Tapering and More Food

I tapered yesterday because today is going to be a bit busy and I wanted to be through the worst of it. Went down to 7.5mg of hydrocortisone. It was okay. I had some issued with weakness and fatigue and lack of appetite, but it passed. I was able to go for a walk and did a slooooow elliptical workout for about 20 agonizing minutes.

In my new office.

Yes. New. Office. Mine.

See, house guest 2 left and, since I do produce income with writing, I feel justified taking a room over for myself. And I put our ancient elliptical in here with me so I can combine writing and exercise (assuming I have the energy for it) because sitting is so damn bad for you.

The toddler's new playroom is in the basement. Where I'll probably end up writing since it's cooler down there. I want to be cheap and not run the a/c during the day this summer. (We'll see how long I can suck the heat up.)

Here are some food pics. I'm going through a food phase. Are you shocked to hear that?

Dinner last night was a huge indulgence. One of my favorite meals. Steak. Salad. Broccoli and fresh berries.

The salad was an apple-pecan-bleu cheese medley with a homemade balsamic dressing.



A few days ago, the strawberries looked so luscious I decided to make love to them with chocolate.


And...here's a bit of a food flop. Gluten-free high protein gnocchi. They were yummy, but the first batch disintegrated in the water. I baked the rest and that was our lunch.


Now for those keeping track of my GERD (which I hope not because that's probably weird), tomatoes are a problem for me. I tried it without Nexium, but I got slammed with stomach acid and had to take some before acid started squirting out of my mouth every time I talked. Gah. What an awful feeling. Dislike!

10mg Dance Party

Tried 5mg on Wed and it wasn't enough. It hit me better than it did on Monday, but I was still somewhat sleepy with lots of limb heaviness. Took a while for the second 5mg to hit my system, but, once it did, all was right with my physiology.

Almost. Still a teeny bit of limb weakness, but nothing that could stop me.

I lived the dream.

I vacuumed!

I dusted!

I argued with the steam cleaner and gave up!

I sat and just gloried in the feeling of well-being as opposed to that of death warmed over. OMG. I felt fabulous. Like I had woken from the dead.

Then I put on some music and did the bare minimum of squats and push-ups, something I've managed to do, by some miracle, every 2 to 3 days while sick. I am pleased because this was one of my goals--not to give up on fitness even when I'm sick. It wasn't easy, but I did it and I suspect the only reason I managed it at all was because of the IV nutrition therapy.

Of course Wed was easy due to 10mg. With steroids, my life is possible. I hate that it's true, but it is. I don't know how to get past this, how to help my body move forward. It seems impossible.

I also saw my shin bones on Wed for the first time in...months? The shin bone sighting (the Yeti of my body!) made realize I kind of have edema at some level all the time now. I have mentioned it before to my pulmo because they ask, but they don't seem to see it, which means, of course, that I'm a lying liar who lies, right? So it's been dismissed. However it's progressing and I need to advocate more strongly.

As far as I know, my heart is okay. I had an EKG at the ER and it wasn't exciting for anyone. Well, except for me as I'm rather fascinated by the texture of the adhesive on the patches. I also peel rubber glue off magazine offers. Now you've met your TMI quota for the day. You're welcome.

Wed was also the toddler's award ceremony and party for Tae Kwon Do. Thanks to steroids, I was able to make a cake. Gluten free, high protein, packed with fiber and very low sugar. It's delicious despite being so healthy. Slowly, but surely my baking talents are transferring over to a whole new approach to food. ('Course I can't eat it, what,with chocolate triggering massive heartburn and all. Sigh.)

Click this pic to enlarge and then tell me you don't want a piece. I dare you. The kids were scraping the crumbs off the plate and I got requests for the recipe. High fiber, high protein low sugar cake y'all, it's really that good.

Outspoken

I can't stand the commercials for crap food anymore. Especially the ones that act like fruit juice* is a health food or pretend that Raisin Bran is a whole food. As if they don't have a butt load of sugar. Or aren't highly processed, stripped of nutrients along the way.

So at the end of every commercial pushing juice, candy, chips, pop, I add, like an announcer, "Plus, when consumed as a primary part of your so-called 'healthy diet' it will give you diabetes, heart disease and increase your risk of cancer."

I did it in the movie theater last week and I did not care who heard me.

Thankfully, the hubby is tolerant enough to still associate with me in public despite my outbursts.

As for Raisin Bran (and cereal in general), I have been participating in a government/university extension food education program put on by a local parenting group.

They all know I'm a nutritional emo goth so were not surprised when I pointed out to the nutritionist that a serving of bacon has less sodium than a serving of Raisin Bran.

"Bacon has too much fat," she said to me rather smugly.

"Well, I've read the current thinking is that science hasn't found a link between heart disease and fat," was my response.

And she did not know what to say to that. Other than to take away all the food labels she'd passed out before I found something else to nitpick.

When I told her we don't buy cereal because we consider it to all be poison, her head exploded.

Truth be told, I'm not trying to make anyone's head explode. However, nutritionists that think cereal is a good thing to eat do not pass muster with me. Cereal is highly processed crap with a lot of sugar. Even the advertised 'high protein' or 'flax' cereals are way too high in carbs to be healthy.

The same goes for yogurt. Yoplait, Dannon, Trix, all the commercial yogurt brands have as much sugar as pop. Compare the nutrition labels sometime. So when I hear an expert telling people to eat more yogurt and acting like Yoplait is a good option, my head explodes**.

(By the way mainstream media is starting to dog yogurt. I've seen print articles pointing out how much sugar name brand yogurts contain.)

I do have 2 nutritionists in my family. One gets it, can see the gaps in their education and we actually have some great conversations about food. The other is lost in low fat everything-in-moderation land, confuses ketosis with ketoacidosis and runs away when the topic of nutrition comes up. Most nutritionists seem to take after the latter as opposed to the former. In my experience anyway.

Sure, I don't have a degree, but I've read thousands of pages of text and studies at this point. Enough to have a well informed, well researched opinion. Something I can't say for most of the professionals out there giving nutrition advice.

Until we get real about food, we aren't going to make a dent in the diabesity epidemic.

*Full disclosure. The toddler gets 2oz of juice mixed with water a day. After that it's lemon/lime water or plain iced tea or sugar free popsicles.

Yes, I would like to skip the juice entirely, but she screams for hours about it. Easier to just use the juice like a water colorant so she thinks she's getting something.

No, I'm not thrilled about the artificial sweeteners in the popsicles for her, but she eschews the reduced sugar ones.

**Is anyone wondering what the heck the toddler eats for breakfast? Eggs (sometimes with bacon!) or organic Greek yogurt. Sometimes plain, sweetened with fresh fruit or reduced sugar jam. On the side, she gets an almond cookie (protein!) or fresh fruit or, if I haven't baked, the best quality granola bar I can find.

(I have made homemade yogurt and we think it's delicious, but the toddler hates it for some reason so I don't bother with it.)

This Is Not a Food Blog But....

I am sooooooo zonked right now on 5mg. I went to the grocery store yesterday and wanted to lay down...in the aisle. This will pass. For some reason dropping to 5mg always hurts. Hopefully yesterday was the last yucky day.

I don't really care how tired I am because I am just happy, happy joy, joy to have been up for anything other than my previous vegetative state. So...here are the fruits of my labor from the holiday weekend.

First up, roasted cranberries with orange zest and a little Splenda. Great with turkey.








But also good in a winter fruit salad. Lots of fruits are low carb such as any kind of berry or grapefruit and some have a few more carbs, but not too many like apples and pears. Then there are fruits like oranges which you want to avoid or use sparingly. All these fruits made their way into the salad, which was delish...in small portions.












Homemade green bean casserole which has been 'low carbified'. Also added chicken to make it a one-stop meal.











Scrambled eggs and pepper poppers stuffed with cream cheese for breakfast. A great way to avoid over eating on a holiday is to have a hale and hearty breakfast.

Yes you can eat that many calories and that much fat and still lose weight. That is what is great about low carb. Also, if you are recoiling in horror at the fat, I just want to point out there is a whole other world of science out there that thinks fat is not the devil. Low fat is mainstream nutritional advice, but not the only school of thought.


Pumpkin cranberry muffins made with almond flour and ground flax. Low carb and convenient for breakfast on the run during the week.









Lemon crackle top cookies. Full 'o sugar. Taste like summer; bright and cheerful with a crisp sugar crust. I take them to the family get togethers and leave the uneaten ones behind.







Molasses crackle top cookies. Another sugar bomb. These are what you eat if you want Christmas to actually run in your veins. They smell and taste like Happy Holidays.

These were not as photogenic as previous batches, but no one cared. People filched these by the handful and and hoarded them for later. Weird, yes, but people in my family really really really like these cookies. Some so much that all I have to do for their Christmas gift is box up a dozen.

Not pictured:

Pumpkin pie
Apple pie
Italian sausage, onion, mushroom and green pepper spaghetti sauce over low carb noodles

You could say I like to cook :)










.
















.