ruthiend:

1.)    Not acting on eating disorder thoughts.

2.)    Massively reduced day to day eating disorder thoughts.

3.)    Body acceptance/neutrality. A refusal to actively change how my body looks. A refusal to bow to social and cultural pressure to idolise ‘slim, fit and toned’. 

4.)    No food rules other than eat enough food.

5.)    Intuitive eating and following my hunger cues.

6.)    Counting calories at the end of the day on days when I feel stressed, upset, or anxious, to make sure I don’t relapse by accident.

7.)    Monitoring my physical activity to ensure I don’t relapse.

8.)    Accepting my life with a chronic mental illness. However, it doesn’t have to be a horrible part of my life, just a quiet bleep in the background.

9.)    Getting right back on track whenever I feel I may have slipped.  Reflecting on why it happened, and learning lessons from the experience.

10.)  Admitting my vulnerability and fragility. Being open about who I am. Being honest. Talking to people about my issues.

11.)  Valuing myself on being a good, kind person.

12.)  Learning alternative coping mechanisms. Practicing self care. Being kind to myself, above all. 

Nutrition again.

I’m in remission - like most of you know - and I’d call myself healthy (okay don’t mind the 6 pills at breakfast). I eat well and exercise a lot. I get my period and my weight is stable.

It’s like my body forgot about the long time being malnourished. NOPE. It didn’t.

I participated in a nutrition/exercise research work at my university (which included labs, body composition, weight…) and I was quite disappointed when I got the results. Last time someone checked my body composition (another IBD trial) the muscle mass was dangerously low, my bone mass sucked and my overall body composition showed signs of being long-term-malnourished even though I was just borderline underweight.

But now that I’m at a healthy weight, in remission for about 18 months and running/eating a lot (& gym) I did not expect that my body still had such low muscle and bone masses and still showed signs of malnutrition.

The disappointment changed into hope and motivation after I thought about it for some time. Small progress is still progress. And all good things take their time. So I’ll keep on working hard and I will keep in mind that bodies don’t forget what they’ve been through.

I just wanted to share this lesson with you guys because it was important to me and maybe it’s important for you, too. Especially in a time where everyone seems to be aiming for fast changes.

Besides this I’m just grateful that I can do lots of things that seemed so far away or even unarchievable just two years ago. Sometimes things even change for good when you almost lost hope.

laughingwithmycolon:

Can’t find the ask button so here goes: What are your thoughts on fatigue and brain fog even while in complete remission?  Remission that’s been ongoing since 2009 due to Remicade? The only sign I have is low ferretin with high iron/hemoglobin.  My specialist disregarded this but some sources says low ferretin alone can cause fatigue. Otherwise he has no idea and says it could simply be a side effect of Remicade. Have had all basic vitamins and thyroid checked. Pretty disheartening when I’m the healthiest I’ve ever been but can’t enjoy life. It’s like being in a severe anemic fog 24/7.

Hi! Maybe that’s due to the new tumblr app, because I haven’t changed the “ask button”.

But back to the question: The blood iron levels and Hb don’t say a lot about your iron stores. Ferritin is the best marker to see if you’re deficient in iron. So if your ferritin is low it means you’re iron deficient. Fatigue and shortness of breath were my main symptoms of iron deficiency every time I had it and the only thing that helped with it were iron infusions. I got 10-20 every time i felt that way and got better immediately:) maybe you could ask for some IV iron. But besides this: Having an autoimmune disease can be associated with fatigue as well…also things like thyroid issues, undereating, poor quality of sleep, medication side effects.

After months of remission with just minor problems the past two days reminded me of my life with active Crohn’s disease again. And I definitely don’t miss it. At all. I guess I overdid the whole “Oh I’m in deep remission I can try salad and eat some more cheese again…” thing. Seems like my intestines still struggle with more processed/dairy foods. But I don’t think that I’m flaring. Hopefully. Oh well. Woke up at night. Now nauseous and in pain again. And look like pregnant the third day in a row. Took 7 extra pills. Tomorrow will be a better day. It has to be.