After I wrote my last update for my mailing list, I got a couple people asking about the stretches I do that help with my fibromyalgia (here’s a link to my fave neck ones). So I thought I’d share a bit more about my health today than I already have. First of all, I fully believe every person has got to find their own way to health, there isn’t a one diet fits all. That said, there are certain patterns we can observe, say… added sugar doesn’t do any body any favours. But where is the threshold for what your body can handle happily and how you deal with limitations on your diet? I got no clue. Limiting my own diet has been immensely stressful, worth it because of the amazing results but yeah, no bs, it sucks.
Anyway, today I’m flaring up. Why? I’m having a secondary immune system reaction (basically, my stomach was cool with digesting them, but the moment they hit my bloodstream over 24 hours after consuming them my immune system went into high alert) to sunflower seeds. I don’t even like them that much but it seemed like a safe food to try to reintroduce, so that’s the good news. The bad news is that my body thinks they are poison and I am sore all over even after eight months of dieting and four months of supplements and herbal meds. BUT at least I know that’s what’s happening, unlike most of my life when I’d suddenly feel like shit and have no idea what I could do about it or how to avoid it happening again (and I might even eat the leftovers of whatever had made me sick in the first place).
So that’s a win (also I was fine with oats and rice, which believe you me are magnitudes above sunflower seeds in my yummy list). Oat biscuits recipe coming up!
Besides having fibromyalgia and Sjogren’s Syndrome (a magical autoimmune disease that makes my brain think my mouth and eyes are dry even when they really really aren’t), I’m also hypermobile, which means my soft tissue is extra stretchy (and I’m not even getting the ability to do splits out of this, which unfair) and so some muscles automatically overwork themselves into knots so the ones that are extra relaxed don’t flop. For that, I just discovered another really cool channel here (and for once with a diagnosis, my case is very mild, for which I’m grateful) with these two awesome people who have an amazing attitude to living with a body that does weird and often painful things.
Okay, now it’s time to go to the forest, because my poor nervous system needs a tree hug.
Do you have health challenges? Have you owned up to them? Do you have some tricks that have helped you’d share with us in the comments?