Friday, April 25, 2014

High Five For Friday

1) My Polar FT4 heart rate monitor came in! Ahahahahaha I'm so excited! I've been making progress with my health goals by eating clean and just recently started working out at Planet Fitness with my friend. We've been going at 6 in the morning. This is an amazing feat for me because I am definitely NOT a morning person and I am convinced that it is due to the eating clean. I mean I pop out of bed at 5:20 am with nary a sigh whereas before it was hard for me to wake up at my normal 7am. My first time working out I ran 2 miles right off the bat. It just blows my mind what healthy eating can do. ANYWAY, I really wanted to have an accurate reading of how many calories I was burning and when/if I was in my fat burning zone and this really does the job! It's just one more thing keeping me motivated and I can use all the motivation I can get!

2) It was a good mail week and also a testament to my spending this month (yikes!) but anyway my Jamberry order arrived this week as well! I've seen a lot of pictures on IG lately showing off peoples "jamicures" and I was itching to try them. I was invited to an online party by a friend who started selling them and promptly put my order in (it was a sign right? Hmmm). The thing I'm most excited about is using them on my toes. I can never keep up with my toe nail polish and I hate when it looks all chipped but it's the last thing I ever feel like doing. These are supposed to last up to 6 weeks on your toes so I'm set for the entire summer! 
3) I'm wanting to finally make our backyard a place I want to spend time in. It's not terrible but it's just...not done. It's been on the back burner since we moved here and I'm in DO mode!  I've recently organized the hall shelf, purged and cleaned the basement, and cleaned out my closet donating 12 bags of stuff. Time to tackle the outside! We raked all of the leftover leaves this week for a start and I've been planning a few changes as well. I really wanna focus on gardening this year so were wanting to make a few raised beds, plant a cherry tree ( we planted a peach two years ago), plant a few raspberry bushes and just do some minor pretty-ing. Nothing major just little touches. I'm excited that we finally got started!
4) Me and hubby had a lovely spur of the moment date night this week! I got sent home early this week from work and we decided to make the most of it. I donned my new $5 sandals (oh yeah!), we went to our favorite mexican restaurant, meandered around Barnes & Noble, and grabbed yogurt town afterwards. Lovely, lovely. 

5) My friend loaned me Divergent and I'm probably more excited than I should be. That is all. 

Hope you had a great week!


Easter

I had a wonderful Easter! My family were all in Wisconsin this year to see my baby sister Bliss' church program so me and my husband spent the day with his family. The day started with me working nursery for our church's first service then me and Josh enjoying the second one together. I am so thankful for the time to truly reflect and rejoice in what Christ has done for us and to remember that no matter what season of life we are in, that we are blessed because we are His! Hallelujah! 

From there we went home to finish cooking and preparing the food we were taking to Mama Kay and Papa Eddie's (my in laws). His mama was feeling a little bit under the weather so my sister in law and I decided to make everything and bring it to her home. I made the ham, a green bean casserole, and this AMAZING lemon pie. It's definitely on my top 10 favorite desserts. I'm one of those chocolate is the only worth while dessert kind of people so that's saying something. 
Aaaaanyway, we had a lovely day together just laughing and enjoying each other's company. 

Later that evening  me and Josh had leftovers, ate goodies out of the Easter basket we made for ourselves (that's right, the cadburys come but once a year), and watched the Easter Parade. Perfection. Hope everyone had a lovely weekend!


Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Health & Hope


This post is a kinda-sorta follow up to my last. At the risk of sounding like an 80 year old lady,  I’m going into detail on a lot of the health issues that I’ve been dealing with. I do this in the hopes of encouraging others in their journey to a healthier lifestyle and to simply say that you are not alone. As you can see in my previous post, the road to diagnosis can be a scary one. I am thankful for the opportunity to share my story and to turn fear into hope.

I have had chronic back pain since the age of 9. I can remember sitting in my 3rd grade classroom rubbing my upper back to ease the pain that resulted from (I'm assuming) the unusually small chairs we had to use. We were using a preschool room at this point because my very small school had to utilize the space it had. I can remember going to the pediatrician but not receiving an answer other than growing pains. The pain continued and got worse and worse as time went by. I still have it today. The only way I can describe it is this: Imagine an intense aching and tightness throughout your upper back and shoulders and neck. You go to rub it to ease the pain but you can’t. The skin and muscle that surrounds this area is numb. You have to pinch until your fingers shake to feel and relief and that is short lived because your hands ache from trying. And there it is. Over the years I have identified what makes it flare up or worsen and have adjusted accordingly. It’s still there but I can control it to an extent. What I’ve been describing is fibromyalgia. I was diagnosed when I was 19 although I knew from around age 14 I’d say. Both my mom and grandma have it so it was pretty easy to diagnose. I’ve noticed it had worsened this year. I now have what feels like a tooth ache on both my hips if I sit for more than 10 minutes.

The other health issue I’ve been struggling with has been a Candida overgrowth. It started about 3 years ago. A Candida overgrowth occurs when the good bacteria in your body loses to the bad. This can be the result of too many antibiotics which wipe out the good bacteria along with the bad as well as just an imbalance in your gut due to diet. Candida feeds on sugar and I have definitely not been abstaining from it. When Candida takes over your gut It’s not pretty. I’ve dealt with psoriasis, chronic yeast infections, and an overall feeling of lethargy on a regular basis for quite a while now.

The way this ties in to my previous post is the diagnosis I was given. PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome), Insulin resistance, and Hidradenitis Suppurativa (infected lymph nodes). A lot of the symptoms that I was experiencing from these conditions were what pointed me to breast cancer. Now that I know that this is not the case I am both relieved and determined. I found out from my doctor that the sugar levels in my body were messing with my hormones, causing the PCOS. My sugar levels were obviously causing my insulin resistance as well, which causes its own round of symptoms. High sugar levels can also contribute to the frequency of hidradenitis suppurativa because of the havoc it reeks with the hormones.

Since finding out about the PCOS I’ve been on two prescriptions. The first cause so much damage to my stomach that I am no won medications for acid reflux disease. YA THINK I SHOULD QUIT THE SUGAR?!?!?!Doesn’t take much to figure out huh? But it’s hard. Like HARD. At least for me it is. I eat and love a lot of healthy foods but I’ve always had a sweet tooth. But…so what? SO WHAT?! I mean look at the damage I’ve allowed to happen to my body in the name of satiating a sweet tooth! I’m 26 and have more wrong with me than some people twice my age. Enough is enough!

 
I know what I need to do, honestly I’ve known for a while. My grandma and mom have practically begged me to clean up my diet, both having experienced firsthand the terrible results. Whole foods, no sugar. That’s what I need to do. But saying and doing are two very different things. Prayers would be appreciated as I start this journey to better health. Honestly, I don’t know everything about my health issues and I suppose some things could be out of my control but I want to take control of what I can and not be run by my emotions. My body is a temple of the Holy Ghost and I need to start treating it as such. I know this is something that God wants me to do and that He will give me the strength to accomplish. I will be documenting my progress on Instagram  @brittainytanner using the hashtag #brittainygetsfit if you want to follow along. And please don’t hesitate to ask questions, share your story, etc.! Do you have any of the same health hang ups as me? Are you on a health journey of your own? I’d love to hear about it!

Love & Prayers,

Brittainy