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What I mean when I say ‘I’m Fine’
“How are you?” “Oh yeah, I’m good, thank you. I’m doing just fine.” A common, every day exchange between two people. It may be someone you know well, or someone you’ve just met. Telling people you’re ‘fine’ is so common nowadays that I don’t think any of us know what it really means. Whenever people ask me how I am, there is a lot that happens in my mind. How honest should I be today? If I did answer that question honestly, can I talk about it openly without crying (usually no)? Would they understand, or even care? Can I actually put into words how I’m feeling right now? How…
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Post Exertional Malaise and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS)
Post Exertional Malaise (or PEM) is one of the most common symptoms of many chronic illnesses, and is one of the defining symptoms of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS). This very limiting symptom is something that likes to rear its ugly head even when you think you’ve been so careful. And can come in many forms – sometimes I don’t even realise it’s what I am experiencing until my husband reminds me I have overdone it and what I am experiencing is the result of that. The dreaded PEM. As it’s such an important part of my life with ME/CFS, I thought it was high time I shared a bit more about…
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Being Diagnosed with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS)
I’ve had this blog for many years, and written so much about my life and my experience with chronic illness, but have never actually talked about being diagnosed with Myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS) and what that looked like. I will be honest here, I was diagnosed nearly 10 years ago now so my memory is not great on the details, but I do remember the main bits which includes a lot of the really important stuff. If you are undergoing testing, or about to start the process, this may give you an idea of what to expect. However, depending on where you are based, and who your doctor is, as well…
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My Unhealthy Relationship With Food
Trigger warning: This blog post talks about my experience with the eating disorder Anorexia, and my unhealthy relationship with food. I was planning on writing this as a twitter thread, but the more I thought about it the bigger the thread got. In the end it was just too long to put on twitter. So as my return to blogging I thought it was a great way to ease myself back into things – or throw myself back into them! My goal for 2020 was to lose weight. We had 5 weddings planned, and I was just sick of feeling massive compared to all of our friends and family. At…
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Why I’m Ditching New Year’s Resolutions
First of all, Happy New Year (and decade) to all you lovely people. I hope it brings you nothing but joy and happiness, and health. I’m here to talk to you about a very popular part of this time of year – New Year’s Resolutions. This post was maybe a better idea for before we’d rung in the New Year, but I needed a break with all the celebrations that were going on, so it wasn’t ready until now. New year’s resolutions are so popular, and I have nothing against anyone who has decided to make some this year (if you have please do share them in the comments below),…
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The 12 Days of Christmas: Self-care edition.
Christmas is a crazy time of year. There is so much to do, so many people to see, presents to buy, parties to go to. The list goes on. And even though it’s meant to be about spending time with friends and family, and showing how much they mean to you, it’s also important that you take care of yourself. When life gets stressful, self-care tends to be pushed aside, but it’s still so important. So, to help you get through the holiday period this year I have compiled a self-care edition of the 12 days of Christmas. Just one thing to do each day over the holidays to help…
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My Fitness Journey: Part 6. Taking a break for my mental health
Hi guys! It’s September now, and time for another long awaited update on my fitness journey – but one with a twist! For months now I have been working really hard to try and get myself in better shape, fitness-wise. I’ve been trying to eat better, exercise more, and just make my body stronger and hopefully get a bit more energy. Well after a pretty hell-ish month, I’ve basically undone any good I had built up previously and ended up feeling worse than ever. I have been eating more than I should, mostly bad things, to the point where my body has been screaming for something healthy. And, not surprisingly,…
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My Journey to Fitness: Part 4
It’s been about a month since my last update to you, apologies for the delay. If you’ve not kept up with my fitness journey so far feel free to catch up here. After spending the first month or so writing bi-weekly health and fitness updates I kind of didn’t see the point in updating you so often, especially as nothing was changing. I really didn’t want you all to be reading the same post over an over again, that would just be insanely boring. In addition, I’ve also been feeling super low about my body because nothing has really changed. My weight keeps going up, and I am just so…
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My fitness journey: Part Three
It’s time for the next instalment of my journey to fitness – part 3, 4 weeks in. If you haven’t already, feel free to go back and read part one and part two. I’ve been trying to be a healthier person for just about a month – trying to exercise more and eat better – in the hope of improving my fitness and keeping myself alive longer. It hasn’t really been my aim to lose weight or get smaller. While I am a big gal, my size isn’t the problem. I just feel so unhealthy. Things I’ve more recently noticed, on top of struggling to get up one flight of…
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5 self-care questions to ask yourself today.
It’s officially April! I thought what better way to kick off the month than by reflecting on my own goals, thoughts and feelings going forward. I have been feeling very uninspired of late, so instead of thinking of a whole topic to blog about I have decided to answer some important self-care questions that could help to shape this new month, and season in my life. I found these questions when I was looking at self-care on pinterest. I can’t take credit for coming up with them, I can only take credit for my answers. The brain behind them is the lovely Anne over at Simplicity Avenue. You can view…
