Cooking, pacing, networking with a passion for more energy!

Recently I have been learning a new skill, well new to me anyhow. Pacing! With any chronic illness will come the inevitable fatigue. That exhaustion that is so past tiredness, if feels like you have nothing left. The advice to reduce and hopefully avoid it is to pace yourself.

Like any new skill this has taken time to improve, no I will not say I have mastered it yet, however I feel I am improving all the time. So small positive steps! So what is Pacing and why should you care? Well if not a sufferer yourself, you will probably know someone who needs to pace. In the first instance I thought it meant do a job, tick it off the to do list, sit down, do some writing and answer those emails (I thought I was resting, well I was sat on rear!) then go back to the list and tackle another job. In the evening if I was very lucky I would have enough energy to cook the evening meal and eat it but then I was totally wasted, could not lift a finger. Whole body felt it was on strike and I had no control.

You got it! I was doing it wrong, what I thought was pacing was just another way of trying to cram in as much as possible into my day (well I wasn't working i.e. getting paid so it didn't count did it?).

I needed to have it explained further and this is what I learnt. Pacing is about breaking down the task, into smaller ones and completely resting in between! What? You mean no emails, surfing the web, writing my novel in-between, nothing at all? Exactly in actual fact, try to relax, meditate. Huh? Lesley totally relax, meditate, I thought I would never get anything done.

However, now that I have grasped the idea, broken down tasks, I actually achieve much more. How is that possible when doing less and resting more?

Well I have more energy now. I have found my trigger to relaxation which was one of my passions all along. The beach, now a few deep breaths and I am there, walking on the sandy beach, light sea breeze blowing my hair, smelling the salty air and I feel revitalized. So I break down the task of making a meal.

I have always been a planner, so now I play to my strengths and plan more. I plan my meals ahead, see what I can double up, freeze half or have a quick alternative if energy is starting to flag and no its not picking up the phone for the takeaway.

What is the benefit to you and to me? Well by pacing, eating better, cooking smarter, I have more time, more energy, so much so I was able to attend my first Fibromyalgia support groups today. My husband drove me there as not mastered enough energy saving to safely drive again yet but I feel I will try that one soon.

It was lovely spending a couple of hours with other people who are constantly learning just like me and we were able to share our ideas. Information to share in the group. So now I am networking face to face, not just through this blog.

Our main topic of conversation today was how do we describe how we are to others in order than they will understand. Well I would like to share just this one thing and if you have only picked this one thing out of this blog, then I am very happy and have succeeded.

Anyone who has a chronic condition even if it is not visible to you; they are not going to get better. The name kind of give it away, it is chronic, meaning long term in some cases no cure. So please do not wish someone a speedy recovery or get well soon, as that cannot happen. You can however wish them better days, if they are smiling, it is either to hide the pain or they are happy but they are not well.

To more good days for all of us.

Please share your thoughts, if you have someone you care for in pain, a chronic condition, if you have an idea that I have not mentioned or something that worked for you, please share, this blog is your opportunity to do just that, I will reply to all.

My passion for Good health for everyone!

From an early age, health and caring came natural to me and to follow a career into the health profession was a natural step.
Back in the late 70's everyone it seemed wanted to be a nurse and waiting lists were very long. I even tried for military service as a nurse but was told I would qualify quicker in civvy street. That's how I ended up in West Yorkshire which is also the setting for my novel I am currently writing.

All my life it seems I have had the passion to help, to ease suffering and most of all to ease pain. Hence why I chose my first book to be on the subject of pain control. I wanted to empower people with chronic pain to Take charge and control their pain.


 Pain as it is something most of us deal with every day in our day to day lives. It is not something we welcome with open arms but it is something that is very individual.


Nobody experiences pain just as you do! It is yours and your alone, hence health professionals do not always get it right in helping you manage your pain.


I first experienced acute pain that did not go away with some magic cream from my Mum and hug over 30 years ago. We have all been there as kids ourselves or as parents, where the child falls over and it is the shock more than the pain for the child to cry. A hug, some magic cream from Mum or Dad if it was really bad a magic plaster. I had endured the occasional tummy pain, growing pains, toothache as we all have.


Some say that birthing pain is the worst and you never forget it, well from personal experience, I found it pretty painful and I have not forgotten about it but apart from the joy my children give me there are no lasting pain that I need to learn to live with each day.


No that first injury to my back was a searing, ripping pain as I tried to save someone from falling to the floor (I was very young and naive). I learnt later I should gently lowered the person to the floor but the damage was done. This was treated as Acute pain, 2 weeks off work,  rest was the prescribed treatment then.




I will post from time to time  hints and tips I have learnt as a Nurse treating patients in acute, chronic, and emotional pain for over 20 years as well as my own personal journey.  Hopefully you will join me in discussions, follow on a feeder and please if you have any useful hints and tips and want to share, please feel free to use this blog to do so.



For those of you who can't wait I have my 1st edition ebook you can download but also have an expanded 2nd edition on its way. This will  include recent developments and my own personal journey dealing with the chronic pain of Fibromyalgia.
If you take one thing from this post, remember this, pain no mater its source can be controlled.


I look forward to discussions on this blog and future editions very soon. Thanks for reading.

Our shared passion of Wine!

If you read the blog of last week titled my top seven passions, among them in no particular order was wine!!

It is a passion shared with my husband. We love to relax over dinner with a glass or two and we like the glass to be crystal for no other reason other than we can.

We do try to be disciplined and a bottle will last two consecutive evenings, but occasionally we will push the boat out as they say and indulge in a whole bottle between us in a evening.

We often feel we need to justify to ourselves that red wine is good for you. It has been shown by numerous studies that wine is good for heart in moderate amounts. I have worked out that we probably have 175 mls each and not every night. Your probably thinking why do we feel we need to justify our consumption, we are adults! However in a world where we are strongly advised as to what is good and what is not so for us. You can almost feel a self-regulating pressure from all the health information out there.

So why would this interest you?

Well we decided if we were only going to have moderate amounts of wine then we would have good quality wine. We are not, nor would we ever profess to be wine connoisseurs but we know what we like. I did pick up a tip years ago which may or not be true. Good wines tend to have a deep divot in the bottom of the glass bottle. I was told the deeper the divot the better the wine.

I must admit in the essence of research of course, we did test this theory and on the whole it has proven to be right! Not very scientific testing mind you, just tasting as you would.

We are not strong believers in you can only drink white wine with fish and white meat and red wine with red meats. Although I probably would not drink a heavy Burgundy or Rioja with a light dish but we do tend to drink what we like not what is dictated to.

So instead of confusing ourselves week in week out at the supermarket as to what wine we enjoyed last week but can't remember its name or they no longer stock it or the classic or just sticking to a few favorites. These were the likes of Turning leaf, Wolf Blass or Penguin, we decided to take the plunge and join a wine club.

What I can hear you now, is that like the book clubs and toy clubs, sign here your with us and our mailing list forever! No it isn't thankfully. We joined one who dispatches a box of wine to us delivered to our door (no more lugging clanking bottles home anymore) about every 12 weeks. Well you might say that is not a lot of vino well sometimes, husband is away with work or courses and I do not like to drink alone and sometimes I might indulge in a perry cider to wash down a spicy curry. So the wine stocks seem to last just long enough.

Of course if we wanted to, they will always deliver more, but we don't want to be greedy now do we!!
It has in its terms and conditions, should any wine fail to please, call us up and return for a full refund but somehow that has never happened. Sure when we were experimenting in the supermarket or wine store, we bought some not to our taste, we have discovered we prefer Spanish to French but we will try most reds we come across. So my point is if you have thought of joining a wine club, our advice, make sure it is a reputable one who will give you refunds and have good customer service but when found take the plunge, dive right in.

We did and it is one decision we have not regretted! Love to hear about your passions and your thoughts on wine or my new blog. Love you to join me, see you again on Monday! Have a great weekend and enjoy a glass or two, its good for you!!

My passionate escape!

I was very fortunate to grow up in South west England, never too far the countryside or the beach. Now whilst I love to walk along a country lane, field or meadow or when fitter try to climb mountains with my husband.


I actually crave the sea, I did not realise how much, until for work and career purposes I moved away to Northern England to where my first novel is based. Often on my days off from training to be a nurse, I would miss the smell of the sea air, the sound of the ocean. It was pretty land locked where I trained. There was beautiful and very famous countryside as I was not far from Howarth and Bronte land. Many a time I would sit in a cafe, people watching, storing facts for my future stories.

If I had sufficient time off I could explore the wilds of Yorkshire and it too has spurned many a story. Barbara Taylor Bradford set her Harte series in Yorkshire and although through the books you moved to London, Australia and America her roots were from Yorkshire.

No although the Yorkshire wilds were truly lovely, they were not the sea. I later returned to the South West to raise a family and share my passions with them. My son loved the sea so much, he joined the Royal Navy.

Recently you would have read that I have been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia and part of my treatment was relaxation therapy. Me relax Huh!! That had always been a problem, soothing whale song would drive me nuts, mediation was an art I could not master. How this lady was going to get me to relax I did not know.

Well we all learn something new everyday, we started with deep breathing which to be honest I do find relaxing but can't always switch off, the Occupational therapist summed up my problem, I needed to find my inner calm or my passion. There it was the beach, slowly she taught me how to deep breathe and within a few moments I was there at my beach. She told me to feel the sand between my toes, the warmth of the sun on my face that I was safe and calm. Really her work was done when she mentioned the beach, that is where my inner calm, my passionate soul craves for. Where we live now is a few hours away from the nearest beach but I can now be there in my mind's eye in an instant.

I can walk along the beach, feel the sand, see the seaweed, smell the ocean, hear the water lapping around my feet, the waves crashing on the shore. I feel at home, at peace. We are planning to move back close to the beach in approximately 18 months from now but I no longer need to pine for the sea because I carry it with me all the time.

The moment I start to feel stressed, in pain, unhappy; I can sit back, take some deep breathes and I am there, can you imagine where your passionate place is? We all have a place where our souls feel at home. Mine is not my literal home but in my minds eye that beach probably in North Devon with miles of golden sand and very little else around. You walk far enough and you leave the families, surfers and sunbathers behind to peace and quiet, just the ocean and you.

If you take one thing from this post today, think where is your passionate place? Where does your soul feel at home at peace?

If your happy to share your happy place, I would love to hear from you. Until Friday take care and come back soon :-)

Fibromyalgia, Pacing, Cooking and baking!

Some of you that are regular readers of this blog will know I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia this year. Whilst this is not one of my passions, I cannot wave a magic wand for it to disappear!

For any who suffer a long term chronic condition, it is learning to live with it or rather it live with you!

There will be days when it will feel like it is winning and days when you feel a bit like your old self again but different for deep down we need to accept we are not going to be the same as our old selves completely again.

I read a recent article quoting a well known doctor, who stated with the limitations on our mobility, fatigue and pain, it is quite likely for a person to gain 25 to 30 lbs in weight in the 1st year of diagnosis.

Here I was HORRIFIED, no one, I repeat no one wants to gain that much weight and have no control over it. Anybody reading this who has a chronic condition needs to learn to pace themselves.

What does that mean? To you? Or to me?

Well it will mean different things for everyone but the key is we need to learn to do things differently.

These are some of the things I have learnt so far and I hope by sharing they can help you.

Initially I would rest during the day, maybe put on some washing, come back to writing and then cook a meal, eat it and then BANG! Energy gone, the plug had been pulled, it was as much as I could do was to leave the table, so that clearly was not working even though I thought that was pacing.

No pacing to a professional is breaking that task into smaller bite size chunks! I was told peel potatoes in the morning, rest, prep meat rest and totally rest even meditate!

Sorry! We don't eat meat and 2 veg everyday these days, that maybe belonged to our parent or grandparent generation. We eat rice, pasta, some dishes only take 20 to 30 minutes to prepare and cook and you can't leave a stir fry to rest can you?

So how does it work?

Well yesterday being Sunday, I could do just that, prep the potatoes, rest, prep the meat rest, prep the vegetables etc. Resting in-between but we can't do that every day so:

A key is on a good day, if your making something that can freeze, make double, freeze half so you have a ready prepared meal for those not so good days.

Yesterday we had a lovely roast Chicken, why is that of use to you?
Well I did twice the vegetables and today was able to put the extra veg into a slow cooker with some beef and make a casserole then you guessed it rest!
I then stripped the chicken carcass from yesterday, made myself a chicken sandwich, good lean protein is good for us apparently. With the meat left over, I prepared a sweet and sour sauce, combined with the meat to marinade, cover and placed in the fridge for a lovely stir fry tomorrow.

So by pacing myself yesterday with the preparation of vegetables, I had enough prepped and stored in fridge overnight to quickly assemble a slow cooked casserole today of which there should be enough to freeze a couple of portions for another day. The chicken spare not only gave a nice lunch but is now ready prepared for tomorrow's meal so I don't need to worry about it.

This gave me sufficient energy left to use my food processor to whizz up a crumble to cover my frozen rhubarb I had previously prepared, which is now sitting in the fridge waiting to go into the oven later.

So if you take one thing from this Post today. Use the kitchen gadgets to help, rest in-between and with a little planning pacing is possible with good healthy food with a home cooked meal in the freezer, waiting for those not so good days and we all have those. It beats picking up the phone for a takeout!

Later I will share with you some of my healthy meals, which you can double or half and freeze to make life a little easier.

If you have any pacing tips, cooking or baking, so we all don't gain the dreaded 25 to 30 lbs. Love to hear from you.

Top seven Passions

What is Lesley Galston Passionate about and why you should care? Really why would you?

Some of my passions will be yours and here is my top 7 and why!

1. HEALTH.   self explanatory really  health is something we cannot buy, we all want to remain in as good a health as possible. If not we need to learn to adapt/ change how we live so our health condition lives with us and not takes over. I have been diagnosed with Fibromyaglia but it lives with me, sometimes I will trip up, only human, so it will feel as if it rules my life. Any chronic condition like this, there is no magic cure, we learn to adapt. So occasionally I will blog about health. I have over 20 years experience as a health professional as well as living with a chronic condition.



2. READING. I once read a quote from Stephen King, if you do not read, how can you write. I have loved reading long before I became a writer. Here I hope to share my passion for reading, just as you can share yours. I remember buying the first Harry Potter books to see what all the fuss was about. I wanted to expand my son's reading from Fantastic Mr Fox by the childrens master Mr Dahl. Once I read the first book I was hooked. What series of books has hooked you from the beggining to the end?


3. WRITING.      I am a writer, an author so occasionally I will share things I have learnt as a writer but I do not want to write just another writing blog, there are many good ones out there. My writing blog Nick Daws, my teacher and mentor, Bubblecow, helping writers to become published, Kristen Lamb, I recently discovered her and she is the reason for the revamp of this blog to Lesley's passions. I could just write a writing blog but the only readers I am going to attract are fellow writers and while I have made some great writer friends. I need to expand my readership. Share my writing, my books.


4. RELATIONSHIPS.   I am not an expert nor an cousellor however, relationships help define who we are. I am a daughter, a mother, a wife, a sister, a friend. We have family relationships, work relationships and we have our networking. Having a blog is a form of networking, I am reaching out to readers of blogs, to many I have never met personally but will develop a relationship with if they decide to follow this passionate person.


5. COOKING.       We al have to eat, so what a better way to share but to share our passion for food. I love to cook but I know there are others who struggle and give up. Hopefully by sharing my passion for cooking, baking, some of it might rub off on to you. My mother did encourage me in the kitchen but we were limited to my families taste. Not everyone will share your passion for what you like, but you can try to experiment.
The first time I proudly made spagetti bolengese for my family, my father asked where was the chips/fries. He has misunderstood and thought it was spagetti out of a tin! Lesson learnt and never forgotten!


6. RED WINE      Well yours maybe be white or rose' I do drink them sometimes but mostly I share my passion for red wine with my husband. We love trying new wines, we joined a wine club, which stated they would replace any not to our liking, so far we have found none we have not liked. Growing up as young adult I loved the German whites that were all so vogue of the time, Black Tower, Blue Nun, Leibfraumilch, and Mateous Rose. I have seen them return in popularity recently as fashions hit the revival of the seventies.


7. BEACHES.     I have always considered myself fortunate that I grew up in South West England, I was never very far from the sea, a beach to walk along. To take in the sea air. The sounds of the ocean lapping against the shore. Huge waves crashing with such energy. The sealife that surrounded you, from the seagulls, to the crabs, to the cockles and whelks clinging to the rocks. I live in the country for now but know my heart yearns for the beach and the sea. To me it is instant relaxation. Not to sunbathe, but to walk, feel the sand between my toes, I can close my eyes and I am there.

Well I have shared my top seven passions as this blog develops I may share more. What are your passions?

What stirs your soul? Please I would love to hear from you, feel free to share your passions, I will always reply, don't be shy. Thanks for stopping by, I hope to blog on one of my passions on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Come and join in.

Drum roll, trumpets and fanfare and the winner of my competition is:

The judges loved this story with a twist as most short stories of this calibre do! Congratulations!

Count to Fifty

In the years that followed what she always thought of as the day her childhood – her happy innocence - came to an end, Jessica often wished she had just done as she had been told and counted to one hundred. But she didn’t. She made excuses for it; it was cold, it was hot, it was dinnertime, she was tired… The excuses were only ever to herself. And anyway she knew that she had done it – cheated - because she wanted to win. She never won. So she let Martin run off to hide and she started to count out loud. By the time she’d got to twelve she knew what she was going to do. One hundred gave her brother too much time. He was too good at hiding. He spent so much more time out in the garden than she did. She preferred her dolls and her tea parties. So Jessica decided that the only thing to do was to cheat. She’d count to fifty instead. He’d never know, and she could finally be a winner.

            She made her voice quieter so that although she was still counting aloud, no one could actually hear. She reached fifty, paused, opened her eyes and looked around. She saw movement over to her left, a quick flurry in amongst the trees at the edge of the garden. Neither she nor Martin were supposed to go past the trees. It was forbidden. Jessica was surprised at Martin’s audacity, but she’d seen the branches moving, heard the rustling, so she followed.

She assumed that Martin had probably been through the trees many times before. He was just that sort of boy – three years older and thirty years wiser. A proper Just William if only their parents would allow him to be.

            Jessica tiptoed forwards, still counting in her head and glancing behind her every time she reached a zero because her mother was usually watching, making sure there were no grazed knees or banged elbows. This time Jessica couldn’t actually see her; she wasn’t in her sentry position by the kitchen door, ready to run towards whoever had fallen, first aid kit in hand. Jessica felt free. With no mother to worry about, she understood why Martin had taken the opportunity to escape to the field and she followed, her head popping out into the unshaded sunshine.

            Martin wasn’t there. She never did find out where he had hidden that day. She did find her mother though. No first aid kit in her hand now, but instead those reassuring hands were caressing their Uncle James. Daddy’s brother. Hands and lips and tongues, all meeting together in a frenzy, a quick snatched moment which probably felt romantic to the two of them but to Jessica it was disgusting. It was wrong, even she, as a tiny little girl, could see that.

            She wiped her silent tears from her face, saddened, disappointed, grown up now, and edged back into the garden.

            She never said a word.

            But her mother knew.  

            Nothing was ever the same again. 

Congratulations to the winner Lisamarie Lamb, email on its way to do re prizes. 

I hope you enjoyed this competition as much as I did, it has been such fun, watch this space I may run more in the future. Love to hear your comments and feedback on this, I do reply to all.