Great Golly, Granola Jollies!

Christmas is always a time to add some healthy snack recipes to our diet. So come join us on Saturday 10 December at 12:30 PM for 2 hours of shakin' and bakin' with some hot herbal tea on the side. Bring a container to take your share home and bring two ingredients as follows: (call me to see what we still need at 278-2018)

Large bag of walnuts or almonds (unsalted)
Vanilla flavoring (the real deal)
Safflower oil (Ingles sells it)
Brown Sugar (1 box)
Sunflower seeds (out of the shells) 2-3 cups
Ground Flax (Sam's sells it, probably at Walmart, too) 2 cups
Craisins in the large bag
Raisins in the barrel

Remember we shall reap what we sew. Think about a sewing or needlework project you'd like to share for our February meeting and bring a friend with you. January is just too cold for us to meet, so we are skipping that month to meet and allowing y'all to lose all those extra holiday pounds before coming out in public--teehee!

RSVP if you're coming to make granola--it's way better than the stuff you buy!

Your Spartanburg Facilitator,
Dr. Linda B. Greer

We Have No Granola Today!

Our November meeting did not materialize because some of our regular members were out of town and we couldn't get our ingredients together, but we will try again on Dec. 10, Saturday, at 12:30-2:30 PM. Please contact me at drgreer@charter.net for the list of ingredients for choosing 2 to bring. Also, bring a medium small tin to take home your share of the granola. It's a time-honored recipe for getting your fiber in a most delightful way!

Don't forget! Any of your extra Christian Fiction or Non-Fiction Books as well as Bibles are being collected by your facilitator, Linda Greer, to mail out to our military guys and gals in Iraq and Afghanistan. Deadline to get them to me is Nov. 30. (See FB "Books for Heroes" for more info.)

I hope you remembered all our veterans on Veterans' Day last weekend. They have helped to make this country free and keep it that way. Hurrah for the Red, White, and Blue!

Great News:There are Healthy Foods that Fight Pain!

I hope you have been eating your berries this summer and lots of them! If you have, then your pain symptoms have probably been down. In an online article, there were 14 foods, of which 6 were berries (including cherries), that are natural pain relievers. Now I know why I like strawberries so much! But the best berry is one we don't often get here--the Saskatoon. It grows in the north and in Canada and is a cousin of the blueberry only with 40 times the calcium per serving. And who doesn't need more calcium as we get closer to heaven??

Of course, you probably already know it's good to eat fish, but ones that pack the biggest punch against pain are salmon, herring and mackerel. Along with those are the OTC fish oil caps you can take if you don't like eating fish. I take at least 2 capsules every day and sometimes 3. They come in huge bottles and are relatively cheap per capsule. Don't worry, you won't start smelling like a fish if you take them.

Then there are those wonderful vegetables and spices: Celery and its seeds, turmeric and ginger. So wash off a celery stalk and start munching (minus the cream cheese or peanut butter). Small wonder my homemade chicken soup is so soothing when I am sick--I use lots of celery and celery seed in it.

As for nuts and more seeds, walnuts top the tree along with walnut oil. Then we also have flax seed and its oil. Ground flax seed is available in huge bags at Sam's in the drugstore section. I just finished a bag from a year ago--use some on your cereal every morning!

Well, you can count on no adverse reactions or drug interactions when you plunge into nature's bounty to counter your pain. Hats off to real comfort food for those with chronic pain disease. For further reading go to http://www.care2.com/greenliving/13-foods-that-fight-pain.html on these foods. Thanks to Michele H. for passing this along, too.

Time for a Makeover--Free!

Dear FMS Friends of the Upstate,          

Mel & Lon on a joy ride

We are planning a car pool trip to the Gaffney Outlet Mall shop for Bare Escentuals for a free makeover. If you are interested in a new look for your make-up and need a little perk for the summer, please join us at 12:30 PM to 3:00 PM on Saturday, June 11. Since we will be on the road, please have lunch before you come.  Car pool will leave from my home address since I have plenty of room for parking in my drive.

Our tea party was great fun and I am attaching some of the pictures that were taken. We will do this again next year in April for sure! We had yummy snacks, herbal teas, and wore our finest old-fashioned wide-brimmed hats!

Anyone for Tea?

In the news, it looks like there aren't any new drugs coming out specifically for FMS or CFS, but there is some interesting basic research being done on the cognitive deficits (fibro fog) we have. I can attest to that since last week I locked myself out of my house to go get in my car, not once, but twice in the same day! It's exasperating, isn't it?

There is also some evidence that increased Vitamin D can help relieve some of our pain symptoms. If you are already taking Calcium with D, you may want to add additional D vitamins to your regimen of pills or spend about 15 minutes each day in the sun (if you can stand the heat). The D vitamins are easily available at Costco, Sam's, and pharmacy chains and aren't very expensive.

For those in Spartanburg, there is a very inexpensive Low Impact Aerobics class being offered this summer at St. Mark's Methodist Church (near Woodland Heights 

Mary G. at the Tea

Elementary School). It is on Tuesday and Thursday each week from 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM. Beatrice (Bee) is the instructor and does a great job. You should bring a bottle of cold water, your own hand weights, and $1 each time to offset Bee's gasoline to and from the class. We either work from folding chairs or stand (no floor work).

Hope to see you for our June Makeover Party. RSVP to me by email at drgreer@charter.net .

Me at the Tea

New Organization for FM and CF and FM Awareness Day

Dear Friends,

It's great to see new 501c3 organizations pop up on behalf of FM and CFS. This year a new one was launched out of Utah. the National Fibromyalgia & Chronic Pain Association (NFMCPA), a nonprofit 501c3 whose mission is to build a united patient and medical community that will execute awareness and advocacy programs regarding access to care, scientific research, diagnosis and treatment for people suffering with fibromyalgia and chronic pain. 

NFMCPA will also help the  FM community by focusing on increasing new scientific findings and research about fibromyalgia and its relationship to overlapping chronic pain conditions, such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), migraine headache, rheumatoid arthritis, Lupus, Interstitial Cystitis, Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS), Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome (RSDS), chronic pelvic pain, TMJ and other life altering pain illnesses. 

“I am very honored to lead the National Fibromyalgia & Chronic Pain Association, which will continue to build upon the philosophies established by the NFA and other organizations concerned with chronic pain by seeking contributions from thought leaders in this diverse field,” said Jan Favero Chambers, founder and president of the NFMCPA and a founding member of the National Fibromyalgia Association (NFA) Leaders Coalition, Executive Committee.

I am adding their web site to our list for this blog. Visit it and learn more about the NFMCPA.

Blessings this Easter to all of you!

Linda B. Greer

Tea Time, Ladies and Gents!

The April FMS meeting will be delayed to the 16th and at a later time: 2:30 PM. We will be having high tea with whatever sides for tea you bring. We'll get out the good china and do it up right for Easter and Springtime!

Be sure to wear a nice dress and comfortable shoes. Don't forget your wide-brimmed hat as well. Show off your recipe for dainty and tasty tea-time morsels and share your recipe if you like. If you bring a guest, you will earn a prize.

RSVP to Linda Greer very soon. 863-278-2018. Hope to see you then at my home for a "cuppa tea".