Welcome my friend! Come on in for a delightful cuppa together over a chat & time of reflection.
I have some great news to tell you today which I’m excited & ever so grateful for… But before we get into that, let’s get our cuppa’s organized!
Today I’m having a cup of Aussie Bush Raspberry Tea bought for me in our Australian outback & I have baked some delicious gf Coconut & Date Slice for us to share. We are seated in my lounge room where it’s warm & cozy out of the icy blasts of our winter.
Where the story began
If you join me here often then you may remember that last year I received a gobsmacking diagnosis with a very scary prognosis which I shared in my post How to Earn money while you Sleep!
While this was indeed a shock I was determined to turn this around! So, I did some research & with my physicians advice went into action.
As I didn’t want to add yet another chronic condition to the list of already existing autoimmune conditions I have!
Ready, steady, Action!
First, I needed to change my physical activity to incorporate 150 minutes of gentle activities each week (it needs to be gentle with the existing Fibromyalgia).
Which let me tell you was an absolute mountainous challenge & to tell you the truth remains a struggle each week but I’m determined!
This took months to gradually build to this amount of time but slowly & steadily it became a reality.
I started doing activity by breaking the 150 minutes into a daily 22 minute session choosing several different activities during the week to give variety. Things like my favorite activity, which is to go for a walk by the waterfront.
Then alternate with stretching exercises the following day, also including housework, gardening, incidental walking ie. shopping or any activity that gets my heart rate up.
But I found this wasn’t necessarily a good fit for me in trying to do the daily time increments with the resulting post exercise malaise that often comes with Fibromyalgia.
So I made some adjustments, which I actually find I need to do each week depending on how my body is fairing with pain & fatigue.
The main goal is to have close to 150 minutes of physical activity weekly.
Then I set about tackling my eating habits, incorporating a sustainable Mediterranean style diet with lots of fresh colorful veggies, small quantities of meat & less naughty carbs, especially added sugars.
Mainly eating fresh foods without having highly processed ones which often have hidden high Glycemic Index carbs in them. I have extensively learnt all about good complex carbs & bad carbs.
My strategy was to have a sustainable healthy diet for life.
In adopting these measures I’ve had the added bonus of losing those extra lbs we all like to lose, yippee! I’m now back to my wedding day weight! But that’s not all, there’s more…
“I can do all things in Christ Jesus, who strengthens me!”
Philippians 4: 13
I’m delighted to say with God’s strength, determination & hard work I no longer have that scary prognosis! All my recent blood results have come back to normal & the prognosis of Type II diabetes has been completely overturned!
An Added Blessing
Another blessing has been that I have been able to come off regularly prescribed pain medication & Corticosteroids (as I’m coping better with the chronic pain of Fibromyalgia)!
My physician is extremely pleased with these results, as am I! Doing a happy dance here!
It appears the combination of regular gentle activity & eating less of the inflammation producing foods, especially processed ones, have worked miracles!
Plus regular activity has released those lovely natural neuro chemicals called endorphins & they’re doing their work beautifully in helping to manage the pain more efficiently without having regular analgesia!
Hidden Nasties
You see before the gobsmacking diagnosis & scary prognosis I thought my eating habits were pretty healthy! After all we had lots of fresh veggies, fruit & healthy things already in our diet…
But we also had previously unknown hidden nasty carbs in the foods we were eating!
And with having a chronic pain condition, any type of exercise, well wasn’t very appealing because when you’re in pain & fatigued it’s a challenge just to move!
Although I did go for my walks along the waterfront often, it just wasn’t enough.
So over the past 14 years of living with autoimmune conditions, having the hidden nasty carbs in my diet & less activity then my previous lifestyle, the result was the overloading of my system with unhealthy carbs & inactivity!
Also, packing on those extra kgs/lbs had contributed to that scary diagnosis & prognosis. Don’t get me wrong here I wasn’t considered overweight or obese not even by my physician’s standards but rather ‘just carrying a few extra pounds/kilos’.
This scarey experience demonstrates just how we need to be very aware that there may be hidden nasties in what we eat & how not being as active as we once were, silently & massively impacts the health of our bodies!
Have you looked at your eating habits lately my dear friend? What about your activity, is it enough for your body to be as healthy as it can be?
Until next time,
Jennifer
You’re most welcome to join me in The Reading Nook
Or in Prayer
© 2020 Jennifer M. Ross, teawithjennifer.blog All Rights Reserved. Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com
Tea With Jennifer 
This is such an encouraging post, Jennifer. I, too, have several autoimmune illnesses, and recently the pain increased to such a surprising level. I would love to stop taking meds and have been trying very hard to eat less inflammatory foods. My recent weight gain (maybe from Prednisone, who knows?!) has me discouraged, but your post has renewed my resolve to get better. Thank you!
You’re most welcome Pam! I’m saddened to hear your pain has intensified. It’s so nasty when that happens 🌹
Let me encourage you to continue in your quest for improvement in your autoimmune conditions & especially with lowering the intensity of your chronic pain.
With God gracious help I have been able to maintain the above improvements to this day 😀