Tag Archives: exercise

Arthritis, Be Well health tips, Health and Fitness, Keep Moving: Managing Arthritis

Who is Peggy Cappy?

March 24, 2013 betsyjbell 1 Comment

Gentle Reader,

Whether it is the new exercise classes or the intense gardening, I cannot say for sure. backcaremed (1) What I am sure about is increased pain and then the magical release from it. Here is the unexplainable magic. I have mentioned it to you several times in the past. It is a 20 minute meditation tape by Peggy Cappy about Rejuvenating the Back. She talks in a soothing voice about how every cell in your body is capable of reproducing into a fresh, new creation, whole and healthy.

I come in from the garden hurting in every lower back, hip and knee joint, shoulders and hands, as well. I turn on the Ipod to her voice and prop my knees over the Back2Life machine (I have described this contraption several times in previous posts) and when the tape is over, I stand and walk without pain.

BAck2Life machine

Back2Life

The third thing I do is take an herbal tablet that inhibits the pain path. The Pain Relief Complex is helpful but does not bring such complete results by itself.

I urge you, if you suffer pain, to invest in Peggy Cappy’s cd. You might want the Back2Life machine, too, but it probably is less important than her relaxation/rejunvenation message.

I’d be interested in hearing your techniques for curbing acute pain. So let us hear from you. If you investigate these techniques and like what I have shared, please pass the message along to your friends. While you are at it, like my facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/BetsyBellsHealth4U.

Fondly,

Be Well, Do Well, Keep Moving

Betsy

Injured at 52. Diagnosed and sentenced to a wheel chair at 55. Hiking, skiing, dancing and walking at 75. Read my story.

206 933 1889 betsy@HiHoHealth.com www.GrandmaBetsyBell.com

Arthritis, Be Well health tips, Health and Fitness, Keep Moving: Managing Arthritis

Watch out for the metal detectors!

March 7, 2013 betsyjbell 2 Comments

Gentle Reader,

His long legs and narrow hips will soon carry him back to the gym. He will be back on the machines and lose the ‘love handles’ that have crept on from lack of exercise. The long process of identifying what caused the sciatica, the sharp pinching pain radiating down the leg, making his once strong stride impossible is over. It took months to identify a worn out hip as the culprit. He has a new one now.

No more arthritis pain from that degenerated joint. His bones were healthy enough at 70+ to give the surgeon something to work with. Other joints–knee, shoulders, ankles–still hold. No advanced osteoarthritis everywhere.

Rehabilitation takes time. His spirit is good. He hates hurting or talking about hurting, so he will use the special chair lifters, the raised toilet seat, and take the procautions he must take to avoid damage to the new joint as the supportive muscles and tissue and tendons readjust to the trauma of surgery.

This world traveler will soon set off the alarms in the airport again. What joy. What thanksgiving.

Here are some tricks to rapid healing that his doctor may not tell him.

1. Lecithin is an oil that helps emulsify, make more liquid, substances that are sticky. After an incision or any wound to the body, our own mechanisms for repair rush to the task of healing. This healing process causes lots of swelling, too many repair cells for the space. To help bring this swelling down quickly, an emulsifier makes the spent repair cells easy to slough off through the normal waste stream. Several lecithin capsules a day, not just one or two.

Caution: not all lecithin is the same. Granuals or huge jars of capsules can go rancid quickly like any oil exposed to the air and light. I prefer a small jar with 180 capsules. There should be no smell of rancidity. A rancid fat causes more damage than you can imagine, so take care what you buy.

2. Alfalfa. This food for horses and cows is King of Vegetables and helps all systems in the body with its nutrients. In this case when the hip joint and surrounding tissue need held, it is there to do the job. Here are a few of Alfalfa’s contributions to our body:

a great aid in digestion, aids in peptic ulcers, great diuretic and bowel regulator,
effective barrier against bacterial invasion, anti-inflammatory, anti-histamine.
Natural body deodorizer, helps support the natural ph of the blood .
High in protein: 18.9% protein as compared to beef 16.5%; milk 3.3% and eggs 13.1%.
Remember, muscles are composed of protein and the lack of it causes them to break down resulting in fatigue and weakness.
After surgery, naturally replenishes joints and tissues with its healing properties.

How much Alfalfa? Lots and lots. It is like eating peas. Take a big spoonful and wash the tablets down with your favorite smoothie. Or make a hot tea. Or chew them up.

Caution: Not all Alfalfa is the same. Often genetically modified, the brand I use exclusively is grown by a very picky company’s organic farmers in Antalope Valley. The leaves are picked at sun-rise. No stems are included in the tablets. Open the bottle and take a whiff of the farm land where it grew.

If I had to pick only one supplement to take, it would be Alfalfa by Shaklee. Dr. Shaklee felt the same way.

Happy healing to my friend, the best travel leader I have ever known. And Happy Travels.

Fondly,

Betsy

Be Well, Do Well and Keep Moving,

www.GrandmaBetsyBell.com 206-933-1889

Arthritis, Be Well health tips, Health and Fitness, Keep Moving: Managing Arthritis

Tips for women who have back pain because of osteoporosis

February 7, 2013 betsyjbell

Here they are:

Tip #1 Increase your vitamin D3 (more info about Vitamin D3 for bone density here)

Tip #2 Add weight bearing exercise to your routine

Tip #3 Eat more greens

Gentle Reader,

You have a sharp pain in your back and can’t remember that you lifted that bag of groceries 3 days ago even though you knew it was too heavy for you. The pain subsides after a few weeks with the help of rest and some pain meds. And then it happens again.

What’s going on? You probably had a vertebral compression fracture, caused either by falling or by placing a load on outstretched arms such as raising a window or lifting a small child or a bag of groceries. The front of the vertebrae collapse. The spine is weakened by low bone density. Our bodies can repair these hair line fractures on their own. The trick is to lessen the chances of reoccurrence.

You go for your check up and they do a bone density test. The dreaded report comes back. You have osteopenia. They tell you that is probably why you’ve been having back pain. This happened to me a few years ago. My doctor immediately offered me drugs to increase the bone density. I asked him to give me a couple years to change this picture and reverse the trend to osteoporosis. The next bone density showed full blown osteoporosis. I was very disappointed. I’d been taking a good quality calcium for years. Why hadn’t it protected me? I was very physically active, walking all the time, skiing, working in the garden. I pleaded again for more time and turned down the prescription. It worked. Here’s what I did.

#1 Increased Vitamin D3 to 6000 mg a day. My blood test indicated a major increase was necessary.

#2 Stair climbing. The advice was climb 200 steps every day while carrying 20 lbs. I climbed 200 steps several times a week but didn’t carry any extra weight.

#3 Add minerals by eating lots more greens. I eat 3 – 5 heads of greens (kale, chard, mustard greens, and collards) every week, usually steamed or in soups. Spinach is good, too. I also increased the supplement Alfalfa.

I was able to reverse the condition. You can too.

I know you have done amazing things to turn osteoporosis around. Let us know by leaving a comment. If you found this helpful, pass it along. And thanks,

Fondly, Betsy

Be Well, Do Well and Keep Moving

BetsyBell’s Health4u

www.GrandmaBetsyBell.com

206 933 1889 1 888 283 2077

betsy@hihohealth.com

Arthritis, Be Well health tips, Health and Fitness, Keep Moving: Managing Arthritis

Where’s the Nyquil?

January 17, 2013 betsyjbell

Gentle Readers,

From the couch, handkerchiefs everywhere, head propped up I write to tell you the story of a person who used to get every cold bug that came along. In the old days, I grabbed the Coricidin and then the Nyquil P.M. and then went whimpering to my doctor. He gladly swabbed my throat and pronounced strep or bronchitis and prescribed an anti-biotic. It happened roughly three times every year. That’s a lot of antibiotics for a body to handle.

Down in Mexico where I spent New Year’s (came home on the 10^th of January), I felt a little sore throat coming on and that lethargy that seems to precede an illness. For the past twenty six years I haven’t used the standard over-the-counter meds to ward off or treat a cold. Starting on a food supplement program in 1985 moved me in a different direction. My friend suggested heaps of vitamin C frequently, and garlic and a supplement called lecithin (less-i-thin). They use it in salad dressings to keep the oil and water mixed together, emulsified. It works the same way in the body, keeping gunk liquefied so it can leave in the waste stream. Very helpful when you have buggers forming so fast you can’t cough them all up at once.

What I figured out was the cold medicines suppress everything, drive the battle between my immune system’s response fighters and the germs, down, down, down into my chest. The mass gets all sticky and gelatinous and won’t move. Nyquil suppresses coughing (which can keep you awake). The raging war between the good guys and the bad guys in your body gets all confined in a small space and the germs multiply and get all bacterial. Then you’ve got something the doctor knows how to treat, so he writes a prescription.

Is this familiar to anyone?

By the time I got home, I developed a full blown cold or maybe even the beginnings of the flu. I certainly had achy joints and swollen lymph glands. I got out the big guns. Please bear with me and try not to freak out at the quantity of supplements I take when this situation develops.

4 – 6 Sustained Release C

3 Lecithin

3—4 Garlic

1 Immunity Formula I (a supplement blend of C, A, E and 3 of the B vitamins, plus zinc, copper and selenium suspended in rosemary oil so the water soluble (C and B) and the fat soluble (A and E) vitamins don’t degrade each other)

I took this handful of supplements every 2 – 3 hours I was awake, swallowing them down with a little drink of protein smoothie so my stomach could handle them.

I also drank Traditional Medicinals herbal teas Throat Coat and Breath Easy, usually stirring in a throat lozenge made of Echinacea, zinc, larch tree extract, elderberry and stevia, 3 at once. Every time a coughing fit started, I popped a lozenge in my mouth. When I awoke in the night coughing or to pee, I went to the kitchen and took the whole Marianne all over again.

Happily the carcass of the Thanksgiving turkey was languishing in the freezer and there were carrots and celery and onion still in the frig. The broth worked magic and I drank a couple quarts with a little cous cous boiled up in it.

Results: In one day the achy joints and lymph were normal. In two more days, I was not coughing in the night. By day four I was able to enjoy some regular food and was not needing the Bomb as we call it every 2 – 3 hours, just every 4 – 5 hours.

Today I am healthy though a little puny from lack of exercise.

No antibiotics. No OTC drugs.

This is the same philosophy and process I use for dealing with other physical challenges like joint pain and arthritis. Even though the x-ray shows severe osteoarthritis and spinal stenosis, gentle abs strengthening exercises, daily walking, eating lots of greens, and low sugar fruits and vegetables plus excellent protein, plus supplements keeps pain at bay.

Is it easier to take the medications advertized on TV and recommended at the pharmacy? Is it cheaper to take them? Is the relief immediate? YES to all these. But what of the long term effects of drugs vs. high quality pure supplements? Drugs have side effects. Supplements made with extreme care for additives, purity of ingredients, and tested to make sure they actually get into the blood stream have side-benefits, not side-effects.

Just a side note about Ester-C. Apparently this little package which you dissolve in water and swallow, will boost the white cell production thus helping the immune system. The study designed to verify this was done with 15 healthy men some of whom were smokers. Each took the Ester-C product for a week and had an increase in the white cell count. To read the study yourself, click here. I just had to look this up because what I know about vitamin C is that it is water soluble and degrades immediately when exposed to light and air and water. The tablets probably work better. I found an online source for 1000 mg. sustained release Ester-C for $21 plus tax and shipping. But I still have lots of questions. Is their C ascorbic acid only? What about the white stuff in the orange which turns out to be just as important? What is used to slow down the release of C into the blood stream? You want guar gum and nothing artificial separating the dosage delivery. And the Sustained Release Vitamin C I take is 180 tablets for $21.00. It’s made by Shaklee, a company I trust for its scientific research and the careful testing every step of the way from raw material, through processing to the finished product.

One more thought. Not every stomach can handle that amount of supplements. You noticed I do not take supplements on an empty stomach if I can help it. If you want to follow this regimen, I’d be glad to guide you along the way. By all means pay attention to your own body and pull back on the volume if you have a reaction to that much Vitamin C. I am just happy I have this resource to use to ease the discomfort of a bad cold and to get over it quickly with no medications at all and so no side effects with their residual problems.

I did not take a flu shot this season or any season. Am I recommending against flu shots? I’d be a fool to do that. Use your own judgment.

Before you go, leave a comment. If you liked what you read, pass it on.

Fondly, Betsy

Be Well, Do Well and Keep Moving

BetsyBell’s Health4u

www.GrandmaBetsyBell.com

206 933 1889 1 888 283 2077

betsy@hihohealth.com

Arthritis, Be Well health tips, Health and Fitness, Keep Moving: Managing Arthritis

Resolutions, hell-o-lutions. How to keep them.

January 3, 2013 betsyjbell

Gentle Reader,

Here we are again at the first of the New Year. 2013 is going to be IT. That last doctor visit convinced me once and for all that I must do something about my weight/exercise program or I will die sooner than later.

How many people do you know who begin again to take control of their health? A tiny voice elbows its way to the front ridiculing this resolve with a stream of

“You can’t change, so don’t even try.”

“You tried every diet know to man and woman already and look where it got you.”

“You have no will power and that’s what it’s all about: WILL POWER.”

“You are sure you will starve if you eat the way you have to when you’re on a diet.”

“It’s no fun and you won’t be able to stay with it anyway, so why bother.”

“It’s too expensive and you don’t get results, so save your money.”

There are so many reasons, excuses to keep on the way we are. But we really want to feel better, live longer, move more easily.

What if there were a program that addresses all the issues, offers products that are tasty, filling and keep the fat off?

What if there were a support system and lessons on how to fix those vegetables you know you should be eating instead of Stouffers frozen dinners?

What if you actually save money when you enroll in this program?

What if the snacks are tasty?

What if it is easy to monitor your exercise progress?

I am here with you for not one month, or two, but 6 months, 180 days to help you turnaround your diet and exercise patterns into life sustaining, never-look-back healthy habits. Follow this program and you will never yo-yo again. Your taste buds will crave beets and kale, water and tea. Your nose will turn up at fries and burgers, cookies and sandwiches, thick gooey dressings. Don’t believe me? Hundreds have discovered this program to work. The side benefits nourish your body to better health while the extra pounds of fat disappear.

Give me 180 days and I’ll give you a healthy body.

Call for a consultation or go on line to sign up. www.betsybellfatloss.com

Guess what? If you suffer from arthritis either from trauma or the chronic osteoarthritis, if you struggle with joint pain, knee pain, hip pain, shoulder pain, this program will help reduce inflammation and give you relief. Will all these promises work for every person who signs up? I can’t guarantee anything. We are all different. But what if it does work for you the way it has for others, countless others? Isn’t it worth a try?

Know someone who struggles with weight and has tried everything? Pass this post along to them. They’ll appreciate you for how much you care.

Found your own tools for getting your exercise and weight where you want it? Please share them here.

Fondly, Betsy

Be Well, Do Well and Keep Moving

BetsyBell’s Health4u

www.GrandmaBetsyBell.com

206 933 1889 1 888 283 2077

betsy@hihohealth.com

Arthritis, Be Well health tips, Health and Fitness, Keep Moving: Managing Arthritis

Blue Christmas

December 20, 2012 betsyjbell 1 Comment

Gentle Reader,

Does the over whelming need to be cheerful this season get you down? Perhaps you are like me and Christmas brings memories, and some of them are not go wonderful. It feels like an emergency. I have to figure something out or I will go down in a wash of self pity.

The first session with my personal trainer, daughter Priscilla Bell was a positive step and the floor exercises for strengthening the abs feel as though they are making my back less vulnerable. Arthritis pain is less and less. There were some tweaks as the exercises took their measure of my joints.

Christmas still felt blue. I am digging through old papers and came across the Christmas letter from 1993, the first communication to my friends since my first husband, Don Bell died the previous November. The letter begins “Who’s going to dry my tears? Who’s going to listen to my day? Who’s going to plot the future with me now that Don Bell is dead?” What misery!

The letter ends with gratitude for you, my friends who are there for me to dry my tears and hear about my day.

Five years later, I married our good friend Chuck Finney, widowed the same time I was. Now it is five years since our last Christmas together. He died Epiphany 2008. Hard to realize I’ve been alone this long. Most of the time it is good. I have you, my family and my community at Saint Mark’s to sustain me. But. Christmas feels blue.

I went back to Priscilla for more training. Action, in my world, leads to mental health as well as physical health. This week she gave me weight bearing exercises with 5 pound weights. OMG. Much harder than the ones I was already doing on my own. She noticed, rightly, that my shoulders are getting rounded from sitting too much and not standing tall. This happens with age and if we want to keep going into our 90’s, we have to work on building those larger upper back muscles. When strengthened they will open the chest and hold us tall. The added benefit for the person with osteoarthritis and spinal stenosis, or any joint pain, is that a stronger upper back relieves the stress on the lower back. She told me I was working my lower back way too much.

Two close and dear friends are suffering from terrible arthritis pain these days. One visited her naturopath who recommended the Paleo Diet: all vegetables and protein. No grains or dairy (including cheese. Yep, you got that right.) You can read my post http://nowheelchair.wordpress.com/2012/03/19/it-comes-down-to-what-we-eat/ and watch the TED talk there by the amazing woman who was in a wheelchair when she changed her diet to this Paleo thing and is now healthy.

Does that plunge you into another low Blue Christmas? Thinking about that kind of diet when you just went out and bought those beautiful cheeses and crackers, cream and butter for the feasts you are preparing? Yes.

Be of good cheer. January 2^nd is coming. Make a resolution to try the diet thing to rid yourself of pain. If you want help with extra pounds, I’m your girl: the expert Turnaround Specialist. Give yourself 90 days to get the new regimen into your system, watching the inches melt away and the joints behave themselves. Then keep it up for another 90 days to cement the new eating and exercise habits. This is the 180 turnaround we want for 2013. Shaklee has a new program called 180 Turnaround. Join me. I’m going to do it and will be glad to lead the way.

For now, be of good cheer without denying that this season can be tough. Put on your rain gear and go outdoors. The low lying hills are calling and the roads are clear.

Merry Christmas! And keep moving.

Before you go, post a comment about your Blue Christmas. Ask for kindness back to you.

Fondly, Betsy

Be Well, Do Well and Keep Moving

BetsyBell’s Health4u

www.GrandmaBetsyBell.com

206 933 1889 1 888 283 2077

betsy@hihohealth.com

Arthritis, Be Well health tips, Health and Fitness, Keep Moving: Managing Arthritis

Exercises for a bad back

December 13, 2012 betsyjbell 1 Comment

Gentle Reader,

I began this blog to report on ways to manage osteoarthritis and spinal stenosis by reflecting on my own experience. I have to tell you that I have no symptoms these days. I’ve been trying to understand what I have done to reduce the chronic pain to this degree. I practice all the suggestions I have written about in my posts and they helped but didn’t bring me to this place of comfort. The one thing that I have consistently done recently is listen to Peggy Cappy’s CD called Healing Back Pain. While you know me as enthusiastic, I am also questioning and doubtful about the effectiveness of new age remedies. However, I am growing more and more convinced that her voice and her message in this CD are healing my chronic pain. Please take a moment to go to her web site and order it. Download it into your computer and put it on your I phone, or other media player and listen to it at night or during the day when you lie down. If nothing else you will be profoundly relaxed from all stress in your life.

I promised you I’d let you know what exercises Priscilla Hard Core Mother of Four gave me to develop more abs strength and lose that little bit of belly fat. Here they are:

Pilates 100. Put your head down flat This is the posture for a bad back. Be sure you have a nice neutral curve in your back. Don’t move your head or your shoulders as you lie on the floor. Your legs can be all the way up. Now spread your figures wide, hold your arms straight and pulse 5 x to an in breath and 5x to an out breath, counting to 100. This warms up the hips, abs regions.

This is totally fun. By tempo change, she means go slow with your pointed foot from 12 o’clock to 6 o’clock and then zip around to 12.

Single leg circles with tempo change 5 one way then 5 the other way

Here you are making small circles with your toes in 1^st position, legs zipped together, first in one direction and then the other. Totally cool.

These roll up moves are challenging. Do not do them with your legs out straight if you have back trouble. Plant your feet on the floor and reach behind your thighs to pull yourself up. The assist really helps. By rep 7 I can just about do the roll up without the assist. It’s getting easier every day.

Put your hands underneath your head and with your legs over head, point toes in 1st position and take them out to the side and back 10 x. The higher over your body your legs are, the easier on your back.

Flex in frog, X10 For this exercise put your hands behind your head and you are drawing your feet in toward your face allowing your knees to go out to the sides like a frog.

Bridge clam X10/s

*I can’t find a picture of this one. On your back lift your butt off the floor into a bridge. Your feet are planted on the floor about 8 inches beyond perpendicular. Both hands reach up to the ceiling as you drop one knee to the side for 10 repetitions. I can’t go down very far without pain to the right and less far to the left without pain. So listen to your body on this.

Prone: Before beginning prone exercises, always spend a little time in Child’s pose, resting your back.

Double kick extend up and back for 10/s. You are lifting your kicking leg off the mat. Do this slowly, lift the foot and then lift the leg an inch off the floor. Drop the foot back down slowly and go to the other side.

Nose should face the floor so you are in neutral position.

In this exercise, your head is still down. Your legs are forming a triangle, knees out and feet together. Lift both legs simultaneously and move your thighs together. Rest. Lift thighs and move knees out again. 10x total, 5 out and 5 in.

For this go outside or at the bottom of your stair case, take a bungee tube with handles (you’ve seen them in Big 5 sporting goods stores or on TV) instead of buckets of water. Place the center of the tube under your right foot making sure there is no way it could escape and recoil into your face. Bend standing knee slightly and bend the back leg slightly. Then lift the back leg straight out behind you. Imagine your gluts. Beautiful. Weight should be on the leg that is on the step, not on the back leg. Hopefully you get the idea.

You could also stand on the floor to make it easier. Lift one leg off the floor straight back 5x and then switch.

OK, then. Tell me how it goes for you. Leave a comment for others and by all means, sign up to receive every post.

Fondly, Betsy

Be Well, Do Well and Keep Moving

BetsyBell’s Health4u

www.GrandmaBetsyBell.com

206 933 1889 1 888 283 2077

betsy@hihohealth.com

Arthritis, Be Well health tips, Health and Fitness, Keep Moving: Managing Arthritis

Hard Core Mother of Four

December 7, 2012 betsyjbell 1 Comment

Gentle Reader,

My daughter, Priscilla, the personal trainer extraordinaire (www.hardcoremotheroffour.blogspot.com) mentioned a Pilates move when we were talking after Thanksgiving dinner. For the first time, I thought she could probably help me with my chronic back issues. Funny how your children can be experts to so many and take a long time to claim that status for their mother.

Tuesday I spent an hour with her in the Fitness Lab and came home excited with new exercises that will strengthen my abdominal region (and probably get rid of the little belly fat that sits there) and not hurt my back in the process. She did some fine tuning and now I’ve got new interest in my morning routine. I will share my new routine next week.

Yesterday, Wednesday, as I often do, I went hiking with friends in the nearby mountains we fondly call the Issaquah Alps. Tiger is one wild place only a few minutes from the city. We chose a meander that took us 7 miles up and around, past some “caves” (old mining area) and around a shallow lake. When we got back to the car, I started feeling my pockets for the keys. Nothing. Turns out they had fallen out when I reached in to put the parking permit on the mirror. It took AAA 2 ½ hours to get there to open the door for me and my cell phone was dead. Talk about stress. It got pretty cold toward sun set. I tell you all this because of what I did to keep from dissolving into a puddle of stress. (My hiking friends were reluctant to leave me, but I shooed them away to their own tasks. There were plenty of other hikers returning to their cars in this very popular hiking area so there was no danger.)

I did Priscilla’s new exercises. Brilliant. And a super slow walking meditation. And a sitting meditation. And built an elegant rock chairn. And ate my left over cookies from lunch. And watched it get dark while I did some more exercises. All in all, it was a pleasant time spent in my own head with no electronics, nothing to read, no pen and paper for writing practice. A dream-time.

When the tow truck finally got there and let me drive away, I headed for the nearest Tully’s (i.e. Starbucks) and ordered an eggnog latte. Hot soup and the hot tub awaited me at home.

Today, no lower back pain. No arthritis in my bad joints. No spinal stenosis acting up. Life is good.

A friend just sent this wonderful video in his blog. I commend it to you. William is a healer. http://www.bodyandsoulmentor.com/

Now, take a minute to tell me about a stressful situation you had recently, what it did to your body and how you handled it. We can learn from each other. My readers love comments, so feel free.

Fondly, Betsy

Be Well, Do Well and Keep Moving

BetsyBell’s Health4u

www.GrandmaBetsyBell.com

206 933 1889 1 888 283 2077

betsy@hihohealth.com

Arthritis, Be Well health tips, Health and Fitness, Keep Moving: Managing Arthritis

Guess what the liver of an inorganic turkey looks like.

November 22, 2012 betsyjbell

Gentle Reader,

Thanksgiving Day and 17 of the children and grandchildren are coming. The alarm went off at 5:15 so I could put the turkey in for a dinner time of 2 p.m. When I chopped up the giblets, I thought, yes, it is worth it to pay for the organic free range bird. The organs are deep purple-red, the tissue tight and resilient. These are signs of health. Here’s an organic turkey’s innards.

One year I panicked when I realized 29 people were coming and one turkey wouldn’t feed the whole crowd. I ran to the local Safeway to pick one up. When I laid the two sets of innards on the counter, the poor cadged bird’s organs were full of lesions, had a grey tone and the liver dissolved into granules when I put my forefinger into it. I wish I had a picture so you could see the comparison. I wonder what my liver looks like.

When they say we are what we eat, I think they are referring to the health of our liver, our kidneys, our heart, and our lungs perhaps more than our joints. It’s the joints that hurt because these organs are the means by which the joints are nourished. They cleanse the blood, absorb the nutrients into the blood and send health or harm to those creaky arthritic painful joints.

My house mate passed on a lot of frozen stuff from Trader Joe’s. I know it is sacrilege to cast aspersions on Trader Joe’s, but the chicken patty I grilled, tasty thought it was, had a lot of stuff in it besides chicken. Does the body know what to do with that extra stuff? One rice concoction was so crowded with strange ingredients, I just didn’t want to eat it. Guess what, the chickens wouldn’t eat it either and they are my bell weather. They will eat anything. Tasty, convenient? Yes. Recognizable by the liver, kidneys and cells as food? I’m not so sure.

Some people dread the feast because it is so hard to resist over indulgence. Relax, I say. Eat something of everything. Enjoy the tastes. Then take a walk. The more you eat the longer you walk.

Hauling that 20 # turkey around yesterday made me wake up with a sore back. That old osteoarthritis and spinal stenosis kicked in big time this morning. To be pain free by the time they come, I’m on the floor stretching. I’ll take a walk before they get here. I’ll let them move the furniture. And I am fortified with plenty of the herbal pain relief pills I rely on.

There will be pie. I’ll enjoy all three flavors. I hope you are going to enjoy your day as well. I’d love to hear how it went and what your anxieties are around the holidays and eating. How does your body do when you change your diet for a few days? Is it hard to get back to healthy normal the next morning?

We can support each other in our pain and agony! J . I am thankful for you and for all people in my life.

Fondly, Betsy

P.S. What a fantastic day. The 20# turkey was demolished. Here’s the afters:

Be Well, Do Well and Keep Moving

BetsyBell’s Health4u

www.GrandmaBetsyBell.com

206 933 1889 1 888 283 2077

betsy@hihohealth.com

Arthritis, Be Well health tips, Health and Fitness, Keep Moving: Managing Arthritis

Can we eat pie this Thanksgiving?

November 15, 2012 betsyjbell 1 Comment

Gentle Reader,

Are you shopping for Thanksgiving yet? Tell me about your resolve to eat so your joints don’t hurt, the achy knees don’t creak, the back doesn’t twinge when you go from sitting to standing? Have you been eating a dinner plate big on greens with a small portion of meat or fish and the starch in the form of a boiled new potato or rutabaga? I thought I’d better show you one in case you never bought or cooked it. Really tasty, better than turnips.

Most especially, have you tried gluten-free? And I don’t mean picking up those prepared foods that say gluten-free on them. I believe, because I have tried it consistently over time, that a gluten-free diet helps with arthritis. You’ll also lose weight which will help with arthritis pain. At this time of year with your favorite recipes coming out of the box for your traditional offerings, you buy a big sack of white refined flour, white refined sugar and pounds of butter and plan your day of baking. Unless you have greater resolve than I do, you’ll be eating some of those goodies and not just giving them to friends and family. There will be more than one kind of pie on the table and it will be challenging. Right?

Today I am passing on a web site I came across this week. This gal, Christie Bessinger, has a serious celiac problem and has taken the time to research ways to identify hidden gluten. Celiac is a hard condition. Your body reacts with bloating and sometimes even more severe nutrient absorption shut down when you get yeasty things in your stomach. Breads, pasta, lots of canned soups, other prepared foods. Most of us who struggle with achy, congested joints are not severely impacted by gluten grains, at least not in the digestive area. However, getting gluten-free for a few months would tell you a lot about how your body functions in a gluten-free atmosphere. Two things will happen for you:

1. You will lose weight

2. You probably will have less joint pain, even if you have severe osteoarthritis or spinal stenosis. Any of the problems affecting the joints will most probably improve with a gluten-free diet.

Enjoy Christie’s blog. Here’s a nice place to start with her delicious cupcakes made from a company she trusts. http://celiac-scoop.blogspot.com/2011/11/gluten-free-cake-bites.html You can even order their mixes from her web site. How sweet is that? Christie has suggestions for eating out gluten-free in New York City, too.

Live in Seattle? We are lucky. Here’s a web site for people who want to avoid gluten when they eat out. http://www.urbanspoon.com/t/1/1/Seattle/Gluten-Free-Friendly-restaurants and here is a retail store for delicious foods in Seattle http://www.wheatlessinseattle.net/ .

Before I go, dear Reader, a day or two of lovely indulgence never sent us to surgery for a knee replacement. You know that, don’t you? It’s the change we make over the long haul in diet and exercise that makes the difference long-term and keeps us moving.

Fondly, Betsy

Be Well, Do Well and Keep Moving

BetsyBell’s Health4u

www.GrandmaBetsyBell.com

206 933 1889 1 888 283 2077

betsy@hihohealth.com