We discuss how:
– Janet was diagnosed with RA after the birth of her first child
– Because she wanted to have another child, she was put on prednisone
– It worked well for alleviating the pain, but after the birth of her second child she eventually started with Methotrexate
– As brain fog and tiredness increased, Janet tried a protein drink for more energy, but rashes came out and joints started flaring up
– It turned out it was psoriasis, and she went on cutting proteins from her diet
– She searched through the internet and found the Paddison Program and decided to start with it
– After some problems with stopping drugs too abruptly, she’s been able to gradually reduce drugs
– She’s now drug-free since more than a year
Clint Well we’ve got another great guest today to share her inspirational story about her transformation with rheumatoid arthritis the name’s Janet she’s from Iowa, and she’s put her two kids into another room so we can get this done and my wife Melissa is looking after my three. So we’ve got five kids on hold because this is a story that needs to be shared. We’re going to talk today about her rheumatoid arthritis progress, she also experienced psoriasis. We’re going to cover how she’s been off medications for an entire year, and has allowed that period of time to prove to herself before coming out and sharing her story that this actually is real and this actually has worked for her. She in the past has been on prednisone, methotrexate, Plaquenil and we’re going to cover all these things and how we can transform our life with the Paddison Program and following a low fat plant based diet. So Janet thanks so much for coming on this episode.
Janet Thanks for having me. It’s such an honor to touch everybody and tell my story.
Clint Yeah. Well imagine if you only have 30 seconds to talk about your transformation. Let’s hear the 30 second version before we get the big version.
Janet Oh my gosh! Well it started back in 2008, 2 months after I had my first child. It started off in my big toe and when I went for check-up, the doctor kind of brushes off at first, you know ,maybe I just bump something or what not but pretty soon it started spreading into my wrist, my elbows and so I just looked up at the Internet myself, researched it and RA popped-up. So I went to my GP and told her my suspicions and she did the tests and it came back positive with RA. So we tried to get into a rheumatologist that was over a six month wait to get in. What turns out one of my family members was building a house for somebody that works on that department and got me in just 2 weeks. So I got in and they started me on prednisone since I wanted to have kids and I wanted to wait on the methotrexate for a while, it works great. Years went by though and since last month’s briefing that’s when he started searching for other answers, I just knew I couldn’t go on like that and just get worse as I get older, and I wanted some stuff with my kids be there for them.
Clint Okay. And then we’ll delve into that a little bit more in a moment. And how we are now? So people are thinking well I wonder if I should listen to this episode. I mean how are your symptoms now? Obviously you’re off medications. How do you wake up in the morning?
Janet Yeah. I don’t any stiffness anymore. You know I’m so careful of my activities coz I know if I do to much I can get my Achilles tendonitis once in awhile. You know I’m really trying to build some muscle, and lift some weights (inaudible) I want to get into weight lifting. But if I take any hand weights my wrists will kind a flare a little bit. So I’m still careful but I know what foods to eat and everything that keeps my inflammation next to nothing.
Clint Okay all right. Well there are some great topics that we can also cover as well. We can talk about muscle building and talk about how to avoid irritating the wrist when we’re trying to put on muscle and become stronger. And everything that we that we’ve skipped in the little short intro. So prednisone to kick off, you know that’s my nemesis drug virtually every single day. I’m on my online forum working with new members who come in and say, hey this is my situation I’m on 10 mg of prednisone, Methotrexate. And almost always the first course of action that I like to sort of suggest is, let’s get you off the prednisone or prednisolone whatever it is whichever steroid they’re on. Because it’s just dished out like candy by doctors as a bridge to before starting another drug or just to appease patients who are a little bit inflamed and they just want to leave the office feeling like they’ve got something in their hand and value for that 200 bucks. What was your experience on that and how do you get off prednisone? How long we were on it? What side effects did you have?
Janet You know it worked really well for me, it took away all my pain. Yeah I guess I was just really exhausted it was the big thing, but I actually did that to just being up first (inaudible). In my head there’s no difference (inaudible). So I just took it not knowing, I really didn’t know much about the disease at all. I just kind of took the word of my doctor I never really researched as much I just you know kind a let him for everything. Looking back you know it’s not really my style that’s (inaudible) more which happened later on, yeah it worked great so I didn’t question it. I had it for almost 2 years because he knew that I wanted to have more children so he didn’t put me on anything else. And about a month after I was pregnant I was able to just stop it and I didn’t have any other symptoms throughout my pregnancy.
Clint Wonderful. You were one of the sort of lucky, I want to say maybe 50% of females who fall pregnant and then become asymptomatic which is just a dream, because being pregnant alone you’ve got enough on your plate. And so that was obviously good, and then that enabled you to stop the prednisone.
Janet Yeah. And so after I stopped breastfeeding my 2nd then i started the Methotrexate.
Clint Oh so you went the whole period between when you had your child, and then fell pregnant again, and then had another child before you really needed another drug.
Janet So after my 2nd child then I started the methotrexate.
Clint But there was a couple of years where you weren’t on any drugs at all.
Janet No I was on the prednisone between kids.
Clint Oh between kids.
Janet Yes, but since he knew i wanted to get pregnant again he didn’t wanna do the methotrexate.
Clint I see. This is going to be hard to answer, but do you have any gut feeling about any negative impact of prednisone whilst breastfeeding? And did you do that?
Janet No, I was off the prednisone when I was breastfeeding. I didn’t feel any joint pain until after I stopped. And so then we made sure to started that right away (inaudible) I never had a problem responding really well pain wise to the drugs.
Clint To methotrexate as well?
Janet Yes.
Clint That was my experience with methotrexate as well, my rheumatologist said it will take 21 days to work and I don’t know whether or not there was a little placebo effect in there. But literally on the 21st day it started working for me. So yeah, and it worked very effectively but my symptoms were extreme, and because I guided my rheumatologist to say I didn’t want to be on a lot of this very dangerous drug which I had tried to avoid for the longest time well over 12 months I kept trying to avoid going on that. And I’d gotten very very bad during that time so when I went on it and we started on 10 mg a week, it was insufficient to completely suppress all my symptoms. I’d gotten rid of maybe 60 maybe 70%t of the symptoms with 10 mg, but that’s where I stayed and we kept adding more drug. But we couldn’t get rid of that last 20 30% of our symptoms even when we got to maximum dose. How high did you get with your dosage?
Janet I’m trying to remember it’s been a while. (inaudible) up to 7 of the tablets.
Clint And they’re 21/2 mg aren’t they in the States?
Janet Yes.
Clint So you were doing 15 mg per week.
Janet So I mean it wasn’t.
Clint Oh I see, I did math’s in year one. Right, so you’re on the methotrexate, you’d had your two kids, you were cruising along. Imagine you were enjoying your foods, and probably thinking like a lot of folks who when they’ve got this condition at least I can enjoy my food. Right because if I’m in pain.
Janet And I did. And I live in the mid-west you know meat is really big (inaudible) that’s just the norm. You know we have (inaudible) lots of cast calls I mean just everything has a huge sweet tooth (inaudible). I consider myself (inaudible) I try to eat lean meats and not over indulge you know but now looking back it was just terrible. Yeah, I mean I went to college for health and nutrition and we never touched on any of this stuff so it’s just.
Clint Is that right?
Janet That was a long time that was in the early 2000’s, you know still.
Clint Still, yeah.
Janet So yeah, and eventually as the years went on, my brain fog is just increasing. it just got so bad. I mean still kind of touch and go I kind a hit me you know but I’m just really tired (inaudible) you know I had these kids I wanted to keep up with, I wanna play with and there are times I couldn’t do that (inaudible) I just wanted more energy. And one of my friends had told be about this protein drink that she was taking and she just having all kinds of energy and was working out like crazy, It was just amazing. You know me I’ll try anything you know if it works. So I tried it and you know 3, 4 weeks later, all my joints started flaring up a little more, and I started to get this rashes that turned out to be psoriasis. And it just kept getting worse and worse and worse, (inaudible) worrying a little bit. And that’s when (inaudible) dairy and then gluten, so I started cutting that out and (inaudible) protein shake. You shouldn’t have this much protein it’s really bad for us in particular.
Janet I went to my doctor he wanted to increase the methotrexate, (inaudible) no that’s not what I’m trying to do here, I’m trying to cut down I don’t wanna do more because the side effects are so terrible. And I asked the dairy and (inaudible) he didn’t really have much to say about that. So I left disappointed and I found functional medicine doctor that was 2 hours south of us (inaudible), kind a talk to her a little bit. You know, paid way too much money for a ton of supplements, a ton of labs stuff like that and she gave me this diet plan when were all done I thought we were on the same page. The diet plan had some diary in it and some meat, I don’t know I was really you know I just cried I thought this will be my answer. First I thought it was funny and it wasn’t you know I tried her supplements for a while just to try it, and it didn’t get better it just kept getting worse. You know pretty soon I would feel a little more inflammation in my fingers and I just didn’t understand it, so that’s when I just researched more online and that’s when I found you (inaudible) my search and went over about it,.
Janet And mother’s day in 2017 that was gift to myself was your program. So for mother’s (inaudible) the green juice and my husband was going crazy, he says why can you eat breakfast and then I can’t do any of this because I’m not eating anything except for your green juice and spinach. So he would bring me that stuff and make the green juice. You know I wanted to remember the exact date I started, I just wanted to prove(inaudible) do this something could work. You know and while doing that starting the program it’s kind of stressful and I kind a just forgot to take my methotrexate for a few days. You know it’s gradually getting worse anyway (inaudible) so I just not take it anymore anyway. Well 3 months later I notice how bad of a decision that was because I really flared out, you know the medication left my body. I couldn’t bend 1 of my fingers, 1 of my knees started to getting inflamed and that was a big mistake.
Clint And a common one. I don’t know whether or not it was a conscious decision for you to get off it or it was almost like in the case of rebellion or something. But it’s common and something that I have to sort of correct from time to time when I’m working with someone who tell me that. I said, look I don’t think it’s wise to first of all you shouldn’t be coming off drugs without consulting the doctor, I mean that’s first of all. Second of all, even if the doctor said you can do what you want, let’s say the doctor was pretty laid back I would say well I would keep everything consistent, start the program with everything else completely consistent right down to the amount of supplementation that you’re taking. The daily curcumin even if you’re taking a little curcumin pain relief thing keep everything exactly the same, so that you can compare how your body feels to how it was before where the only change is what you’re eating, how you’re exercising and so on.
Clint So you’ve taken away your big insurance which was the pain relief from the methotrexate, and that has revealed situation or the reality underneath. Even though you’re on the healthy foods. So what did you do then?
Janet So I had a checkup with my rheumatologist met and he suggested that we go on Plaquenil, coz in the meantime she had also stopped birth control which I’ve been on for years. I just want it everything just (inaudible) sick of it.
Clint Yeah, absolutely.
Janet Yeah. So I did that. And so I also told him about what I was doing, and I mean he was nice compared to other people I already talked to. But he just looked at me and said you know I can (inaudible) so I’m not gonna tell my patients to do that either and that was it. I’s kind a dumb talking about it so that was it. But I started with Plaquenil on my own and then I gradually reduced it myself.
Clint Why not resume methotrexate just curious?
Janet Since I stopped the birth control he was thinking just in case you got pregnant he does not want me on the methotrexate.
Clint Right, still open for more babies.
Janet So it was pretty gradual in my reduction, and then in February 2018 that’s when I stopped taking it on my oldest daughter birthday I remember that day began. So it’s been you know a little over a year since I’ve had any (inaudible). But yeah you know the hardest part of your program for me was just being patient with foods that I introduced because I was so hungry at the beginning. you know all you’re doing is your quinoa and your rice, and I was loosing a lot of weight and lost a ton of muscle you know, I mean I have this feeling good but pretty weak. So yeah I just (inaudible) sometimes I add them too fast and the I realize well (inaudible). So now I have it down really well, and I know I can’t (inaudible).
Clint Tell us about your reintroduction successes. What did you find was able to be introduced fairly easy for you? And I’m curious especially around fruit’s.
Janet Yeah fruits are the tough one for me. You know at first, I know I introduced it probably too early but oats was a really good thing for me. It helped me put on some weight too so it was pretty big. Really my staples and the quinoa, wild blueberries, (inaudible).
Clint Did you say Wild Blueberries?
Janet Blueberries yeah, but frozen. Those are my staples when I have some inflammation, that’s my kind a go to. But I can’t do banana’s, cantaloupe is the worst for me (inaudible) papaya (inaudible). Any dry fruits, I can’t do dates You know things like that raisins. Apples are really good, oranges, I really like citrus I find that helps with my digestion which has always been kind of an issue so I try to eat or drink some (inaudible). That’s really been a big help. Those are the big ones, but usually typically any vegetable is fine with me (inaudible).
Clint Yeah very interesting to not have because right now I’m in the process of just finalizing some parts of my book planning on publishing it finally on Amazon, so it’s available more accessible to more people. And I’m attempting to put down a suggested exact sequence of foods, and every time I speak to someone else I can completely revisit it again and think oh no. Because there’s no two people have the same sequence of food, and that’s what makes it so challenging. I want people to eat more fruit, fruit is just so much an easy to assimilate and completely, there’s no downside from just eating lots and lots of fruit it’s just so easy to digest. And to use the energy, and so rich in nutrients and so forth. And I’ve just been reading more and more about the benefits of fruit eating, and I’d really like people to eat more fruit. So you know it’s frustrating not just from your point of view that you can’t eat these delicious fruits, but also when we’re trying to have a plan that can suit everyone and it just it’s not like that. We all have these different food sensitivities and so we have to wait a long time for some things. Like bananas for example might take a couple more years and you might never feel comfortable with eating bananas. I still feel a funny like reservation when they go in my smoothies and things. And so, just like you get the almost like a bad relationship you’ve had in the past you don’t want to bump in to that person again.
Janet I keep trying them, I mean bananas are the one thing i really like. I’m not really scared to try it anymore because I know that (inaudible) i know what I can’t eat i’ll be fine. (inaudible) I’ll be okay. Even this past winter I found out I couldn’t have any beans, but beans cause me to flare (inaudible). So I mean, I still find unusual things. And really just knowing what my staple foods (inaudible) that’s a big help.
Clint Other starchy foods like potatoes, are you able to eat those sweet potatoes?
Janet Oh yes, I love potatoes (inaudible) the snacks I slice those potatoes and microwave them for 5 minutes and I have my potato chips and stuff like that. I go on the road so it’s just you know, like apples and oranges (inaudible) easy to take along with you..
Clint Great. So you can eat those fruits in between meals, you’ve got your blueberries, your apples, oranges you can snack on those in your meals. And so you sort of curb the hunger and get that really could have nutrient rich water rich foods and do in between meals. And then you’ve got your nice starchy McDougal style diet in between you’re right way, you’ve got lots and lots of complex carbohydrates which are perfect fuel for the body. And you throw in your leafy greens all the time to make sure you’re missing out on any minerals and you’re getting your essential fatty acids that way with lots and lots of those greens and so happy days. Let’s talk about exercise. Well I’ll let you choose, do you want to talk about give some tips as to what you found really helped you getting through the program whether it be family whether it be mindset? Give us some tips and then we’ll talk about exercise.
Janet Stress tips, I think one of the big thing is to find what stresses you. I think one of the big triggers si stress. And so I realize you know your (inaudible) is really stressing me out. So I started to just find things that (inaudible) I kind a got back into (inaudible) trying to find things that are relaxing. I kind a realize camping over the summer every weekend all of a sudden my inflammation goes down. So we went on a long vacation, and it just hit me not stressed out. And whenever I get anxious or stressed you know if I can find things that (inaudible). That helps almost as much knowing what foods i react on. (inaudible) it’s just find what your stress triggers are and take those away. 6 months ago I found lemon balm tea (inaudible) But that’s been a big help for my anxiety, it’s just an herb that’s been pretty big.
Clint I love this because although it’s not quantitative and it’s easy to measure and I can’t pull out the scientific reference. There was a podcast interview that, I just talked about this the other day as well. What’s his name, Hyman Dr. Mark Hyman did with a rheumatologist, and I should share this I will share this with my mailing list. He interviewed a rheumatologist and in the interview between Dr Hyman and in the rheumatologist and he’s got a podcast called Doctor’s Farmacy, pharmacy with an F. So that’s Mark Hyman. And it’s really fascinating because he talks about not only are we finding now that with rheumatoid arthritis, what we’ve known for a long time which is that stress negatively impacts the condition but Joy positively impacts the condition. And so we’re actually seeing relief of symptoms by people doing things that they love, and expressing gratitude, and having more uplifting emotions go through their body. And so I mean this is fascinating to me because when you think about if we can just. How wonderful it is if we can actively seek joy in our life, and better communication relationships with our family and friends and look to justify and rightly so doing things that we love. Them we’ve got this passage to a rite of passage to have a great enjoyable life, which in turn helps your symptoms which then makes you feel more happy and excited, and again you’ve got that positive cycle. So I think this is a really exciting thing because any excuse that we have particularly when it’s now becoming more clear that it’s factual to go and do things that we love and to be happy and to seek happiness is wonderful.
Janet Yeah I think that’s huge, especially now is I mean you know everybody is always on the phone and I know we loose a lot of interaction and just modern activities. So I think it’s huge. (inaudible) I’ve always been a very good visualizer, even at school I would day dream very easily. So I mean this whole time I just visualize and saw maybe running some day, I know it’s a big goal but when you really think it’s gonna happen and just visualizing and all these good things happening you know. Because I mean just what we’re doing is stress, you know trying to get over these humps day after day. You know a lot of people feel so alone if they don’t have (inaudible). I definitely have, my husband’s amazing. So I’m very thankful for that. Just visualizing what you’re gonna do because it’s such a slow healing process. I remember what you said was like 1% a month or something, but It’s just really a slow healing process. And it’s hard to remember that some days when you’re going through a lot of pain. But all of a sudden when you breakthrough that (inaudible) it’s just such an amazing feeling.
Clint Yes. Tell us about how you do your visualization. Because there’s a comedian friend of mine who I’ve known for a long time, and he and I have talked about this a lot and shared ideas around this. And he’s extremely successful here in Australia very like a household name. And he’s been using these techniques for a very long time, and so did I a lot more in the past when I was in my university days. And I achieved a lot I believe through visualization techniques and affirmations and stuff through my university. 4 or 5 years there where I got some great results that I’d pictured and dreamed of and really almost felt like I manifested yeah. Since the kids have come along, it’s been hard to kind of find that kind of routine around this. So tell us what you’ve done because I’m so convinced that this is so powerful. How do you set aside the time and what do you do to create these visualizations?
Janet I don’t really have a (inaudible), it was just so easy for me I just kind a do it at any time. Sometimes even when I’m the car, which isn’t always the best thing but mine is just thinking about it. And even sometimes something just listening to music, certain songs (inaudible). Sometimes when you get ready for bed, just lying the for a while, that’s usually the best time for me, and it doesn’t take a long time even 5 minutes feels good.
Clint That’s exactly what I used to do it as well lie down, and I used to just popped myself up with a pillow behind me and sat against the wall with my notes in front of me and just picture, try and picture all the things that I wanted to happen. Really interesting that you said right before bed again. And I find that it puts you in a nice positive state of mind to lie down. It’s a way of distracting you from your days activities, and it goes into this neutral zone where it’s like hey this would be nice in the future and it sort of distracts you and puts you in a nice state ready for sleep I think.
Janet Yeah. If you cry at times if you really have to. You phone is away, your computer is turned off, nothing going on around you. You’re just getting ready for bed, ready to go to sleep (inaudible) it’s very exciting.
Clint Yeah fantastic. I’m going to give you some crazy examples of some things that I visualized and came through in a period of about three or four years that I never ever thought would. First of all, when I was at a university on my first year I wrote down that I would get the University Medal, okay. Like obviously that’s just absurd thing to put down in your first year and I was not doing well in my first year because I was getting you know in terms of like a b and c, I was getting C’s and some B’s because I was partying like crazy. So I was a big socialite, I had lots of wonderful new friends and we were just playing pool and ping pong late at night and drinking. But in my second year, and then third year I (inaudible) myself more and more and more, and although there is actually no university medal at their university which I came to understand later. I did get the highest thesis grade that had ever been issued in the Department of math, physics, computing electronics ever, and they gave me the Macquarie University which is my university science prize. So I also won some other awards, and it felt like I’d achieve that goal. And I am happy to admit I’m not the smartest person, but I worked like crazy at trying to solve problems and work things out.
Clint And so at university we got our assignments, and I would just spend longer than other people trying to work. And I had friends who are way smarter who’d finished their assignments and I’d have to ask them for help every single time. But just by having the dream, having the goal, and that objective, and working harder than everybody else I was able to hit that. Another crazy one is that I wanted to have us a brand-new sports car, and sure enough within about 12 months of leaving university we were given these stock options in our startup company because our company got bought out by another company. And although those stock options went to zero and I didn’t earn any of that money I was actually able to click on a link literally click the mouse one day and cash in just enough stock options to go and buy a sports car. And that was crazy, when you’re 25 or something I mean that blows your mind. And as I said then all the rest of the stock options went to zero, but that sports car came out of what I think is that is this miraculous ability of being able to manifest our future. I should have set my goals higher, that’s what I always say.
Janet Just visualizing it I think you almost fine-tuned your everyday activities to work towards that goal. You may not realize it but you just fine tuning everything towards that. So my biggest thing (inaudible) So I know it’s gonna happen someday and I’m not in a rush. I mean I am but I’m not at the same time, I just want to be realistic about it but that’s what mostly what I visualize.
Clint Have you read Born to Run? Okay, as soon as we get off this call write it down now and go and buy that book. So when I was learning more about the power of visualization and manifesting and stuff, and this was way before that real cheesy film came out called The Secret which is basically a commercialization of a fundamental power that we have as human beings. And I just think that that just basically just cheesyfies the whole thing. But way before that the readings that I was doing was talking about little knickknacks and things that you can convince your subconscious mind that this is actually happening. Okay so in your case if you want to run go and buy books on running, get yourself literally a pair of sports shoes over the next couple of days that you are going to run in. Start looking at running magazines when you go into the news agency. Talk about running with friends, say where do you go and your runs? Just basically indulge the senses with discussions and thoughts and things around running. So do all those things, I’m telling you you’ll be running before long. And in that book Born to Run one of the guys who’s a sports physiologist or Sonny talks about if you can walk, you can run. There isn’t very much a physical difference between the two. And so whilst pain may come with running and pain doesn’t with walking. The actual mechanics are so similar that we’re within almost just a leap of faith away from running at any time. As long as we can walk, and we can put up with any pain that comes from the running. And they also talk about how to run without injuries, how to run safely and stuff like that. And it’s a fascinating adventure book, that’s just a fascinating book. Christopher McDougall Born to Run everyone should read that book. It’s my one of my top 10.
Janet And I think it will work for that too (inaudible).
Clint So I really enjoyed talking about the visualization. Let’s spend a couple of minutes talking about exercise. So have you engaged in a lot of exercise in the last 12 months or is it just something that now is going to come into the picture?
Janet I’ such an outdoors person but winters here are kind a brutal. So in the winter time I usually kind a slow down a little bit. I mean I haven’t exercise (inaudible) I just need the outdoor (inaudible). So this winter I focused on doing more, and what I do is I just go on YouTube and I look at different exercise (inaudible). And that’s how I do my bikram yoga too, because we don’t have Bikram Yoga in the area. Yes but I just do it on YouTube and even though it’s not really hot, I still get tons of (inaudible) by just doing it at home in my living room, whenever I want. And so I do a lot of (inaudible) some jumps, I kind a gradually myself from doing pushups from my (inaudible) to doing them on the floor. I kind a use handle though to help my wrists, and so my wrists don’t get (inaudible) on my knees (inaudible). But I’m so kind a gradually myself to doing more and more with my body weight. So it really helped me build muscles (inaudible).
Clint There’s nothing wrong whatsoever with using those grips to do your pushups. I just like yourself, watching YouTube videos online. If anyone’s interested in a really good comprehensive YouTube channel that covers all aspects of weight training. So not necessarily the stuff we’ve just been talking about but there’s a guy called Jeff Cavalier and he’s athlene X. And that’s a YouTube channel that I watch all the time he gives so much information about how to you know basically build muscle mass and avoid injury. And he talks about, he basically says look everyone has problems. No no one’s body is perfect the way that we all imagine that everyone else’s body is perfect. Maybe you’ve got a Chris Hemsworth or someone who doesn’t have necessarily the aches and pains of us with rheumatoid arthritis injuries and joint pain. But you can work around everything and achieve a resistance workout, and that’s what’s really really great. So if you need to hold handles on little tools to be able to do the pushups, then that’s what’s necessary for you and that’s what’s awesome and help you progress. You’ll build forearm and wrist strength by doing that any way which may or may not regardless in the future enable you to do push ups the way that other people do. But who cares how you do your push ups, What matters is, yeah it’s irrelevant.
Clint And with regards to building more strength, I’ve always found that when we’re trying to just basically add some more pounds or kilograms of muscle to our body. Always start or at least always include the legs, because you are glute muscles and leg muscles are our biggest muscles. And I got to say it’s so easy to build the legs. I was just at the gym a couple of days ago and I haven’t done walking lunges for a while because I reinjured my knee nearly 12 months ago now, and I’ve been talking a lot inside the support group and exchanging ideas with others about knee rehabilitation. Anyway because my knee is like very very damaged from when I had very very long term inflamed synovitis. So just the other day I’ve started doing these lunges again, boom my glutes are just on fire the last few days right.
Janet (inaudible) and jump squats, lots of different (inaudible) that’s my big focus is my lower body. I do some upper to whenever I can. My back, my abs, anything that can really support everything is great. Yeah I think that’s preventing me a lot (inaudible) again stress relief. (inaudible) the sauna feels good because I don’t have sore joints which is it’s just sore muscles and that a very good feeling.
Clint I know it’s a really good feeling. It’s funny when we actually enjoy that pain don’t we?
Janet Yes its the best it really is. It’s been years since I experienced muscles soreness and joints, it’s fantastic.
Clint Yeah, I like it a lot as well. One little caution if anyone does have sore knees and they are doing this and they are happy with their pain, while the muscles are rebuilding I noticed. For instance I’ve noticed with my glutes last few days, that whilst they’ve been in fact today I did the walking lunges again yesterday because they just gotten down enough where it wasn’t going to hurt me to do them again. When my glutes were really sore, I noticed that there was more tightness and more stiffness around my knee. Basically I felt like the glutes went tight while they’re rebuilding, and that can feel like potentially like it’s worked counterproductively. But we need to be aware that whilst things are healing and they’re tender, that our body may behave a little bit less ideally as what it would otherwise. And then I had to remember that this was the case when I was in my 20’s and had no health problems at all to my knowledge other than my digestive issues which I thought were nothing. And at that time, you’d work out at the gym you’d be sore and I’d ever so I’d work out so hard my chest was so sore I’d walk around like as like the Tin Man, do you know what I mean?. And so we all know that look if you’ve had a strong work out your muscles are sore, that’s going to affect you for a few days and not to misinterpret that as oh oh big disaster.
Janet Yeah you have to give (inaudible) a lot of flexibility. With the squats or anything that you’re doing the lunges, it’s important to stretch or Yoga anything like that. Because that (inaudible) I’ll be sore and my joints too. Yeah it’s really important to throw that in too.
Clint Thank you. I stretch like a lot after doing everything. In fact the you know the Bikram sequence that you talked about on line, I’ve done so many classes I know the whole sequence pretty well. And what I do is, after I go and do my little workout at the gym I then walk over to a quiet area of the gym and I do a bunch of the standing series postures that I know help me the most to relieve the muscles that always get tight. And so I spend 15 minutes doing that every single day, so I don’t miss a day where I don’t stretch. And today in fact I’m just actually just going to Bikram so, keep it real.
Clint All right. Thank you so much for coming on this episode. I want to congratulate you for all that you’ve achieved with your health, and you’ve put in a tremendous amount effort and the rewards are magnificent. So well done, keep it up, and good luck with your muscle building I mean this is a much fun more enjoyable stage than obviously where you were a couple of years ago.
Janet Yeah absolutely, thank you too I just have so much gratitude to you and your family for just putting the time and effort for everything. If I haven’t have found you where I’d be at this point. It’s phenomenal (inaudible) I just want to make sure that it worked, so you know after being off my meds, taking nothing for a year, it definitely works. It just takes a lot of time and patience sometimes but it will work.
Clint Definitely yeah, we all wish we could hit fast forward on the whole process that’s for sure
Janet Oh yeah definitely.
Clint All right. Well thanks so much Janet.
Janet Thank you.