Went to a Supermarket this morning, not fun at all!

I started on the Paleo diet last friday 2012-3-9, I received my first "Paleo Shop" of recommended "foods" on that date, of course I made some small mistakes in choosing some items, apparently if you want to lose weight quickly or have an autoimmune disease, they suggest not to eat any fruit or nuts, anyway I didn't get discouraged, I just looked over the food lists again and made my next order for this coming Friday.

The main thing is that I haven't consumed any sugar, or any crap food like lollies, sweets or candy, I also haven't consumed any milk or bread, this really is quite amazing for me not to be eating those types of foods, I'm also having breakfast everyday since I started, although on the Paleo diet it is suggested that you eat when hungry and pretty much eat as much as you like, I'm usually hungry in the morning so I have breakfast, another thing I rarely did was eat breakfast in the past.

Quite a few of the websites I looked at were not Australian based, which makes it a little more difficult when working out what things you are allowed to eat on Paleo, so I started creating a page about the Paleo diet in Australia, with some links to a couple of great Australian based web sites and great International sites as well. This page I created is a work in progress and by no means definitive as I am new to all of this Caveman eating myself, I will leave that up to others, but it is something I can refer back to when confused or unsure, have a look if you are interested :)

Paleo Diet and Lifestyle Information

I have noticed that I am not feeling as hungry during the day and am enjoying eating whole foods again and it's not that difficult to stick to so far, hopefully I don't get bored with it all. I don't have scales to weigh myself and I like it that way in all honesty, as I'm doing a Multiple Sclerosis drug trial at the moment I get weighed and have blood tests on a monthly basis, so I won't know if I have lost any weight until the end of this month, much better than me having the scales weighing myself everyday and getting disappointed if it doesn't look like my weight is changing or I gain a bit, but seriously I doubt I will put weight on with this diet.

I usually order most of my food on line, this morning I went to my local Safeway supermarket, I just wanted to get some chicken breasts and some frozen veggies, three or four items to keep me going until I get my next food delivery, I hadn't set foot in a big Supermarket for quite a while and my visit today didn't make me feel like I was missing anything, in fact it just made me realise how they suck you in to buy crap you don't actually want or need, I left thinking there is not a lot they can offer me anymore I only need to go there for meat and veggies and butter and paleo approved "oils" for cooking, not much else at all. Buying food on line enables me to choose what I want without being subjected to all those supermarket tricks that they try on the consumer, I went in with tunnel vision, got what I wanted, paid for it and left.

I will stick to ordering on line and investigate the fruit and vegetable shops around my area, unfortunately the good old aussie butcher shops seem to be few and far between these days so that may prove a little more difficult, the butcher shops around me don't sell pork, not that I eat a lot of pork anyway but it's nice to have a variety of meat available, I do like Bacon though and it seems many Paleo diet people eat Bacon, there is a god lol. I have a feeling though I may become a vegetarian if I'm not careful :)

Anyway I'm off to have breakfast, I'm really hungry!

Going Caveman - Paleo Diet

Back to basics

I have been interested in the Paleo diet for quite a while now, unfortunately because of laziness and being quite busy pre 2012, I just never got around to really taking a good look at it. I had watched some vids on youtube that explained the more technical side of things, but never got around to finding out what exactly you should eat, how much and how often, I never took the time to find the information I needed to do this on a daily basis.

I don't drink alcohol unless it's to make someone else feel better about their own drinking problems, it's so sad watching drunks drink alone, especially when you're in the same room as them lol.

I don't smoke "tobacco" anymore (see what I did there), but I still get a nicotine fix from electronic cigarettes, I am working on cutting that down as well, it's a slow process.

I do drink lots of milk though, the funny thing is I was lactose intolerant as a baby, but I definitely grew out of that, I guess I have been making up for lost time since I was a baby lol. I particularly like "Iced Coffee" more than I do hot coffee only having the hot version when needing a real pick me up or it was the only version available and no I have never drank those caffeine energy drinks and never will, not for my generation thanks, well not for me anyway.

I had pretty much given up red meat and mainly eat fish or chicken, not that I would ever refuse bacon, didn't eat it on a regular basis, but it sure does taste good.

So now the time has come to really look into the Paleo diet, they say what you eat could make a difference with your Multiple Sclerosis and how it progresses, I'm not sure about definitive proof, but many seem to think diet could be part of the problem when it comes to autoimmune diseases. The funny thing is I was probably closer to eating a Paleo type diet before I was diagnosed, lots of meat and I always had some vegetables as I quite like them, haven't been a big fruit consumer lately either. Having said that, I was definitely eating things that aren't allowed on the Paleo diet as I have now found out.

I'm hoping a Paleo diet can help me lose some weight and benefit my Multiple Sclerosis as well. I've always been a bit of "two birds with the one stone" kinda guy, so I am starting my Paleo diet journey to see if I get any benefit from it.

Here are two links which are a great start, the first is

Paleo 101

http://paleodietlifestyle.com/paleo-101/

the second is

Paleo diet food list

http://paleodietlifestyle.com/paleo-diet-food-list/

Here is that sites Google+ page if you G+ people are interested

https://plus.google.com/u/0/112800333961921511492

I have taken the first steps, I ordered some of the food I need for the Paleo diet, but not all yet as I am still reading up on what I can have and what I can't have. I haven't drank milk for three days, big deal you say, I would agree with you, though you need to realise I was a very big Milk drinker, I can feel my body craving the milk and the coffee. I am going to ease into it as well, I'm not going to throw away food when there is people starving and it should be easier to make the transition whilst finishing food I already have.

If you're interested at all, those links above are a great start, there are also many recipes on that site as well, it's well worth a look. I'm sure there are other great resources around as well and I will link to them as I find them, you need to start somewhere and I'm glad I was directed to that site at the start.

I really want to give this a good go, so I will be updating my progress regularly as I can and if I have something new to say, amongst other ramblings of course!

:)

I needed time to heal

OzMS Logo

 I was getting many emails from people asking why they couldn't join OzMS, I finally wrote a very brief explanation for those who were not regular visitors or are new visitors to the site.

It took me a while to write this as I needed time to calm down and think about things, I was very disappointed that I had to close OzMS indeed I was quite angry, I knew I couldn't write the text below while I was feeling the way I was. Anyway I am now at peace with the decision I had to make for my own sanity and health, I know I did the best that I could.

For those who read this and wouldn't have a clue what OzMS was, it was a Multiple Sclerosis Peer Support Community, it ran for about five years I guess, it was predominately Australian based but we had quite a few International members as well, it was quite popular for a niche site of it's type, so it took a couple of months to write the following on the front page.

The explanation!

I thought I better get around to writing something on the front page of OzMS, I want to make this brief but I have a feeling it won't be :)

OzMS only ever had one owner, one technical guy, one article writer, one information writer, and much more, everything that happened on the site from a management perspective was down to one person, I also had to teach people how to use their computer as well at times. I naively thought, as time went on, I was bound to find someone who had the skills I required to help me with running this site on a day to day basis, although I had one offer to take the site over it didn't seem that serious an offer, that was quite a while ago now so it's irrelevant to this text, suffice it to say I needed someone who could visit daily, in fact be the type of person that was online at the computer doing whatever else they did but checked in to OzMS regularly during the day.

I had some good moderators, but I needed dialogue from them as to what was going on with the site, what they were doing, what they were editing and why so we could all be on the same page as far as moderation tasks went, it rarely happened, so when disgruntled members would occasionally take issue with some moderation decisions I could have give them an answer and explain why their post was deleted or edited, I was in the dark, it was very frustrating. I was laughed at when I said we need a minimum of about ten moderators, moderators that actually checked the site and fixed things instead of leaving it up to others, usually me, alone.

I would even go as far as ringing people who needed help, I went above and beyond for OzMS, it didn't seem to make a great deal of difference, I once again naively thought that people would understand that I was working behind the scenes so hard to make OzMS a worthwhile place to visit and receive peer support from members who were going through exactly what they were, I hoped people would be motivated from my lead, we would often have new members joining and asking heaps of questions but when they had every question answered they were never to be seen again unless they had more questions of course.

OzMS was a niche site it was never going to be anything else, it needed members to return and help with the peer support, helping to answer members questions, a small percentage did more than enough, but of course people get burned out answering the same questions over and over again, we had two ways you could search OzMS, the in built site search and Google search, I'm not exactly sure how often they got used.

The main problem though was I needed another technical person to help with the backend tasks, as my MS progresses albeit slowly, luckily, I was finding that the old brain was not as easily able to process problem solving, hours of reading to find how to fix Database errors, backing up the site regularly, I needed someone a lot smarter than me at the very least a consultant for want of a better word to help with the problems I just couldn't get my head around. I am positive this would be very little work for someone who had the skills, I did ask anyone who mentioned they had an IT background if they would be interested in helping, alas, I had no positive offers of help, that's life I don't blame anyone, but still, it is a shame.

If you really want something to work, join in, help out, be a part of the solution, don't be a part of the problem, so that's a very brief explanation and really I am over it, I was extremely disappointed at times with people and my own failings, but I take comfort in the knowledge that some people really did their best to help out and that OzMS was very helpful for some members and they appreciated the support they received by returning and helping other members with their problems and questions.

Personally I will concentrate on my health and writing the odd blog, OzMS may continue, but only as an information site about Multiple Sclerosis.

Let's hope for a Multiple Sclerosis Cure soon!

Time for an Upgrade

I bought a new graphics card and LED Monitor, I received them yesterday, this isn't a technical or user review, it's more about being dependent on the Internet and technology when you have MS or any disability.

I know a fair bit about computers, I build my own when I need to upgrade, although my eye problems and numb hands do make that task a little more difficult these days, still, I muddle through, haven't blown anything up....yet. The need for this latest unexpected upgrade started with the Monitor taking about ten minutes to get a signal to display my desktop in all it's glory, very frustrating lol.  I did my usual research thanks to google, but there were so many variables of what it could be, being a Linux desktop user adds a little more frustration to the diagnosis process, the old grey matter isn't helping either.

I knew the problem was either the Monitor or the Graphics Card, now in the past I would have possibly borrowed a Monitor (I used to have heaps of old CRT monitors not anymore) but now that I don't drive much anymore, traffic and idiots on the road freak me out and we don't need another idiot on the road, so I order most things online which is handy, but I knew it was one or the other, not both the Monitor and Graphics Card. One of them was on the way out, I did know that lol. All I knew is that I had to be able to use my computer so I needed to get the parts I needed to get.

It did get me thinking of how much I depend on having access to the net and a working computer. I like desktops, I like storage and I like to be able to fix things myself, I don't like having to pay someone for something I should be able to do myself and let's face it because I am working on something I own I find I often do a far better job than some overpaid "genius" who really doesn't give a shit about you or your problem, well except for the dollars they will earn.

I find this to be one of the most frustrating issues I have with this bloody disease, relying on others, I want to control my own destiny, I'm in my 40's FFS these kind of issues are meant to be happening as you get to retirement age, the body is slowing down the eyesight is getting worse naturally, not because of some sucky disease you have, I'm not ready to be 70 yet, but MS makes me feel old, but it's not just a feeling, the facts are, physically and mentally I am getting older than I actually am, thanks MS, you really do SUCK!

I'm the son of a builder and a mechanic, there aint much I don't know how to do, practical things that is, things that all men used to know how to do, now I feel like I don't have a lot to offer, I never paid for much at all in the past, lots of back scratching, I was a commodity, worth something to some people, now I'm not so sure.

I realise I am luckier than some though it really doesn't make my outlook on my own problems easier to handle, it makes me feel sad that others go through what I do and worse.

I need access to the net at almost any cost, it gives me a window to the world!