Jamiefoxblog

Toes… So we do need them!

Sometimes and only sometimes I get a little fed up with being positive all the time when this happens I unintentionally let the dark clouds cover my head like blanket shutting out all light.

In these dark moments everything goes dark, moods, humour, my outlook on life in general becomes full of self-loathing.

One recurring thought is that I’ll lose the feeling in my legs and I will need a chair…

PAINsomnia. The long goodnight.

There is something about being awake in the dead of night that magnifies the pain maybe it’s the lonely silence of the night although most probably it is just the fact it really bloody hurts tonight. Yet trying to sleep through it regardless of how tired I am is near damn impossible. I seem to be waking up at 2am most nights at the moment not 1:50am not 2:15am exactly 2am to say its bloody weird…

The changing of the seasons…….

Personally I have noticed that seasons change with a smack in face since having MS the change from our glorious world famous balmy summers to the chills of our ever changing wet and wild winters comes hand in hand with a plethora of pain. The children went back to school after 6 weeks of perfect summer weather and playing outside together in perfect harmony and not in any way driven by technology…

My get up and go got up and went.

The feeling of walking against the current waist high in treacle or the feeling of being made entirely of lead still doesn’t come close to describing the feeling of total exhaustion that I attribute to fatigue. The official definition of fatigue. Extreme tiredness resulting from physical/mental or illness. Weakness in metal or other materials caused by repeated variations of stress I can’t help…

Things I’ve learnt living with MS.

December 2011 is my official diagnosis date even though I had been feeling the symptoms of MS for some years the diagnosis still came out of the blue. Things that were happening to my body before the diagnosis I just buried and carried on until they subsided so I never really dealt with them. Learning to cope with having this hidden illness is a steep, unforgiving learning curve. Here is some of…

Knock Knock……………

Knock Knock…… Who’s there?….. Brain Fog… Brain Fog who?…. Cucumber. Don’t get it? Read on all will become clear. There is nothing worse than looking forward having good day then realising you have the attention span of a goldfish. I haven’t posted for a while although it’s not for the want of trying things this year have been so turbulent, like I’ve been on some kind body punishing rollercoaster.…

It was only ever on pause

I am coming to you live [although only at the time of writing this] from ground zero of my latest relapse. This is by far the most intense relapse I’ve had to date. Lets rewind to the weekend before christmas and I saw the signs of an impending relapse on the horizon, the water infection, the increasing fatigue the feeling that if someone in the same county as me so much as got a cold I would…

I foolishly thought I had found a way to give myself an extra couple spoons per day but what I was in fact doing was living on borrowed time and now I have borrowed my limit all the old symptoms have returned with some new ones chucked in for good measure. Sometime during the school summer holidays [I know that’s how long I’ve been borrowing] I found myself swallowed up by fatigue and being badly…

Spasticity refers to feelings of stiffness and a wide range of involuntary muscle spasms (sustained muscle contractions or sudden movements). It is one of the more common symptoms of MS. Spasticity may be as mild as the feeling of tightness of muscles or may be so severe as to produce painful, uncontrollable spasms of extremities, usually of the legs. Spasticity may also produce feelings of pain…

Launched by Paul, Mary and Stella McCartney in 2009, Meat Free Monday is a not-for-profit campaign which aims to raise awareness of the detrimental environmental impact of eating meat, and to encourage people to help slow climate change, preserve precious natural resources and improve their health by having at least one meat free day each week. Many of the world’s leading health organisations now…

60% humidity and it’s official I’m a puddle!

I have always had a canny knack of being able to see the funny side of things which has served me well since my diagnosis so typing this whilst being the latest Marvel Avenger “The Human Shower” is as hilarious as it gross.

When I get too hot, everything goes berserk…….. I was just about to say something so profound it would probably have gone viral in a meme or something but because of brain fog I have forgotten so instead the only thing that comes to my mind is FRUIT.

During times of heavy fatigue it feels like I walk at a turtles speed through wet cement so eating clean healthy food seems to be my way of working through it, the less energy I use digesting food the more energy I have for everything else.

So why when I go to a supermarket is it nearly impossible to buy any fruit to eat NOW?

When did “ripen at home” become the only way to sell fruit? who buys their fruit 3 weeks in advance? And do we really get enough sun to ripen anything at home? I would argue that it never even ripens properly at home, more often than not it has passed its best before even being ripe.

If I wanted to buy a cricket ball posing as a plum I would go to a sport shop and play make believe! Instead I’m left paying a premium because the shop is selling “perfectly ripe” or “ready to eat” fruit as well as the “ripen at home” stuff.

Maybe I have a different view on whats “perfectly ripe” or “ready to eat” I tried to buy a nectarine on Friday one of those “perfectly ripe” ones and what I found could have been put in a sock and used as a weapon, I had to get a second opinion on whether it was a nectarine or in fact a snooker ball?

A snooker ball?

A nectarine?

The second opinion came from the obviously highly trained personnel and he did in fact confirm after 2 mins of head scratching and some strange baffled like noises it was a fruit and not a snooker ball.

Anyway so I thought the internet would have the answer for ripening “ripen at home” fruit so I googled it and what a can of worms that is one article claims if you cover your fruit in rice it will ripen quicker so now with every dozen “ripen at home” pears I buy I need to buy 5KG of rice as well just so I MIGHT be able to eat it within a year, Pears just got expensive.

Another link to a you tube video claims putting nectarines in a paper bag speeds up the ripening process and it might well do but should I really have to buy paper bags each week just for my fruit? Maybe I should make a “ripen at home” bag for life?  Was that a lightbulb moment? This time next year rodders……..

My personal favourite though is ripen “ripen at home” fruit in the microwave!!

In the microwave It only needs a 15 second blast on a medium heat in that magic paper bag only this time with a couple of RIPE apples or bananas in the bag as well and this is where it falls down I need to use ripe fruit which I can’t find to ripen fruit?

1st world problems eh?

After all this I don’t really want a nectarine anymore in fact I’m going for some Pad Thai.

The Greedy Fox Cajun Turkey Steak Kebabs

The Greedy Fox Cajun Turkey Kebabs Here at The Greedy Fox we are all about no fuss, tasty food so we try to keep our recipes as hassle free as possible you won’t find a recipe with a long list of ingredients, or containing any rare ingredients that need extensive research and searching. All of our ingredients can be bought from all good supermarkets and some poor ones as well. So hot off the…

Then something comes along that can’t be resisted, for me on this day it was a taking delivery of some beef short ribs for The Greedy Fox they looked so good like a real caveman cut of meat. Man must eat meat?

Beef short ribs

Short ribs are a cut of beef taken from the brisket, chuck, plate, or rib areas of beef cattle. They consist of a short portion of the rib bone, which is overlain by meat which varies in thickness.

Ribs after being cooked in bbq sauce

Slow cooked bbq beef short ribs with the The Greedy Fox Smokey Steak seasoning

Ingredients.

2-3 beef short ribs. If they are too long ask your butcher to saw them in half.

2-3 Tablespoons The Greedy Fox Smokey steak seasoning

1/2 cup water

Method

Preheat oven to 140 degrees

Add the short ribs to a baking tray so the ribs are snug season and rub in well add the water and cover with a double layer of tin foil and cook for 4hrs.

Remove from the oven remove, tin foil and drain the fat [maybe save the fat and add it to potatoes just before roasting for some added flavour] spoon over some Greedy Fox ultimate bbq sauce until well covered but not sitting in a puddle of sauce and return to the oven for 20 mins.

The Greedy Fox ultimate BBQ sauce

Ingredients

180 ml Cheap ketchup

150ml stout

4 tsp Malt vinegar

4 tbsp Golden syrup

1 Heaped tsp English mustard

1 Crushed garlic clove

1/2 Chopped and deseeded chilli

1 tbsp Liquid smoke Optional. We use Colgin liquid smoke.

Method

Add all ingredients to heavy based saucepan mix well and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat immediately and simmer for 20 mins or until thick and syrupy.

The Greedy Fox meat feast. Cajun chicken breast, bbq beef short rib and ras el hanout lamb steak.

  We have been working on expanding our flavour range The Greedy Fox Cajun seasoning will be the first to be ready for release. So Keep an eye on our website http://www.thegreedyfox.com for release dates and promotions.

The Cajun and Ras el Hanout [Moroccan] is already a hit in our test kitchen The Greedy Fox minions and myself now have the meat sweats again!  It’s a tough job.

Cajun Chicken breast

Ras el hanout lamb steak

I have well and truly fallen off the vegan wagon I can feel the fatigue coming on but I have no choice but to power through for the time being for the sake of meat.

All our range of spices are available to buy online here http://www.thegreedyfox.com

The Greedy Fox on social media

https://www.facebook.com/thegreedyfox/

https://twitter.com/thegreedyfox1

https://www.instagram.com/thegreedyfoxcompany/

Me Vs EEG machine = Medical marvel

I had a new blog entry all ready to go about how I fell off the vegan wagon and gorged on meat for 24 hrs but then I went for the non-invasive electroencephalogram (EEG) and I felt this would have to come first as I am secretly still gorging. The EEG procedure is usually carried out by a highly trained specialist called a clinical neurophysiologist. An electroencephalogram EEG is a recording of…

I almost feel guilty for not always looking ill.

So after my spring relapse had finally left and I started rejoining the world again, it always takes a little while to get back into the swing of things after a period of illness. It can take a little longer sometimes especially when I’m floored again by an innocuous little comment or an insensitive remark. MS, “ah my mates mum has got that but she’s got it really bad!” Do I take this as you…

The last six or seven weeks have been a bit of a blur what with all the excitement over the launch of The Greedy Fox and with at least 2 health appointments a week, I know 2 appointments a week that’s how I live my rock “n” roll life, throw a poorly kid into the mix as well and I really have been living life in the fast lane, you could say I have been living 100 mph? Now though I’ve crashed right…