Food! Bon Appetite! Get Yo Grub On!

My husband and I are trying to stick more to a Mediterranean style of eating. Heavy on the seafood and veggie, light on the sugar and carbs. Our doctor whole heartedly encourages this and also recommended low salt. Although I don't really want to live forever, I would be happy with less pain, less inflammation and a little less body bulk to heave around. 

I went to our local Trader Joe's with my Mama on Monday. It was the first time I'd been since the quarantine. It felt really good to be able to pick out food for my family myself. That's something I had really been missing.

Here's a small sampling of what we've been enjoying.

Kale and broccoli salad on the left with hot sauce. I learned hot sauce takes away the overly "earthy" flavor that can come from kale. Then some soybean noodles (shockingly good!) with sautéed onions and a little mozzarella cheese. 

Top left is Huli Huli chicken with brown rice. My husband cut it up for me. We had it with a spring mix salad. Top right is the same kale broccoli slaw with my favorite fish - smoked trout! My puppy enjoys the skins too. Bottom left is brown rice with sautéed onions and eggs. I adore eggs and can eat them daily! I had that with avocado and a Honeycrisp apple.

My husband sweetly peels and slices apples for me and knows I like to have them with dinner. Honeycrisp is my favorite. High protein high fat works best for my body. Hence the egg and avocado. Springing for good eggs makes me feel good ethically and it also tastes much better than factory eggs. 

You can see it's not super complicated or expensive. We've been picking up restaurant food once a week both to support our local businesses, but also to give ourselves a break from cooking. Then my Mama also likes to feed us once a week or so. Though I tend to have coffee and lunch with her multiple days a week as well. 

Food is the center of our social world and I'm no different. In fact, food is quite important to me emotionally. It's something I'm constantly working on. 

Rheumatoid Cachexia

I think I might have found what's going on with my muscle weakness. Last night I stumbled across something I've never heard of before called "Rheumatoid Cachexia."

The Cliff's Notes version of Rheumatoid Cachexia is that it is muscle wasting in people with RA. Sadly it's most common in people newly diagnosed with RA who are also overweight (ding ding ding!)

I found this blog on RA where the author says this about her experience:

"Almost overnight, I went from lifting 50 pound bags of concrete mix or fertilizer to being unable to hold onto a glass of water." 

Her story completely mirrors what I've been going through. One day I can work in my garden and the next I can barely shampoo my hair. Funny thing is my rheumatologist told me that muscle weakness doesn't go with RA. Did I mention how much I'm looking forward to getting a new rheumatologist? I have a message in to her about all of this but my expectations are very low. About as low as my current physical stamina.

(Me being a mermaid a few years back.
Testing out my underwater camera before we went to Iceland.)

I read that the best way to fight the cachexia is through "resistance exercise" and eating a lot of fish. Checkmark on the fish increase. We've been doing that for a few weeks eating it about every other day.

(Our delicious cod fish tacos that we had for dinner last night.
I like to steam my cod in my rice cooker. It's super easy and doesn't make the house hot.)

As for the "resistance workout" part, I have my first physical therapy session tomorrow. I also still belong to a gym that has a heated pool. I need to get back in it. Swimming and aqua aerobics is fantastic for health and mobility challenges because it's easy on the joints. I can get resistance and still keep it low impact. 

I also asked my PCP if we should re-do my back images since the last ones were done 17 months ago. He agreed and that's on order. More time in the "fun tube!" (My pet name for the MRI machine.) My husband and I joke that we need to make t-shirts for the medical center that we have to go to for all our scans and testing because we're there so often. I think that would be hilarious. He said we could have the name on the front and "Let's hope it's negative!" On the back.

Humor is so important.