Let me tell you a story of how I thought my life was shattered after developing a chronic illness, and then how I worked to overcome it and reclaim my life.
The fall
In my 20’s I felt invincible. I could do anything, eat anything, sleep as little or as much as I wanted and I always felt fine. That changed shortly after hitting 30.
I started noticing more fatigue and more discomfort from food and occasional diarrhea, something I had rarely had in my entire life. At first I attributed it to lifestyle changes after moving from the United States to Spain. The food was much different, the hours people ate were different, the weather was different, big city pollution was different than the small city I used to live in. I thought maybe I just needed more time to get used to all these changes.
But the problem got worse. It got so bad that almost all food except the most basic ended up giving me diarrhea. I went for over a month eating little more than chicken breast and rice since that’s all that I seemed to tolerate. I lost over 20 pounds and started to get really worried.
I couldn’t work effectively either, and my energy sank to dangerously low levels and I had consistent stomach and intestinal pain. I wondered if I might be starting to die. The doctors did test after test but could find nothing wrong with me.
Fortunately after a couple months I found I could start to eat more like normal again and the problem just kind of disappeared. I figured maybe I had caught a nasty bug and now I was over it.
Finally, a diagnosis
About a year later, it happened again. My family was very worried about me and this time pressured me to sign up for a private health plan. Spain has free public healthcare, but it can be slow. It could take months to see a gastroenterologist. After signing up for a private health plan, I was surprised to be able to see one in less than a week.
This private doctor took my case very seriously and set me up for another series of tests, all of which I was able to do in the next couple weeks with my insurance plan.
After the tests she diagnosed me with Crohn’s disease, which I had never heard of before. She explained it was a chronic illness that I will have for the rest of my life, but with diet changes and medication it would likely not shorten my life and I could live relatively normally.
It is an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that has periods of flare-ups and remissions, which explains why I sometimes I was severely affected and at other times more or less normal again.
After years of having these problems I was relieved to finally have an answer, but disheartened that it was incurable. She directed me to a dietician, who monitored what I ate for nearly a month and helped me improve my diet.
But changing the way I have eaten for my entire life proved difficult. Especially when I was in a period of remission and the temptation to eat poorly became strong again.
Living with a chronic illness
Little by little I worked on improving my diet, cutting out most sweets, fried foods and ultra-processed foods. The diarrhea became much less common. But I was still having problems.
I was never able to return to the same level of productivity in work. I felt tired all the time. After lunch I’d have terrible slumps that left me incapable of working until I rested and took a nap. Many days my mind felt stuck in a persistent fog. My work as a programmer is primarily mental, so that really made things difficult for me.
Then after work I just felt so worn out, unable to really enjoy my evenings with my family. Though the foods I ate were healthier, I was still feeling bloated a lot of the time.
This became worse after my daughter was born. This girl has never slept very well, and as a consequence neither have my wife or I. This just added to my chronic fatigue. It was becoming unbearable. I started needing to make a lot more excuses at work. Where at one time they saw me as a leader in my workplace, now I was struggling to keep productive enough to avoid getting fired.
What hurt even more was that I couldn’t conjure up the energy to spend playing with my little girl. I could not keep up with her boundless energy.
Even more worrying was that I was starting to become more clumsy and forgetful. On multiple occasions I embarrassed myself at work by not remembering something I had done just a month before.
It got so bad that I went to a neurologist to find out if I was having early onset dementia. Fortunately a brain scan revealed everything was normal there, but I could not shake the feeling that if something did not change, I might not be around to see my little girl graduate, or I might not remember her if I was.
I was not about to let myself just wither away like that. It was time to take things more seriously.
My resolve to overcome my illness and reclaim my life
I had been chasing side hustles after work for years, trying to start my own business and failing multiple times. I decided to stop that and focus on improving my health all the way. My health was my top priority right after my daughter and my wife.
I started reading and listening to everything I could about how to combat Crohn’s disease, brain fog and fatigue. I started taking cooking much more seriously and experimenting with food I made myself from natural ingredients to learn how it affected my body.
I made regular appointments with my gastroenterologist. She found I had SIBO and gave me antibiotics to combat them. I knew that wasn’t enough. I had to feed the good bacteria and starve the bad bacteria. I became even stricter with my diet.
Exercise was a non-negotiable for me. I converted one of our bedrooms into a mini in-door gym so I wouldn’t have the excuse of not wanting to travel to the gym. Finding time between work and taking care of my little girl was challenging but I committed to 2-3 intense workouts per week. I bought a platform for my desk to turn it into a standing desk and got a small, flat treadmill to put under it. I committed to walking while I work at least one hour each day.
I learned that my energy levels improved along with my mood and not just vice-versa. I found ways to smile and laugh every day and learned to get more excited for things.
I studied nutrient deficiencies and started working out where I had them. I incorporated more fish into my diet for omega 3, more fruits for vitamin C, more leafy greens and nuts for magnesium, at least 10 minutes of sunlight every day for vitamin D, etc.
I worked to reduce stress as much as possible. I found every way I could to combat my fatigue brain fog to reclaim my mind and my energy.
How I’ve improved my health, and how you can, too
I’ve come a long way, but I still have more to do. Having seen the fruits of my results so far, I am convinced that I can regain much of that fitness and mental clarity I enjoyed in my 20’s.
And I want to share all of this with you so that you can, too. Even if no one finds or benefits from the content I provide here, I know it will at least act as a diary for myself to help me remember everything I’m doing and everything I’ve learned.
I see my parents declining in health as well. Even if I am unable to help anyone else, I am determined to help them improve as well.
But I am convinced anyone and everyone can improve their lives with the learnings I share on this website. Whether you have chronic illnesses or not, whether you are 50 or 20, what you will learn with me here will help you live longer and happier. And that’s what we all really want in the end, isn’t it?
So join me on my journey to obtain and maintain the best health possible and enjoy the rest of life to the fullest with loved ones. Consider signing up to my mailing list to get frequent tips directly in your email and have direct contact with me.
I don’t expect to have success in this alone and neither should you. But together we can achieve amazing things if we’re motivated enough. And my motivation has never been stronger.