DAY 5

PAIN!!   It's the norm when you have fibromyalgia.  Sometimes, you get a break for a while.  Sometimes, the pain feels like you just came from playing a football game while having the flu.  Sometimes, you feel absolutely fine, and out of nowhere, WHAM!! you get a stabbing pain in between the bones of your knee.  Or ankle, or elbow.   Chronic back pain, muscle spasms, headaches.  All invisible.  So we have to monitor ourselves carefully, so that we can do the things that are most important to us.

We went to church today. It can sometimes be difficult because there is a lot of standing without moving.  My knees don't like that! I was moving pretty slowly, as my meds are fully out of my system, I think.  My lower back pain is creeping in.  I could feel the heaviness of my leg muscles.  As if they were each moving through quicksand.  During church, the Pastor had a great message that can be used in any walks of life.  It was about PRIORITY.  

He said that priority means the #1 thing that is most important.  The word priorities didn't even become a word until the 1900's.  Because there should be only 1 Most Important Thing.  Basically, the advice was: don't worry about many things.  Concern yourself with only few.  Or one.  (paraphrased from the story in Luke 10:38-42).  This story was about Mary making Jesus her first priority.  Be we, as fibro warriors must do this in all aspects of our lives.

Yes, the house must be cleaned, the food cooked, the shopping done, work to get to, bills to be paid.  But we must choose those priorities wisely, when your energy supply is cut in half, or worse with an autoimmune disease.  When things get overwhelming, remember to concern yourself with only one.  The most important one at this moment.  So, slowly but surely this morning, after I got dressed, (no, I didn't make the bed!) I made sure to get my important breakfast.  This diet is a very high priority in my life right now!!

BREAKFAST   Smoothie.  Today, I changed it up.  I added fresh cranberries with my frozen blueberries, half a banana, almond milk, stevia packet, and chia seeds.  YUM!

SNACK  I had been waiting for this all day!!  This was the wonderful cashew butter I discovered at the grocery store yesterday.  I mixed it with some raw honey.  Seriously, I think I could live on this.  

I had been doing some research on breakfast foods that fit the parameters of my diet.  I came up with a muffin recipe (banana ) that used no eggs (chia seed substitute!!), coconut flour, and no sugar!  I had some time and energy, so I whipped up a batch.  Smells good... I hope they taste good too!!

The pain is gone, but I'm still moving a little slow... I'm looking forward to starting taking the supplements that start the bacteria removal process.  Only a few days away!

LUNCH   Today I had a spinach salad with half an avocado, and some sunflower/pumpkin seeds.  I whipped up a homemade dressing.  In a small plastic container, 1 sprinkled some salt, dried italian spices, a small spoon of diced garlic, and 1:1 balsamic vinegar to extra virgin olive oil.  YUM YUM!! That's going into the "use again" category for sure!!

 SNACK  applesauce cup and more seeds.  With my husband.  Now we're both seed addicts!

DINNER   Time to try out the muffins!!  Packed with protein from all the nutty ingredients, I figured dinner was a perfect opportunity to try it out!!  As you can see by the pictures, I changed up the original recipe by poking in some cranberries and blueberries into the little cups.   They were... different!  They had a yummy sweet taste.  But the dough didn't really stick together.  It was quite mushy, actually, so instead of a muffin, it was more like a cobbler.  With fiber.  Lots and lots of grainy fiber.  I took out one of the mush cakes, and served it up with a bowl of ripe cantaloupe.  It made quite a nice pairing!  I think it would be great with a cup of coffee. (which I can't have).