Toward the end of August, I started noticing that my arthritis pain was getting more frequent and intense. The following month of September was pretty much a series of flareups that killed my mood to blog. If it wasn’t my fingers or wrists, it was my ankles, knees, elbows, or shoulders. Actually, it was so bad this time around that even my hip joint hurt. Two of those flareups were caused by significant dips in atmospheric pressure, so it had absolutely nothing to do with the foods I ate. The most recent flareup was so bad that Ken had to help me shower because I couldn’t bend my right elbow.

Fasting helped for a while, but then I noticed my body was burning through its meager stash of vitamins and minerals and I wasn’t feeling so great. As a result, my intermittent fasting is currently on hold while I’m making an effort to eat meals that (1) avoid sugar, gluten, and milk, and (2) contain good fats, protein, and spinach. I was going to say leafy greens there but in reality, spinach is the only dark leafy green that I actually like. I’m also taking Vitamin D3 (2,000 IU) and Magnesium Complex supplements. So far, I’ve noticed that the intensity and frequency of my pain have significantly lessened. The only major factor that’s left for me to correct now is making sure I get at least 7 hours of sleep each night, which is proving difficult for me. I’ll think about exercising once this pain is under control.

On the plus side, because I fasted a lot during September, I managed to lose a good chunk of weight. As of October 4 at 7am, I weighed 125lbs, which is a total of 26.2lbs lost since April 2019. I’m almost at my happy weight range of 110-115! I swear the remaining ten pounds is in the spare tire hanging at my midsection.