Food glorious food.

There was recently talk among members about food on one of the threads started by @Diana-M & I thought it would be a great off community topic.

Food can provide a sense of joy & security. Talking about food is comforting & can be a rich topic of conversation for many of us TMSers. It can help us talk our minds away rom the pain & even spark us to be creative & more active.

I had a wonderful meal recently with family & friends & wanted to share it here.
Here is what we had


Roast Potatoes
Ratatouille
Green beans, roasted tomatoes & garlic
Leg of lamb
Frogs legs in parsley butter
Avocado & crab salad
Pizza with Parma ham
Pizza Margherita
Andouilette

And here are photos

Keep it going.

Mala

 

Sorry can’t seem to post the photos. It’s says file too large so it’s my profile picture now

 

T

That is quite a variety of food!
What is Andouilette?
And dare I ask what the frog's legs taste like?

For lunch I made meatballs with a little tomato sauce and some steamed carrots and corn.
I had some apple and cheese and will probably have toast or bagel for dinner.

Yesterday I had some left over chicken thighs from the day before.
I cut into chunks and steamed some sweet potato and regular potato and cut the leftover chicken into small pieces and heated them over the stove with some water and some apricot jam. When all was done I plated the 'tatoes and put the chicken on top.
I realize I'm weird.

 

Andouilette is sausage made from tripe, onions & various spices. Very French but very strong odor & not my cup of tea. My BIL is French & he loves the stuff.

Frog's leg were divine. They taste like very tender chicken & the sauce was amazing. Great with crusty bread.

I think it was a great idea to use the jam as a sweet sauce. I get 'creative' like that too.

 

That is a LOT of different stuff at one table. Like a Holiday?

I would eat Calamari every day if I could afford it. One of my favorite foods.

Best enjoyable Meal in recent Memory was Venison Stew. I ate until I couldn't anymore.
Venison , potatoes, carrots, onions, celery. I think I ate about half a crock pot-full.

I am a One or two food per meal guy. I might have had a piece of cake with it, but I took the stew home and ate some more.
Sophie got a few chunks of Venison. She also gave it two Dangle claws up!

 

@JanAtheCPA Can you say something about overseas travel with TMS symptoms? I have a big trip coming up next month -- 11 days in Spain on the Camino de Santiago. There will be walking and there will be weather and there will be activity and there will be new beds each night and there will be people. I'm going with a group of strangers. I've been nervous for months. I think a lot of my major TMS issues in these past months have been about trying to get me not to go on this trip, out of a disordered belief that mothers should never leave their children overnight or do anything for themselves. (My husband is 100% in favor of this trip for me, bless him!)

All of my symptoms are ordered toward keeping me in the "freeze" response.

Any tips?

 

The biggest tip I have is that you need to tell your inside lower brain that you are going on the trip no matter what. No ifs, ands and buts.
If the lizard brain sees ANY cracks in that it will stick its foot in the door and open it wide. But if it's the final word, absolutely, it then steps down.

You can see it in action if you say out loud right now,
"I'm going on that trip no matter what."
You will start to get super duper uncomfortable. That's the lizard.

Sometime it's one foot in front of the other. The lizard is scared and wants to stay home. Maybe it will make you feel nauseous or dizzy or whatever but if you commit that you will pack your bags and you will go no matter what. Once you get there on the trip, through whatever lizard throws at you, once you are there you will be fine and will be so glad that you went.

The "mothers shouldn't leave their children" is just the lizard's line. Once you reject that because you know intellectually that's not true, it will come up with some other phrase to persuade you. It's a tricky buggah!

The other tip I have is to find your excitement about the trip and replace the fear with that. There is stress and their is "eustress." Eustress is good stress. TMS-ers often can't distinguish between the two. Eustress drives us forward. It makes our hearts beat faster and readies us for the adventure.
When you booked the trip were you excited? Do you remember that feeling? Can you remember a time in the past when you had some real enthusiasm for something. Can you invoke that feeling?

I heard a little trick recently related to this. It said to anchor that good feeling with some physical thing. I'm doing it with snapping my fingers.
So first I found the good feeling from a memory. Then I felt the feeling while snapping my fingers. I'm doing this multiple times. The goal is to anchor so when you are having doubts, you snap your fingers (or what ever physical thing you use) and it will invoke that feeling. I'm still new to doing this but it feels good.

Good luck. Your trip sounds amazing, your husband sounds wonderful, and your kids are going to DO GREAT.
Think how many fun stories you'll be able to share with them after and what a great role model for your kids.

 

This is my kind of place where I can be weird and loved at the same time.

 

This happened exactly.
In the past week I've been getting dizzy and nauseated on walks/hikes...surely this is the lizard brain at work.
Thank you for the great advice.

 

I hear you. Been there, done that.
The second you decide to stay home, the dizzy and nausea lifts. The lizard wins.

 

That is a LOT of different stuff at one table. Like a Holiday?

@Baseball65 not so much a holiday but a Sunday gathering of family & friends on one of the many islands here in Hong Kong.

That venison stew sounds wonderful.

And yes I love squid too. Lightly grilled with a garlic butter herb dressing or a spicy Thai sauce.

Mala

 

The same thing happened to me. I got about four new intense symptoms while I was waiting for this vacation I just went and on. Plus, really bad anxiety. Super bad like the kind you feel like you’re outside your body and everything is life and death. Just so miserable. Honestly, the first night of the vacation I was feeling better than I’ve felt in a really long time. You just have to walk through the wall. Half of it is a mirage.

 

So I had a wild experience last night after walking through the wall on something. I think it was one of my first experiences of an exception. I went to a dinner for my husband's work and it was challenging (headaches, tension, etc.) but fun. Then in the night I had excruciating pain -- pretty much everything above my waist was in agony. Somehow or another I quietly noted it as TMS each time that I woke up in the night and then went back to sleep. After I woke up at dawn, got up for a minute, and went back to bed, all the pain completely disappeared for an hour.

All of it.

WTH???

 

Claire Weekes has a talk about going on vacation in which she says to make up your mind that you are going even if they have to carry you. I think this applies to all sorts of normal activity...whenever a symptom comes up, "I'm going to do this whether or not I'm symptomatic."

 

You should be so, so proud of yourself, Diana! I feel so much joy over your massive step forward through your beach trip.

 

Frida Kahlo the famous Mexican painter was severely severely injured in an accident when she was very young. Yet her spirit was indomitable & her courage in the face of terrible pain is impressive. She wouldn't let anything get in her way of a good time & literally had people 'carry her' in her bed to exhibitions, opening nights & even parties.

You will have a great time I'm sure & I'm excited for you.

And Oh boy you are going to experience some fantastic food there. Don't forget to fill us in on all that.

Mala