Fibromyalgia | Fighting Fibro with Fire

Life on Keto pt2

17 Feb 2018 Leave a comment

by Christina H. in Keto On! Tags: Fibromyalgia, food, food as medicine, living with chronic illness, Living with Fibromyalgia, weight loss

As promised, here’s the rest of my latest food adventure 🙂

Dinners are usually made in large batches to be eaten throughout the week, which means they aren’t usually very photogenic. On the weekends, the husband and I usually cook together and enjoy making slightly more complicated meals. Here are a few of our favorites.

First up, PIZZA. I will tell you right now, that if I couldn’t have pizza on this way of eating, I wouldn’t have made it this far. This girl needs pizza. We’ve tried a few different recipes, but we keep coming back to cauliflower crust, (super simple and very quick to throw together).

Our other favorite is Fat Head pizza, which is slightly more complicated than the cauliflower, but almost identical to “real” pizza. For some reason, I don’t have any pictures!!

My husband is a pot roast fanatic, so of course we had to find a way to make that keto friendly. The only thing he misses is the mashed potatoes, but I thought the cauliflower cakes and roasted radishes we made were an excellent substitute. As you can see, there’s no shortage of veggies on this plate!

Here, we have some oven roasted ribs with coleslaw and cheesy cauliflower. It’s not quite mac and cheese, but it is darn good.

This sesame chicken is one of my favorite meals EVER. I don’t even miss the rice with this dish. (I do swap out the soy sauce for coconut aminos, since our version of keto is soy free). I like to use a bag of Asian Chopped salad or a broccoli teriyaki salad, (without the included dressing or toppings), instead of just broccoli, it really adds to the texture of the meal.

This meal is also excellent as leftovers, so it’s great for meal prepping, (win!).

One of our other favorite meals so far has been this shrimp alfredo with bacon wrapped scallops.

Who’s ready for dessert?

We try not to make desserts too often, but sometimes you just need a little something sweet. I’m still looking for my perfect non-sugar sweetener, but so far, my husband has been happiest with Swerve. When I use it in baked items, I find that it has an odd after taste, but that seems to be just me. We’ve made several cheesecakes, all with Swerve, but I’m going to try one with allulose soon!

This was the cake I made for our anniversary back in November. Overall, I was very happy with it, but again, I got a weird after taste from the erythritol. To be honest, this cake was so good that I barely minded the after taste. Chocolate covers many sins, apparently.

Bake on!

05 Mar 2017 Leave a comment

by Christina H. in Paleo Life Tags: chronic illness, Fibromyalgia, gluten free baking, grain free, paleo lifestyle, paleo recipes

We’re now over a full month into our Paleo adventure! We’ve had a few cheat meals, but for the most part, we’ve stuck to the program! It’s been a lot easier than I thought it would be, although it is exhausting having to make pretty much everything from scratch. Luckily, both of us love to cook and cooking together only adds to the fun.

I’m still working on this bread thing. Last week, we made a batch using half cassava flour and half almond flour. It was very good, but it still lacks the size needed for a real sandwich. The cassava flour allows for a more traditional bread texture, which is amazing. Next time I attempt bread, I think we’ll try a recipe that uses yeast, since neither of us have any issues with eating it.

The one thing I love about baking bread without yeast is that it comes together super fast. There’s no need to wait for rising and you don’t have to knead it; just whisk together and pop it in the oven. Unfortunately, the husband and I miss sandwiches. I’ve been craving a PBJ for ages now, (though it would have to be an almond butter and jelly since peanuts are not allowed).

Today, I made English muffins!

Aren’t they pretty? These were also quick to put together, but the cashew butter makes them a bit too expensive for me to want to make regularly. I am very pleased with the flavor, but they’re just too soft to be used the way we’d want to eat them. If you tried to make an egg sandwich or top them with anything other than a bit of butter, they’d fall apart. Again, I’m going to give the cassava flour a try. Stay tuned!

Paleo Life

22 Feb 2017 1 Comment

by Christina H. in Paleo Life Tags: diet, Fibromyalgia, gluten free, living with chronic illness, paleo diet, recipes

It’s been a busy few weeks around here. The success of the paleo cupcakes for my husband’s birthday has sparked a renewed interest in paleo baking in the both of us. We loved making bread before this diet change and we’re excited to try some new techniques.
This last week, we tried a paleo sandwich bread made using almond flour. The one thing I noticed right off was that since this bread has no gluten or more importantly, yeast in it, it comes together so much faster than standard sandwich bread. So, that’s a win! There’s no need for rise time, punching or kneading the dough; you basically mix it, pour it in the pan and bake! The downside to no yeast however, is that the finished product doesn’t rise very much. Vinegar and baking soda give it a slight boost, but for the most part, it comes out of the oven at the same height it went in. Drat. I was hoping for a nice, tall loaf of sandwich bread. What I got was a mini loaf, albeit a very tasty one.

The flavor of the bread is awesome. It’s dense and slightly nutty, not too overpowering and would be perfect for sandwiches or toast, it just lacks height. I thought I could get a little more height out of it by separating the eggs and whipping the whites into medium peaks before folding them back in, but there was almost no difference in height between the two loaves. I did notice that the bread with the whipped egg whites came out a little less dense, which was nice, but not the result I was hoping for. Back to the drawing board on that one.

I can confirm however, that as written, this bread makes amazing toast. I eat it with a little bit of butter (not paleo, I know, but it doesn’t bother me, so I’m going to keep eating it). My husband loves it with his morning eggs, so win-win!

On the upside, I’ve got (almost) paleo chocolate chip cookies AND fudgy brownies. So, so good.

Both are made with almond flour and organic chocolate chips. The way I made them isn’t exactly paleo compliant because the chocolate chips do contain processed white sugar, but for now, that’s going to have to do. Once I run out of chocolate chips, I’ll look into making them 100% paleo.

For the cookies, I follow the recipe exactly. I did experiment by adding one cup of dried cranberries and one teaspoon of cinnamon in order to make something close to my oatmeal craisin cookies, EPIC! I’ll have to take a picture next time, I was too hungry to wait this last batch.

For the brownies, I tried them exactly as written the first time around, but they were too cakey for my liking. I prefer my brownies to be super fudgy and moist. I thought 3 eggs seemed like too many the first time I made them, so on my second try, I cut it down to 2 eggs and that was perfect!

We’re still on the hunt for a more sandwich friendly bread; I just got a tip about cassava flour, which is already on its way to me, so hopefully next time, I’ll be able to report a success!

Whole 30, The End!

06 Feb 2017 Leave a comment

by Christina H. in How to Fight Fibro Tags: diet, Fibromyalgia, living with chronic illness, paleo, recipes, ulcerative colitis, whole30

Sorry I didn’t post on the last week of my Whole 30, I had a terrible cold and just didn’t feel up to it. I ate mostly soup and bone broth that week, so you didn’t miss much.

We made it! We’re actually almost a week past the end of our Whole 30, and it feels amazing!!! I lost just over 6 pounds in 30 days and I can’t even describe how awesome I feel. My skin is clear, my digestive issues have sorted themselves out and I’m even sleeping better at night!

So, now what? Do I just go straight back to eating how I was before? What’s my plan for the future? Well, the husband and I have decided to make a major dietary change and go paleo permanently. Whoa. Wait. What on Earth does that even mean?The idea is simple, paleo refers to our caveman ancestors and the diet essentially consists of things that could be hunted or gathered, so lots of lean meats, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. Most importantly, the focus of paleo is cutting out processed foods and grains altogether. The paleo diet is very similar to Whole 30, but it is less restrictive on some things, like sugar. The Whole 30 does not allow any added sugars at all, except fruit juice. Paleo allows natural sugars such maple syrup and honey, which means we can have some sweets, (yay!).

We haven’t decided yet how closely we want to stick to paleo guidelines. Right now, we’re considering a slightly modified version and allowing ourselves some dairy, because neither of us have any issues digesting it. We do plan to allow for cheat meals every now and then. Notice I didn’t say cheat “days”. I’ve always found the cheat day mindset to be particularly dangerous to any diet plan. I tend to go overboard on everything when it’s a whole cheat day. A cheat “meal” mindset allows us to have one non-compliant meal and then go right back to doing what we’re supposed to do as opposed to saying “well, I had a non compliant breakfast, may as well keep eating junk!”.

Take this weekend, for instance, we went out to dinner for my husband’s birthday on Saturday. That was our cheat meal. The whole rest of the day, we stayed on plan. Before, I would have said “screw it, let’s ruin the whole day!”, and I’d have paid dearly for it the next. This way, we had some fun and didn’t feel guilty about it or make ourselves ill. Win!

Speaking of birthdays, you may be wondering what kind of birthday doesn’t have a cake… not this one! I got a fabulous cookbook and made paleo compliant chocolate cupcakes with an equally compliant French buttercream. No one who tried them even realized they weren’t normal cupcakes until I told them, I’d say that’s a damn fine recipe.

Ok, so you had a birthday cake. What about the Super Bowl?!? Don’t worry, I had that covered too! We made paleo friendly wings from NomNomPaleo and crispy smashed potatoes.

I even got to have left over wings for dinner tonight with some roasted cauliflower and steamed green beans! Note: green beans are a controversial item on paleo; they’re legumes which technically aren’t allowed, but I say if it’s good enough for Whole 30, they’re good enough for paleo, since they’re mostly pod.

I think that’s just about it for now, more recipes and meal plans to come!

Whole 30, Day 22!

23 Jan 2017 Leave a comment

by Christina H. in How to Fight Fibro Tags: chronic illness, Fibromyalgia, food, food as medicine, paleo, recipes, whole 30 compliant

We are officially more than 2/3 of the way trough this round of Whole 30!
This last week, we stuck with our breakfast smoothies, so nothing new or exciting there.

Last week, I mentioned we had a bunch of all new recipes to try out, so here’s the run down. For lunches this week, we had a veggie laden pulled pork stew, (my own recipe, which I haven’t written out yet). I used left over pulled pork, bone broth, carrots, mushrooms, parsnips, turnips, potatoes, celery, onion and kale to make this super filling stew in the instant pot. One serving rolls in at about 307 calories and it kept me full all afternoon, win-win!

My husband wasn’t happy about the mushrooms in it, but otherwise loved it, so next time I make it, I’ll probably omit them.

Sunday, we made another new recipe: cilantro lime chicken, with roasted cauliflower and cabbage steaks. The original recipe suggests serving this chicken over rice, but since rice is forbidden while on the Whole 30, I roasted up some cabbage steaks instead. I wasn’t sure how the cabbage steaks would go over, but they were awesome. We had a non Whole 30 friend over for dinner that night and he even enjoyed it!

Monday, we decided to make some grilled garlic shrimp with grilled asparagus since my husband was home from work for MLK Day. Oh my gosh, I love these shrimp. Not only are they super simple to put together, they are delicious!

As you can see, with our shrimp, instead of pasta or another carby side, we had some more roasted cauliflower, (I am obsessed, not sorry), and we roasted a few of our home grown carrots, too.

The rest of the week, we enjoyed curried shepherd’s pie. I made several changes to this recipe, the most obvious of which was using white potatoes and cauliflower in place of sweet potatoes. I also omitted the peas, since they’re not Whole 30 compliant and used bone broth rather than plain beef broth. I added in some finely diced mushrooms, a turnip and some extra cauliflower to make it a bit more filling. Next time I make this, I think I’ll add a lot more curry powder and probably a teensy bit more salt, but otherwise, it was excellent.

Saturday was a little different this week since Aaron was working, but my good friend and fellow Whole 30 buddy, Amber came over to make dinner with me. We made NomNomPaleo’s Cracklin Chicken (sooo good!), roasted cauliflower and some kick ass garlic green beans.

Amber brought her dog, Willow over to play with Freyja and we made a whole girl’s night of it, complete with scary movies. The only thing missing was chocolate and wine, mmmm….

For this next week, we’re having oven roasted pork ribs for dinner and chicken soup (with bone broth!) for lunches. I’ll probably be having just the soup today since my stomach is unhappy about something. Not a great start to the week, but hopefully things will be back to normal soon.

Whole 30, Day 13

14 Jan 2017 Leave a comment

by Christina H. in Uncategorized Tags: chronic illness, Fibromyalgia, food, paleo, recipes, ulcerative colitis, whole 30

One more week down! This week was mostly leftovers, which made it super easy, but here’s a run down of what kept me going!
For breakfasts, we had smoothies! Yum. We tend to find something we like and use it until we’re sick of it, so all of our smoothies this week were the same:

90g (1 cup) frozen spinach or kale
1 frozen banana
70g (1/2 cup) frozen blueberries
32g (2 tablespoons) almond butter
1 scoop of collagen peptides
6 oz coconut milk
6 oz cold coffee

I use a kitchen scale for most of my measuring, which is why everything is in grams. I just find it easier to just sit the pitcher on the scale and dump everything in, plus no need to dirty extra utensils! (I am a fairly lazy creature, after all.) I didn’t really take any pictures of the smoothies because they’re not very pretty. The coffee makes it a dark, unappealing color, but damn if it doesn’t make all the difference in my morning!

This week, I really tried to start cutting out the snacks, but the results were disastrous. I’m going to stick to small, compliant snacks and leave it alone. Being grumpy and tired is just no way to be. For snacks this week, (once I realized cutting them out was a lost cause), I had an orange in the morning, if I needed it and a handful of raw almonds and plain walnuts in the afternoon. This helped keep my energy steady and kept me from being such a sourpuss.

So, lunch! I tried sweet potato toast! It sounds weird, but I was very impressed; it’s super simple and very yummy, so win-win!

Take a whole sweet potato and give it a good scrub. Dry it off and slice it (lengthwise) so you get long, 1/4″ slices and stick it right in the toaster!

I toasted mine for about 5 min, until they were tender but not mushy. Slather on some almond butter, sprinkle with some cinnamon and a teensy bit of sea salt and enjoy!

On the days I didn’t have sweet potato toast, I just had the kale and potato soup from last week,(equally quick and easy, since it was already made).

Last weekend, we made the Paleo Beef Stew with roasted beets, carrots and parsnips; those leftovers served as dinner for the week.

I did, however make fresh roasted veggies to go with it, since I’ve found that those don’t reheat very well. Roasted cauliflower is officially my new favorite side dish. It’s soooo good!! I figured it would be fairly bland and tasteless, but it’s definitely not. Properly roasted, cauliflower has its own amazing flavor. It’s not a strong flavor, it’s very mellow, a little sweet and almost cheesy. Seriously, you have to try it!

The other dish we made over the weekend was the Carne Asada, which is definitely a favorite around here.

We found the recipe back in July when we did the Whole 30 for the first time and we’ve been making flank steak like this ever since. We had some cole slaw and pan seared asparagus to go with it. I can’t wait to make it again with the roasted cauliflower!

This weekend, we’re trying all new recipes, including a curried shepherd’s pie, cilantro lime chicken and a pulled pork vegetable stew, (which I started this morning and it smells amazing!). Stay tuned!

Whole 30, Day 7

08 Jan 2017 Leave a comment

by Christina H. in How to Fight Fibro, My Journey Tags: clean eating, Fibromyalgia, food, living with chronic illness, paleo diet, paleo recipes, whole 30

One week down, 3 more to go! Ugh, I miss cheese! And chocolate, but mostly cheese. That’s really about it though, yay!! I don’t miss the sugar in my morning coffee and while my evening cup of tea isn’t quite as pleasurable as it was before, I’m learning to enjoy it.

Overall, I’m feeling really good. Pain is still currently an issue, but the cold and I are old enemies, nothing new there. Winter is always bad for me as far as pain goes. The Reynaud’s really starts acting up, adding an extra layer of pain to my already aching hands and feet and the fibro itself always seems to get more active in the cold. The snow storm I mentioned in my last post has finally cleared up, so that helped a little. We’ll be back up in the 60s by the end of the week, so I’m hoping the rest of my pain will ease up by then.

In the meantime, I can enjoy the extra energy and clear headedness I’m experiencing from clean eating. So, what have I been eating that’s allowing me to feel so good? Here are a few of the things I’ve been eating during week one of my whole 30:

For breakfast, I’ve been enjoying fried eggs with, (un cured, no sugar added), bacon and a hash made of baby potatoes and fresh veggies such as kale, cabbage, asparagus and Brussels sprouts.

Earlier this week, I used my instant pot, (AKA the most amazing contraption EVER!), to make a huge batch of kale and potato soup, which I’ve been eating for lunch. Note: to make this recipe Whole 30 compliant, I omitted the beans. I also added some ground turkey “sausage” and used no sugar added chicken broth, so my version is definitely not vegan.

I’m not supposed to be counting calories while on the Whole 30, but I have to point out that this whole bowl of soup comes in at under 300 calories and is super filling!

One of the more difficult things about the Whole 30, for me, is that you’re not supposed to snack between meals. I’m terrible about eating 3 meals a day, I prefer 5 small meals, so this is a huge adjustment for me. This week I ate a larger breakfast and an earlier lunch to cut out my mid morning snack, but I couldn’t quite make it to dinner, so I’ve allowed myself a compliant afternoon snack of either fruit or this awesome roasted cauliflower “hummus“. I think it sort of looks like cat food with green bits in it, but it tastes awesome.

Dinner this week was Kalua Pig (another instant pot success!!) with coleslaw, (epic use of the home made mayo), and fresh green beans. Note: while most legumes are banned on the Whole k30, green beans are an exception since they’re mostly pod.

For those of you wondering, yes, we did eat the same thing for dinner every week night this week. I made a huge batch of everything and portioned it out into lovely little boxes to make life easier. I don’t know about you, but I rarely have the energy to worry about cooking every single night, so this process helps A LOT. It also helps cut down dishes, so major bonus.

On the weekends, I do try to make dinner both nights, as a kind of reward for finishing up all of the prepped meals. Last night, we tried a paleo beef stew with roasted beets, carrots, parsnips and Brussels sprouts and some mashed potatoes.

Tonight’s dinner is going to be carne asada with pan seared asparagus, but I’ll have to share that in my next post since I haven’t made it yet.

Happy Sunday!

Whole 30, Round 2!

06 Jan 2017 Leave a comment

by Christina H. in How to Fight Fibro Tags: depression, Fibromyalgia, food, weight loss, whole 30

I was really excited to write this post because I wanted to share my Whole 30 experience this time around, but I find myself struggling to get started. The main issue is that I’m having a really horrible day pain wise, which I’m 99% sure is due to the snow storm about to hit us. All of my old injuries are aching, I’ve got this electric tingle flowing through my limbs, almost like it’s pinging off of my trigger points and causing them to pop. At the moment, I’m at about an 8/10; this is the worst I’ve felt in a long time. So, now, instead of writing a post simply to share what I’ve been eating and how I’m feeling about it, I’m also writing as a way to escape the pain. Bleh.

Where to start? For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Whole 30 plan, here’s a quick overview. The basic idea is to reset your body by cutting out “all psychologically unhealthy, hormone-unbalancing, gut-disrupting, inflammatory food groups for a full 30 days”. –whole30

For the next 30 days, (25 for me, since I started this on January 3), there will be absolutely NO:

Added sugar/sweetener of any kind; including maple syrup, honey, agave, coconut sugar, stevia, Splenda, equal, nutrasweet, xylitol
Alcohol, not even for cooking
Grains (or pseudo grains): wheat, eye, barley, oats, corn, rice, millet, bulgur, sorghum, amaranth, buckwheat, sprouted grains, quinoa
Legumes: beans, peas, chickpeas, lentils, peanuts, soy
Dairy (except ghee or clarified butter)
Carrageenan, MSG or Sulfites

By now, you’re probably wondering, (like I did initially), what is even left to eat?

“Meat, seafood, eggs, tons of vegetables, some fruit, and plenty of good fats from fruits, oils, nuts and seeds. Eat foods with very few ingredients, all pronounceable ingredients, or better yet, no ingredients listed at all because they’re totally natural and unprocessed.” – whole30

I know, it sounds like a lot. It is. I’m not going to sit here and tell you how easy it is. If I’m honest, it’s a pain in the ass. BUT ITS WORTH IT. Yes, I desperately miss cheese and chocolate and bread and pizza and all of the yummy things, but this is the second time I’ve done this diet and I will be the first to admit that I am just too lazy to do something like this if it didn’t do something for me. I’m only on day 5 and pain issues aside, I feel wonderful. My head is clear, I’m sleeping better, I have energy and my mood is excellent.

The one thing that I have found to make this easier is meal planning. Before we, (my amazing husband is doing it too!), start the diet, I sit down and write out 5 weeks worth of meals, so there is never any question of “what am I going to eat today?”. No, I am not writing out different meals for each day. What we do is make a big batch of something on the weekend and then portion it out for the rest of the week. Here’s a sample of what I wrote out for this first week:

See? Not that bad. The only real decision I have to make is which option I’m having for breakfast and lunch. I write this plan out for the next 5 weeks and we follow it.

The hardest part is finding things that are compliant. Like bacon, for example. I never even considered sugar being used to cure bacon. It is possible to find bacon cured without sugar, but it ain’t easy. Another thing is mayo. So far, I haven’t been able to find a store bought mayonnaise with out added sugar or non-compliant oils. I’m sure there is one, but I hate to pay shipping costs on something that I can just as easily make myself. It took me a few tries to get it right, but I have finally mastered avocado oil mayonnaise. No added sugar or junk; just oil, eggs, a bit of salt, lemon juice and mustard and now I have mayonnaise that I can use to make compliant sauces or dressings. Yum!

Now that we’re all caught up, I hope to keep updating on how it’s going and probably at least a few posts about what I’m actually eating. I’m really hoping that my current pain is only due to the weather and not the start of another flare up, but even if it is an actual flare up, I’ve found that eating cleanly really helps with the duration of the flare. Fingers crossed!!

Where’d my spoons go?

24 Oct 2016 1 Comment

by Christina H. in My Journey Tags: chronic fatigue, Fibromyalgia, living with chronic illness

I am so exhausted lately that I feel like I can barely function. I can’t explain why I’m so tired; I’m sleeping better than ever, but my batteries are just not re-charging. I’ve always had an issue with energy levels and poor sleep; I was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome around the same time they diagnosed the Fibromyalgia. Most of the time I can manage, but then I get stuck in these cycles of exhaustion and I start to wonder why I even bother fighting it. All I want to do anymore is sleep. I can get 8, 9, even 10 solid hours of sleep and I still wake up feeling like I’ve been up for 48 hours straight. Before I got off the medications, the answer was to simply throw more pills at the problem until something worked. Now that I’m off of them, I don’t have any choice but to push through it.

It’s not depression. Aside from being tired, (and frustrated from being constantly fatigued), I’m happier than I have ever been; no dark thoughts, no mood swings, no appetite changes… It’s also not a Fibromyalgia flare up. I’m not pain free, but the pain is intermittent and mostly manageable. Somehow, I’m still managing to go to the gym and workout, but anything outside of my normal routine is just not happening right now. Every day, I am counting and recounting my spoons like a miser because I just can’t be sure I’ll be able to do the things I need to do. I am not normally the kind of person who plans their days, but lately I don’t have a choice. As it is, I’m having more trouble focusing on tasks, I’m constantly forgetting things and I can’t sit still for very long without nodding off, which is not only immensely annoying, but makes things like driving very difficult. I find myself getting grumpy for no good reason and I hate it.

This particular cycle of exhaustion has been going on for at least 2-3 weeks now and there’s no end in sight. It’s wearing me down, it may not feel like this is a depressive episode now, but I worry that I’m heading that way. Getting out of bed in the morning is a chore. Going to the gym is getting harder and harder. The important thing is, I am still going. I’m still working through the Couch to 5k program and I’ve started lifting weights. It takes a dose of pre workout and usually a cup of coffee, but in the end, it’s worth it. I know that if I stop now, it will be even harder to start again. I’m hoping that the exercise will help me get break the cycle, so far, it doesn’t seem to be working, but in the end it’s worth it. If nothing else, I always feel better after a workout.

The Plan 2.0

06 Sep 2016 Leave a comment

by Christina H. in The Plan Tags: exercise, Fibromyalgia, goals, Happy, medications

I cannot believe it’s been more than a year since my last post. Wow. All I can say is that it has been an amazing year, it wasn’t all good, but despite the horrible parts, this last year contained some of the best moments of my life so far. I got married to an absolutely amazing man in November and I can say without any doubt that it was the happiest day of my entire life.

He was there to help me through my last medical disaster and without his love and support, I would not be able to announce that I am 100% free of the fibromyalgia meds!

It took several months, but I took my last prescription drug, (for the fibro, at least), in February of this year. What a relief that was! I wish I could say that I feel 100% better without all of the drugs, but the reality is, I feel much the same. The main difference is that I no longer rely on a prescription to get me through the day. I still have the pain, fatigue and insomnia that are the hallmarks of fibro, but I’ve found that they are easier to manage without the “help” of prescription drugs. I have discovered that 5-10mg of melatonin right before bed is just as effective at getting me to sleep as 2mg of Xanax and 100mg of Seroquel, (combined!), ever were. No, I don’t always stay asleep, but the prescriptions couldn’t deliver that either. The only thing the prescriptions could ever be relied on to do was to make sure I was a groggy disaster in the morning, whether or not I got any sleep. In order to even wake up, I had to start my day with 40mg of Adderall and 150mg of Wellbutrin.

The drugs themselves have changed significantly over the years, but for the last decade or so, the basic formula has remained the same: drugs to help me sleep and more drugs to help me shake off the effects of the sleeping pills. I started tapering off of them in November, (with the guidance of my pain management team, please don’t try this on your own!!), and I am so happy to be able to say that I am done with them all.

The downside is that the side effects of weaning off the drugs left me a bit of a mess. I fell out of my workout routine all together and have put quite a few pounds back on. I have not regained all of the weight I lost over the last few years, but it’s close. Yes, I got off the meds back in February and it has taken me this long to realize I need to get my butt back in gear. The important thing is that I’m ready now. I could list off the myriad of excuses I had for not being as active as I had been, but I won’t. They no longer matter.

Today, the Plan, V2 goes into effect. I’m back!

Right now, my main goal is to get back into an exercise routine. I am not going to focus on losing weight, I just want to get back up to my peak level of activity. For the moment, that means walking, (lots and lots of walking), but I plan to start doing the Couch to 5k training routine in a week or two and get back to racing again by the end of the year. As before, I have to take things slowly, especially now that I don’t have any medications to fall back on if I trigger a flare up. However, this time around, I have the benefit of already knowing that I can do it. Shamrock 2017, here I come!!