The Challenge of Slowing Down

I have had difficulty accepting that I cannot do what I once could. I am not the same person I once was.

Life in general requires overcoming challenges and obstacles of many types. Life with fibromyalgia introduces its own share of challenges: lack of energy, lack of sleep, chronic pain being the most prevalent.  These things can change who you are and how you approach life. What once was a simple task, such as getting out of bed in the morning, can now be a daily struggle.

In the years since my diagnosis, my biggest challenge has been SLOWING DOWN. I have had difficulty accepting that I cannot do what I once could. I am not the same person I once was. Type A personalities like myself prefer to be in the game rather than sitting on the sidelines.

Adopting health strategies such as a clean diet, regular workouts, and supplements, has helped lessen the daily pain and limited my “flares” of my fibromyalgia. It has allowed me to maintain a moderately active lifestyle. And then I begin to think: Maybe I am OK. Maybe I am in some sort of remission. Maybe I can push myself just a little harder. And that thinking usually ends in a crash and burn, i.e. fibro flare and bed rest. Slowing down, resting allows the body to recover from the stresses put upon it. Without a recovery period, we can do our bodies more harm than good.

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What to Eat with Fibromyalgia

If I eat crap, I feel like crap. So I eat to stay healthy and energized, and to help me keep the fibroflares at bay. 

As with most chronic conditions, fibromyalgia symptoms and treatments are not a one-stop shop. No two people are alike in how their bodies react to the condition or to treatment. The thought of using food to heal oneself has been around for centuries, yet many people still reach for the over-processed, low nutritional value, fast foods – either from the grocery stores or eating out. I, myself, am hypersensitive to medications, so I have chosen to manage my condition through lifestyle choices, such as diet and exercise.

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” ~ Hippocrates

But just as no two treatments are alike, neither are the foods one should eat. A simple search for books on Amazon of “fibromyalgia diet” yielded 655 results, with this one being the most popular! But there are common foods that are more likely to trigger a reaction or flare and others that are good for reducing inflammation in the body. I offer some suggestions on finding what’s right for  you.

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