Step by step

 Week no. 2 (May 30-June 5)

Food: Stop drinking soft drinks

Exercise: Walk three times, swim three times

How did it go:

Food: I made some pretty bad decisions over the weekend:(

Exercise: I walked three times and swam three times

Plan for week no. 3 (June 6-June 13)

Food: Stop eat cookies and cakes

Exercise: Walk three times, swim three times

Step by step

When I got sick I thought it would be best for me to eat healthy food and stay away from process food, salt, wheat and sugar. I thought that after few weeks I would be come a healthy guru and wouldn't put anything inside my lips that weren't organic, healthy and good for my body. I got sick the year 2004, today is 2011 and I still struggle. I think it's time for me to give up! That is, accept that I will never become healthy guru that eats green smoothies for breakfast, vegan-raw lunch and small salad for dinner and loves every minute of it. I crave sugar, salt and unhealthy food. I also eat way to much food. Even though I'm full, I keep on eating. 

I need to accept that given the choice I will make bad choice for my body. So what can you do when you're not a health guru and just want to stuff your face with unhealthy food. Over the years I have tried variety of diets and "not a diet but a lifestyle change". I have been on raw food, detox, vegetarian diet, non-sugar diet, gluten-free diet. Some of the diets were actually pretty good and I felt better from the arthritis on them. However I never stick it out. It always end by me eating candy, cakes and drinking coke. 

When that happens I eat unhealthy food for a while and then I get back on the horse and try again. So here I go, again. 

Every time I fail, I try to do something different. The change I'm making now is doing simple things. I tend to swear to God that I will never, never again eat food with salt, sugar or wheat. At certain point in time I will only eat kale, spinach and coconut water. This time I'm not going to make promises like that. I think it's best to take it slow and steady. 

Week no. 1 (May 23-29)

Food: Stop eating candy and chips. 

How did it go? Total success. It was difficult and I wanted candy but I didn't have any.  

Exercise: Walking and swimming

How did it go? Total success. I walked three times for 40 minutes and I went swimming three times. 

Plan for week no. 2 (May 30-June 5)

Food: Stop drinking soft drinks

Exercise: Walk three times, swim three times

Exercise and Arthritis

It can be difficult to find appropriate exercise when you have arthritis. My first instinct when I got sick and starting to experiencing pain from arthritis was to stop exercising and rest. For several weeks I didn't exercise and rested a lot. I thought I would get better if my body would get enough rest. Sadly that didn't happened. So I started to exercise again but things had changed. What just to be good for me left me now in pain. For example before I got the arthritis I sometimes went hiking which gave me great pleasure. After I got arthritis, hiking leaves me unable to walk for week. Therefore it was necessary to find new exercise. It is very important to find a exercise that doesn't leave the body in worse shape then it was in before. I for instance have to be very careful of what type of exercise I do. If I would go running, my knees, hips and feet would cry for days. 

For me swimming has turned out to be the best exercise. In Iceland almost every place has a swimming pool. My husband and I are in Akureyri this week. The best thing about Akureyri is definitely the swimming pool. 

Few benefits of swimming

• good stamina training
• almost none pressure on joints 
• it's a exercise for the whole body
• excellent muscle training because of the water resistance 

Day 14, week no. 2

It's been two weeks since I started the blog, two weeks since I decided to eat healthy food for 30 days minus 4 candy-days. Week number two did not go as I planned. I didn't eat healthy food and I didn't exercise. I'm going to do better. 

Recap of the week

For four days, I ate unhealthy food

I ate good food for three days, sigh. 

I only walked twice this week

I bicycled twice

I never made it to the gym nor did yoga, not good at all.

I WILL do better next week

My husband and I spent the whole day at a coffee shop. I had white tea, it doesn't have a great taste but it's mild and suits the warm spring days, we're having now.  I made some progress on the I-Pad cover.

Arthritis blogs

I´m new to blogging, I´m new to exploring my disease. When I first got sick I just took my medicine and tried to exercised and eat healthy food. I did hardly any research on psoriasis arthritis. I think the main reason was that I was just so horrible sick that I needed all my energy to everyday tasks. I didn't have anything left for researching. 

This time is different. I'm not as sick so I have energy left to do the research. And this time I want to understand what is happening and what can I do to prevent the flares. I also want to interact with other people with arthritis and learn their strategy to deal with arthritis. Therefore I have spent last days exploring arthritis blogs. I have found quite few and I'm trying to pick some for a daily read. ANY RECOMMENDATION? I think I'm looking for blogs that are focused on ways to fight the arthritis because I have never given up the hope. I truly believe that it's possible to get rid of arthritis. I don't know how but at least I think I can make a difference. What I'm trying to say is that I want to fight back, I want to do everything I can to fight of the stupid arthritis. I want my life back.

Day 1

First day of my health challenge, 30 days to go. So far the day has been good and I'm sticking to the plan. 

For breakfast I had delicious raw oat meal. I got the recipe from Ani's Rwa Food Essentials.  I LOVE this recipe, it's so easy to make and good. My husband use to cook for us oatmeal in the morning but after whole winter of traditional oat meal, I needed something new. I don't think that I could survive another winter of just plain oat meal. Luckily I don't have to eat the traditional version any longer.

I woke up rather late to day. I'm taking medicines for my anxiety and it is just crazy how much sleep I need know. I think I sleep like three hours more when I'm on them. My husband and I went to the gym which was almost empty because of the spring break. I like it when the gym is slow, you don't have to any waiting. I did weight lifting, I absolutely love weight lifting. I can't wait when I can lift 40 lb. Now I use 2,5lb and 5lb weights, it's not much but it is only the beginning.  I have to be very careful when I'm in the gym because if I do to much I'm out for the next days. Hopefully I will be way better after 30 days of healthy lifestyle. 

Yesterday my husband made a dish from our favorite cookbook, Madhur Jaffrey Indian cooking. It was simple but good. When I was growing up we had potatoes every single day so when I started cooking on my own, potatoes aren't my first choice.  But these babies are nothing like the boiled one I had when I was young.

I'm feeling positive that I will stick to the plan rest of the day

We see what happens

Exercise plan

For the first week I would like to bicycle for 30 minutes three times, walk for 20 minutes twice, do elliptical three times for 6 minutes, do yoga exercise twice, do home aerobic twice and do weight lifting three times. 


Since I have been exercising for the last month, I'm not afraid it's to much.

Friday: weight lifting, elliptical
Saturday: walk, yoga
Sunday: bicycle, home aerobic
Monday: weight lifting, elliptical
Tuesday: bicycle, walk, yoga
Wednesday: weight lifting, elliptical
Thursday: bicycle, home aerobic