As you likely know, I suffered from Crohn’s symptoms for a really long time. I feel like a totally different person now and I’m often asked exactly what I did to improve my digestion and terrible gut issues. The first thing I say jokingly is, “well I figured out that beer and chicken wings weren't good for me!”
The truth is…it’s taken many years of trial, error, learning, and relearning to get where I am today.
I wasn't even close to eating healthy 20 years ago. While I suspected that food had an effect on the severity of my symptoms, my gastroenterologist insisted that this wasn't the case. I was in denial and I thought there was nothing I could do about my Crohn's disease.
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By now you know my personal experience with Crohn's disease.
Healing my Crohn's was way harder, took longer, and was quite honestly more dangerous that it needed to be—all because I made it that way.
In the early days of my disease I was waiting for a pill to fix me and for too long I relied on a medical model that quite frankly didn’t have answers for me. I bought into the idea that I was just unlucky and was destined to deal with Crohn's until they found a cure. This mindset kept me isolated and stuck without health or hope.
I made things harder on myself because I was determined to "suffer" my way to health. I restricted my diet in unhelpful ways, only to realize that the physical and emotional stress of this approach and lack of nutrients made me even more sick.
Read more...Last week, we talked about the many health benefits of exercise and I offered a few tips for overcoming barriers to adding some more movement into your day.
While these tips are all great ideas for committing to an exercise program, I know first-hand that those suffering from autoimmune disease or chronic digestive issues often experience even more complex barriers to getting enough exercise to support good health.
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