Take Care

I really love those two words. As long back as I can remember I sign off all my correspondence with "Take Care." It's also a motto that I'm trying to remember and heed. 

"How?" I'm glad you asked!

I'm trying to ease back into exercise and moving. I've been very sedentary this month. For good reason, but still. It's something I want to address. I feel better about my body and my mental health when I get some exercise on a regular basis. I used to do a dance type class called "Zumba" at my gym once a week. I went yesterday (the first time in a month) and did my best. The end result was that I was literally crippled the rest of the day. I WAY over did it. Something easy for me to do in that class.

Might be a better fit?

I thought that what might be a better fit right now are these two exercise videos that I found at our local Library. I read quite a bit about how Qigong and Tai Chi are both an excellent choice for RA. The other one is a hula video, which might prove to be a bit aggressive, but I'm willing to at least try. I can also swim at my gym instead.

Mmmm! Gnocchi!

Food is another key factor. I shared before that I've found a lot of relief from going gluten free. But I'm also Italian and seriously have been missing my pasta. GF pasta does a "nice try" and is better than nothing, but it's also far from the same. Fortunately I found this expensive gnocchi at my local food co-op and gave it a go. It was delicious! Maybe a bit lacking in vegetables, but hey. The sauce counts?

I'm trying to reduce my portions while still eating what I want. Food is very comforting and I don't want to deny myself comfort right now. I ate about a quarter of what you see here and put the rest away. For a while I was also making fresh fruit and vegetable juice for myself. That's something I want to get back to.

Cutting out gluten personally helped some GI issues and calmed my neuropathy down a bit. It has served me well enough to keep with it. I also live in a place where substitutes are plentiful and easy to find. 

My sleep usually stinks.

I wear my Fitibit to bed most nights. I've noticed that it's very accurate in monitoring my sleep quality. I can tell when I wake up exhausted it's usually that I didn't get enough deep sleep. And if I'm ok in the morning but want to go back to bed by 3 it's usually I didn't get enough REM sleep. These are 2 nights of sleep. One right after the other. One was short in deep sleep and the other was short in REM sleep. I seem to cycle like that.

Some things I'm going to try are:

• Not being on my phone right before bed. Read a book instead.
• Drinking Sleepy Time Extra Tea before bed.
• Make my bed regularly (I sleep better when it's clean and made.)

 The last thing I'm doing to "take care" is trying to document my health more. I started taking pictures of my feet and making my husband take pictures of my hands. I plan on doing this once a month to monitor any changes.

May 2018 hands.

Even just in this picture you can see how my right hand is a bit different from my left. It's a bit swollen in general. Even on my right foot I feel like I'm having some "toe drift" already happening. It's not something I would have noticed without taking pictures and I'll bring it up to my rheumatologist when I see her again next month.

Here's some other ways that I'm "taking care" this week:

• I'm going to watch the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry & Meghan Markle
  (*a guilty pleasure to be sure!)
• I'm going to wear my new special hat to a belated Mother's Day lunch with my son.
• I'm coloring my hair this weekend.
• I'm enjoying watching Face Off with my husband at night (the special effects makeup reality TV show.)
• I'm seeing my Aunt on Friday and we're having Mexican food together.
• I'm using my Nordic Poles when I'm too sore or stiff to walk un-aided.
• I'm using my "disabled" parking plaque when I need it. 
• I'm not stressing every little thing I'm not getting done right now.
• I'm playing a lot of my life "by ear" and "by spoons."
• I'm spending a lot of time being cozy with my dogs.