Arthritis Wisdom

Inspired tips and information elevating autoimmune living

Lifestyle

What Drives Your Thrive?

What Drives Your Desire to Thrive

What drives your desire to thrive?

What Drives Your Thrive?

Just what drives your thrive?  We are talking motivation here.  What makes you chose one thing over another?  I’ve spent a lot of time trying to determine why I make choices I know are not the best for me instead of choices that are good for me.  It has been time well spent.  Let me explain.

You may know I am in the middle of a 12-week class to help me develop healthy lifestyle habits.  I shared in the previous post my observation of the class participants that the concept of a healthy lifestyle is easy, but implementation is very difficult.  It has been unanimous that we all struggle to put into practice what we are learning.  It is clear to me changing my lifestyle to a healthier one is going to take even more effort than I’ve given it.

I do not need to be convinced that a healthy lifestyle is necessary to best manage my rheumatoid arthritis (RA).  I made basic lifestyle changes in 5 areas and coined the acronym FRESH as a quick reference when my joints hurt to keep the inflammation in check.  I believe lifestyle changes are as important as the medications I take to fight my RA.  What I need is to firmly establish my motivation for adhering to positive lifestyle choices so I can make those good choices.  It is like righting a huge ship!

My motivation has to be a deep desire.  A desire greater than my sugar addiction.  Yes, addiction.  I crave the stuff.  This is where I’ve worked on my thinking in many ways.  I’ve discovered my drive to thrive.  What drives me to thrive revolves around doing those things that are anti-inflammatory in order to live the best I can.  Inflammation could shorten my life and make it less fulfilling.

There is so much good information put out by researchers and clinicians that we now know what we eat and how we treat our body does absolutely determine how well we live.  As a pharmacist, I am very interested in the immune system and what I can do to prevent infections and “feed” the beneficial microbes that make up the microbiome.  I also want to exercise muscles to help support my joints to prevent disability.  I want to have good sleep hygiene so my body can recuperate from the days work.  I want to learn ways to deal with stress so my body doesn’t  have to be in the potentially damaging stress mode.  I want to do keep properly hydrated so my body can flush toxins, my joints can be bathed and buffered, and my body systems can function best.

What drives your thrive may be very different than mine.  It may be to be able to play with your children or grandchildren.  It is very personal.  We can’t fool ourselves for long.  We have to believe in and own our personal, unique drive or motivation to thrive.

My drive to make lifestyle changes was a piece missing from developing a sustainable, successful, positive trajectory for a life well lived, even with RA, fibromyalgia, Raynaud’s, Rosacea …

I would love to hear what drives your thrive!  Inspire me!

And that is using Arthritis Wisdom!

XXOO Cathy

Photo credit:  Daniela Cuevas at Unsplash

 

 

 

 

Healthy Lifestyle: Easy Concept, Hard to Implement

The elements of a Healthy Lifestyle are easy to understand, but putting them into practice is not so easy.

Healthy Lifestyle:  Easy Concept, Hard to Implement

We are bombarded with images, slogans and the perception of what a healthy lifestyle is.  The thought of living a healthy lifestyle is very appealing.  So, why is it so difficult to actually live the healthy lifestyle?  It gets even more perplexing when you adopt healthy habits that make you feel better, then fall back into doing the unhealthy things that make you feel lousy.

It took experiencing the symptoms of my autoimmune disease, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), to turn me onto researching and making lifestyle changes attempting to get back to feeling “normal”, whatever that is.  I knew I didn’t want to live in pain, fatigued and with brain-fog any longer.

I’ve been working on the healthy lifestyle for seven years now.  I definitely have tasted success, or I wouldn’t continue, but I’m amazed at how easily I fall back into my unhealthy behaviors.

I consequently developed an acronym, *FRESH* , to organize the 5 areas of changes made as an easy-to-refer-back-to-list allowing a quick reference when I felt joint pain or other symptom I thought was associated with my inflammatory disease.

To help advance my healthy lifestyle pursuit, I signed up for a healthy lifestyle class offered by the clinic I go to.  It is a 12 week course aiming to develop healthy lifestyle habits and to explore the roadblocks along the way.  We meet weekly, we have additional small group sessions, and are given written materials.

We were all asked to share with the class why we wanted to take the course.  The reasons given were either a medical diagnosis, tired of feeling poorly, or not wanting to be a statistic.  I immediately felt a part of this relatable group of “students”.

After the second session, I asked myself what the take-away was at that point.  It was not what I expected. I thought about what the common sentiment was, how simple the elements of a healthy lifestyle are, but how difficult they are to live by.  I was surprised by how emotional the class was.  I don’t have an answer or explanation for the two observations, but they are real and I took note of them.

We were also asked to determine if a healthy lifestyle was an interest or a passion.  An interest is something you want to learn about, but a passion is something you want to take action on.  Adopting a healthy lifestyle will require taking action on.

In order to make the healthy lifestyle goal doable and not overwhelming, even after working on it for seven years, I decided on 3 ground rules in order to allow my desire for a healthy lifestyle to reach a new level.  Here they are:

  1. It is a process – It will not be instant pudding.  It will take practice to develop these new habits
  2. Start small– Make a single doable change you can build confidence with
  3. Be kind and forgiving to yourself– if you mess up, you can start over.  Improvement, not perfection

I know how I live, my habits and my choices, are as important managing my autoimmune disease  as the biologic I inject weekly.  It is well worth learning about and making the changes.  It does take a lot of effort.  I will continue to share my discoveries, tips and information to improve the autoimmune lifestyle.  I would love to hear your tips, as well!  Leave then in the comments for all to see!

And that is using Arthritis Wisdom!

XXOO Cathy

Photo credit:  Christopher Campbell of Unsplash

 

 

     

What Fuel Fires Your Engine!?

Whole foods is the food to fire your engine for optimum performance

For optimum performance choose high grade fuel, or nutrient rich foods, to fire your engine!

What Fuel Fires Your Engine!?

Have you ever looked at food as fuel for your body to function?  And have you ever considered what combination of foods would allow your body to function at it’s best?  A rheumatoid arthritis (RA) diagnosis caused me to start looking at food as a way to help or hurt my management of the disease.

Here are my steps to finding what fuel best fires my engine:

Step ONE- Eliminate Preservatives,  Limit Added Sugar and Salt 

In general, an anti-inflammatory diet is what we are talking about.  A diet that nourishes (fuels) our body (engine) for optimum performance.  And there are a gazillion of them out there. Personally it was overwhelming, so I kept it simple by eliminating preservatives (the multi-syllable-chemical-sounding names), limiting added sugar and added salt.

Step TWO- Read Labels to Know What You Are Getting

When you are feeling your worst, which is often the time of figuring out what the problem with your health  is and ultimately a diagnosis, is when you probably have the least amount of energy to be following lists and directives of what foods you should be eating.  The food needs to be edible ( I am a foodie).  Fatigue is a problem making it difficult to carry around a list with directions for the restrictive diet AND then have a recipe in mind to make the food edible and appealing.  Hence, my simple list and directive- I read labels!

It was surprising how many foods I thought were healthy, then read the label to see how much added sugar, salt and preservatives were added to make them taste good and extend the shelf-life.

Step THREE- Eat Nutrient Rich (Dense) Foods

When I selected lean meats, a variety of colorful fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seeds (nutrient rich or dense foods) and read labels to ditch items with added sugar, salt and preservatives, I started feeling better immediately.  This encouraged me to stick with my simple plan.  Then I started experimenting with new recipes to satisfy the desire for interesting, yummy food.  I did say I am a foodie!

This whole process, and it is a process,  trained me to listen to my body.  This is important.  We are all unique and need to give our bodies the good stuff.  That means figuring out sensitivities, allergies, and what happens when we eat certain things to fuel our individual body the best.  I am constantly assessing what I eat and how I feel.  It now is a habit and I do it subconsciously.

As I started being aware of how I treat my body and how my joints feel, I realize my lifestyle is as important to managing my disease as my medication is,  That is why I created my acronym *FRESH* so I could quickly identify what area of my lifestyle may be causing my joints to get angry when I feel sore.

The F is for FOOD, of course.  What I eat, how I fuel my engine, has been a major factor to help keep my inflammation level down.  I believe it is every bit as important as the biologic I take for my autoimmune disease.

So, what fuel fires your engine?  I’d love to know!

And that is using Arthritis Wisdom!

XXOO Cathy

Photo credit:  Steve Harvey from Unsplash