Living la Vida Lupus

Check out www.hersilverlining.blogspot.com , Tiffany is blogging about living la vida lupus too! She has a lot of great information.

Thanks for allowing me to share as I face life with lupus,

Ruby

My test don’t guess project isn’t going as planned, results wise. I am learning some valuable things from the experiment though, so it’s not all bad.  

Doing the unthinkable is my daughter Michelle’s fault. She is a “middle” child. I will have to admit I was shocked when she had the audacity to suggest that I post “progress” photos. I have really been in denial about the fact that I actually needed to lose 40 pounds and this “brat” thinks I should post a photo of myself at my absolute all time heaviest weight. Hold on a second while I take a sip of my Pinot Noir.  

Ok, that’s better, so, I was at a Zumba Toning workshop last year when my photo was taken by another instructor. Did I mention I don’t do “candid” shots? That’s my new policyJ and I am sticking with it!  

　

This year my husband and I went together…we got a boy, nine years old. Shopping with boys is so much different than shopping with girls. We had a great time, ate pizza (not on our food plan), and figured out how to read the chart on a package of boys socks. 

I really love to participate in activities like this because I remember when I needed assistance with my kids. You know it’s funny, but for the most part kids are ambivalent to financial circumstances. The year my kids dad left (after 16 years of marriage), we were in such financial straits. As I think back now I am not sure how we survived. I remember the two youngest having to be in the free lunch program. I had to giggle the other night when I asked our new friend if he had participated in the program the previous year he said “no” that last year his family had been rich. It says a lot about our economy and the resiliency of our youth. 

So, anyway, there was no blogging Monday night. 

Tuesday night I worked on my post, but alas as luck would have it…I couldn’t get the dang pictures uploaded. I had been on such a roll with the pictures too. So about an hour after my bedtime I through up my hands in frustration and there was no blog post that night either. 

Wednesday evening I was preparing for a Personal Training session I had scheduled for Thursday night. I will share more details about that project at a later date. But on Thursday night there was no post because I was working out with two clients! 

Friday night, hey what can I say…it was Friday night. 

That it for updating tonight. I am going to attempt once again to get the photos inserted in last Tuesday’s post so I can share it with you tomorrowJ 

Thanks for allowing me to share as I face life with lupus, 

Ruby

Hey Ya’ll, here’s Sport and me! I’m the one in the Betty Rubble outfitJ I thought I was looking good in the “mirror”, but cameras don’t lie!!! Mick took this photo last Sunday.

Thanks for allowing me to share as I live life with lupus.

Your cells produce more protein while you are asleep, these protein molecules form the building blocks for cells that allow them to repair damage. 

I have a question for you. Do you have “soap box” issues? Me too. Probably at the top of my list is dental hygiene, much to my husband’s chagrin. Second on my list is probably sleep.

Before I dive into my update I would like to acknowledge that I have quite a few “comments” in my spam folder <eyebrows raised>. Not sure if they are really spam or not <sad face>, but Akismet says they are. Anyway, just for giggles I thought I would copy and paste a few in today’s post <big grin>! 

The first one is from Jerome, thanks Jerome.  

Hey, thank you so much for the entertaining post. Wanted to add your RSS feed. However unfortunately it never seem to be working at all for me. Anyone having this difficulty? I’ll come back in a little while to check back. Regardless thanks again for this good read. 

I don’t know if anyone else is having difficulty with the RSS feed or not. Hello??? Anyone out there having this problem, please let me and Jerome know <sheepish grin>. 

Wilson wrote, I hope you will be updating your content constantly as you have one dedicated reader here. 

“High Five”, Wilson, thanks so much for the encouragement.  

John is a real smooth “commenter” is that even a word? He wrote, ha,ha, I think Zumba it’s so fun exercise! 

Yes, John, Zumba is very fun exercise…exercise in disguise…or so I have heard<cupping hand to ear>. 

If anyone other than my family and my friend, Mary, is even reading these ramblings of mine, please bare with me here, two more, then I promise to get to work. 

Timothy wrote, brilliant blog posting, I found your post very interesting, I think you are a brilliant writer. I added your blog to my bookmarks and will return in the future. 

Thanks Timothy…Ruby’s are brilliant…ask any jeweler<blushing>.   

And now for the best comment yet, ta, da, da, da, from Aspergers Syndromes Symptoms, Terrific work! This is the type of information that should be shared around the web. Shame on the search engines for not positioning this post higher! 

Aspergers, that’s what I’m talking about, those dang search engines! 

Ok, enough of that, on to the update. I have to share this tidbit with you. I was listening to a tele-seminar this week and the comment was made that someone had been on a diet plateau for three years. Yes, I spelled that right…three years, forgive me for laughing, but here in Texas that is considered maintenance! Well, with that lead in I have to announce that, yes, I am still maintaining my four pound weight loss. But I am really thinking this next week is going to be different, I am tweaking one of my supplements this week and I expect to see a lower digital reading on my bathroom scale <smile>. 

You know what the best part of this project is? The maturity I have reached in my weight loss efforts. Just a few short years ago, what am I talking about, last year I would have totally thrown in the towel by now. If you don’t get anything else out of following along with this project I hope you get that your weight is only a sliver of who you are. I have spent so many years letting the number on the scale dictate my happiness, my confidence, my sexuality and more I am sure. So, all I have to say today is “don’t throw in the towel, the woman who was on a three year plateau finally broke through it and reached her goal weightJ ”. 

Thanks for following along as I face life with lupus, 

XOXOXOX Ruby 

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZs, Baby!

Now for a conversation near and dear to my heart…sleep. This topic could go on indefinately. Don’t worry we will take baby steps as I am sure many of you are resistant to the value of a good nights sleep.

I am going to start with my sleep history. When my son, James, was born…he was not a good sleeper. The two of us slept on the sofa almost every night until he was four years old. I should also interject that it was around this time that I was diagnosed with Hashimotos, yes, an autoimmune disease. Once James started sleeping through the night I did the same. I was pretty consistant wilh getting seven to eight hours of sleep nightly for about ten years. I firmly believe sleep kept the lupus flares at bay during those years. I had mild flares during that time, but nothing totally debilatating. I did have total paralysis in my left hand for about six months (during a very stressful period), I had some digestive issues, some skin issues, joint issues (was diagnosed with carpal tunnel, wore wrist splints for three years) all these conditions appeared suddenly, ran their course and disappeared. The paralysis was attributed to a “virus” since the neurologist couldn’t find any other reason for it!

So, of special note, when I had the flare that put me in the hospital at which time I was diagnosed with lupus, what major change in my lifestyle preceded this event? I was not getting my usual seven to eight hours of sleep. In fact I was probably getting around five or six, consistantly. This change in my sleep pattern weakened my immune system leaving me totally vulnerable for a major flare. Oh, and if you’re wondering why I wasn’t getting my usual sleep…new relationship…that’s right, cupid’s arrow can make you forget, your diet, exercise, and yes, your zzzzzzzzzzzzzs!

 Sleep helps boost the immune system.

Sleep deprivation can increase inflammation…can you say heart disease, stroke, diabetes, autoimmune disease, obesity, depression, and more.

Sleep deprivation can effect hormones that regulate appetite.

Lets elaborate on this a little, it only takes one night, that’s right, one single night of sleep deprivation to increase levels of ghrelin (the hormone that triggers hunger) and decrease leptin (the hormone that suppresses hunger). Wow, for years I have wondered why the day following a poor nights sleep I craved high-fat, high-calorie foods!

Poor sleep effects your concentration the following day.

Quality sleep will help you remember and process things better.

Sleep also seems important for the formation of memories.

While your body is resting, your brain is busy processing your day, making connections between events, sensory input, feelings and memories.

To be continued….

Yep, that’s life, so, please bare with me on the days that “life” gets in the way of our conversations. You know how guilty you feel when you “cheat” on your diet or exercise plan? That’s how I feel when I don’t meet my “post” goals. And you know what? It’s stressful!

Do you sense the shrillness of my voice?

Stress is the evil culprit of cortisol.

You do know that cortisol has been shown to have negative effects like:

Impaired cognitive performance

Suppressed thyroid function

Blood sugar imbalances such as hyperglycemia

Decreased bone density

Decrease in muscle tissue

Higher blood pressure

Lowered immunity

And inflammatory responses in the body, this is the “short list”, can you believe it?

The only item in the above list I don’t have is “High blood pressure”.

So, taking all this into consideration, I decided to cut myself some slack. Just like feeling guilt ridden for eating off your diet plan isn’t an excuse to ditch the whole diet, missing a “post” goal (or two) isn’t an excuse to throw in the towel and stop conversing with you guys.

Ok, now for my update. I am not defeated, do you hear me, body, I am not defeated!!! Again, nothing to report except that I am on week 5 of my vitamin D and increased Synthroid dosage. Even though most days I am still feeling extreme fatigue I added some exercise this past week. Last Thursday I did on interval of stair climbing. Survived it. High five! So on Friday I decided to go for four intervals. Made it through two intervals. What ever. When I woke up Saturday morning, OMGosh can you say “excruciating pain”? My glutes, calfs, quads, and hamstrings were intent on disabling me. So, what did I do to alleviate my pain? I went dancing, two step, polka, west coast swing, and waltz. How did that work for me? Sunday was “EXCRUCIATING”!

Well, I can report some good news…my clothes are getting looser…how can that be when the scale is stuck? Who cares? I say “don’t look a gift horse in the mouth”, what ever that means. Maybe I should Google that …

Thanks for spending your time with me,

Ruby

Facing life with lupus

Whatever! Do you have trouble losing weight? Most autoimmune patients do. And if you are currently on medication, don’t throw in the towel, be patient with yourself. Do you stick to your program faithfully with slow to minimal results? My weight loss is coming in small drops, plateau, small drop, plateau, but I am not complaining because for over a year I was not seeing any weight loss at all no matter what I did. At least now I am going in the right directions. My quest for better health and weight loss is a science project. Funny, I didn’t like science in school and now I find it quite fascinating.

I am a life time Weight Watcher’s (WW) member, but I am not following the WW program. Please don’t think this conversation is in any way negative towards WW, this is simply my personal experience with weight loss. WW is not the only weight loss plan I have tried over the years. I will address others in future conversations. I will start by stating that I love the WW program and have many friends who have been successful on the plan. Hello, I said I am a life time member! So what happened between my body and the WW program? I crashed and burned on the Points system and the concept that I could eat any food as long as I ate within my points allowance. I did really well on the Core Program, but “points”, hay caramba! I just couldn’t make it work for me <sad face>.

Currently I am not counting calories, fat grams, sugar grams, points, nada. I eat well balanced meals designed to nourish my body and sustain me from one meal to the next without the need for “snacks” between meals. I follow a food plan designed to decrease inflammation in my body. In recent years, the effects of diet and lifestyle in autoimmune disease have been studied intensively. Regardless of the cause, certain diets, particularly those based on foods with a low glycemic index, are known to reduce inflammation and help prevent flares in patients with lupus and related conditions. Studies also show that certain lifestyle factors cause flares.

Ruby

Facing life with lupus

It’s easier to tell when you have both views to look at <smile>. What do you think?

Perhaps you don’t have a pet…what brings joy to your life? I am a joy-holic, my pets, bubble baths, suduko, snuggling with my honey, nothing like near death experiences to open your eyes to joy. Don’t wait until you have one to stop and smell the roses, my friends.

XOXOXOXO Thanks for allowing me to share,

Ruby

Facing life with lupus