The Watch Pot Never Boils

I didn't get a chance to blog yesterday so this will make up for the last 2 days.  Warning, the pics do not show much prgoress yet. But I am still going to plug away.  I reread a chapter in the Dr Pagano book on feet and hands.  He dedicates a special chapter to these areas because they are harder to cure because they get abused the most.  He lays out some topical treatments thank I haven't tried yet. I will try to start that today.

My joints still feel good. My feet do feel fine.  I am able to walk without pain - I think the glycerin has really helped the skin to stay soft. And they don't itch.. that much.  I have noticed between 2-3 AM my hand and feet itch a little.  Enough to wake me up but I am a light sleeper. Why do they itch at this time?

Theory #1: This time is roughly 7-8 hours after my last meal.  My dinner should be in my large intestine at this time - maybe that is where the leak is?

Theory #2: My body temperture goes up a little from being under the covers. When I take my feet and hand out of the covers the itching is immediatly alleviated.

I state these things in case any one is experiencing similar symptoms.

I also must confess to some small diet cheats:
1. Friday night I had a little sugar in a lime-ade smoothie that I made.  I made it for a friend who came over, and I didn't want to be anti-social.
2. Saturday - Monday I did have some dark (70%) chocolate for dessert. 
3. I ate about 25 almonds Monday - then I read on inspire that almonds are bad for psoratics.  According to Dr Pagano almonds are ok - but not 25 in one sitting.  He suggests 4.  That seems very hard to do.

I also read on Inspire that I need to stop fretting every food choice I make - as that will cause stress and possibly make things worse.  Even as I look at my list of "cheats" they do not look that bad.

Here are the photos for Monday:

And the photos for Tuesday:

Weekend Catch up

I am feeling very good. As you may have read already I have evolved my diet to be "raw until dinner" which means I don't eat anything that has been cooked until it is time for dinner.  Again, this goes beyond what Dr Pagano puts in his book, but the more I read the more I think I am embellishing on his same theory of diet being important.

In this book called "the detox raw diet" that I have been reading, they state the importance of putting enzymes back into your system via raw foods to aid in digestion.  Today I also bought some probiotics.  I have bought them in the past but I am lazy when it comes to taking pills so they have all expired by now.

Last weekend I spent on the couch, because my feet hurt too bad to walk.  This weekend I cleaned my house for 3 hours, then went to the mall with my kids, then whole foods, then cooked a wonderful dinner.

This morning I made the entire family fruit smoothies with apples, pears, bananas, blueberries, and almond milk.  I think my son is having his own "detox flare" with all of this healthy food.  He went to the bathroom and has major tummy issues. 

My joints are still pain free.  I mean, as good as new pain free, so I am very happy about that.  As far as my skin is concerned…
I think the photos do not do them justice.  My hand looks a lot flatter with some smooth skin trying to come out. I want to point out that I covered my hand with a bandage and gloves while I cleaned yesterday. 
I also feel like my feet feel way better than they look.  So I think I am on to something here.
One final thing: even with all of these veggies and fruits, I am still not eliminating every day.  So I need to figure that out because I think that is a source of the problem.

Saturday -quick update

Hi all,
I will update my post later with pics but I am too lazy to open my laptop right now. My patches seem better but frankly in the photo they seem the same. No itching and no joint pain. Feet still look diseased.

I ate well today and I had a small bite of salmon. I made it for my family and I couldn't resist. I feel like I over ate tonight but other than that bite of fish, all I had was steamed veggies and a grilled portebello mushroom. Everything was very tasty but I am not sure if I was supposed to stay away from balsamic vinegar or not.

I also need to step up the water consumption.
Later

Are you sick of getting advice from everyone?

My neighbor stopped by the other day when I had my feet propped up on a pillow dripping with Glycerin oil.

"Ah, you know I had the same thing, I just put a little lotion and it went away".
Oh why didn't I think of that?

My neighbor is easy to dismiss, but what happens when your doctor dismisses your get well plan of detoxing and following a diet.  Seriously, they can be down right insulting. They say things like, "well you can try it if it makes you feel better, but their is no proven link between diet and psoriasis."

At this point you have to tap into your own common sense. If you have rashes all over your body it must be coming from within, right? I trust in myself, in the other good folks on Inspire that all agree that their Psoriasis cleared up a lot after they cleaned up their diet.  But it took time and patience.

I do have a "new" symptom that I have had from time from time.  The reason I am mentioning it here is because I saw a few people mention it on line.  The corners of my mouth get sore. It has never been a big deal and it usually goes away in a few days, but I wonder if this is another form of the flare up.

My diet goal these days are morphing and my goal now is to be raw until dinner.
Today I had my Slippery Elm tea - black coffee as usual.
I  had a fruit smothie (mango season is here!) mango, pineapple, banana, apples and coco milk with my Lecithin.
I had a few apples during the day then some almonds.
For dinner I plan on making a veggie soup and I will have that with a sweet potato.

I have been using Glycerin religiously. I think it has prevented my skin from cracking but so far no clearing.

Now I have to call my Doctor because she refusing to run a leaky guy syndrome test on me. She left a message that said ,"I see no evidence that we need to run this test."  I think the Drs hands are tied because they can only order tests that the insurance ok, and the insurance and the pharms are in bed together so... it is no problem to order cortisone shots, or steroids, but ordering a test is not allowed.

So even though I have "great insurance" if I am interested in healing holistically, I am on my own.  That can be a scary thought, but I feel like I have the good people at inspire backing me up on this.
Thank you again!

Week 3 is Over. No joint pain but skin worse.

If you have been keeping up with my progress you can see that my skin is redder than it was than before I started.  Yet I remain hopeful that I am on the same track.

I keep looking at the discussions on Inspire and I notice a theme of people that are scared to take certain medications, or they can no longer take them because they are causing other issues.  One thing is for sure - I am not nervous at all about going down this road.  I know that, if nothing else, this diet has to be good for my body. That piece of mind helps me continue to be positive.

Yesterday I treated myself to a massage and a spinal adjustment (per the book's recommendation) and I took a dead sea salt bath for about 30 mins.
Today my skin still is red but I walked more than I have in the past 2 weeks.

Last night I also started this book called The Raw Food Detox and was blown away by the information in there. If what I am reading is true, no wonder my digestive system is messed up.

I don't want to overwhelm you but here are my top 2 take aways that I am going to start doing from now on. 

• Fruit and/or fruit smoothies ONLY for breakfast.  No mixing it with oatmeal.
• No Fruit after that.

This morning I had:

• half a cup of black coffee (honestly I am ready to cut this completely, but my hubby makes if for me every morning and I don't want to turn it down.)
• Slippery Elm Bark drink - yuck!
• Fruit Smoothie - 1 pair, 2 apples, 1 banana, and some pinapple + Lecithin.

I know Dr Pagano says not to mix apples - but I didn't read any of that in the Detox book so I am going to let that go a bit.  It seems to hocus pocus for me.

For lunch I had salad from my jobs salad bar with olive oil and apple cider vinegar dressing.
For dinner tonight I will have a sweet potato and perhaps some carrot soup that I can make in my Vitamix.  (I will put some some more Lecithin in it)

Of course tonight I plan on having my saffron tea.


I am seriously considering investing in a juicer too.

Please leave me comments to egg me on...

now the pics!


 Here are the pics in case you are curious....

 

I can't deny - this is a flare! (apr 10)

Every morning I pull back the covers and rip off my socks like it is Christmas morning, hoping for some sign of healing.  Every morning I have been able to tell myself, "yea, I can see something clearing," but not today.

My left hand (which had been close to dormant since before I started this diet), is completely flared. I can't deny it any longer.

My feet have gotten worse. My Faith started to waver and I snapped some pictures.  Today I went back on the inspire site and read what other people experienced on the Pagano diet.  My good buddy (albiet virtual) Jitterbug was at the end of her rope with a flare at week 3.  She is now at week 8  and has cleared a lot. 
Jitterbug if are reading this please send some pics!
They say that week 3-5 can be the worse when it comes to flaring perhaps because all of the veggies is helping the intestines loosen up and get rid of old toxins? Who knows but I know that this flare is because of the diet, not because of the lack of steroid creams.

By June I will be at the 3 month mark and I hope to have clear skin, and at this rate, I will be a size 4! You know what that means...
Shopping!!!! :)

I always take these pics first thing in the morning because I find that the plaques look different all day depending on how much they have been rubbed, washed, etc.  I think they look the best in the morning, so see for yourself.  I am flaring.  Any words of encouragement would be appreciated.

Today my diet will look exactly like yesterdays - but I am asking the good people at inspire to share some of their favorite recipies with me.

Not as hungry as I used to be

I noticed that I am not as hungry as I was before I started this diet. In the past people would always make fun of me because I was always hungry. I mean Angry Hungry! I would have breakfast, lunch, snacks, dinner, dessert, and not get fat but always have an edge of hunger I was keeping at bay.

I worried about starting this diet because I thought I needed meat to stay full.  And frankly for the first few days I never had that FULL feeling that I was used to and liked. Now I feel like I am never FULL, but never really hungry either.  Why is that?

Last night I didn't itch - not like the night before - so that is progress, right? But the skin doesn't look any better in my opinion. Jitterbug on Inspire put up her week 8 progress so I am so stoked that she is making progress on what seems pretty simple if you think about it.  Eat better. Clean system.  She is about 5 weeks ahead of me.

I will put up daily pics as much as possible, because if someone else tries it and does not see results at first, I want them to know that it is ok.  The before and after pictures in Pagano's book are great but I would have like to have known more about the daily progress.

Food today:
Morning
1 cup of black coffee
1 cup of Elm Bark water

Mid morning
Smothie (banana, coconut milk, pair, Lecithin)

All day at work,
Saffron tea
lemon water
2 apples

Lunch,
Quinoa and brown rice with a whole avacado
Spinach salad with lemon

Dinner
Sweet potato
Green salad

Before bed
More saffron tea
Yogurt with blueberries

No Rabbit ears yet.