What a difference a year makes!

So, as you can see I haven't posted in a longgg time! 

When I started this blog I was hoping by typing positive thoughts it would change my mind state but it didn't work. This blog was about positivity and empowerment so I couldn't post because I was not feeling that way. Not just because of endometriosis but I felt defeated. 

Just a year on and I couldn't be anymore polar opposite to the situation I was in! 

I am fighting. I am positive. I am empowered. 

I want to help more people who are experiencing this rollercoaster! 

My approach is diet, I work in the animal industry and we try to tell our customers everyday that what you are putting into your animal makes a huge difference to behavior, coat, general health and longevity. It is the same for us. So it isn't just about our endometriosis but our mental health and our future. 

Lets take control of our lives! 

The fight is on!

It's been a few days since I wrote about my day to day experience and since Monday it has been a very bumpy ride!
Tuesday was great again and I was feeling very invigorated and motivated to keep up my hard work with the new diet. My energy levels seemed to be improving and the pain from the op had subsided and no other pain had replaced it except that niggling headache which I put down to my bodies natural reaction to the op.

Since Wednesday though it has all been down hill. Energy levels have dropped dramatically and stopped me from doing some after work stuff that I had thought I would be up for doing but sadly I was too exhausted. It is a vicious circle as the more exhausted I am the less conscious about food I am. I was great until Friday I had a evening out planned with my boyfriend. It was a little hard for me as we were all sharing and didn't want to be awkward so I probably had more sugar than I should of and a tiny bit of naan bread that would have gluten in it. Luckily it was a vegan restaurant. But I forgot to pack my supplements and I didn't eat my nuts as I was too busy trying to get ready.
Saturday was a similar story, I didn't have my supplements with me and they had some vegan brownies which I couldn't resist and I had already had sugar so why not.
Then that escalated in me eating a whole bar of dark chocolate when I was relaxing at home trying to get rid of the pain.
I did try a castor oil pack though which was very relaxing and did help my pain.
Today has been slightly better except I forgot to eat dinner and I ate a whole packet of gluten free vegan cookies...
I also had a cup of tea today and nothing crazy happened so maybe I can just have the odd one with some nice vegan biscuits.

My pain hasn't been as bad today but I think that is because I haven't done as much and I am getting my head around everything so I am less stressed.
Wednesday and Thursday was very stressful at work and I think that is why my pain got out of control too. So definitely need to focus on managing my stress levels better.
I have been reading a book about chronic fatigue too, it explains that monitoring activity levels and sleep patterns helps to identify where the problems are so I am going to give that a go next.

I am also going to give myself realistic goals. In my pain free days where I was feeling more energetic, I got ahead of myself and started researching all the things I could do in my spare time, even thought about rejoining the gym but I need to learn to walk before I run. Which is hard but going to be better for me in the long run.


Things that are now an ingrained part of my habits; looking for organic where possible, avoiding plastic as much as possible and removing the packaging as soon as I get home if I can't avoid it. So that is a bonus, slow and steady steps :)

Day four and five - polar opposites!

I've got the routine down now with work and the new diet. I'm not craving tea, the amount of food is now manageable as I have gotten used to it. The smoothies are getting tastier and I prepped my dinner before work in the slow cooker. On Friday I had so much more energy than on Tuesday which felt great! Still wasn't at my usual potential but getting there so can't argue with that.
I was worried at the beginning that I would get bored without having different stuff everyday but actually it helps get into the routine and once I get to grips with it I can vary the smoothies have different veggies in my salads and get more experimental with dinners as my energy levels increase.
Days off are going to be a problem though!! Today I didn't have lemon tea, nearly forgot my supplements, didn't have a smoothie or any lunch actually! I did have my porridge and for the last few days I've been using oat milk which is tasty And better than soya :)
The one good thing from today though is, as a self confessed tea addict, cutting out cups of tea was going to be the hardest, herbal tea just doesn't cut it sometimes BUT I went to an independent cafe today which did almond milk so I had a spiced chai latte with almond milk and vanilla to get that sweet kick as other than fruit I've had nothing! Also I quite like crisps every once in a while and there isn't a lot out there that give that sort of savoury kick BUT a cute little health food shop stocks roasted broad beans which are yummy!!! So I had them today too.
For dinner I had a very healthy lentil/ chilli concoction which I have no idea what was in it but nothing bad with lots of turmeric! So not a complete failure of a day. The biggest problem with days off is the lack of routine, I had a lay in as work has exhausted me which totally messed up the day to start. But its still early days and I'm still getting used to it.
I also found 1 book at the library about endometriosis so hopefully that will be helpful.

Day three- settling in

I'm settling into this new thing pretty okay now, my smoothie was much tastier today and I had more energy at work today which was much better!
Really enjoying having a lemon tea for breakfast and as of yet am not craving a proper cup of tea! And I love tea!!

Breakfast was the same as yesterday and eating more as 100g is a large portion but it actually does work for me as I don't get the light headed, hunger crippling pain when I don't keep my energy levels up.

I didn't have to prep lunch as I forgot to bring my lunch box home so used up some food I had in the freezer (unfortunately in a plastic box!)
My smoothie was slightly different as I put kiwi in today, more Orange juice and a little cocoa in it. But essentially the same as yesterday.
Nuts and a carrot came to work with me and were eaten all as snacks throughout the day so that was an improvement on yesterday.

Lunch was some sort of bean stew with courgette and stuff but don't ask me exactly what was in it!!
I even got tested today as my FAVOURITE biscuits were being shared and I resisted!!! I also love sweets :) and I managed to avoid eating even though they were gelatine free! So good all round!

When I got home I made a salad with all sorts of veggies not forgetting the avacado and I put some grapes in it too. I had a couple of ryvita too.

With my ginger tea I tried out the boosted one I put on the other page and I was a bit worried when I put the turmeric powder in but actually it was drinkable! Not as enjoyable as the ginger alone but still pretty good :)

My headache subsided considerably today which was so relieving!! My stomach is still swollen and sore but no where near as bad.

So I still have faith that I can rock this new diet!

Day two and the return to work!

So day 2 went well food wise, I don't think I could of fitted anymore food in! But it was also my first day back at work which was challenging but lovely to see everyone!
For breakfast I had hot lemon to start followed by my 100g of porridge but I had it with soya milk as I had one open in the fridge. I did it on the job which really didn't take that much extra time than the microwave and I had more control over the consistency. I topped it with tbs of cinnamon and a banana for sweetness.
I prepped my smoothie while snacking on organic blueberries and lunch which took about 15 minutes in total which isn't too bad.
My smoothie had 50g of kale, banana, mango, berries, chia seeds, turmeric, seeds and orange juice as the liquid.
For lunch I prepped a salad using 50g of spinach as the base and chopping all sorts of veggies to top, my non plastic box isn't very big so popped all my veggies separate in a small jar.
Along with that I packed my 100g of nuts with 50g of organic raisins, carrot and an avacado.
I also bought some lemon and ginger tea bags so that I can have a hot drink at work.
I didn't manage to eat everything at work so had a light snack dinner instead of a proper meal:
Ryvita crackers with veggies including the avocado, vegan cheese and pickle which isn't great as there is sugar in pickle but haven't found an alternative yet. I ate my carrot too but just had that as a snack.
Then my ginger tea which I prepped while making my dinner so it was nice and quick and now I'm sat in bed writing this drinking a sleepy tea to see if that will help with getting a good nights rest!

So in terms of food and diet I've done great got the majority of the bits I'm meant to get in and not strayed too badly with the rest of it! In terms of symptoms I can't say that its helped today but that could be down to the fact that I could of done with more time off work but beggars can't be choosers!

New Beginning

So today starts my new endo focused diet, while I write this I am sipping on my ginger tea and rather enjoying it! I still have a headache that I can't remember when it started, it's like a little reminder when I am sat really still and my stomach doesn't hurt that something isn't quite right. 

I started my day with a cup of hot lemon, a lemon that I have taken the rind off because I literally could not find organic ones! But it was still enjoyable. 

I had wholemeal toast with healthy jam (the kind you buy from health food shops) for breakfast as I hadn't quite run out of bread yet but at least it was the healthier kind. With my toast I took my B vitamin supplements, evening primrose and afterwards sucked on the vitamin c lozenge. All was well so far! 

Since today was my last day of my lazy recovery days for the last week and my energy output has been low I haven't been overly hungry so my smoothie became my lunch. 

So my smoothie (that didn't go that according to plan) had in it:

2/3 different fruits - Banana, pineapple, kiwi and apple

Turmeric – I put a teaspoon in this one! 

Chia seeds - 3 teaspoons

Linseeds – teaspoon

Seed mix

Part of my nut allocation 

Cinnamon -1 teaspoon

I think I put too much powders in as it was really bitter and I didn't have any berries either! So I put a little date syrup in it to sweeten it up 

The rest of my nuts with 50g of raisins and blueberries got me through the rest of the day. 

I had roast potatoes and gravy for dinner as my online order hadn't arrived and because of my low activity levels I wasn't so hungry. 

I have also drank a lot of water today and after doing LOTS of research I settled on drinking water out of a bobble bottle that I put a picture in case you are not sure what it is - filtered (ish) water with no BPA unlike your average plastic bottle. 

Now, as I mentioned I am drinking my ginger tea. 

Today has been easy mainly because I haven't craved anything and I haven't exerted myself to be overly hungry.

I can say with a hot water bottle tucked under my blanket that my pain levels have come down today, whether that is because I have a headache, mentally investing in the power of it or the anti-inflammatory properties actually work only time will tell.  

Empowerment

I have decided to write this blog as I have done a tonne of research since I was diagnosed with Endometriosis and the common themes of what I have found include:

• Confusion
• Absolutely no idea what to do about it
• Depressed people overwhelmed with not knowing what to do
• No one has a clue what to do with their diet
• Everyone is too tired essentially to do much else than wait for the doctors to get better

I don't think this is good enough! We need to be positive, empower ourselves and gain control of this disease! Let's face it we are stuck with it so why sulk and get more and more frustrated every time you go to the doctors and they still have no clue. 

I'm turning myself into an experiment, I am already taking part in a scientific study by happily accepting a hormone contraception that may/ may not help me. There is so much mixed reviews on how well the hormone drugs they have for us work and I am not willing to wait and see if this does have an influential impact on my life as the pain is just too inconvenient. 

From what I can gather Endometriosis is the hormonal version of diabetes and so ensuring that we acknowledge the things that disrupt our endocrine system and doing something about it is vital.  

So from tomorrow I am, to the best of my abilities, going to follow a very controlled lifestyle completely made up by my own research of what information is available online. As mentioned it is experimental so it will change as my experiences require. 

I am hoping to post everyday to show that it can be done! I want to highlight all the great things I can do with the restricted list of items that don't cause us harm and also tell you in detail about the hurdles I hit so you can avoid them. I plan to keep it as positive as possible while being honest about any of the symptoms that I have because of my condition. 

Wish me luck!