Piggy chops

Rice water onions mushrooms hard cider spices apples pork chops baked 350 for 2 hrs with a side of garlic green beans and almonds

Ahhhh the season changes

Not a good time for Fibro Sufferers

But get up, get moving and eat healthy! Helps keep you positive and not dwelling on all these things!! 

Lesser Known Fibro Symptoms

Most people who suffer from fibromyalgia are familiar with the condition’s many common symptoms. These include pain, fatigue, fibro fog, depression, anxiety, stiffness and irritable bowel syndrome. It’s likely that if you suffer from fibromyalgia, you will suffer from most – if not all – of these symptoms.

Which of these less common fibromyalgia symptoms do you suffer from? How do you cope?

 1. Chest Pain

Sharp pain in your chest is a worrying feeling and shouldn’t be ignored as it can often be an unrelated health issue. However, it’s often associated with fibromyalgia, as the chest is one of the trigger points where fibro patients experience pain. Sometimes this can lead to a shortness of breath, but more commonly it is a sharp pain in the chest area without any other side effects. Gentle exercises and deep breathing can help ease this pain, as can heat and gentle massage.

2. Dry Skin and Itching

Dry skin and itching is another symptom some fibromyalgia patients experience. Often skin can appear flaky and dry and those dry areas often become itchy. If you scratch at your skin, rashes can then appear or skin can appear bruised. Apparently the itchiness may be a result of pain signals being misunderstood by the brain, so it’s important to keep your skin moisturized and try to avoid scratching.

3. Tingling and Numbness

I think this is one of the more common lesser known symptoms. Tingling and numbness, also known as paresthesia, commonly exists in the hands and feet as a result of extensive use, and rest or massage can sometimes help this. However, your tingling can be caused by anxiety as a result of shortness of breath causing reduced blood flow. Deep breathing can often be found to improve paresthesia.

4. Excessive Sweating

This occurs as a result of an autonomic dysfunction in the area of the brain that controls sweating, bowel movements and other body functions. It can occur as a side effect of fibromyalgia and therefore requires fibro patients to carefully control their body temperature – something we are often used to as many fibro sufferers find heat/cold impacts our pain.

5.  Poor Balance and Special Disorientation

Losing balance is a frequent occurrence for some fibromyalgia sufferers. It is believed this is because we carry less lower body strength and our legs are less stable. Because of that, we are less able to steady ourselves when there is a risk of falling. Not only that, but the risk of falling is often increased due to special disorientation (sometimes an effect of fibro fog) and other balance-related side effects like ringing in the ears or blurred vision.

6. Heightened Sensitivity

Heightened sensitivity to touch, also known as allodynia, results in pain from things that wouldn’t normally cause you discomfort. Hyperalgesia is the term for feeling extreme pain. These two conditions as part of fibromyalgia can lead to immense discomfort. For example, something that causes some pain such as stubbing your toe or knocking your elbow can be excruciating to a fibro patient, and something that shouldn’t hurt at all like a friend patting you on the back when greeting you can cause great pain.

West Muffin

Toasted Organic multigrain English muffin

Pan fried organic egg in olive oil

Cottage bacon pan fried ""

Organic cheese of your choice 

And organic strawberry jam 

Yummmmy

Journal or Blog

sometimes you need to vent -  pour out the deepest feelings in your guts -
I have a blog for that - it starts in a journal... then it spills on to the screen -
it helps - it heals - it reveals! I have a blog for such posts -
actually - I have 5 blogs ;-)

I don't like powders n shakes!! Fad diets - beware they are NOT good for you

Everytime I see someone post another get skinny fad diet on Facebook

I cringe - I have to walk away -
I have actually had to hide some people so I am not tempted
to post "to the contrary" posts on their walls - 

Trust me I have tried them all - 

YES they work AT FIRST but in the end they do more damage than good 

and I promise you when you are done you will be worse for wear!

Eat clean, Eat healthy, keep moving - 

the only way to eat clean is by knowing what your food is  - 

an apple is an apple

a banana is a banana

kale is kale etc...

YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IS IN MOST OF YOUR POWDERS- SUPPLEMENTS etc.
do the research make sure all the hype is what they say it is!

NO you will NOT lose weight quickly the right way but you will lose 

weight naturally and be a normal size - 

I see some of my friends posting all these pictures 

and they do NOT look healthy

they do infact look anorexic!!

This article says it better than I can! 

http://www.aarp.org/health/healthy-living/info-2015/heart-health.html

Lucious Light Lunch Cottage Bacon

Wrapped around asparagus 

With bulletproof coffee

Garlic Stuffed Pork Roast

When you have to hibernate because of the outside temps -14 with -29 windchill you find the goodness in your freezer to feed your plowman 

Pita Pizzas

Pitas with Olive oil

And sauce or not

Then your choice of toppings 

Organic everything 

Topped with your favorite cheese 

Shredded Apple Museli Crisp

                           

In a large bowl mix together

6 Shredded Apples

1tablespoon of cinnamon

1tablespoon of vanilla

Sprinkling of flour or leave out for GF

2 tablespoons of real maple syrup

2 tablespoons of local honey

2-3 cups of Bobs Red Mill Museli

Put in baking dish bake at 350 degs

For half hour

Serve hot or cold with a dollup of Stoneyfields Vanilla Yogurt 

Healthy Eats

Overnight oatmeal 

Stirfry

Add that to daily hikes

Good things will happen

Beware of powders for shakes

http://www.buzzfeed.com/deenashanker/chemical-free-ways-to-add-protein-to-your-smoothie?s=mobile

Rahs Tuna Melt

Red Heads Cafe used to be called Kejaras Bridge - 

When they were they had a Rahs Tuna Melt 

that my hubby loved!

I tried to duplicate it for our lunch today

hubby LOVED it - 

Partially grill on a flat top a pc of your favorite bread - 

I used The Bake Shoppes Heart Healthy Low GI Nutty Bread

Mix up 

Tuna

onions

cottage cheese

dill weed 

 a touch of garlic salt mix

spread on bread

cover in a layer of your favorite cheese - 

Broil till cheese is melted - WONDERFUL

Eat Healthy Keep Moving but BE HAPPY

Great article:

  http://www.thehappygal.com/teach-daughters-love/

  I have been  thinking a lot lately about our society’s obsession with body image. I recently read an article about the Miss America pageant and how everyone was so excited that during the swimsuit contest, one contestant had a “normal” body. I had a couple of thoughts cross my mind. Why is it that we care so much about what our bodies look like, and why are we constantly comparing our bodies to each other? Another thought that came to my mind was, who defines what a normal body is? A lot of the chatter on twitter was about how happy everyone was that Miss Indiana had a normal body. Now let me say, that I can appreciate the fact that she had confidence and security in her own body, and that even though she was different than others, she stood strong in herself. I applaud that wholeheartedly. When I read all the tweets, and conversations about how others are too skinny, and not normal, my mothering instincts took over and I wondered, “how is this making those other contestants feel, to be told that THEIR bodies are not normal?” Will they now be discontent with their bodies and work on trying to gain weight, and muscle? Perhaps there are some of those girls who simply have body types that are more thin, and now they feel bad about themselves because they are not more curvy.

As a mother of four daughters, I am very aware of how much our society is obsessed with body image, and how it can be a big part of a girls self-esteem. Each of my daughters have a different body type. With all the girls in our family, we have curvy bodies, straight and thin bodies, athletic with larger muscles, and petite bodies. I have worked hard to teach my girls that each of their bodies have their own beauty and strength. I tell them not to compare to each other, but instead, to celebrate their own unique qualities, and we all celebrate that we have strong healthy bodies. (Learn more about the dangers of comparing HERE).

I haven’t always been so kind and loving to myself when it came to my own body. There were many years that I struggled with trying to get thinner, (even though I wasn’t overweight) and I was also constantly trying to make myself taller! At 5’4″, I felt like my legs were too short, and I was constantly wearing heels, or tall shoes to make me appear a few inches taller than I actually was. I became obsessed with working out, and constantly checking the scale to see if I was losing weight.  (For some thoughts on why you should throw out the scale, click HERE) Exercising became the most important thing in my day, and I wouldn’t be able to relax until I got it done each day. I was simply not happy, or content with how I looked. One day, I was spending some quiet time for myself, and suddenly I had a thought. My body is perfectly healthy. I am strong. I can run for miles, bike, and play with my kids. This is a gift I had been given from God, and so why was I not grateful for it? This hit me like a ton of bricks, and suddenly my perspective changed. I realized that I FELT amazing. And just like THIS quote says, I am enough. I suddenly knew that I needed to find better balance in my life and change my mindset about why I was working out and eating healthy. One of the things I always point out to my girls now is that it isn’t so important what our bodies look like, as how we feel. The reason I choose to eat healthy, and exercise and keep myself active is so that I can live my life without sickness, pain, and limitations that might come from not taking care of my body. I want to stay healthy so I can hike, ride bikes, travel, and essentially live my life! It is not because I want to “look” a certain way. And I love my body because it is perfect for me, not because it is “normal” by the world’s standards, because according to them, it isn’t.

It is all well and good when we can be comfortable with ourselves just the way we are, and to celebrate our bodies. I want to go back to my original thought. Why is it that we are so obsessed with our bodies and how they look? As women, we have so many gifts, and talents, and we bring so much value to this beautiful world. And guess what? We are so much deeper than what our bodies look like. When I think of each of my daughters and the immense talent and creativity they possess, I get so excited to think of what they can contribute to society. They are talented at writing, composing music, painting and drawing, singing, and dancing. They have hearts bigger than the sun, and they spend time serving others. They are amazing at creating delicious food, they listen to others, and help lift them. They love to use fashion and design to create cute outfits and express themselves. I could go on and on about all the value and goodness they possess. I use my daughters as an example, because I know them. But they represent every woman and girl. This is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the collective value we as women and girls bring to society. But what if we are so focused and obsessed with trying to obtain the perfect “normal” body, that we don’t have time to develop all these other beautiful and creative parts of ourselves.

What if we took all the time we spent on obsessing about what our bodies look like, and invested it in developing our creativity. What if we stopped comparing our bodies to each other and loved ourselves for who we are. When we love ourselves, we can begin to grow and develop.

I have a theory about why society is so obsessed with body image, and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out. Think of how much money is made off of women trying to improve their bodies. I love this quote by Dr. Gail Dines,

“If tomorrow women woke up and decided they really liked their bodies, just think how many industries would go out of business.”

It’s no wonder that society makes a big push to tell you to improve your body! We are making them billions of dollars, as we buy products and services trying to fit the mold.

I know that my value as a woman is much deeper than the appearance of my body. I will remind myself of that every day, and I will continue to teach my daughters through example. For, if I can love myself for who I am, then hopefully, they will learn to love themselves for who they are. Together we can all live our best lives, and bring to this beautiful world, all the creative, and unique gifts we were meant to bring!

- See more at: http://www.thehappygal.com/teach-daughters-love/#sthash.1MJDBobo.dpuf

Another get rich quick fix scam is on the rise - BEWARE things are NOT as good as they seem

Healthy 

Weight loss 

does NOT COME IN A READY MADE SHAKE, POWDER - 

LIQUID, TABLET, ETC....

it comes ONLY from healthy eating and exercise - 

BEWARE of the latest craze; 

PLEXUS

http://www.plexuspoint.com/plexus-slim-review-2014/ 

REAL FOOD for REAL HEALTH

Healthy and Yumalicious Notchos

Apple Notchos 

Plain Cheese I used raw milk cheddar(your choice) and Cinnamon

Over thinly sliced organic honey crisp apples bake till cheese melts

(You can add Wests Windy Acres ground pork sautéed with olive oil and fennel)