Just realised I haven't written anything for a while, that's because there hasn't really been anything to write about. I have stuck to my February challenge and am walking every day around my lounge - I am up to 40 minutes at a time now so definitely think the 60 minutes is achievable. It's definitely making a difference to my daily movement - I feel like I am struggling a little less to move around the house so I am going to try and continue doing the walking as part of my daily routine. I just put a good binge worthy show on and walk whilst I watch it. I am really focusing on my movement as I walk - it's Pause Walking Trevor Wicken style - so I use my two walking poles and focus on each movement of the walk whilst ensuring I maintain BGB (butt, guts and blades!) - If you aren't aware of BGB then you really need to look up Trevor Wicken and The MS Gym. I learnt so much when I first joined, things I really think everyone diagnosed with MS should be informed off. I never knew I use to bend forward as I walked - apparently this is a common MS gait but why does this happen? I think from what I've learnt it is because of spasticity in our lower backs and so we lean forward to compensate but by doing that we then impact other parts of our body and so it's an accumulative pattern of impacting our overall walking. When I look back to the few years before my MS really went downhill I suffered with horrendous back pain - I saw doctors and physios but no one said it was the MS or the start of my walking deteriorating - imagine if I was told then. I could have done things to counteract the spasticity and hence perhaps preventing some of the decline. I can look back and see that around 2012 I kept getting ankle/foot pain and I would often nearly trip as my ankle fell sideways - again no one said to me this could be MS related - I can see so clearly now that it was the start of my drop foot. The things you learn and come to realise when you have someone teaching you, someone who truly cares. It makes me sad to think many of the symptoms of MS are actually symptoms of our own doing because we are trying to compensate for issues that could be helped in a more functional way. If you have been recently diagnosed and currently don't have these issues I strongly advised you join the free MS Gym Facebook group so you can start learning some of the fundamentals that will hopefully prevent you getting to the stage where you have to try and teach your body to unlearn the compensation adjustments it made. It took a few years of build up to get my body to here, so I imagine it's going to take a good few years to try and repair some of the damage I could have avoided had I known what was going on. It's sad that so many people with MS are in wheelchairs permanently because they weren't taught about daily movement, diet and supplements - these are all key as far as I am concerned along with living a stress free life (I know, easier said than done for many).
Kidney Detox
I am halfway through my kidney detox and the last few days haven't been so bad, I am actually starting to feel pretty good. Fingers crossed the remaining two weeks stay the same.
Diet
I have been really good since ending my January no sugar - and haven't really eaten anything with raw sugar in except for my Prodigy bar left over from my Christmas present. Which I finished off last night, it reminded me how good it was so I have ordered a mix box of them so I can try out their other flavours - fancy trying them, here's the link for Amazon. They are gluten free, dairy free, refined sugar free, palm oil free and taste great!
It is Valentine's Day this weekend and we've decided to skip presents and have got ourselves an afternoon cake bundle from a local company. Some of her products are gluten free and dairy free but there is definitely going to be a sugar overload this weekend! It will be nice to do a date like event at home as I so miss going out for dinner and afternoon tea with my husband.
Books
I finished my downstairs paperback book that I mentioned last time, I am still reading Just My Luck by Adele Parks on my kindle at bedtime. My current downstairs paperback is one I just stole from my husband. He purchased it for himself but he's a really slow reader and because I was interested to see the content I got hooked.. it's frustrating though as I want to discuss parts of it with him but I can't because otherwise I will ruin it for him lol! The book is called Watching the English by Kate Fox. It's a fascinating read so far and did make me laugh as when I was flicking through it before deciding to read it, I came across a discussion about the word 'pardon'. I was always getting told off as a child for saying 'what' instead of 'pardon' - I assumed it was because my Grandma and my mum believed it was common to say 'what' - the funny thing is the word 'pardon' is actually frowned on by the proper upper class as they know it's just middle-class people trying to better themselves hahahah!! So all this time my saying 'What?' was actually the right thing to say - had to ring and tell my mum about this as it really made me laugh! Looking forward to finding out more about the things us English do.
That's it for today, it's freezing cold and my fire is calling me - hope you have a good weekend.
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