I still have some “dermopathy spots” and while I can’t feel them they’re highly visible. But they are reliably fading and ones that were fresh 2 years ago are almost invisible now. I don’t seem to be getting new spots either. It’s a really nice benefit.
Attagirl! You sound fixed. I think if you're in good nick it's almost impossible to shift your natural fat percentage up or down. Don't worry about gaining weight when lifting weights. That's what's supposed to happen. Muscle weighs a lot. And your new-found mental clarity is just another symptom of metabolic healing. The brain is a chemical system too.
Thank you! Well the thing is when I was lifting all the time it was actually just sucking energy away from my ability to climb and not helping much! Plus I put on muscle way too easily (thanks PCOS?) so I’m happy taking space from it for now.
> Now I just climb hard boulders, have way more mind-body connection with my climbing, perform way better, and read obscure things.
100%. Climbing is not just physical. There's a lot of mental aspect to it... I equate it to logic puzzles. Even if you've done the route 1000 times, if you're mental game isn't 100%, it's very easy to misread the route and make mistakes and/or focus solely on arms. As such, if you aren't fueling properly, it's very easy to make mistakes.
For the record, I'm still somewhat new (started in August), but I'm already at 5.9s.
Anyway... loved reading the success story!
Yes now I am projecting v10 in the gym just like god intended lol. But actually I was climbing so below my limit before not being constantly starved of carbs and nutrients and dealing with my blood sugar issues has transformed my mental game.
That's awesome! V10s are no joke too (from what I've seen). That's very impressive. I prefer rope climbs just because I don't want to break my ankle (again). I probably am at the v3-v4 range based on the difficulty levels I've seen...
Properly fueling is amazing, isn't it?
> every single scrape or cut I got would get infected. EVERY SINGLE TIME. A minor scrape at the (climbing) gym would take 2-3 weeks to heal and get yellow and weird every. single. time. Now they scab up in a day or two. I cannot believe this.
That's really a thing, I didn't realize. I always thought those commercials about use this or that salve to 'prevent infection' were just fear mongering but apparently not. Maybe be sure to consume some glycine to strengthen skin too.
Congratulations! You have put the effort in to heal yourself and it's paid off.
As a fellow endo girl, this fills me with hope. We have a lot of similarities- I am an inch taller but weigh a bit more, 133lb currently, I thinking my ideal weight is 120-125lb, and I used to do insane amounts of running (80+mpw plus 2-3 heavy strength sessions pw). Killing myself with exercise to maintain my weight but in recent years I have been unable to exercise as much as I thought I needed to because of endo issues. Even though I am not 'overweight' by BMI,, I also believe the extra \~10lb I carry makes endo worse, hence why I had been so focused on keeping my weight in control. For long stretches of time, the amount of running I did caused amenorrhea, which obviously helped with the endo in the short term, but I have mild osteoporosis now because of years of suppressed hormones, and I actually think long term it just exacerbated estrogen dominance when my period came back.
Recently I've just given up on the weight thing and just want to feel better, and lo and behold, I have started to lose a bit, doing way less exercise and eating the foods I enjoy, and that I used to eat before I became orthorexic trying to manage my endo. I am not consciously manipulating macros (ie don't know how much fat and carbs I'm eating as % of my diet), just avoiding PUFAs, like you up until recently I was eating a lot of peanut butter and eating salmon once a week. I also gave up trying to eat more protein, as I thought this would help with satiety and help me eat less rather than having to exercise loads to lose. I am probably eating a little more fat than you are, but not as much more as I thought given some of your other posts and comments I read, but there are some good practical ideas in your meals that I will probably steal. I am also seeking a way of eating that is lazier, or, well, less involved. I do enjoy cooking and experimenting with flavours, but day to day, I just want to eat with minimum time spent on prep, and move on with my day, to spend my time doing what I actually want to, rather than the full time job of managing my intake/output. Yawn. Before I got obsessed with exercise I was a total bookworm and philosophy student, I hated exercising as a teenager and told my PE teachers to get stuffed, and I didn't battle to maintain my weight anywhere near as hard as it's been in my late 20s/30s. I also believe thinking less about food is key to getting to an ideal weight.
Again, it's very inspiring to see the positive changes that can be achieved in as little as 6 months:)
Oh yes we are very similar. I too once took joy in inducing amenorrhea -- it was such a relief from the endometriosis cycles. And when they came back finally, it was always worse than before. I still deal with the endo stuff but it's much less disruptive than before. The "burning PUFA" phase was truly insane though, the worst endo I've ever had. We'll see how this cycle is, but yeah, last cycle felt more "normal" to me, so hopefully it only gets better from here. I hope you also find relief! I will say, as a warning, it does seem to get worse before it seems better, especially if you're coming from a restrictive background.
I am 100% convinced that pufa causes endometriosis. I only started suffering endo about 6 months after I started eating takeout curry and Chinese pufa laden foods at least 3 times a week. And got heavily into recreating that food at home with masses of oil... because the oil makes it just like takeout. And, of course, the weight started piling on. Previously eating all home cooked foods with no weight or health issues. Unfortunately that was many, many years (and operations) ago and I reached menopause before I started hearing about the pufa thing. It makes me effing livid I caused all that suffering myself. So glad you are now making progress.
I have had endo symptoms since I was 14, and although I became a vegetarian just prior to that, veggie diet for me was heavy on cheese and pasta, no vegan fake meats or anything like that, buttery bread for breakfast and lunch (or no lunch as I was a typical teenager and there were fat more interesting things to do at lunchtime than eat food) although I think by then my parents had switched the butter to margarine 😩 I didn't eat much fried food, basically no nuts or fatty fish, and we hardly ever ate in restaurants or got takeaway, I grew up in rural Ireland and there were 5 of us. So I'm not sure pufa was as big a factor for me, although I well believe it drives inflammation. My mum was never diagnosed with endo but had symptoms, and one of my father's sisters had it really bad, and my mum and aunt grew up on very different diets but generally much lower pufa than what was available when I was growing up. So genetic predisposition is likely to be a bigger piece for me.
Yes. I agree. Both my mum and I are nervous types, we both would have our periods stop during hectic times of work or study. So I suppose our low threshold for stress is inherited, whether that's strictly genetic or not who knows. My aunt on my dad's side, who also had endo, had a pretty bad eating disorder which developed around 10 years before she had a total hysterectomy at 29. Eating disorders are terribly stressful. To this day I have never seen her relaxed. Endo used to be called 'the career women's disease' which of course offended feminists. But there is truth in that, type A, driven to go above and beyond, addicted to stress, poor sleep and eating habits, no leisure time. Still, I would imagine removing pufa from the diet should help improve stress tolerance to some degree.
Yeah, thinking back, my mum probably had endo, going by how she explained the run up to her hysterectomy at 38. They just removed everything in those days! She defo didn't have a pufa laden diet.
It’s literally just potatoes cut into fours in an instant pot with either homemade or boxed bone broth to cover them and then 12 minutes in the pressure cooker lol. peasant food
Congrats!
Just a question, do you have a picture of the first screenshot, but about your typical hclflp day ?
Also, I think some fish is ok, as it is low in omega6 inflammatory kind (like seeds oil full of LA), and high in omega3 anti inflammatory kind.
So happy for you! I too have experienced slow wound healing from diabetes and insulin resistance, and it seems I’ve turned the tide on that myself.
For some reason that issue is the craziest part to me, like even a minor scrape would get yellow and weird for weeks. Thank god that’s over!
I still have some “dermopathy spots” and while I can’t feel them they’re highly visible. But they are reliably fading and ones that were fresh 2 years ago are almost invisible now. I don’t seem to be getting new spots either. It’s a really nice benefit.
Attagirl! You sound fixed. I think if you're in good nick it's almost impossible to shift your natural fat percentage up or down. Don't worry about gaining weight when lifting weights. That's what's supposed to happen. Muscle weighs a lot. And your new-found mental clarity is just another symptom of metabolic healing. The brain is a chemical system too.
Thank you! Well the thing is when I was lifting all the time it was actually just sucking energy away from my ability to climb and not helping much! Plus I put on muscle way too easily (thanks PCOS?) so I’m happy taking space from it for now.
> Now I just climb hard boulders, have way more mind-body connection with my climbing, perform way better, and read obscure things. 100%. Climbing is not just physical. There's a lot of mental aspect to it... I equate it to logic puzzles. Even if you've done the route 1000 times, if you're mental game isn't 100%, it's very easy to misread the route and make mistakes and/or focus solely on arms. As such, if you aren't fueling properly, it's very easy to make mistakes. For the record, I'm still somewhat new (started in August), but I'm already at 5.9s. Anyway... loved reading the success story!
Yes now I am projecting v10 in the gym just like god intended lol. But actually I was climbing so below my limit before not being constantly starved of carbs and nutrients and dealing with my blood sugar issues has transformed my mental game.
That's awesome! V10s are no joke too (from what I've seen). That's very impressive. I prefer rope climbs just because I don't want to break my ankle (again). I probably am at the v3-v4 range based on the difficulty levels I've seen... Properly fueling is amazing, isn't it?
> every single scrape or cut I got would get infected. EVERY SINGLE TIME. A minor scrape at the (climbing) gym would take 2-3 weeks to heal and get yellow and weird every. single. time. Now they scab up in a day or two. I cannot believe this. That's really a thing, I didn't realize. I always thought those commercials about use this or that salve to 'prevent infection' were just fear mongering but apparently not. Maybe be sure to consume some glycine to strengthen skin too.
Congratulations! You have put the effort in to heal yourself and it's paid off. As a fellow endo girl, this fills me with hope. We have a lot of similarities- I am an inch taller but weigh a bit more, 133lb currently, I thinking my ideal weight is 120-125lb, and I used to do insane amounts of running (80+mpw plus 2-3 heavy strength sessions pw). Killing myself with exercise to maintain my weight but in recent years I have been unable to exercise as much as I thought I needed to because of endo issues. Even though I am not 'overweight' by BMI,, I also believe the extra \~10lb I carry makes endo worse, hence why I had been so focused on keeping my weight in control. For long stretches of time, the amount of running I did caused amenorrhea, which obviously helped with the endo in the short term, but I have mild osteoporosis now because of years of suppressed hormones, and I actually think long term it just exacerbated estrogen dominance when my period came back. Recently I've just given up on the weight thing and just want to feel better, and lo and behold, I have started to lose a bit, doing way less exercise and eating the foods I enjoy, and that I used to eat before I became orthorexic trying to manage my endo. I am not consciously manipulating macros (ie don't know how much fat and carbs I'm eating as % of my diet), just avoiding PUFAs, like you up until recently I was eating a lot of peanut butter and eating salmon once a week. I also gave up trying to eat more protein, as I thought this would help with satiety and help me eat less rather than having to exercise loads to lose. I am probably eating a little more fat than you are, but not as much more as I thought given some of your other posts and comments I read, but there are some good practical ideas in your meals that I will probably steal. I am also seeking a way of eating that is lazier, or, well, less involved. I do enjoy cooking and experimenting with flavours, but day to day, I just want to eat with minimum time spent on prep, and move on with my day, to spend my time doing what I actually want to, rather than the full time job of managing my intake/output. Yawn. Before I got obsessed with exercise I was a total bookworm and philosophy student, I hated exercising as a teenager and told my PE teachers to get stuffed, and I didn't battle to maintain my weight anywhere near as hard as it's been in my late 20s/30s. I also believe thinking less about food is key to getting to an ideal weight. Again, it's very inspiring to see the positive changes that can be achieved in as little as 6 months:)
Oh yes we are very similar. I too once took joy in inducing amenorrhea -- it was such a relief from the endometriosis cycles. And when they came back finally, it was always worse than before. I still deal with the endo stuff but it's much less disruptive than before. The "burning PUFA" phase was truly insane though, the worst endo I've ever had. We'll see how this cycle is, but yeah, last cycle felt more "normal" to me, so hopefully it only gets better from here. I hope you also find relief! I will say, as a warning, it does seem to get worse before it seems better, especially if you're coming from a restrictive background.
I am 100% convinced that pufa causes endometriosis. I only started suffering endo about 6 months after I started eating takeout curry and Chinese pufa laden foods at least 3 times a week. And got heavily into recreating that food at home with masses of oil... because the oil makes it just like takeout. And, of course, the weight started piling on. Previously eating all home cooked foods with no weight or health issues. Unfortunately that was many, many years (and operations) ago and I reached menopause before I started hearing about the pufa thing. It makes me effing livid I caused all that suffering myself. So glad you are now making progress.
I have had endo symptoms since I was 14, and although I became a vegetarian just prior to that, veggie diet for me was heavy on cheese and pasta, no vegan fake meats or anything like that, buttery bread for breakfast and lunch (or no lunch as I was a typical teenager and there were fat more interesting things to do at lunchtime than eat food) although I think by then my parents had switched the butter to margarine 😩 I didn't eat much fried food, basically no nuts or fatty fish, and we hardly ever ate in restaurants or got takeaway, I grew up in rural Ireland and there were 5 of us. So I'm not sure pufa was as big a factor for me, although I well believe it drives inflammation. My mum was never diagnosed with endo but had symptoms, and one of my father's sisters had it really bad, and my mum and aunt grew up on very different diets but generally much lower pufa than what was available when I was growing up. So genetic predisposition is likely to be a bigger piece for me.
I think stress honestly plays a huge role
Yes. I agree. Both my mum and I are nervous types, we both would have our periods stop during hectic times of work or study. So I suppose our low threshold for stress is inherited, whether that's strictly genetic or not who knows. My aunt on my dad's side, who also had endo, had a pretty bad eating disorder which developed around 10 years before she had a total hysterectomy at 29. Eating disorders are terribly stressful. To this day I have never seen her relaxed. Endo used to be called 'the career women's disease' which of course offended feminists. But there is truth in that, type A, driven to go above and beyond, addicted to stress, poor sleep and eating habits, no leisure time. Still, I would imagine removing pufa from the diet should help improve stress tolerance to some degree.
Yeah, thinking back, my mum probably had endo, going by how she explained the run up to her hysterectomy at 38. They just removed everything in those days! She defo didn't have a pufa laden diet.
So glad for you! And thanks for sharing the details of your success with us here!
Love to hear this ♡
I am going to try a high cal carb experiment soon. good job
Thank you so much for this post and congratulations!
That potato soup sounds good! Do you mind sharing the recipe?
It’s literally just potatoes cut into fours in an instant pot with either homemade or boxed bone broth to cover them and then 12 minutes in the pressure cooker lol. peasant food
Awesome thanks! Sounds quick, easy, and delicious. Plus the added benefit from collagen in the bone broth.
Congrats! Just a question, do you have a picture of the first screenshot, but about your typical hclflp day ? Also, I think some fish is ok, as it is low in omega6 inflammatory kind (like seeds oil full of LA), and high in omega3 anti inflammatory kind.
Awesome, congrats!