L...Layers and Layers and More Layers, Please!

Fibromyalgia is mostly known for causing widespread pain throughout the body. However, a lot of people don’t realize that this same chronic condition can cause problems with body temperature regulation. Since I developed full-blown fibromyalgia (over 4 years ago), I’ve noticed that I am very sensitive to both hot and cold. If I get too overheated during the summer, I get physically sick to my stomach, and I’m hit with a wave of dizziness and horrible headache.

My sensitivity to cold, though, is much more extreme. During the winter, I have to dress in multiple layers just to be comfortable in my own home (since I can’t be sweating out the rest of the household with the furnace). And whenever I need to go outside, I need to don even more layers. If I don’t keep myself covered with 3 or more layers, the cold makes me hurt to the core. Imagine taking the coldest ice cream and shoving it into an exposed tooth nerve…then multiply that by at least 10. That’s what cold exposure does to me.

Without tons of layers, I feel like I am rolling around in snow drifts completely naked. The pain knocks the breath out of me, and I can feel my warmth escaping from wherever I don’t have enough clothing. My life gets extra complicated during cold weather because I have to make sure I am properly dressed every single day. And the colder it gets the more layers I have to force myself into.

Since I’ve endured a few winters now, I have had a good bit of practice. It is becoming more of a habit. I no longer worry about how fat or uncomfortable I look under all those layers. It’s much more important to me these days to stay warm. Yes, I still sometimes feel strange having to wearing so much clothing at once, especially when people start asking about it. But I try not to allow it to bother me.

Despite all the strange looks and critical comments, we must remember that we shouldn’t worry about what others might think. We must do what we must do to survive another day with a chronic illness, and that is all that matters. Other people might make us feel like freaks of nature, but we just need to keep focusing on how strong we truly are. We keep fighting for daily life even though we face such tough challenges. Keep pressing on, my fellow fibro warriors. We shall prevail!

Fibromyalgia Survival Tools: Slow Cookers

Slow Cooker Cuban Flank Steak

My life has changed since I discovered the ease and the versatility of slow cookers. I absolutely love my slow cooker and seriously don’t know how I lived without it before! My dad actually introduced me to cooking with crock pots about 10 years ago. He made some rockin’ crock pot meatloaf and spaghetti. And his slow cooker chili was out of this world!

However, it was not until after my life-shattering fibro flare about 4 years ago that I came to appreciate how helpful and amazing slow cookers truly can be. As part of my fibro treatment, my doctor recommended that I try to eliminate as much processed foods as possible. They contain so many additives and preservatives that may irritate some fibro sufferers’ symptoms.

Of course, I wanted to try to follow my doctor’s every suggestion, but I feared that this would be difficult to accomplish. I was a single mother with 2 young children with a fibro flare so bad I was stuck in bed at times. I had family to help out during the worst of days, but what about the rest of the time? I hardly had the energy to do the most basic of tasks. How was I going to add meals from scratch to my daily list?

Determined to make this work, I turned to my dad’s delicious slow cooker recipes. Of course, I couldn’t live off of spaghetti, meatloaf, and chili for the rest of my days. But as I incorporated these crock pot meals into my family’s monthly dinner menu, I began to realize the benefits of regularly using a slow cooker:

Slow cookers utilize morning energy. People with fibro tend to have more energy in the morning and continue to lose that energy throughout the day. By dinner time, there often isn’t much energy left to spare for a home-cooked meal. However, with a crock pot, meals can be put together in the morning and cook on low often for as long as 8-12 hours. This leaves little to no additional cooking or preparation later in the day.

Slow cookers are perfect for freezing leftovers. Also larger crock pots are perfect for making extra portions, which can easily be saved and frozen. During a harder fibro day, these frozen leftovers can be thawed and reheated without much trouble for a quick but healthy meal for the whole family. Plus, they are ideal for the most difficult of fibro days when a spouse or friend is offering to help out around the house.

Slow cookers are simple to clean. One of my favorite benefits of slow cookers, though, is the easy cleanup. Hand and back pain/discomfort can make scrubbing dishes extra challenging. Sensitive, dry skin and fibro rash can complicate matters even further. Crock pots, on the other hand, are specifically designed to help limit burning and sticking. A run through the dishwasher usually cleans my slow cooker inserts to a shine. Sometimes, a few stuck spots remain, but it takes only a couple minutes and minimal elbow grease to clean that right up. Additionally, a lot of stores now carry crock pot liners—durable, heat-resistant, disposable bags that fit right into slow cookers—which reduce cleanup even more.

Now that I’ve grown to be more of a slow cooker pro, I use it nearly every day. I’ve made dishes from soups and chili to whole chickens and roasts to even deserts and applesauce. And I plan to continue to expand my crock pot cooking experience.  There are so many enticing and fun recipes to try.

Are you also in love with your slow cooker? Or is there another kitchen gadget that you couldn’t live without?