Re: muscle cramps and body awareness

[Guest guest]

Hi Shirle,

I have never heard of the " rotting bone " you mention. The cramps are pretty

normal for me, but I can manage those by avoiding alcohol and also I like to

drink grapefruit juice in the morning (and tonic water at the pub when I do

not drink a glass of wine). My dad always had leg cramps (he did not have

CMT) so I follow his way to manage it - tonic and grapefruit - and others on

the list have suggested magnesium supplements as well.

For weight loss, I am a bit dissatisfied with my weight but not dieting and

I do not need to diet. But I did see a nutritionist to become more aware of

my food habits, which is the first step in changing them to be eating

better, and as a result with some exercise that should lead to weight loss

if you want to do that.

Anyway, the first thing I did was to keep a food diet for a week, where I

wrote down (without cheating) everything I ate - how many slices of bread,

sandwich meat, cheese, how many scoops of ice cream you name it. Then with

the nutritionist (but I think you can do it with the internet to hand) I

counted the calories and more important than that, I measured the grams of

sugar I ate, the grams of salt, and looked at how many portions of fruit and

vegetables, and also looked at how much fat / protein I was taking in. My

nutritionist believes we should have 10 to 12 portions of fruit and veg each

day, and that personally I should avoid fat (e.g. the salami that I love to

munch on) and scale back on meats (no big deal for pork or lamb for me - but

I love nice beef) and go for fish and birds as a focus in my diet.

Anyway, the awareness part is the best part, and once my life settles (as in

I have a kitchen again - right now it is all removed including the sink due

to the refurbishment at my property) I will do that again for a week, then

do a detox diet to get rid of the processed garbage in my system (I follow a

book on this and it is very good - hard but good) and then go back to the

10-12 portions a day and cooking at home again.

Hope this helps.

All the best from London,

Donna