TOS update - Exercise, Diet and Supplements...oh my!

Lately my TOS pain (nerve pull, sharp, aching, throbbing, a little twitchy, from base of my neck, down arm into hand, up neck into head) comes on sporadically, aggrivated by driving-especially when it's windy, or if I've had bad prolonged sitting posture (head forward).
The jaw/neck/head pain that I believe is partly a result of having anterior scalene muscle removed when my first rib was resected...that pain was better several weeks ago, but its been ramping back up lately. I think the cold weather is partly to blame. And I still feel like I want a kick-stand for my head by the end of most days because my head feels heavy, weaker, and unsupported on the resected side. I actually do prop my head up with my hand sometimes.

I'm down to p.t. every two weeks, for a few more visits, then I'm on my own for a bit. I'm curious to see how that is going to be. I'm hoping I can stay motivated to keep at it through the fall/winter seasons when all I really want to do is hunker down, read, or hybernate.

Here are couple new p.t. exercises I've been given to work on at home-

1. Roll exercise ball up wall with forearms, 20-40x
I don't roll up quite as high as pictured. When I first started doing this TOS symptoms started kicking in around 6 reps. After a couple weeks of doing this, I don't feel the heavy-tingly-arm ache until about 15 - 20 reps.

2. Push meduim size rubber ball against wall with back of head, turn slightly right and left while pushing.(center pic)

I've been walking 2-4 miles most every day, even on flareup days. I figure I'm going to have pain if I sit on the couch or if I go for a walk, and I've found I sometimes have less TOS pain after walking(sometimes more). I'm even ready for winter with a manual treadmill.

My diet remains pretty simple, and I DO believe losing weight and cutting sugar is helping reduce my pain levels tremendously! I  just eat real, whole foods, nothing artificial, no white flour or sugar, lots of water and green tea, and a handful of anti-inflammitory supplements morning and night.
Morning: Vit D, Vit C, Fish Oil, Tumeric, B complex, CoQ10.
Night: Magnesium Glycinate, Mag citrate/aspartate/maleate, Calcium citrate.

Other things that I've found helpful in alleviating some of my TOS pain- setting a few goals, volunteering for an organization weekly, helping others, continuing to challenge negative thinking and replace it with more positive and encouraging thoughts, getting involved in a suportive community/regular group meeting, attention to my relaxing/sitting posture, asking for what I need.

Things I am considering; injections of some sort into the back of my head/neck/upper trap on one side, and acupuncture. I looked into CBD oil, if it were not so expensive I'd give that a try. I am glad to be off all prescription meds currently, even ibuprophen. However, the pain ramps up to 'terrible' status 1-2x week, and it is moderately painful for several hours a few more days each week.

I do have some days virtually pain-free, but I'm still having enough pain that I'm wondering about going back to some type of medication. I need to be able to function and live and it's still hard for me to plan to do too much.
I sat for 1 hour for a college aptitude test recently, and half way through I was hurting and wondering how I could ever sit through a 2-3 hour class 2x week?! But I'm still signed up for Winter 2015...I won't know unless I try, right?!

So thats the current state of TOS in my life. I keep doing what I think may help, and stay open to any new ideas.

My fellow TOSers- Don't hang in there...and Gentle hugs~

Another Day in my life with TOS

I roll out of bed and my first thought is about the list of exercises I have to get through before I can do anything else today.
The exercises take about 15-20 min, twice a day, every day.
I look around for the piece of rubber tube p.t. gave me for the jaw exercises.
The list of exercises is on my cell phone...where the hec did I put it?!

Welcome to my new normal.

I mentioned my dog in the last Day in my TOS life post.
My sons family moved  from out of state to live with us for a while. They settled closeby and unfortunately the grandkids are allergic to dogs. So now I have six chickens to let out and feed and water (and talk to) every morning.
Then it's time for green tea and breakfast.
I'm loving eating cleaner, feeling a lot lighter and way less achy than I felt a few months ago.
Todays breakfast: two poached eggs (farmers market, free-range) on a plate of cooked chopped spinach, one slice of Ezekiel bread toast, with real butter. Also a glass of water.  Yesterday, breakfast was a smoothie of fruit, ground flax, almond milk, protein powder.

I have errands to run, so I put a citrus green tea bag in a 64 oz. water bottle and fill it up to take with me.
I stick keys in front pocket, phone and wallet in back pockets, shove purse with emergency meds and a snack for lunch  (apple, Larabar) under car seat and I'm on my way.
As I drive, I notice I can reach to push the button to change the radio station without a zap going down my arm. Those nerve glides must be working.

I'm trying to stop the habit of always bending my arm up, curling my hand in to avoid nerve pain when I walk. I remind myself of this as I walk several blocks. I notice that it's ok today.  I'm walking normally, not pushing on the back of my head or neck, not curling up my arm, just plain ol' walking.
That's pretty exciting for this TOSer.

As I drive home, neck pain is starting to kick in a bit, up into my ear. I tilt my head toward the ear that hurts and turn up the volume on the radio for distraction. Once I get back home, my priority is heat for my neck to help relax the muscles that are overworked and causing the knife in my ear to dig in. Breathe, sit. I can unload the car in a few minutes.
I used to pop 800 mg ibuprofen out of habit when this sort of pain cropped up. But it really does nothing for the nervy pain, and I've realised over the last few months that so much of my pain is related to muscle tension and spasm. If the pain does not let up enough to be bearable, I'll slap on a lidocaine patch or rub on some prescription compounded pain cream, and drink some more water. Then it's time for dinner, which has been super easy since we got a grill (meat, veggies-done). In fact, my daughter who has TOS and I put the grill together...took us three hours. Picture it- Two TOSers put together an 87 piece Grill. Fun times.

I take veggie scraps out to the chickens. I pull some weeds on my way back to the house, which leads to being in the garden pulling more weeds and picking green beans; which I carry in the front of my folded-up tshirt since I wound up in the garden unprepared for picking, as usual. Arms throb a bit from the weed pulling.

The grandkids are over for a couple hours. The 18-month old runs in and immediately holds his arms up and grunts for me to pick him up. The kid loves his food. I bet he weights 30 lbs. I can never resist that sweet face. I pay for picking him up, every time- with a knife in my shoulderblade that aches down my arm as the night goes on. But I can not allow TOS to take picking up my grandkids away from me. I try to be as careful about it as I can, lift with my legs, but after years of limited activity and restricted lifting it's going to take a while yet to gain strength, one day at a time.

It's evening, time for pills. Just supplements now-magnesium, vitamin d, fish oil, tumeric, B complex. I have been off all prescription meds four months now, and while I will fight to stay that way, some days I'd love to give in and pop a vicodin or something for the pain. Then I remember the side effects and decide to rub on some lavender essential oil and magnesium lotion and re-heat my heating pad for my neck in the microwave.
Time for a snack and more water. A square of dark chocolate, or ice cream made with just frozen bananas, or popcorn with olive oil, sea salt, and nutritional yeast flakes (It's kinda cheesy tasting. Don't knock it til you try it).

I watched a tv show and now its 11:00 pm and shoot, I'm SO tired, but I haven't done my second set of p.t. exercises. So I take a cleansing breath and just start doing them. I start squeezing my shoulder blades and counting, turning my head, gliding my arms, tuck my chin(s), do the ten other things on the list, then fall into bed feeling right with myself for sticking to the plan. Good job me.

I still get breakthrough TOS pain, and the challenge on those days is in my mind. I have to stick to the plan and not let the pain suck me back down and hold me there in it's grip. It sure can be a tough to tell my mind to shutup and choose to focus on things that will build me up. So tough.
Sometimes my mind and the pain work overtime on me and the tears flow.

In those moments, I choose to remember an inspirational quote, "Tears are like a river, they flow through you, to cleanse you, and to carry you someplace new."
So I take a breath, let it out.

I look forward to seeing more new places.

Gentle hugs~

TOS Diet days 28, 29, 30-Final

I got a copy of my medical records from when I had rib resection last week. 

The first thing I noted was that I was, at the time of surgery-almost five years ago, 37 lbs lighter than I am now.

I began the TOS Diet journey using a few different materials as inspiration. One is the book Diet for a Pain Free Life.

The main point of the book is excess weight leads to increased inflammation and thereby increased pain.

There are recommendations in the book I disagree with, such as: using sugar substitutes, moderate soy consumption. I do agree that excess weight may be a contributing factor, one of many, in my own pain cycle.

The smoothies will always be part of my diet. Gas and bloating can be an issue at times, but the absorbable nutrients can't be beat.

Much of my struggle with My TOS Diet was regarding coffee consumption.  You will probably not be surprised to know I am back to my daily one large cup of caffeinated coffee. 

I continue to cut out refined foods, sugar, white carbs. 

Having said all that, it seems to me nerve pain does not care what I eat. I have low pain days and bad pain flareup days, even when I've been virtually perfect in my anti-inflammatory diet.

And for me, when pain gets reeeeally bad, I want to self-soothe with food so much! A cookie or three, a vanilla shake, some dark chocolate. After all, I deserve some happiness in life with all I have to endure-right?!

So I apologize if my TOS Diet wrap up is a bit of a let-down. I'm disappointed too.  I was hoping for more of a wondrous change. I still think diet does play a part in pain issues, and I'll keep at it as best I can.

Gentle hugs to all my fellow TOSers~

TOS Diet days 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27

I consider My TOS Diet to be one piece of the puzzle in trying to control my TOS pain symptoms.
Some of the other pieces are: posture, managing stress, staying active, supplements, attitude and thought patterns, and all the small daily choices to adpat my life around TOS.
SO far on My TOS Diet, I'm finding that cutting out refined food, junk, carbs, and simply replacing them with whole foods to be somewhat helpful in reducing my pain issues. I continue to struggle with missing the upper affect from the serotonin dump I get when I eat a donut or something sugary. I have noticed less arm achiness, and overall feeling a little more stable, not swinging from one carb load to the next.

Breakfasts have consisted of Buckwheat pancakes, real butter, real syrup, banana...or Ezekiel Raisin toast with butter, Whole grain cereal with nut milk, eggs and whole grain toast, eggs and cooked chopped spinach with olive oil, coconut flavored green tea, plain organic tea, decaf black tea, and the last few mornings-decaf coffee...this morning-half caff coffee. Am I sliding back into coffee consumption? I have in the past, so possibly. I will try to hold out. I do feel less acidic without it, but my inner coffee addict gets just so pissy without that one cup-o-joe.

Lunch has been alot of leftovers, a veggie subway sandwich one day, but mostly leftovers.

Snacks lately have been: banana, applesauce cups/unsweetened, cucumber slices with hummus, mozzarella cheese stick, toast, grapes, mini oranges, nuts. I've let myself eat whenever I want as long as the food is whole, and not processed junk. So no weight loss, in fact I've gained a couple pounds the last two weeks. But then it is terribly cold and snowy and  hard to do very much besides try to stay warm... and eat.

Dinner has been beef meatloaf without the bread crumbs, brown rice with butter and veggies... Creamed cauliflower with ground beef and mixed veg(no corn) over brown rice or whole grain pasta topped with parm cheese...baked chicken, sweet potaoes, green beans...chicken stirfry-no msg, Bragg liquid aminoes instead of soy sauce...and last night we got regular old pizza because I needed a break from trying to figure out what to cook. I only had one piece, with a vanilla shake I made: vanilla nut milk, ice, blend.

As I near the one month mark, I've decided to continue to keep junk and refined foods and sugars out of my diet as much as possible, and continue sticking with whole foods.
I have a half full jar of Gin-soaked raisins on my counter I have no idea what to do with because I cannot bring myself to gag them down anymore.
The smoothies are always on my go-to list for something filing and healthy. I made a carrot cake smoothie that was delish the other day: carrots, apple, pineapple, walnuts, coconut shreds, nutmilk, cinnamon, nutmeg to taste, blend and drink-tasted like carrot cake!

One more TOS Diet update to go...gentle hugs~

TOS Diet days 19, 20, 21

It's been three weeks!
The cravings are hitting full-force.
I'm stuffing banana cookies in my face but they are not meeting the need.
I'm just being honest.

I have stuck to eating clean...until yesterday.
We had Pasties...I really needed a break from cooking, so we threw caution to the wind with these Michigan meal-in-a-pie turnovers smothered in gravy.

I have to be honest here and say that I am in the process of seeking another opinion about my TOS symptoms that have returned. I've had pain more often than not lately, and when I'm in pain I get to feeling depressive and seriously desire to medicate with foods that are serotonin (the feel good hormone) enhancers...carbs.  I even spent some time looking up healthy whole grain donut recipes, thinking that might help me to stay on the wagon, having a healthy substitute.
So far, it's just making me really want an apple fritter and cup of coffee, and feel sad because I can't.

I stopped the gin soaked golden raisins, choking them down just added insult to injury every day.

Every time I feel tempted to quit, I think of my fellow TOSers and decide I can hang in there a while longer.
I do think cutting the sugar and refined stuff may be helping, its just so depressing I'm not sure if it's do-able for the long haul?

That's the scoop. Gentle hugs ~

TOS Diet days 16, 17, 18

Not an hour after I posted my last update, my arms were aching, neck hurt - and here I just told you all I was feeling pretty good.  Then my husband walked by and took my picture-- Busted.

Just look at how I am sitting, horrible! I always start out propped up, sitting straight, but before long this is how I always wind up, trying to get at eye level with the laptop.

One thing is for sure, all the diet in the world will not remedy TOS pain made worse by poor posture and bad ergonomics. 

 I've tried a few things lately to get things up at eye level, and be gentle on the arms. Sitting like that usually last about 10 minutes before I desperately want to slouch again. 

I have been craving carbs like crazy, so I made these banana cookies and was really happy with them. They will be a staple around here now, maybe with a little peanut butter added.

My kids came home with Jets pizza the other night and I had to go lock myself in the bedroom to keep from getting into it. I tried making healthier pizza for lunch using Ezekiel bread-toasted, for the crust, sauce, toppings, nuked for 30 sec-voila! Pizza, right?! Wrong. It tasted like sprouted bread with pizza toppings. Eh.

I have been a good little doobie and not eaten anything that promotes inflammation, no junk, no coffee- sniff. And I've been feeling pretty good. Achy, but the strange Midwest weather is to blame for that.  As long as I can refrain from picking up my grand kids so much (so hard not to) or slouching when I sit, hopefully the pain level will stay calm.

But then with TOS, I never know from one minute to the next how I will be feeling.

Gentle hugs~

My TOS Diet days 12, 13, 14, 15

It is time for a TOS symptom update.

When I began this diet, I was having a lot of TOS pain, so much that my doctor prescribed Gabapentin to see if it would help. I also got a very expensive tube of compounded cream to rub on. 

That was fifteen days ago. I've not started the prescription yet, and the cream is use as needed. Because it is so expensive, I've only used it once so far.

I have noticed that I have not had the usual headaches, and the light throbbing I've become accustomed to in my neck, and arms is very reduced...I barely notice it at all. I've only needed ibuprofen twice in the last few days-another good sign. I think possibly cutting out sugar and refined foods, coffee, and eating only foods considered anti-inflammatory is helping, enough that I am motivated to continue walking by my favorite donuts at the grocery store...and that is saying a lot.

Most mornings I have two cups of green tea, sprouted grain toast, eggs, or whole grain cereal and almond milk, and a glass of water.

Lunch is usually a smoothie, lots of fruit, greens, ground flax. More decaf tea in the afternoon.

Dinner has been challenging, making food that is tasty and anti inflammatory.

Recently we've had:* baked chicken with pesto and cheese on top, brown rice, green beans.

*Turkey meatloaf, spinach tomato salad, sweet potatoes.  

I made banana icecream in the blender couple nights ago, so yummy..the grand kids loved it.

I'm also hanging in there with the gin soaked golden raisins, eight of them every night, on a teaspoon. I take them all at once, chew fast, gag, drink water. My tongue feels tingly after...I'm giving it another week. If the pain gets worse when I stop taking them, I guess then I'll know it was helping.

Today's lunch, pizza on sprouted grain tortilla, two of them. 

That's the diet scoop on day 15.

Gentle hugs~

My TOS Diet days 9, 10 and 11

For the coffee quitting progress, day nine, I had one cup of half caff in the morning, some green tea during the day, and more water. Day 10, just green tea in the morning, a cup of black tea in the afternoon-but no coffee. Day eleven is the same, green tea only so far, and more water. Feeling tired, but I believe that will pass and I hope to be more clear, less headachey, and feel better overall. I'm trying out these organic green teas I found at my local health food store, also Stinging Nettle Tea, which I've read improves inflammation. So far, they all taste like grass water to me. I also drink Lipton citrus green tea, but hope to find a better choice that is organic, less chance of pesticides.

I've pretty much de-junked the cupboards of foods not on my tos diet, so when I get to feeling the itch to snack, I open the cupboard door and there are the nuts, almond butter, exekiel bread, unsweetened applesauce cups, dates, triscuits, almond milk and unsweetened whole grain cereals, raisins, natural dried fruit. Bananas and oranges on the counter.

When I open the fridge, I see apples-malic acid in apples is supposed to reduce inflammation. Also I see almond milk-I blend it fresh in my blender, but you can find it packaged with minimal additives and sugar.

Lots of veggies in there too. I found a mini-food processor at the thrift store and it has been just great to use that to chop stuff, saves my aching arms for sure!

I've continued the smoothies, but backed off from one quart to half that, or more if I want. The bloating is much improved. Pictured here is My TOS Army Green Smoothie: red grapes, spinach, flax, avocado, apple, pineapple juice.

Two nights ago supper was bakes chicken thighs, sweet potaotes and green beans-frozen. Last night supper was chopped salad, my own dressing made with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, raw honey, salt, pepper. Also salmon patties made with 4 eggs, 2 cans salmon, chopped onion and celery, fried in olive oil, salt n pepper. Delish.  

I also made a totally anti-inflammation legal fruit crisp. Ingredients: Mixed fruit/3 chopped apples, 1 can slices peaches(in real juice, drained), 1 cup mixed frozen berries-in a 8x8 baking pan. Topping: 3/4 c. gluten free organic oats ground into flour, 1 c unsweetened coconut shreds, 1 c chopped nuts-walnuts, pecans, 1/2 stick real butter. Drizzle fruit with raw honey or sprinkle coconut sugar, mix topping ingredients together, sprinkle topping over fruit, bake uncovered 350 30-45 min. Yum!

Breakfast has been tea, Ezekiel bread toast, or Ezekiel sprouted grain cereal, or whole wheat squares cereal with raw honey and unsweetened almond milk. That, or eggs and toast, usually a banana too.

I'm including a picture of the chocolate I indulge in every night. Two squares, ok, sometimes four, but it has to be at least 70% dark chocolate for it to be considered anti-inflammitory, according to The Diet for a Pain Free Life book.

Which is fine by me because dark chocolate is awesome.

 Today's smoothie is My TOS pineapple enzyme anti-inflam shake: Fresh or frozen pineapple-not canned. Almond milk, raw honey, ground flax, apple, banana, orange.  For those of you who do not have a high powered blender, I started making smoothies with an inexpensive 'Bullet' blender years ago, so it can be done. Investing in a good blender has been a smart choice though and I highly recommend it.  Thats the tos diet update. Gentle hugs~

 

My TOS Diet days 4, 5 & 6

I've stuck to eating only anti-inflammitory foods the last three days, even though its been a stressful few days with increased TOS pain. I have to fight the urge to treat myself to something sugary when the pain ramps up. I think maybe I'm past the worst of the sugar cravings now at day 6.

It has become even more important to me in the last couple days that this diet work and reduce inflammation and symptoms. So I'm giving it my best shot.

I've talked with a fellow TOSer from the facebook support group who has had success in reducing her TOS symptoms using The Gaps diet. I am very familiar with The Gaps diet because I've witnessed my two year old grandson transform from a little boy covered with eczema to having to clear healthy skin by switching to it recently.  So I've decided to incorporate elements of Gaps diet along with The Green Smoothies Diet, and The Diet for a Pain Free Life.

I made some raw cookies today. Ingredients: dates, vanilla, walnuts, 1/3 cup almond pulp-leftover from making plain almond milk-unsweetened shredded coconut. Pulsed all together
in my Blendtec blender, refrigerate, roll little balls, flattened, dredge in raw cacao powder mixed with coconut sugar, kept in fridge. Sweet and yummy.

I also made kale chips. Tear washed Kale into bite size pieces, fill big bowl, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle sea salt and nutritional yeast flakes, layer in dehydrator of on cookie sheet in oven on lowest setting for about 10 minutes. Delicious!

It is true that this is pretty health-nut type food. I grew up with health nut parents who sold specialty supplements. My mother made things like whole wheat carob chip cookies for our school lunches. I only got away with trading my cookies for a twinkie or hoho with an unsuspecting kid twice before word got around that my cookies looked good but tasted terrible!

I'm trying to make this way of eating doable for the long term, so I'm using sources as affordable as I can find. I order some things online, glean from clearance racks of my local health food stores, buy frozen produce or off the mark-down rack. I LOVE discounted brown spotted bananas!! Here's why...I peel and break them into pieces, throw in freezer, then at night I put the bananas in my blender with a splash of coconut or almond milk, some vanilla and make dairy free banana icecream :) I add cocoa or peanut butter sometimes too, very healthy and delicious.

So the next couple days I'll keep working on sticking to just one cup of regular morning coffee, and making that cup smaller each day, trying to switch to green tea alone. Also, I will stick to only eating foods that do not promote inflammation. I really hope this works. I know it will take some time, I'll try to be patient.
Gentle hugs~

TOS Diet- Days 1 and 2

 Day 1-
I'm weaning down off my regular large cup of strong coffee, in small increments.
Today I had a small cup of regular coffee, and then green tea after that during the day. Green tea is anti-inflam, and I do like it, so I'm making the switch.

I won't bore you with every tiny detail of what I'm eating, but I am writing it all down.
Had a quart of smoothie today. For dinner I poached some chicken in water, then added herbs to season and boiled a bag of frozen cauliflower then blended it up with a little salt and olive oil, was very smooth and yummy.
After dinner, I was VERY bloated. Need Gas-Ex.
Still feeling affects of last weeks nerve pain flareup in my neck and upper back, but arm is better, pain level 1-2 unless I fold laundry or try to shovel snow off the steps-then I'm throbbing.

Day 2-
Feeling good, pain started out at a 1-but it was a lazy, snowed-in day. Doing a lot of reading.
No coffee this morning, just caffeinated green tea with my Ezekiel Bread raisin toast.
The coffee withdrawal headache hit me about 3pm. I had some decaf coffee and it made the headache worse.
Had another quart of smoothie today.
I've had the munchies today. I am telling myself I can have anything I want as long as it is anti-inflammatory foods, so I had a few squares of 72% dark chocolate(approved in The Diet for a Pain Free Life book). After eating it I felt a little sick. Maybe green smoothie and chocolate does not mix so well?

Trying to drink more water. I'm going to get out an old Gatorade bottle and fill it daily as my water goal. That's 32 oz, an improvement for me. I hate to make myself drink water when I'm not feeling thirsty, makes me gaggy. I'll try adding cucumber or fruit to it-no sweetener though.
Day is winding down now, pains at a 2-3, which happens most days-gets worse as I go through the day.

Found this article about eating anti-inflam foods on Pinterest, a great article to read, leaves me feeling hopeful anyway.
http://tonetiki.com/2013/05/21/cure-your-nerve-pain-with-food/

Gentle hugs~

My TOS Diet Plan ~ Pre-diet

The last few days I've been gearing up to start the diet.
I have used The Green Smoothies Diet for a couple years, love it.
I just finished reading The Diet for a Pain Free Life yesterday afternoon. Overall, good information. I don't agree with a couple things, like using sugar substitutes-I believe fake chemicals have to be irritating and inflammation causing, so I will be using raw honey instead.
I believe in the healing properties of raw honey. My husband had a bad burn and I applied raw honey because I read an article in Mother Earth News that honey heals burns--and the next day the burn was gone!

As I mentioned, I will be gleaning from these books, not necessarily following every word. I'm also trying a few tips I've gleaned off Pinterest for my anti pain & inflammation diet.
I'm throwing it all together to make My TOS Diet.

First order of business in putting together my diet plan was to decide if I should stop my morning habit of one cup of strong coffee. (That's my sister and her family on the mug). I posted this question to my TOS facebook friends, and with their comments in mind, (and my bowel dependency) I've decided to go with caffeinated green tea in the morning (for the bowels), and decaf/herbal tea in the afternoons, with decaf coffee as an occasional treat. I won't know if cutting coffee helps unless I try, right?!

I made a blender full of smoothie with pain-reducing fruits: blueberries, ground flax seed, spinach, raw honey, apple, orange, strawberries. It made 4 pints, I've had one per day, gearing up for my one quart per day smoothie...or one large salad. Gotta get those anti-inflammatory greens in! I prefer smoothies because all the chopping for salads can be flare-inducing.

Next thing was to go grocery shopping. Not a small task in the crummy Midwest snowy weather we're having here. But my husband drove, and pushed the cart, and I pushed on the back of my head...seriously.
I was having a nerve pain flare, up my neck into back of my head. So I walked around the store pushing on the back of my head feeling really odd.
We loaded up on anti-inflammatory foods: nuts, fresh, frozen, non-sugar/salt canned fruits and veggies, fish, dark chocolate, ginger.  We walked right by the aisle with the chips, pop, cookies.
We're going to use Ezekiel bread- sprouted whole grain super healthy (& expensive! I need to learn to make it). And yes, I said we. The hubs decided he wants to do this with me to see if he can loose a few pounds.

I read that Gin-soaked golden raisins help with inflammatory pain, so I got supplies for that experiment.
I guess they're supposed to soak for a week or two before you eat the recommended 8-10 raisins per day.

Tomorrow's the big first day. We just had cheeseburgers for lunch, a last hurrah.
I pointed out we can still have burgers on the anti-inflammation diet, salmon or turkey, on whole wheat.
Which reminds me, The Diet for a Pain Free Life cuts out beef and pork because it purports those meats cause inflammatory response, so we will be cutting that out. However, we will be eating all-natural, lean, local venison. A tweak in the diet that may not work for everyone.

One final thing today- I'm an average size lady, I was up twenty pounds a year ago and could stand to loose another 10-15, but I have zero aspirations of 'skinny' or single digit clothing sizes. Zero. This is not a weight-loss diet for me. Being healthy and free of pain is my only goal, and if I happen to loose a couple pounds, then ok, but if I don't loose weight yet feel less pain-well then hallelujah! (I will say, not carrying the 20 lbs I lost last year has been helpful.)

So I will try to report every other day on how things are going.
Interesting time to be starting this diet, being in the middle of another unexpected nerve pain flareup.

I love to eat cookies or chocolate to self-soothe when I'm really hurting.
I will have to eat grapes and walnuts instead. Drink more water.
I sure hope this diet helps.