Monthly Archives: March 2017

Christianity, Faith, Inspiration, Lupus, Motivation, Wellness

Discover The Power of Your Tongue

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When faced with challenging situations, how many of us have a tendency to quickly become overwhelmed and focus on how impossible things appear to be? *Clears throat—guilty! And this isn’t only true for major life situations. How about the small things? Like last night’s dinner perhaps…“Why is this jar impossible to open?! Mom! Help!” After a single attempt, I am filled with frustration because the jar fails to open when I want it to and immediately call for someone nearby to save me. I swear this happens every time! Unfortunately this time, no one was home, so I was forced to keep working at that jar until it finally budged. This got me thinking…we do similar things in big situations as well. After single attempts to accomplish a goal, if things fail to work out when or how we want them to, we call for rescue. In some cases we give up entirely.

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Diagnosis and Treatment, Inspiration, Lupus, Motivation, Wellness

Fight the Fog (Including 7 Strategies for Coping)

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Lately I’ve been noticing that I’m having a difficult time remembering information–dates, where i put things, tasks–and I’m a teacher! I’d write my to do list and lose it, commit to completing a task and forget its due date. Oh! Forget about the professional development meetings where I’d be asked to reflect on a lesson and have such a hard time remembering what I even taught! At first these occurrences seemed sporadic, then suddenly they became more and more frequent. I would laugh them off to hide the embarrassment, and in the back of my mind question what was happening to me.

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Food, Inspiration, Lupus, Motivation, Wellness

Pile ‘Em On!

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One of my absolute favorite foods to eat for breakfast is oatmeal! I just love the convenience of being able to quickly pop it in the microwave (instant) or letting it settle in warm milk for a few minutes, and having a warm and filling meal that’s easy to eat. In addition to convenience, oatmeal has many health benefits! Studies have shown that oatmeal can lower your risk for high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol!

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Diagnosis and Treatment, Food, Gluten, Inspiration, Lupus, Wellness

The Lupus Diet (as communicated by Dr. Axe)

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I found this amazing article written by Dr. Axe on the importance of making healthy dietary choices in  order to manage Lupus symptoms. He discusses everything from foods that we should and should not eat, as well as the benefits of making these choices. I am quickly sharing the most important information regarding foods that he recommends for Lupus patients, but if you’d like to read more on his insights, you can find the article here.

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Christianity, Faith, Inspiration, Lupus, Motivation, Wellness

5 Things That Made Me Smile This Week #2

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I think I’m going to start calling these weekly posts “Motivation Mondays”! It is so hard waking up on Monday mornings and I honestly see that I am finding solace in reflecting on my week at the start of a new one and just appreciating the blessings that I’ve received. This past week was a bit rough, but even in the midst of discomfort, I received multiple expressions of grace and memorable moments of happiness!

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Lupus

Follow My Blog on BlogLovin’

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<a href=”https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/18812633/?claim=szznvvhm782″>Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Faith, Inspiration, Lupus, Motivation, Wellness

Enough…

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As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, one of my current reads is The Resolution for Women, written by Priscilla Shirer. One of the topics that I recently read revolved around self-esteem and how we perceive ourselves as women. Many of us–let’s say the majority of us–struggle so much with understanding our self-worth and viewing ourselves the way He views us–as prized possessions that are invaluable. I reflected on this topic and realized that even with the utmost level of confidence, I too am guilty of failing to love myself how He loves me and believing that just by simply being me, I am enough.

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Diagnosis and Treatment, Food, Gluten, Inspiration, Motivation, Wellness

Veggie-Chicken Meal Prep? Yes, Please!

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It’s been one week since I’ve launched my meal prepping and I have to say that it was a success! It was so nice being able to go to my fridge and put together a well balanced meal in less than 10 minutes. Lunches were painless, as I usually substituted carbs for a garden salad using ingredients that I already had in my fridge. After deciding to prepare a single package of the ground turkey meat and prepping for 2, I had to start cooking again on Thursday, but I think that’s still pretty good! If you are only prepping for yourself, you should have definitely been good for the week!

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Diagnosis and Treatment, Food, Gluten, Lupus, Wellness

…But I Love It!!!

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Approximately a year ago, I made the decision to transition to a gluten-free diet. My logic? I’d done some research on the impact of gluten on patients who suffer with inflammation and the vast majority of what I’d found argued that individuals with autoimmune conditions should remove gluten from their diets. So naturally, in an effort to improve my health, that’s just what I did!

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Diagnosis and Treatment, Lupus

Imagine That…

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It’s happened guys. The dreadful taper. Following my visit with my rheumatologist yesterday, I was instructed to taper my steroid dosage. In previous posts, I mentioned how wonderful prednisone was at numbing Lupus related pain and fatigue. While many patients benefit from this relief, long term side effects of prednisone usage are known to create further health concerns later on in life. Because of this, doctors try their best to stabilize patient symptoms and remove prednisone from the list of medications being consumed daily. Starting last night, I reduced my dosage from 30mg twice per day to 20mg twice per day, and boy let me tell you, I am crashing. I woke up this morning feeling like I’d had the wind knocked out of me. Making it through today has definitely been a challenge in comparison to what I’ve been experiencing over the past week. It’s been quite some time since I’ve tried to taper down from my usual 9mg per day, so you can only imagine the confusion that my body is going through right now. I thought that things were getting better, and while my emotional state is much more stable, the discomfort that I currently feel is a reminder of my reality. A reality where I have minimal control and rely on medication to determine my abilities. Imagine that…

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©joezettesjourney/Mar2017