By I started to make health and wellness a priority, again, on May 4th. I know it is a lifelong process. It is more complicated for me due to my condition. Frustration can easily set in. Bad habits are easy to fall into as well. Companies make junk food taste good. As I started going back to basics for myself: less processed food, more: fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean meat, less caffeine before sleep, cut way down on soda (in Georgia we refer to all sodas as coke), less sugar, continue to be mindful of salt (Mama cannot have a lot of salt for medical reasons).
I find I do not crave processed food nearly as much as I did before. My body cannot handle a lot of preservatives on the market, in processed food, to begin with. It is not a CP thing. That fact is a me quirk. I must read the labels. The more real ingredients in something the better my body handles it. Exercise is critical to keeping my tone spikes at a minimum. For those who are not aware: I have spastic quadriplegia cerebral palsy. Essentially this means I have excess muscle tone in my body. Experiencing strong emotions (good and bad) makes my muscles tighten in all of extremities. Exercising makes my muscles tire which greatly reduces tone spikes for me. To say exercise is important is an understatement for me. Eating better and exercising led to a couple of really happy developments I want to share.
A little explanation is necessary before going further. I order most of my clothes and shoes online. This is for CP related reasons. Most stores do not have wide width shoes in stock. I must have wide width shoes to fit comfortably over my leg braces. Most store dressing rooms are not suitable for physically challenged people, either. Most dressing rooms are too small to get any sort of adaptive equipment in and have privacy, or they do not have any grab bars. Many times, it is both problems.
I say all that to get here: I ordered myself some new shorts from Land’s End and went down a size given how well made their clothes are generally. Y’all, they fit and well. If I could have jumped up and down without falling, I so would have. Health and wellness for me has little to do with size, but I will take the smaller size with glee. My health and wellness journeys are about feeling better. I do. They are also about easier and better movement. I can stand for much longer periods and move much easier, now. I will keep going. I will share updates as I keep working on my health and wellness journeys.
