Spring Break!

We are all so thankful we made it to Spring Break!  We have a playdate/sleepover planned with friends for the girls and a week of going at a slow pace...except for me, maybe.  I'm busy working on the house and planning, but it's all what I want to be doing -so we're good!

It was exciting to see our oldest's cholesterol levels significantly lowered at her check up. (she inherited the high good-bad cholesterol levels that run in our family)  She dreads the yearly blood draw, but it was so good to see the results.  She hasn't focused on her diet all year and it went down by a lot!  I attribute it to our diet (mainly low carb and less eating out).  The doctor says it is also in part due to her age and growth.  Kids her age tend to see their cholesterol dip in these early teen years, so we'll keep a yearly eye on how she's doing.

The Keystone Approach book came in and I read the majority of it in 2-3 days.  My brain was overwhelmed with the amount of information, but I was so motivated to learn that I didn't want to take a slower pace.  I took pages of notes and learned quite a lot about what foods help/hurt individuals who have arthritis and the science of why these foods react those ways.  She gives a lot of helpful tips and hints, but not a specific diet to follow.  I appreciate that because I always feel so skeptical of people who say that a specific type of diet is the "be-all, end-all" of ways to go.

She acknowledges that a low starch/carb diet is very helpful and gives ways to help achieve the best results possible.  So my take-away from her book is learning some good specific ways to tweak our current way of eating to help my husband's health.  I'm going to be decreasing nightshades, increasing cruciferous vegetables and antioxidant fruits, adding a fish oil supplement and vitamin D3 supplement, adding collagen peptides, and we'll try her suggested blend of probiotics -something that has been a hit or miss type thing with other AS sufferers in our FB group.  I found it interesting that many fermented foods are not helpful for those with arthritis.  That's part of why I really liked this book.  Foods that are beneficial for many people, are not as beneficial for those fighting an auto-immune disease.  Many of the Paleo Auto Immune Protocol recipes are a good match or simple to tweak for the foods she suggests.  PS. Most of the supplement tweaks are specifically for my hubby, they are a bit on the pricy side!

I'm hopeful that my hubby will not only see relief from his current symptoms -oh, and I nearly forgot!  He was diagnosed with an ID allergic reaction to his HRT patches, so it is NOT psoriasis, praise the Lord!!!  I am hoping he will see an overall increase of feeling better with less pain and fewer flare ups.