July 16, 2007

I took my "before" pictures today. They will remain on this site until this site dies. Aren't they awful? But that's how I look every day!

I added some links too. I'm not on Weight Watchers, but I do get help from them a lot. I have been on the plan before, and it worked when I stuck to it. I may go back to it once I get myself to eating better in general. The Fibromyalgia Network is also a helpful link, because having FM really affects my life all the way around. And Richard Simmons, that just goes without saying. I might join his Clubhouse even.

Let's talk about Fibromyalgia. I'm in a lot of pain and tired today. The weather is wanky, I'm dehydrated and I ate too much sugar, on top of stress and not enough sleep. Every muscle and joint in my body hurts. My vision is blurry and I'm so tired I cant' think. It's not always that bad. But I do always hurt in my legs, back and arms, and I'm always at least a hint of tired. Those are good days. The tricky bit about FM is that no one really knows what causes it or why it happens, and there is no cure. There is no one treatment, and most of the treatments that are out there barely help the symptoms. I'm on sleep medication, which helps me sleep obviously. But it's still not good enough sleep, and it doesn't help the pain.

The good news is that one surefire way to treat FM is a healthy diet and regular, low impact exercise (stretching is good--that's why I enjoy Pilates). Of course, it's very hard to will yourself to exercise when it hurts, and to cook healthy when you're too tired to fix a bowl of cereal. That's why a lot of FM patients are overweight. I can do it!