Folks might think that Paleo deprives you around the holidays.  It can, if you let it.  I didn’t.  With a bit of prep (ok, quite a bit of prep, but hey, we all cook a lot around the holidays), we ate VERY well.

Breakfast:

• Banana pecan pancakes with cranberry maple syrup (100% pure maple syrup with some whole berry, non-corn syruped cranberry sauce mixed in/heated)
• Tea

Snacks:

• Meat candy, from Everyday Paleo cookbook
• Candied bacon

My first attempt at candied bacon. You can use brown sugar or maple syrup, cinnamon, and cayenne pepper. Yum!

Lunch/Dinner/Whatever That Big Christmas Meal is Called:

• Turkey
• Paleo stuffing
• Mashed sweet potatoes (Grandma’s modified recipe boiled/mashed sweet potatoes with a little coconut milk and cooking sherry)
• Homemade applesauce (I was a bit too heavy on the cloves this year.)
• Homemade cranberry sauce
• Broccoli
• Paleo Gingerbread from Paleo Indulgences cookbook

Dessert:

• Whoopie pies
• Skinny mint cookies, from Paleo Indulgences cookbook

One of the best Paleo inventions ever. Made them last Christmas too!

Yeah, the whole thing was a bit heavy on the sugar side, but dang, it’s Christmas, and it was yummy, and I don’t pretend to be perfect all the time!

I’ve been hearing and reading a lot lately about the benefits of tumeric.  I am not a fan of the seasoning in any way, shape, or form.  People I hear from who have had good luck with it for RA say it needs to be taken with a fat source.  I’ve tried it with some coconut milk (like a tablespoon downed really fast).  I think I’m going to need to try this though….

http://www.elephantjournal.com/2013/11/drink-hot-turmeric-milk-stay-healthier-this-winter/

I had a follow up appointment after my elbow injection a few weeks ago.  Elbow is slightly better, and a lot better at night.  Range of motion is about the same.  There may be a slight improvement, but not enough to really notice.

Did I mention I love my rheumatologist?  We spoke about a year or more ago about the possibility of my decreasing or going off Enbrel.  For now, I’ve decided to stay on it, but around July, I began stretching out my shots.  Today was the first time I told him I had started this.  He was completely supportive, describing the potential risks and benefits.  It was perfect.  Anyway, he’s going to officially lower my prescription dose to one 25 mg shot per week (down from 2 per week).  Currently I am taking a shot about every 10-11 days, but 11 seems to be pushing it.  My fridge is starting to overflow with Enbrel, so I need to stop getting so much.  But there may be times I need more.  We’ll see how this works out.

Cool thing #2.  It was a bad RA week.  I mean BAD.  The worst I’ve had since starting Paleo, even worse than my ibuprofen incident. I called in sick to work on Monday.  I’m sure I must have eaten something I shouldn’t have over the weekend.  I’m not quite sure when or what (there were plenty of opportunities to screw up with holiday parties).  I think stress may have also played a role, as that was through the roof this week.  Anyway, it occurred to me that even during this bad week, I don’t think I was any worse than on a typical day pre-Paleo.  I had just forgotten what it felt like to feel so crappy.  I was so cold and achy all over.  Eeeeks.  Anyway, I’m on the mend, getting a little better each day.  I took my shots back to 7 days (not all the way back to 3.5 days, but down from 10).  A couple more days, and I think I’ll be back to normal again.  I never lost functionality, which was great, but I was a bit weak.  So here’s the cool part:  I told this to my rheumatologist, and he didn’t freak out.  He looked me over.  I wasn’t too awfully bad.  Stay the course, and life goes on.  I LOVE it!