Weight Gain & Endo

I became less active after endo symptoms began and with time I felt large and unattractive with a bad case of Endo belly. My journey with endometriosis began about 7 months ago. Since then, my energy levels dropped, and pain increased which made it almost impossible to work out regularly. Exercise after the operation was always my intention, but shortly after recovery I was back at square one. Walking was a mission and working out was much worse. The pain felt as though my uterus was like a bag of rocks, heavy and sore enough to fall out. This may sound like an exaggeration, but this is the best way I can describe this discomfort.

The cherry on the top, feeling tired actually makes you eat more. Less active and more food intake = big fat cow. Since the pain is consistent with a 4-week period on Visanne treatment, I have scheduled a visit with my OB-GYN. Hopefully with his advice we can come up with a better pain management plan and hopefully get back to something that resembles a normal life.

In the meantime, I am attempting a diet and workout routine in an effort to get fit and feel a bit better about my body.

Exercise & Endo Diet Challenge

Going forward, I will be doing an hour workout every day for 5 days. The idea is that if I can do this for 5 days then perhaps, I can make this a lifestyle. The hope is that this may also relieve some pain and associated muscle tension. Of course, this will require some resilience in spite of the significant pain. I will be doing this slowly and listening to my body carefully. I will track my progress daily so that I may report back on my blog. I am hoping that this may be the change I need.

Exercise

Exercise is known to not only help lose weight, tone, but also helpful towards good mental health and possibly boost ones metabolism.

My posture is also worse since the endometriosis because most of the time I sit hunched over in pain or lying down in a fetal position. So, I desperately need to work on my core. Therefore, I have selected exercises mostly targeting the core.

Diet

The idea with the diet is to avoid foods that cause fat and inflammation and eat foods that will reduce inflammation. These foods include:

• salmon

• spinach

• berries

• avocado

These are a few I have mentioned, but to avoid having a boring diet I will also include other foods that combat inflammation and also detox.

In South Africa the weather has become cooler so I will include hot drinks to also substitute daily coffee intake. Below are some great ideas for teas that assist with inflammation:

• green tea

• stinging nettle tea

• tumeric tea/latte

• cinnamon tea

Honey will be best with these if you need to add something sweet. Sugar is definitely not included in this diet as it will increase inflammation. Which I have experienced firsthand.

So wish me luck.

Have a flare free day!