About 12 months ago I spent most of every day lying in bed. I struggled to move around the house. I found standing for longer than a couple of minutes difficult for many reasons- lightheadedness and balance, weak leg muscles and aching hip and back joints. I was in a crash stage of ME, no matter how much determination or courage I had, whether I was frustrated or calm, cross or relaxed I had no energy. My body needed to heal and it needed a few months off for that healing process to take place. I had to let it happen.
As you may remember from the blogs, eggs and dishwashers post, I found standing in the kitchen for 8 minutes to organise eggs for breakfast an amazing miracle. That happened in February. It was repeated a couple of times every week and only once a day. As the months went by my balance has allowed that to happen more often and my body is learning to move around the house and outdoors with more ease and a stronger posture.
I can stand in the kitchen and cook. I still have problems with the preparation of food, my wrists are strengthening, but I cannot chop vegetables without painful consequences and mixing ingredients is also an issue. I have modern technology to help me there!
I have decided to encourage this back into my life. Each part of survival has to be practiced again, standing and walking is happening, eating food is a daily part of life, so I have chosen it as my next hurdle.
It may be a hurdle but it is oh, such an enjoyable one!
My new diet for the next month begins with a food delivery in about a week's time. A local organic farm delivers it's own produce and that of other suppliers, so all in one go I will have meat for two weeks, vegetables, fruit and dairy for one week. My challenge is to cook easy fresh meals regularly with these prize winning, tasty ingredients.
Can it be done? I have gone through my collection of recipe books. Some of the options taste great, but 10 or 20 ingredients are involved and 45 minutes preparation! I went online to look at 10 minute cooking, 20 minute cooking recipe books. It might take less time, but still vast numbers of ingredients! I'm not filling my cupboard with food, just for an occasional teaspoonful! So next option 5 ingredient cooking... gourmet food or American cooking, full of measuring cups and strange ingredients- I don't know those options in the UK!
This is when I thought I'm about going to the organic delivery option, good food just needs a fry, boil, steam, a few minutes under the grill, or a quick and easy casserole or stew. The taste will speak for itself. I have a creative nature and enough interesting pre-prepared delights to fill the tastebuds (ready chopped frozen onion, garlic, peppers and fresh herbs!) So it is an experiment in giving myself an extra boost towards recovery. Nutritionally the better food will help me heal and recover more quickly and with the practice in the kitchen, the confidence and physical flexibility and strength will be improved too.
Wish me luck!
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Tuesday, 28 August 2012
Monday, 27 August 2012
Feeding ME
And feeding me.
So food is a big thing in this illness. In any illness. A lot of illnesses create food restrictions but the one constant that comes around is A Healthy and Nutritious Diet.
So how can this be achieved with little energy, sometimes very little energy to chew, and digest, as well as the issue of preparation?
Over the years I have experimented, finding budgets restrictive and being able to actually get out of the door to do the shopping. When I came to a crashing halt two and a half years ago the simplest option became quick food to stick in the oven and make it easy to eat too. I spent a lot of time eating supermarket pies and pasties, ready meals and left overs from my husbands efforts in the kitchen. His weekly pasta, with jar of organic tomato sauce, frozen chopped vegetables and tin of tuna was the normal offering for sunday lunch, also feeding himself and I for a couple of days into the week. Cottage pie and spag.bol. became another easy option too, both of which would be made with turkey mince or lean organic beef mince. We also ate a lot of home made potato wedges with pieces of breaded fish and good old toad-in-the-hole.
A lot of the other meals consisted of wholegrain soda bread toast or sandwiches, with organic eggs or sardines, an occasional banana and sugar-free fruit yoghurts from the baby section of the supermarket. So much carbohydrate is easy fuel (but ironically can also encourage lethargy) and as I tried to include protein with every meal the energy lasted a little longer too.
About a year ago I applied for and was awarded Disability Living Allowance. I still receive it and it is critical to support me through this recovery. ME is such an unpredictable condition that a sustained recovery into good health has to be maintained before benefits will be reduced or stopped. Some authorities are more understanding of the illness now and will be supportive of the condition. I have spoken to Citizens Advice Bureau representatives on numerous occasions and am assured of my need for this help as I recover. (that is a story for another blog post!)
So this gave me a little more scope as far as food budgeting was concerned. I changed tactics and started using a different supermarket, with more healthy, easy to cook options and our diet has improved as a consequence. Having to buy pre-prepared food will always mean the prices rise, but it has been a necessity at this stage of my illness.
These very good guidelines are given by the ME specialists I use (link)
Use the 80% rule... let yourself off if you stray from the suggestions 20% of the time
Cut out toxins in the form of refined sugars, alcohol, caffeine, refined carbohydrates, processed meat and food with un-pronounceable ingredients!
Include 3 pieces of fruit every day and add vegetables or salad to every meal.
Reduce dairy and wheat if the body finds them difficult to digest. (this is more than likely to be temporary unless tested otherwise by a doctor)
If the budget can only afford a little organic produce make it meat, as the meat will also be eating food- you are what you eat and what your food eats! (In my kitchen the daily staples are organic... yoghurt, eggs and butter, bread, pasta and rice, flour, tins of tomatoes, fresh soups and when possible meat and vegetables. As a compromise I buy free range and British, and choose the suppliers with the better standards in growing and producing)
Choose smaller fish as the toxin build up will be comparable to its lifetime- ie avoid tuna like the plague!
I stick to these rules 80% of the time and let that stretch over the week. Days will come along when the exhaustion and/or fridge dictate the need for an easy option. An occasional take-away or shop-bought sandwich and bag of crisps isn't going to prevent my recovery!
So I'll tell you about how I'm hoping to improve on my current diet next time...
So food is a big thing in this illness. In any illness. A lot of illnesses create food restrictions but the one constant that comes around is A Healthy and Nutritious Diet.
So how can this be achieved with little energy, sometimes very little energy to chew, and digest, as well as the issue of preparation?
Over the years I have experimented, finding budgets restrictive and being able to actually get out of the door to do the shopping. When I came to a crashing halt two and a half years ago the simplest option became quick food to stick in the oven and make it easy to eat too. I spent a lot of time eating supermarket pies and pasties, ready meals and left overs from my husbands efforts in the kitchen. His weekly pasta, with jar of organic tomato sauce, frozen chopped vegetables and tin of tuna was the normal offering for sunday lunch, also feeding himself and I for a couple of days into the week. Cottage pie and spag.bol. became another easy option too, both of which would be made with turkey mince or lean organic beef mince. We also ate a lot of home made potato wedges with pieces of breaded fish and good old toad-in-the-hole.
A lot of the other meals consisted of wholegrain soda bread toast or sandwiches, with organic eggs or sardines, an occasional banana and sugar-free fruit yoghurts from the baby section of the supermarket. So much carbohydrate is easy fuel (but ironically can also encourage lethargy) and as I tried to include protein with every meal the energy lasted a little longer too.
About a year ago I applied for and was awarded Disability Living Allowance. I still receive it and it is critical to support me through this recovery. ME is such an unpredictable condition that a sustained recovery into good health has to be maintained before benefits will be reduced or stopped. Some authorities are more understanding of the illness now and will be supportive of the condition. I have spoken to Citizens Advice Bureau representatives on numerous occasions and am assured of my need for this help as I recover. (that is a story for another blog post!)
So this gave me a little more scope as far as food budgeting was concerned. I changed tactics and started using a different supermarket, with more healthy, easy to cook options and our diet has improved as a consequence. Having to buy pre-prepared food will always mean the prices rise, but it has been a necessity at this stage of my illness.
These very good guidelines are given by the ME specialists I use (link)
Use the 80% rule... let yourself off if you stray from the suggestions 20% of the time
Cut out toxins in the form of refined sugars, alcohol, caffeine, refined carbohydrates, processed meat and food with un-pronounceable ingredients!
Include 3 pieces of fruit every day and add vegetables or salad to every meal.
Reduce dairy and wheat if the body finds them difficult to digest. (this is more than likely to be temporary unless tested otherwise by a doctor)
If the budget can only afford a little organic produce make it meat, as the meat will also be eating food- you are what you eat and what your food eats! (In my kitchen the daily staples are organic... yoghurt, eggs and butter, bread, pasta and rice, flour, tins of tomatoes, fresh soups and when possible meat and vegetables. As a compromise I buy free range and British, and choose the suppliers with the better standards in growing and producing)
Choose smaller fish as the toxin build up will be comparable to its lifetime- ie avoid tuna like the plague!
I stick to these rules 80% of the time and let that stretch over the week. Days will come along when the exhaustion and/or fridge dictate the need for an easy option. An occasional take-away or shop-bought sandwich and bag of crisps isn't going to prevent my recovery!
So I'll tell you about how I'm hoping to improve on my current diet next time...
Friday, 6 July 2012
Holiday?
Do we or don't we? For the last year we have avoided going away. Two nights away from home for a family wedding in April has been it for 2012. Last summer we went to stay at my sister's. Familiarity is so necessary when you're ill. Knowing where things are, being able to get in the car and find a familiar place to eat when the energy to cook escapes you, or even knowing where the nearest shop is for a healthy microwave meal and loaf of bread when desperation kicks in.
Moving around our home is so easy. We are in a bungalow with all the rooms coming off a main hallway, the garden is sheltered and the area is quiet. I need that so much. The rooms are no more that twenty shuffling paces from one to the other. And apart from one step to the front door and three steps to the back garden we have no issues with long sloping paths or steep staircases. I know my space and for every other holiday in the last year my husband has taken time off work, we have gone shopping for one day, he has enjoyed some time for himself another day, and we have had lunch out at the local pub and maybe visited a local coffee shop in the peace and quiet of non-weekend mayhem.
Staying with friends includes more conversations (link) maybe not eating comfortable foods (I'm sure all of you will have stayed with someone who eats far too much sugary breakfast cereal, processed meat, white bread and has practically no fruit or vegetables in the house!- which can also be the case in some B&Bs!) So what is our better option?
Self catering involves catering for ourselves- not much of a break unless we eat out all the time and unless we have been to the place before the results may not be as nice as the brochure suggests. Two years ago we stayed in a place where the owner refused to believe the oven wasn't working- "look the light goes off when it's up to temperature" yes but that didn't mean the thermostat was calibrated so actually the oven was probably 100 degrees lower than suggested! We've also stayed in a "bungalow" with five steep steps to the front door... Nice touch! Another interesting flat was within walking distance of a local shop. That walking distance was actually a steep twenty minutes away-not sure I would really fancy that with the wheelchair!
So we are undecided. We will try to find a use for OH's holiday from work. Maybe it will be a couple of days at my sister's again or it might just be sitting on the sofa and listening to the rain falling down the chimney in the middle of the British summer!
Moving around our home is so easy. We are in a bungalow with all the rooms coming off a main hallway, the garden is sheltered and the area is quiet. I need that so much. The rooms are no more that twenty shuffling paces from one to the other. And apart from one step to the front door and three steps to the back garden we have no issues with long sloping paths or steep staircases. I know my space and for every other holiday in the last year my husband has taken time off work, we have gone shopping for one day, he has enjoyed some time for himself another day, and we have had lunch out at the local pub and maybe visited a local coffee shop in the peace and quiet of non-weekend mayhem.
Staying with friends includes more conversations (link) maybe not eating comfortable foods (I'm sure all of you will have stayed with someone who eats far too much sugary breakfast cereal, processed meat, white bread and has practically no fruit or vegetables in the house!- which can also be the case in some B&Bs!) So what is our better option?
Self catering involves catering for ourselves- not much of a break unless we eat out all the time and unless we have been to the place before the results may not be as nice as the brochure suggests. Two years ago we stayed in a place where the owner refused to believe the oven wasn't working- "look the light goes off when it's up to temperature" yes but that didn't mean the thermostat was calibrated so actually the oven was probably 100 degrees lower than suggested! We've also stayed in a "bungalow" with five steep steps to the front door... Nice touch! Another interesting flat was within walking distance of a local shop. That walking distance was actually a steep twenty minutes away-not sure I would really fancy that with the wheelchair!
So we are undecided. We will try to find a use for OH's holiday from work. Maybe it will be a couple of days at my sister's again or it might just be sitting on the sofa and listening to the rain falling down the chimney in the middle of the British summer!
Saturday, 9 June 2012
Shopping
I love the internet for this reason if nothing else!
I can and do shop for everything on-line. From shoelaces to spaghetti, from lightbulbs to lawnmowers. The funny thing is that when I search and search for something, which I think I should easily pounce on in the local shops, I end up going straight to Google after three weeks of desperation and find it after a few clicks. We dropped a melamine tray last summer, which was intrinsic to my way of life at that time. Eating in bed, on my lap, was the only option. I needed my head, neck and back supported completely and a few thick layers of duvet and blanket over my legs. This tray smashing on the kitchen floor gave us a reason to leave the house. 'Oh, great' I thought,'I can enjoy choosing one from a shelf in a department store, or kitchen shop'. "Oh, no I couldn't"- I could hear the audience chanting back at me, pantomime-style, as we couldn't find suitable alternatives anywhere. After all this excitement of going to a different shopping centre and collapsing in bed week after week, I went back to my favourite stalwart Amazon, and there they were teasing me from the page!
Researching shopping is also a must when finding clothes or shoes as the process can take such a long time and a lot of energy otherwise and I cannot take a long time, or a lot of energy! (neither can my husband's patience!) If I would prefer to try the items before buying, or the postage costs are extortionate, I find the shops, check their stocks and we appear, try and buy, if they are suitable.
I now know the local shopping centres which are accommodating to my needs; good parking facilities, flat pavements or walkways, without cobbles and only slight slopes for using the wheelchair. So always check which town we will visit to achieve the most.
The beauty of me being at home gives me the opportunity to have items sent through the post and returned if necessary. Larger items (most recently the food mixer and a new toaster) which we would otherwise have to balance on the back of the wheelchair, or on my lap, can be delivered without concerns of no one being home to sign for the items.
Food-wise I shop regularly using iPad apps, which give a quicker shop- as if I was in the store. I can usually read full lists of ingredients and also choose most of my shopping from the monthly offers. Some of the more exclusive foods can be found in health-food online shops with supplements and, as with searching out the trays, I might be going in dozens of different shops before finding what I prefer.
Thanks to Google, Amazon, Ebay and many others, my life can be a lot more focused on recovery and careful pacing than it might be otherwise!
I can and do shop for everything on-line. From shoelaces to spaghetti, from lightbulbs to lawnmowers. The funny thing is that when I search and search for something, which I think I should easily pounce on in the local shops, I end up going straight to Google after three weeks of desperation and find it after a few clicks. We dropped a melamine tray last summer, which was intrinsic to my way of life at that time. Eating in bed, on my lap, was the only option. I needed my head, neck and back supported completely and a few thick layers of duvet and blanket over my legs. This tray smashing on the kitchen floor gave us a reason to leave the house. 'Oh, great' I thought,'I can enjoy choosing one from a shelf in a department store, or kitchen shop'. "Oh, no I couldn't"- I could hear the audience chanting back at me, pantomime-style, as we couldn't find suitable alternatives anywhere. After all this excitement of going to a different shopping centre and collapsing in bed week after week, I went back to my favourite stalwart Amazon, and there they were teasing me from the page!
Researching shopping is also a must when finding clothes or shoes as the process can take such a long time and a lot of energy otherwise and I cannot take a long time, or a lot of energy! (neither can my husband's patience!) If I would prefer to try the items before buying, or the postage costs are extortionate, I find the shops, check their stocks and we appear, try and buy, if they are suitable.
I now know the local shopping centres which are accommodating to my needs; good parking facilities, flat pavements or walkways, without cobbles and only slight slopes for using the wheelchair. So always check which town we will visit to achieve the most.
The beauty of me being at home gives me the opportunity to have items sent through the post and returned if necessary. Larger items (most recently the food mixer and a new toaster) which we would otherwise have to balance on the back of the wheelchair, or on my lap, can be delivered without concerns of no one being home to sign for the items.
Food-wise I shop regularly using iPad apps, which give a quicker shop- as if I was in the store. I can usually read full lists of ingredients and also choose most of my shopping from the monthly offers. Some of the more exclusive foods can be found in health-food online shops with supplements and, as with searching out the trays, I might be going in dozens of different shops before finding what I prefer.
Thanks to Google, Amazon, Ebay and many others, my life can be a lot more focused on recovery and careful pacing than it might be otherwise!
Wednesday, 16 May 2012
Finding Food
How often do you go into the freezer and find a box or bag, without a label and no identifying features? I did that yesterday evening. I was rooting out a frozen yoghurt for my supper and there it was. A box with a pink lid, no label and a reddy, brown tinged bulk inside. It could be a chicken curry, casserole, meatball spaghetti, tomato sauce, large helping of soup. I had no idea. So it was repositioned and pushed to the back of my mind; I was more interested in my frozen yoghurt!
We seem to eat out of the freezer. As an ME sufferer it becomes the best option. Being unable to cook main meals everyday the freezer and fridge have become my best buddies. When I became housebound again 2 years ago my energy resources disappeared so drastically that the option we first came up with for my lunchtime meal, was ready meals. Not the real thing though. We bought large and individual pies and quiches from the supermarket. These were cooked, divided up and split into meals with potatoes and vegetables and then frozen. All I had to do every day for my lunch was retrieve a pre-prepared meal and trust the microwave to do its thing. If I was more patient I would put it all in the oven and have a fuller flavour at the end of it.
This worked for a while. The quality of the food was reasonable. Buying sausage rolls and pasties, also breaded fish and fishcakes, for the same purpose, gave it variety, but still didn't give me fresh food with a full nutrient base to aid my recovery. Next link up the chain became finding supermarket food which provided the similar ease of cooking, but a better list of ingredients. I have always read the packets of whatever I buy in the shops, but this was getting ridiculous! We found ready meals without preservatives and flavourings. Perfect, but very expensive. Though finding this all in a different supermarket meant that they had a different list of ingredients for their pies and quiches too and this shop offered ready to cook meat and fish, in oven friendly foil trays, with healthy sauces and marinades. A few choice selections became our monthly shop. As expected these ready meals too became tedious. Who really wants to eat Spag.Bol. three times a week interspersed with a couple of meals of breaded fish and pieces of pie?
By this time we had discovered what most supermarkets were beginning to offer in respect of budget vegetable shopping. Buying fresh organic vegetables is usually the most expensive option. Going down the budget scale, regular vegetables, cheap large quantities of vegetables and then further down the line is tinned and frozen vegetables. I have never eaten any tinned vegetables other than tins of chopped tomatoes- simply for the convenience. The frozen vegetables, it was discovered, have gone through a whole new phase. We began buying frozen everything; chopped onions, chopped mixed peppers, mixed veg, chunky mixed veg, even chopped frozen herbs and garlic. I am now amazed at how we ever survived without it all. From someone who would take pride in throwing together a casserole or fish pie with fresh ingredients and nothing more pre-prepared than a tin of tomatoes or frozen peas I am now someone who eats from the freezer and eats healthily from the freezer. Every weekend my husband and I combine our skills (and energy levels!) and cook two or three meals, each with four or five portions. Baked pasta is usually one of the results, also the ready to cook meats and at least once a month we have a fish pie, a supermarket pie and a curry. When there are weeks when I just don't have the energy to assist he usually digs into the freezer and finds a couple of two portion meals that we have stashed in the back and there is enough also stashed to feed us for the next week too. We make a good team. Giving the carer time and space is a necessity when so much of the day is taken up with fetching, doing, and aiding the patient. By cooking like this and making each meal as easy and skill free as possible we are floating through this difficult time and I look forward to the day when I can be a chef de cuisine again.
Sunday, 13 May 2012
Blogs, eggs and dishwashers
This week has been ME Awareness week and although 1200 words for International ME Awareness day, yesterday, did seem justified, I will try to leave you with more readable chunks! (especially as I realise some of you may be reading this from a very small hand-held device!)
You may be thinking "what is someone with ME doing, writing a blog anyway? Surely she is occupied being ill!" I know where you are coming from and until I had a tablet computer and was able to sit, propped up in bed, surfing the net for an hour or so occasionally I thought the same. Snuggled in bed with hot water bottles and a thick winter duvet it is totally possible and my arms get a work out from a bit of typing. As much as I would love to, I do not write each piece in one go. I am thinking about it first during the day, later I type for about twenty minutes, it is fiddled and redrafted another time and uploaded another.
By finding a focus like this, something to occupy my mind other than the symptoms or frustrations of having this illness, I feel better able to float on through the difficulties and find triumphs and achievements.
So to the eggs and dishwashers: I have been writing like this since January and here is one of those pieces...
I cooked my own scrambled egg today- standing in front of the hob and stirring as I went, good achievement. To stand for 8 minutes without feeling dizzy or nauseous is quite a revelation. 3 minutes used to be too much, so did 30 seconds, just standing 4 months ago would have me falling over. Moving around the kitchen is getting easier too, with things in different cupboards (obviously!) opening one, turning round, walking across the kitchen, opening another, turning round, walking across the kitchen, stirring an egg, switching on a toaster, becomes like a merry-go-round; a pirouette without a focus point. I had abandoned all hope of ever doing anything helpful in the kitchen ever again and sat down on the chair for 2 minutes in between toaster, cupboard, sink etc. This is no longer necessary so often. It's still not great as I actually get out of breath when moving around the kitchen and still become dizzy sometimes, but just not as often. I look forward to regularly emptying the dishwasher. This used to be my Dad's job. When I was a child I would wake up most days and hear him downstairs emptying the dishwasher as his early morning chore. But to him it wasn't a chore, more a pleasure; a routine of regular movement; a symphony of clattering plates and cutlery. I want to be conducting that symphony every morning and start my day with a clatter!
You may be thinking "what is someone with ME doing, writing a blog anyway? Surely she is occupied being ill!" I know where you are coming from and until I had a tablet computer and was able to sit, propped up in bed, surfing the net for an hour or so occasionally I thought the same. Snuggled in bed with hot water bottles and a thick winter duvet it is totally possible and my arms get a work out from a bit of typing. As much as I would love to, I do not write each piece in one go. I am thinking about it first during the day, later I type for about twenty minutes, it is fiddled and redrafted another time and uploaded another.
By finding a focus like this, something to occupy my mind other than the symptoms or frustrations of having this illness, I feel better able to float on through the difficulties and find triumphs and achievements.
So to the eggs and dishwashers: I have been writing like this since January and here is one of those pieces...
I cooked my own scrambled egg today- standing in front of the hob and stirring as I went, good achievement. To stand for 8 minutes without feeling dizzy or nauseous is quite a revelation. 3 minutes used to be too much, so did 30 seconds, just standing 4 months ago would have me falling over. Moving around the kitchen is getting easier too, with things in different cupboards (obviously!) opening one, turning round, walking across the kitchen, opening another, turning round, walking across the kitchen, stirring an egg, switching on a toaster, becomes like a merry-go-round; a pirouette without a focus point. I had abandoned all hope of ever doing anything helpful in the kitchen ever again and sat down on the chair for 2 minutes in between toaster, cupboard, sink etc. This is no longer necessary so often. It's still not great as I actually get out of breath when moving around the kitchen and still become dizzy sometimes, but just not as often. I look forward to regularly emptying the dishwasher. This used to be my Dad's job. When I was a child I would wake up most days and hear him downstairs emptying the dishwasher as his early morning chore. But to him it wasn't a chore, more a pleasure; a routine of regular movement; a symphony of clattering plates and cutlery. I want to be conducting that symphony every morning and start my day with a clatter!
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