Brazil and Back

Two weeks ago, my husband and I just took an amazing vacation to Brazil, a trip I have been wanting to take since I was in the fourth grade. It was one of the top three vacations I've been on. What made it so amazing was how relaxed and care free I felt the whole time. Other than a small luggage mix-up, I really never felt an ounce of stress and because of that I felt amazing! I think the reason I felt so free was I had no cell phone service and no internet. I was completely disconnected from the rest of the world, it was wonderful...it was better than wonderful!

For those of you who are wondering, I tried to hold true to my anti-inflammatory diet but it was really hard to do. What made it so difficult was the fact I do not speak Portuguese, so customizing any of my dishes was pretty much impossible. Even with these complications, the only time I really broke from my diet was at dinner, so I think I did pretty well! This last week though, I completely fell off the band wagon.



Coming back to the "real-world" has been painful. Not only did I have to catch up on a week's worth of work, but I also had two finals to study for. The pressure of my finals and the work that had accumulated while I was gone induced a heavy dose of stress...stress makes me run to easy-cook-easy-eat foods (frozen pizza, take out Chinese, etc.). These are definitely not on my anti-inflammatory diet. I didn't care though, my main concern was not my health, my main concern was studying and work. So last week I completely failed at being pro-anti-inflammatory.

I kept telling myself one...maybe two...weeks of eating outside of my diet restrictions wouldn't make that big of a difference, but I didn't take into consideration that not only was I eating highly inflammatory foods I was also under a large amount of stress...which also induces inflammation. I should have taken stress into consideration, maybe then I would have taken the time to prepare my anti-inflammatory meals for the week and I wouldn't be sitting here feeling like I'm teetering on the brink of a flare. My mouth is ok, but I've had a couple spots on my arms come up and I also have this strange burning sensation on my chin where there are a couple bumps. So now I am watching and waiting. I told myself if I find another spot on my arms I'm going to take my predisolone, but I really hope it doesn't come to that. I don't have bad side effects to the predisolone, but I still don't like to take it.

So today I started back on my diet with the hopes that I can regain control of my body before my immune system organizes a mutiny. I know diet isn't as fast acting as medicine, but I'm hoping that since I'm not in a full flare I'll be able to stop the inflammation before it gets worse. I'll let you know how it goes!