Fibro Fit: A walk and a swim for the win

Day one of using fitness for fibromyalgia – beginning the fight

Being diagnosed with Fibromyalgia is as joyful as it sounds. Having two other chronic illnesses already – an underachieve thyroid and haemochromatosis – it’s a threesome in my body; and not the fun kind.

Two years ago I was running half marathons, doing an olympic distance triathlon and in general great health but I took a turn from which I never returned. In January 2017 I got the Fibromyalgia diagnosis and the past few weeks have been a black cloud of depression, chronic fatigue, pain and loneliness.

Finally having gotten some of my strength back, I decided to get fibro fit! That is to take complete control of my body, albeit slow, and get back feeling healthy and happy. I may not be competing in a triathlon any time soon but the race to feel like myself again is a worthy one. Slow and steady always wins, right?

Research into the nutritional end of things determined that I need to be gluten free, diary free, meat free and alcohol free; so all the good stuff.  I became vegetarian a year ago as a result of the haemochromatosis but never fully managed the rest. While some of the food won’t look appetising to most, I will eat what’s right for me; however un-conventional (so less of the yucks please)!

I want to track my journey of fighting Fibromyalgia and getting fit and healthy. I’ll be documenting my food and mental wellbeing throughout. In another post I’ll tell you about the day the Doctor gave me the F word but for now, thank you for following my journey…here’s day one.

Exercise:

3km walk…some of which I stopped to take some lovely photographs on a beautiful morning in The Mall, Longford.

250metre swim non-stop. That’s 10 lengths! Considering two years ago I was swimming 1500m non-stop it’s a set back but I was happy to manage this without stopping. Rewarded with a steam and sauna.

Food:

Breakfast – rice cereal with almond milk, smoothie with mango, ginger, tofu and almond milk

Lunch – spicy sweet potato and canelli bean soup

Dinner – gluten free vegan lasagne – tofu “ricotta” spinach and lettuce leaves “pasta” and sweet potato chips

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