Thanksgiving...Everyday!

This is a time of the year when I always reflect on my life. I had a birthday last week, and once again I am face to face with the idea that the years are adding up for me. Age is just a number, and people always say you are only as old as you feel. Today I am thankful to feel 68 because it's a whole lot younger than I felt when my chronological age was 66!

Exactly 2 years ago right now I was as sick as I had ever been. It was a series of ailments that was robbing me of any anticipation for the future. I had been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in 2007 which had escalated to the point that walking was painful. I had seen many doctors and undergone several types of treatment, all to no avail. Then just a few weeks before my birthday, I had finished off the last good I had in  my knees while in New England for our fall tour. The walking and the damp chill just did them in. Then, as a birthday present, I came down with a case of shingles. I had always thought of shingles as something minor, but not always. I had a major case of them. In all the years I had worked I never missed more than a couple days of work, but I missed 2 weeks with those shingles. I had also determined that gluten was a problem so was trying to avoid any gluten containing foods, but since I felt so terrible I was down to eating whatever I could find, when I felt like eating anything at all, most of it containing gluten. At this point my age was somewhere around 99!

This coincided with my retirement from my 20 years at the courthouse. I should have been excited for my future, but mostly I was just relieved not to have to get up and go to work every day! I saw very little hope for a busy and active retirement. I saw myself sitting in a rocker waiting to die. That was very discouraging, and when I look back I have to wonder how I survived the depression of this. I mostly have Mike to thank for his continual encouragement and support.

The shingles finally healed...mostly, and the knees have been replaced making walking now a pleasure rather than a torture and erasing any signs of RA. I was able to control the gluten intolerance by backing off on the carbs but still indulging occasionally (OK, more than occasionally!)

 

So at the age of 67 I was feeling much better although not completely. Exhaustion was a constant companion, but I assured myself that this was normal as I get older. Then last summer we spent a weekend camping with our good friends, Mike and Kim. Kim has struggled with many health issues and was so excited about her new Keto diet. She and Mike had been doing it for about 6  months and were seeing results. She spent the weekend convincing me that this would be good for us also. 

Mike and I talked about it and dabbled with it for a couple weeks, but had pretty much decided it was too hard. As we talked about some of our issues one day we made the decision to jump in and not look back. We were going to give it 6 weeks, until our shoot in Valentine which would be a good jumping off point if it wasn't working. Due to the busyness of that time and the lack of control we had over our menu, we ended up falling off the wagon, but we also felt the difference and were more than ready to get back on the program on Monday! And the improvements just keep coming. I have experienced about a 500% improvement in my exhaustion, plus I've lost about 10 lbs, which doesn't hurt anything!

So it's been 3 months now. It's still inconvenient and sometimes just not doable if you are away from home and not in control of the menu. And honestly, sometimes I am just hungry for carbs, which we occasionally indulge in. But for the most part we have been on the program. My cupboards look way different than they did in early August. My grocery list is a totally different list than before. I have haunted Pinterest for recipes and I now have a pretty impressive collection of Keto recipes...I mentioned the Keto bread recipe that worked out which is a red letter accomplishment! I will blog about Keto in a separate post.

So in light of my retrospection and in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I am so thankful to feel 68 rather than 100! I am able to do many of the things I had given up hope of ever being able to do. And even as I sit around the house feeling my Covid symptoms, I am not down and out. Pretty sure this would have mowed me down a couple years ago! 

So I give thanks for good health and good friends who will steer you in the right direction and a whole world of choices that I didn't have a couple years ago. I hope you too have many things you can give thanks for this year. Happy Thanksgiving!