A restricted diet in eating disorder recovery?

I felt like my recovery had been wasted, Id re-learnt how to eat all the 'unhealthy' food and now I wasn't allowed them again.

Having a restrictive diet when in recovery for an eating disorder is something that likely isn't going to be recommended but when the diet is for your health is it okay?

 I suffered with a restrictive eating disorder for around 7-8 months before starting my recovery. In the beginning of my recovery I suffered with extreme hunger, which is where your body craves a large amount of calories, this can happen in any eating disorder recovery whether you lose weight or not. Having extreme hunger I had to put my mental health over my physical health, I craved soooo much food, from chocolate, biscuits, bread and I could consume jars of peanut butter and still not be full. This lasted for around 6 months,which was super scary and I thought the extreme hunger would never end, but thankfully it did.

I do still consider myself to be in recovery from my eating disorder but now have a healthy lifestyle and balanced diet. Now that my mental health is in a better place I had to start to work on my autoimmune disease and improving my joints. So many people recommended a vegan diet so I quickly cut out all meat and other animal products, I actually did this over night. Honestly I didn't really struggle with this. I found that there were a lot of vegan products and substitutes so my mental health did not suffer a lot. When I began to research more into how your diet can help autoimmune diseases even more people recommended that I should cut out gluten too, This made my diet extremely restricted.

There are quite a few gluten free substitutes however some shops do offer less variety, so I quickly found myself eating a lot of low calorie food. It's such a strange thing to explain, I felt like my recovery had been wasted, Id re-learnt how to eat all the 'unhealthy' food and now I wasn't allowed them again. In my head I had to try and make sure I was doing this for the right reason and wasn't doing it to restrict my intake and some days I still second guess this, however I now just eat a larger quantity to make sure I'm getting the right amount of calories my body needs.

I'm not totally against being on a vegan/vegetarian diet in recovery because there are loads of other reasons people have restrictions on their diets and that is completely normal however I feel like you have to make sure you're doing it for the right reasons, which can be difficult when your in recovery. Even though I'm on a 'redistricted' diet I still work on my recovery by eating intuitively and not counting calories or macros. I think you just have to find out what works best for you.

A bad day. Coping with the pain.

I'm going to be completely real and honest here, today is a bad day. I woke up after a restless night sleep with anxiety over what my future could be. For many teenagers planning the future can be stressful enough but when you have an autoimmune disease, your possibilities can be seen as somewhat limited.

After minimal sleep I woke up feeling extremely negative and my joints were totally matching my mood, I'm not sure if stress is considered a trigger for arthritis pain but I know that when I'm feeling more positive about my condition my joints feel a lot better.

It is so so hard to get out of the 'funk' and I am definitely somebody who wants to know as much as possible about the medication I'm taking and when you research 'Methotrexate side effects' it can cause a lot of panic. Not only can the medication cause stress but the possibility of the disease getting worse definitely keeps me up at night.

Stepping back from the internet and not googling 'juvenile rheumatoid arthritis' is sometimes needed, even though so many people suffer from rheumatoid arthritis, everybody has different triggers and ways of dealing with the pain, so I try not to compare myself to other people too much. Coping with the pain can sometimes feel impossible but for me, distraction is key, focusing my mind on something completely unrelated to arthritis for even just an hour seems to work wonders. Don't get me wrong when the pain is so bad that you can't even put pressure on your hands or bend your elbows distracting yourself can seem so difficult.

Exercise is really good for joints and I know for most that staying in bed on bad pain days can make the day worse but  I think its so useful to get a healthy balance between resting and being active. On days when I'm most active I'm usually asleep by 9PM as simple things seem to take a lot more energy for me compared to others, which is so frustrating but something I'm learning to accept. Learning to do whats best for you and your management of the pain is so important. Tell people when the pain is bad. Let them know if there is anything they can do to help. Just try to keep in mind that there will be so many more better days, you just have to keep trying.

Vegan and gluten free diet for autoimmune disease

I'm carrying on from my latest blog post on my story with rheumatoid arthritis and going to explain how I've changed my diet. There are sooo many articles and suggestions out there that tell you what to eat to 'cure' your condition. I don't know if I believe them but I will definitely give them a go.

I recently switched to a vegan diet, where I eliminated meat, fish, dairy, egg etc all out of my diet. Then I recently decided to cut out gluten too. When I first started my vegan diet I found it alright as most of the products that I ate were full of gluten so when I decided to eliminate that, I was stuck.

There is no denying that a gluten free, vegan diet is hard, especially if you're eating out, the options available are super limited. Even at home I sometimes struggle. I eat mainly vegetables as too much sugar can also cause flare ups of arthritis however I do still eat a large amount of fruit too, because I have a massive sweet tooth. Right now I can't tell if the diet is working but I feel as though I need to try anything possible. 

Don't get me wrong sometimes all I want to do is eat a massive slice of cake and not worry but I'm just trying to improve my chances of a better future.

What is Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis? My story.

'Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease that causes inflammation in your joints. The main symptoms are joint pain and swelling.' Rheumatoid arthritis, at least for me, is essentially where your immune system attacks the joints in your body.

To put it mildly that is the main definition when it comes to arthritis. But for me

Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis is so much more than joint pain and swelling.  

Only old people get arthritis right? That is definitely what I thought, having arthritis at a young age never even crossed my mind until I was diagnosed at age 14. When I was diagnosed I didn't (was not informed, but that is a whole other different story) understand the severity of Rheumatoid arthritis, I didn't even know it was called a disease! For around 6 months my joints started to swell, beginning at my knees and rapidly spreading to every joint in my body. For months I put up with the pain until it became so unbearable I couldn't even get out of bed.. But I reluctantly I mean finally made a doctors appointment. 

At my doctors appointment not a lot was said but I was quickly referred to a rheumatologist where I was given my diagnosis. Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis (JRA for short). I was put on Predisolone, Methotrexate and Naproxen. For a long time I thought that after taking these for a long period of time I would be cured, little did I know that this was going to effect me for the rest of my life.

Around 3 years later, yep 3 years I eventually found out the severity of my disease and the risks of the medication I was taking, by googling it :). It. Was. Terrifying. I felt angry that nobody had told me about the severity and how it would effect me for the rest of my life. I felt so alone, I was jealous of everybody because they didn't have the condition and truth be told, jealousy is still something I struggle with now. The joints in my fingers are by far the worst effected and I struggle to do every day tasks, like opening drinks or lifting the kettle. 
The future still scares me but I have made a lot of changes to my lifestyle to try and help with my arthritis and maybe one day go into remission.

I'm not going to go to much into my diet and exercise regime as I want to write another blog post which has a lot more detail but I workout every single day(unless I'm having a really bad flare which then I stay in bed and eat as much as humanly possible, don't we all have those days?). I recently discovered that diet is a major factor in autoimmune diseases and some people claim that remission can be achieved by certain diets. For a couple of months I have been vegan, cutting out any meat, fish and dairy products and in the past couple of days I have switched to only eating a vegan diet and cutting out gluten as well. Honestly I can not tell if it's the diet or medication that is helping but right now I will do just about anything to try and go into remission.

The thing I wish more than anything was that I was told about the natural ways of healing years ago. If anyone can take anything from my story is too look into other ways of helping your arthritis and don't just believe what your doctor tells you, sure if medication works for you then that is great but there are other ways that can help too.

Having juvenile arthritis is tough, I'm so unsure of what the future will bring and that is mainly why I created this blog so I can share my story, what I do to cope and maybe even connect to other people that are struggling with any form of arthritis. Having juvenile arthritis and having to adapt my entire lifestyle to fit into this disease is so challenging but it's shown me strength that I never knew or even thought I had.