It’s been seven days now and I’m still waiting for this back flare up to calm down. I’m mostly bedridden at the moment, getting out of bed only if it’s absolutely necessary. I haven’t gone for Pilates or even stepped out for my daily walks. I also had a pretty bad brain-fog which lasted for a couple of  days.

All in all, it feels like 2017 hasn’t quite begun for me and I’m still stuck in 2016, dealing with the consequences of stepping out for a light dinner with a couple of friends on New Year’s Eve. We got stuck in a bad traffic jam the same night and ended up feeling hungry at the strike of mindnight, which then made us want to get some food by the beach before finally heading home.

I’m always putting my health first and never feel the need to be out or go crazy or involve myself in anything just because that’s normal for people. So once in a rare while, I don’t mind *celebrating an occasion, even if it involves a bit more of my physical energy and dealing with its consequences for a while. Even then – it’s usually pretty low key and I love that.

* if you’re chronically sick and your days revolve around health and constant figuring out/surviving, the more reasons you find to celebrate life in your own ways, the better it is. You don’t need to try and act normal or do it the way “normal” people do it. Just find what works for you and live your kind of normal to its best.

My treatment-diet for SIBO has finally started and I will be starting another round of antibiotics (one dose did nothing for me) next week on. The low FODMAP diet,as a treatment for SIBO, can become rather restrictive/limiting in terms of your food options (especially when you mostly make healthy choices anyway) and can end up frustrating most people on it. It requires you to plan your meals down to each ingredient. Somehow, at least at this point, I’m looking at it as yet another opportunity to further my knowledge in nutrition and to get really creative and experimental with low FODMAPs.

I can be quite disciplined and patient when it comes to my health so I’m not expecting too many issues at this point.  However, I might have to include more meat in my meals and I’m not much of a meat-eater. Let’s see how that goes for me. I think I’m going to miss dark chocolate and chai the most!

I’m trying to keep my meals simply and easy to preprare so they don’t take away too much of my mental and physical energy unnecessarily. I do however want to be capable of preparing quick meals for myself as far as possible. I’ll try to share some of my creations as and when I’m able to.

That’s all for now!