Monthly Archives: May 2011

Disability, Exercise, Fatigue

MS to 5K?

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I’d give anything to run again. Not that I was a runner… ever… but I was able to run once a long time ago.  I also used to dance and workout regularly.

Now, I just want to be able to even speed walk without limping.  I have good days and bad.  My good days are awesome and I can jog a little.  I even started participating in Zumba classes on Mondays, where I last about 15-20 minutes before my left leg starts to give out.  But then I have bad days sometimes where I am limping after just a few minutes of walking.  I am wondering if I should just keep pushing through these “bad” days and just keep walking (or limping) my way to running a 5K one day.  I mean, you’d think that if I’d keep up with it that eventually my left leg would play nice and get strong enough to allow me to be as active as I want to be.

MS to 5K, or rather Couch to 5K, seems to be something that’s been running (pun totally intended) through my head lately.

Disability, Gluten-free, Nutrition

Going Gluten-free

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I remember writing this on Facebook, May 10, 2011: “I have officially been gluten-free for 14 hours (had a danish for breakfast – bad me). I guess that’s good, right? It’s kinda like quitting smoking. I feel I should have one of those timer things, showing how long I have successfully gone gluten-free. I really hope this improves my well-being and health.”

It’s actually not too bad if you go slow, meal by meal. I am trying not to overwhelm myself with thinking about cooking gluten-free just yet. So far I am just going with the basics and buying a few gluten-free snacks to help between the meals. I actually found a fabulously yummy double chocolate brownie cookie which rocks!

My suggestion is to keep it simple at first… I bought gluten-free white bread for my sandwiches, and I am eating that while I am playing around with the baking part. Also, potatoes and rice are gluten free… add some chicken and veggies and you’ve got a simple gluten-free dinner. Fruity Pebbles is Gluten-free, so now I have another breakfast choice along with my yummy banana bread. I love salads – and all I am giving up are my croutons. I just finally decided to get focused and go step-by-step, meal-by-meal… I just packed my lunch for work, and got to put potato chips (yes, lots of chips gluten-free! Yummy!) and yogurt in my bag.

Nutrition

Gluten-Free Banana Bread

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My version of this banana bread is indeed gluten-free,
but it does have dairy and eggs.

Ingredients:

1  1/2  cups gluten-free all-purpose flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour)

1  teaspoon baking soda

1/2  teaspoon salt

1/4  teaspoon cinnamon

1  teaspoon xanthan gum (I again used Bob’s Red Mill Xanthan Gum)

3  medium sized over-ripe bananas (just over 1 cup when mashed)

1/2  cup lowfat buttermilk**

3/4  cup sugar

2  eggs (warmed close to room temperature)

1  teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2  cup canola oil

1/2  cup chocolate chips (optional)

Recipe:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Mix together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and xantham gum in large mixing bowl.  Place peeled bananas in blender, and blend on high until mashed.  Add buttermilk**, sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, and oil.  Cover and blend on high.  Pour over flour mixture, hand-mix together and scrape the sides of the bowl.  You can mix in the chocolate chips at this time if desired.  Pour into an oiled 9x5x3 loaf pan.  Bake for 1 hour or until done when tested with a toothpick.

** You can always substitute the buttermilk with low-fat or nonfat plain yogurt or just unsweetened applesauce. The ratio for substitution is 1:1