me on my drive home yesterday that they hadn't cracked more than once the whole day.  

Weird Thing #3:  SOOOOO hungry!

I seriously am eating myself out of house and home.  It's like every 2 hours I'm hungry again.  I'm not big on staying hungry, so I feel like I'm constantly eating.


Anyways...onto what I ate yesterday....

Breakfast:  Bacon and a banana.  Yum.

Lunch:  Left over Tilapia and some steamed broccoli.

Dinner:  Wednesdays are always a rushed affair ( is it "affair", "a fare", or...?) for me for supper.  I usually eat at church, but this week I was afraid I'd cave to the food cooked by some of the best cooks in the world.  So instead I ate at home--a lot--and arrived just before church started.

I ended up having some more of the tilapia and broccoli again.  Sorry to bore you with my menu...but it's yummy..what can I say?

How to build your body up to running 3 miles when you have Lupus 101

Since my race I have been asked how I was able to run a 5K when I have Lupus.

Here's the answer:

Step #1:  First you need to play around with your diet, figure out what some of your triggers are.  For me, I'm super sensitive to nightshade vegetables (tomatoes, peppers).  I stopped eating them.

Step #2:  If you're currently in a flare-up you need to wait until you feel "normal" again.  Don't make the same mistake I did by thinking going straight out and running will help.  It won't.  You'll just make your flare-up worse.  Trust me on this.

Step #3:  After you feel "normal", you need to start walking.  Do it so slowly that you trick your body into thinking you're still laying in bed in agony....if you don't do it slowly enough you WILL be back in bed in agony.

First week:  Walk no more than 5 minutes.  Walk every day.  
Second week:  Walk no more than 10 minutes.  Walk every day.
Third week:  Walk no more than 15 minutes. Walk every day.

Step #4: Once you reach 30 minutes of walking, then it's time to start incorporating other activities that don't stress your knees (assuming you're like me and your Lupus effects one of them).

I did activities like bike riding, swimming, and hiking.  Do each activity for no more than 10 minutes when you first start them.  Build yourself up slowly to 30 minutes like you did with the walking.  Do NOT do walking simultaneously as these activities, you'll end up stressing your body and throwing yourself into a flare.

The whole idea of doing the other activities is to get your body used to have an accelerated heart rate.  Once you build up to 30 minutes, then add in 10 minutes of walking per day.

Step #5: Once you reach an hour of physical exercise, put yourself on the Couch potato to 5K runner's plan.

Stretch each day out for 3 days.  So do  Day 1 for 3 days, Day 2 for 3 days, and so on and so on.

Important note:  On your off days, continue to do some form of physical exercise--walking, swimming  biking, whatever.  Just make sure you move every single day. 

Listen to your body. If you feel your Lupus flaring up, then you MUST slow it down.

And as always, you know the drill--never start an exercise plan without the okay from your doctor.

Enjoy running, my friends!

Paleo Day #3

Soo...day #3 and counting.  Even though I feel kinda yucky, I'm still 100% LOVING the cooking aspect of this!  It's like every day I have an excuse to try something new.  

Breakfast--Okay, breakfast was  a COMPLETE, epic fail.  I tried recreating the chicken-egg stir-fry from yesterday, changing it up a bit thinking I could "improve" upon it.  Totally blew up in my face.  I choked down the first two bites, then threw the rest away.  I ended up going simplistic with breakfast (mainly because I had run out of time before I had to start work) and had a banana and some bacon.

Lunch--I LOVE tilapia, but I've never made it before myself.  I always just get it at restaurants, or in the frozen microwavable meal section at Walmart.  But today I decided to be adventurous, and it was a SUCCESS! :)

I couldn't find a good, yummy looking paleo recipe for tilapia that did not include lemon juice (A--I don't have any, and B--I hate lemons) so I got creative.  Here's what I did:

1--Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2--Grease baking sheet with some coconut oil.  

3--Put tilapia onto baking sheet, put one teaspoon of coconut oil on top of fish.

4--Open up spice cabinet and start grabbing things.  I put on:  some grilling seasoning, season salt, garlic powder, sea salt, black pepper, and parsley.  Weird combination...I know...

5--Put it into oven and bake for 20-30 minutes, or until fish flakes easily.

6--Enjoy!  :)  

I happened to enjoy my tilapia when some super yummy steamed broccoli.  Which happened to be extremely easy to make.  All I did was cut up some broccoli, put it into a microwavable dish, put in 2-3 TBS of water, covered the dish, and put it in the microwave for 2 1/2 minutes.  Then once it came out, I drained the water and sprinkled on some garlic powder. 

Supper--I got devious.  I decided to stray from the normal and have breakfast for dinner.  Why not? 

I made paleo pancakes.  I got the recipe from another online blog, and they are PHENOMENAL!!!

Here's what ya do:

1--Combine: 2 eggs, 1/2 C unsweetened apple sauce, 1/2 C nut butter (I used almond butter), 1/4 tsp cinnamon, and 1/4 tsp vanilla extract in small bowl until you have a uniform batter.

2--Use coconut oil to grease a skillet.

3--Spread some batter into skillet to form pancake. (I found that cooking two teaspoon pancakes is WAY easier than bigger ones)

4--Cook over low/medium heat. Flip after 1-2 minutes.

**Be careful not to burn them. They burn easily...I learned this the hard way**

this made a TON of batter...way more than what I can consume in one night.  I'm curious which way will store better overnight, so I cooked half of the left-over batter, put it onto a plate, and put it in the fridge.  Then the rest of the batter I just put into a small container.  I'll let ya know tomorrow which way wins.  :)

Now as far as how I'm feeling....thankfully don't have the massive headache I did yesterday.  But I am unbelievably tired.  So much so that I'm contemplating going to sleep at 8 tonight like an old person.  

Take that doc!

So yesterday I accomplished something I have been dreaming about since I was first diagnosed with Lupus--I ran a 5K.  :)

2 1/2 years ago, when I was diagnosed my rheumy bluntly told me I would never be able to walk, let alone run, 3 miles again.  I told him he's never seen what my God can do.  Yesterday, by God's grace, I ran/walked 3 miles.  WOOT!!!

Also, I started my Paleo diet yesterday in the hopes that it will help make my Lupus better.

Today was Day #2.

Today here's what I've eaten thus far....

Breakfast:  Chicken/bacon/broccoli egg stir-fry.  Amanda Scale of Yumminess (on a scale of 1-10):  6.

Lunch:  Chicken/bacon salad. Amanda scale of Yumminess? 9

Snacks (not necessarily eaten after lunch):  handful of almonds, handful of walnuts, a couple bananas, and I may or may not have had a dark chocolate bar.  lol

Supper:  Chicken/broccoli stir-fry.  Amanda Scale of Yumminess?  A BILLION!!!

Here's what ya do it:

Take some chicken.  Drizzle olive oil on it, then put on a bunch of seasonings (garlic powder, salt, pepper).  Cut it up into little pieces.  Cook it.

Then put the chicken on a plate, put in whatever veggies you want....drizzle those in olive oil and garlic powder.  Cook them until they're done.

Put the chicken back into the pan, and add in a handful of almonds.  Cook for 90 seconds or so.  And...you've just made perhaps one of the yummiest dishes I've eaten in a very long time.


I keep on expecting to experience this "carb flu" that everyone talks about--where my body goes through withdraw from all of the bread, pasta, and processed food I've been consuming.  So far all I've experienced is an extreme thirst.  Oh, and I had a REALLY bad headache this morning.  But other than that, I still feel normal.  :)