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January 2014 Update: Being Calm and Staying Hydrated

My favourite quote from my favourite film, made into some art this month | see it uncensored here

I started the month with a cold, and ended it with one, (sniffling as I type here!) prompting me to really think hard about my diet and eating regime. I've tried so many different things and never stuck with them, so February is going to be all about mindful eating. There's a great post on that here. Also I want to try and cut down the amount of processed foods I consume to the absolute minimum. I'm not going to start clearing out cupboards though, as that is not only too drastic but also extremely wasteful.
As well as eating, I have been consciously drinking more, with help from the Hydrate app (this links to the Android app but I'm sure there'll be something similar available for iPhones). It's great as you can set a reminder which will sound, reminding you that you need to drink, you can also set different water intake quantities, for example millilitres or ounces. I'm pretty sure that my increased water intake has helped decrease my cold symptoms, and I've drunk a minimum of 2 litres every day for the past 12 days now, apart from Thursday when I was particularly ill, but I still managed to drink 1.5 litres that day!
I've also discovered a brilliant website called calm.com, where you can do short meditation and guided meditation sessions, from 2 to 20 minutes. There's different calming scenes including beaches and calm lakes, and a variety of soothing instrumental music. There's also an iPhone app available and an Android app is apparently on the way. I'm intending to be more productive with my internet time in February, and this is definitely something I'm going to work in to my day, I think it will be especially useful during the "power down" hour that I'm hoping to implement regularly before bed (more about that in a future post)!

I'm feeling positive going into February, how do you intend to manage your #spoonie life this month? Let me know in the comments!

J x

Making Memory (Jars)

I'm calling 2014 "The Year Of Social Endeavour": the idea for a Memory Jar came about after I spoke with my friend and fellow spoonie Diana on Twitter about our goals and plans for the year. Of course after a lot of research (faffing and scrolling) on Pinterest, I got inspired to design and decorate my own jar.

My mum had some Kilner jars that she was no longer using, so I put one of these to good use. I designed and printed a little lilac label for the front of the jar, and framed it on to the glass using decorative washi tape, which I bought from this Etsy shop aaages ago. I then added a cover for the top of the jar using a circular design from some fabric scraps I had lying around in my stash, and some ribbon which came free with an issue of Mollie Makes.

I'm using bright, bold origami papers that I got from Hobbycraft and writing little notes to myself, then folding them up and building a colourful confetti memory stash that I can open on New Year's Eve 2014, and relive all the wonderful things I have done, the achievements and memories I have made throughout the year. I already have 4 memories in the jar, and it's only the 15th of January! Also, being a spoonie is not without it's memory problems, so I will probably be in for some pleasant surprises come December 31st!

What creative plans do you have this year? Do you have any special crafty projects you want to tackle, or just simply some goals you want to achieve? What do you hope to be in YOUR memory jar in 12 months' time? Let me know in the comments :)

Look after yourselves,

J x

Quick and Easy Spoonie's Breakfast Smoothie

DISCLAIMER: I'm NOT a nutritionist/dietitian/food expert, this is just MY OWN humble opinion.

Get it? Got it? Good :) on we go...

Here's how I make my quick and easy "spoonie" breakfast smoothie. It's really easy to prepare. I use frozen spinach, it comes ready portioned in the bag and will keep for months. I paid under £2 for a huge bag which I would think has around 50 portions in it. I also use frozen raspberries, or you can use any berries you like. I put in a large handful's worth. The box I bought cost under £3 and I get 4-5 portions out of it. Things like this are on offer a lot too so keep a look out. Then I add one chopped banana. The ones pictured are fresh, but the riper the banana the easier it is to blend, and the sweeter the smoothie will taste. Everything goes in the blender, then I top up to about the 500 ml mark with orange juice. I suppose freshly squeezed juice is best, but cartons are just as good! I've tried to use key ingredients here for their energy giving and immune boosting properties. If you're not sure about adding spinach, you can leave it out, but I'd say give it a go because leafy greens are a great source of vitamins, plus I promise you can't even taste it once it's blended! This combination makes about a pint glass' worth.

Spoonie re-cap:

One portion frozen spinach, one large handful frozen berries, one chopped ripe banana, top up with orange juice to 500ml mark in blender; blend & drink!

Energy involved: Retrieving items from the fridge and freezer, chopping the banana, whizzing the smoothie (noise pollution), washing the blender, drinking glass and cutlery (leave it to soak and do it later!).

TOP TIP:

Defrost the spinach portion overnight beforehand to make it MUCH easier to blend. I just pop mine in a little plastic carton in the fridge and when I come down in the morning it's ready to pop straight in the blender.

To give you an idea of what this concoction looks like when it's blended, I have added an "after" photo:

Yes, I know you can see the spinach but I promise you can't taste it! I would describe it as having a fairly smooth texture, and a fresh taste, not unlike a basic mixed fruit juice smoothie (mentioning no brand names) personally I find that it helps to awaken my system in the morning. I won't say "wakes me up" because that would infer a miracle cure... ;) (LOLJK)

I hope you've enjoyed this post, please let me know if you give this a try and tell me what you think in the comments, I welcome constructive feedback!

J :) x

New Year 2014: Looking Ahead and Leaving The Past in The Past

The past few weeks I've been thinking a lot about how much my health has improved over the last 18 months, and how I've continued to learn to manage my symptoms to keep me "on a level" as it were. This involves pacing, eating right and getting good sleep. Finding balance out lives is something we all strive to do, whether or not we are "spoonies". I have come to the conclusion that I don't want my symptoms to define me anymore. Yes, they will always be there, but I want to get out and live my life, I'll be 31 in January and I feel like I am missing out on life experiences, however small. I have a list of things I want to do and places I want to visit, and I also plan to step out of my comfort zone a bit more in 2014 and confront my social anxiety, whilst also being kind to myself and not overdoing it.

So what does all this mean for this blog? I want to share more of my daily "spoonie" life with you, and stop getting bogged down with lengthy posts about how chronic my illness is. I tweeted a picture the other night of my "weekly cook-up" which is an exercise I do about once a week to make sure my freezer is stocked up with easy to prepare food. I don't have energy to waste on doing this daily, so I do it in a batch.

So I could make a little post about that. Practical stuff, knowledge and tips that I can pass on. Basically what I intended this blog to be about in the first place.

I'm rambling. What I'm trying to say is that, whilst I will always have my symptoms, they don't define who I am, and they shouldn't for you either. We are all human underneath, and we are more than just our illnesses.

I will continue to refer to myself as a "spoonie" but only in the correct context. I will continue to pace, eat mindfully and keep good sleep hygiene, just as someone who has asthma continues to use their inhaler-as a tool to manage symptoms. Nothing more dramatic than that.

This is my life and this is who I am, and I intend to embrace that in 2014.

Happy New Year everybody!

2013 Review

First of all, apologies for the late update. But of course what are you to expect with someone with ME/CFS? We're not exactly known for sticking to deadlines. It doesn't do us any good, and certainly isn't helpful to our health!

My focus for December is being kind to myself. I struggle a lot with my anxiety, and "letting myself off" doing things, as I feel guilty for sitting around doing nothing all day sometimes. But I am certainly not going to push myself any more, I learned my lesson about that a long time ago.

I have been focusing on my diet again in the past few months. I stand by the notion that food is medicine, and have been looking in more detail into the paleo diet, and the auto-immune protocol. High protein mixed with good quality carbs seems the way forward for me, but it is always trial and error. I have started batch cooking on one day a week, then I have food prepared during the week when I don't have the energy to cook.

I am going to the gym again, but have stepped it down from once a week to once a fortnight, again in an effort to be more kind to myself. I love to feel the endorphin rush, and I do manage to run on the treadmill in short one minute bursts interspersed with walking, I love that, but I also appreciate having a good relaxation session at the end of a busy work week as well. I am trying very hard to get out in the fresh air for short walks whenever I can during the winter months, as my body seems to shut down if I stay in the house with the central heating on for too long.

I have made a big personal discovery about myself in the past few months as well. I am not going to share it on the internet, but I will say that finding out this information has made me a lot more comfortable with who I am and as a result of that, taken away some of my self-conscious feelings. I still have a long way to go with this, but I am more comfortable with working on it now.

I have re-opened my art shop on Etsy (link to the left) and am only uploading things that I like. I have spent far too long trying to make things that I think other people would want, and weakly following trends to try and keep up with popularity in the art and design world. But thinking back to being kind to myself, I decided that I was only going to make things that I personally liked, and go back to loving art as my main hobby and just being creative for the sake of it. I have only had one sale, but that doesn't matter. I'm no longer in it for the money.

So to sum up all this waffle, if you have ME/CFS, or even if you don't; whoever you are be kind to yourself and find out what truly makes you happy, and be content with that. You will have won a big part of the recovery battle if you do.

It's coming up to 2 years (sometime next week I think it is) since I first fell seriously ill. I am presently extremely happy and content with my life situation and will continue to blog on a regular or not-so-regular basis about how I cope on a daily basis with ME.

Be kind to yourselves this Christmas, and here's to a contented 2014 :) x x x

It's Okay To Be Happy With A Calm Life : Quote Wall Art

When I first came across this quote I found it very reassuring and comforting, and I now use it as a sort of mantra in my everyday life.
Some people like to go out and socialise a lot, with ME/CFS I find that hard, I also don't enjoy it very much because of my anxiety. There are certain familiar social situations in which I am comfortable, but not very many. My small amount of disposable income means I can rarely take trips out by myself either.
However, I don't want to come across as self-pitying, and this is the whole point of the art work, the fact that "it's okay to be happy with a calm life". I am perfectly happy sitting at home listening to the radio and knitting, absorbing myself in a good book, or even making art!
We don't all have to be social butterflies, some of us are quiet types and some of us are louder and bolder and that wide variety is what makes the world a lovely place.

When us spoonies are frustrated that we can't do things, or annoyed by having to pace, this quote reminds us that it's okay to rest, and we know it will benefit us in the long run, we have nothing to feel guilty about.