My new favourite

drug . . . exercise!!! Seriously, 40 hard minutes on the treadmill later last night, and I was way happier. I trekked up to our fitness centre, and pounded out my frustrations on that treadmill, and felt like a different person walking home! The fronts of my ankles hurt from that and wednesday's hike on the hilly trails around DS's preschool, but man do I feel better. It's amazing, I've been working out consistently for a week and a half now, since the 28th, and I feel squirrelly if I don't get to go. I've lost 3 1/5 lbs of the ten that I put on in the month plus that I've been on the prednisone, but more than that, I feel better about myself.

I am having a hard time taking things slowly, which I know I need to do, so that I don't injure my joints or make the arthritis flare. But knowing that I was coming off the prednisone, (and that I'd gained 10lbs from it and nothing fit) really urged me to start this. Last time I came off I got sick immediately, and the pain and fatigue were overwhelming. This time I'm trying to arm myself. I know it sounds stupid, but I feel like I'm fighting a war or something, and I'm trying to bolster the reserves. I'm scared of coming off the prednisone. I don't want the pain, the canker sores, the overwhelming fatigue. I can't function like that. So I'm trying to combat those things with a really healthy diet and exercise.

I'm starting to do a lot of reading about autoimmune diseases, and will probably begin boring family and friends with details and such, but it is so fascinating. So far what I have read makes sense to me. One of the most compelling and interesting things that I have read so far is that most people with autoimmune diseases are treated by doctors with drugs to treat the symptoms, but that the root causes aren't looked at. One set of authors/doctors are convinced that anyone who has an autoimmune disease has been exposed to too many toxins (through our water, our houses, pollution, pre-packaged and pesticide riddled foods) on many levels, and their bodies are reacting to that. And so to start at rebuilding the body, and treating it in a way that we are meant to, with clean foods and exercise, is to help the body repair itself. This is a really condensed, and simplified version of what they are saying, but I'm willing to try it. The occurrence of autoimmune issues is huge - way more complex and in number than when our parents were our age. Coincidence? Breakthroughs in science? I don't think that's just it. I think it has a lot to do with what we eat, how we live, and the "progress" in the world. Simpler times were just that. They weren't exposed to all of the chemicals that are in many of the foods we eat these days. They weren't exposed to so many pollutants in the air.

I for one am going to try to live way healthier. If not for me, for my kids in the future. They don't need that crap in their bodies this young. I never had it till I was older, and look how sick I get! And while prepackaged foods may be way more convenient, they may be the cause of a lot of things. Don't get me wrong, while my intention is to have them slowly disappear from my house, I will probably rely on them when I'm not well - probably the worst time to, but one step at a time!

I guess I woke up and smelt the coffee last weekend. I realized that I am the only on invested in my future and my health. I am the only one who can make me feel better. I am the only one who REALLY cares how I feel. And I am the only one who decides what I need to do about it. I'm sick and tired (literally and figuratively) of waiting for doctors to tell me what's wrong, for the official diagnosis, and for them to figure out how to make me feel better. It's time to take my health into my own hands, and see if I can make a change. Realizing I'd gained 10lbs in a month and that nothing fit was a pretty big motivator too. A vain one, but a motivator none the less. Now when I crave junk, and am shopping my mantra is "I am not paying to gain weight, and pollute my body." It has stopped me from buying a few chocolate bars and bags of chips. The other one is "It's not a treat if it's going to make you gain weight and feel gross." You're welcome to use them too if you want!!!


Here's to a healthier me! (I HOPE)