Right I was diagnosed in January 2013 with Crohn's disease, it's been over a year and if this year has taught me anything it's that I don't have a clue about anything... it's like as soon as I get better from a flare up, a week later I'm ill again, I just think I'm pretty clueless about what I should actually do to manage this disease.
I'm currently doing my finals at university (my illness and fatigue from it is not helping me at all with revision concentration haha - very, very annoying) and I finish in a couple of weeks. I am then taking a gap year before I start work in September 2015 and think that this year break would be the perfect time to figure out my health, figure out what I need to do to feel and be healthy. It will be the first time since my diagnosis where I have had no other important commitments or tasks that will be able to get in the way of my mission to get healthy; unfortunately I think I let my busy lifestyle in the past year overtake what should be my main focus, my health.
So, my yearly goal on my gap year, unlike others who get to travel, explore and find themselves, is just to smash this thing and get healthy and STAY healthy by figuring out what lifestyle I need to lead to avoid those annoying flare ups!
I am clueless though. Completely clueless.
Please, please if anyone has any tips that really helped them figure out what worked for them could you post, I've heard food diaries are good (as you get to keep tabs of the food that causes you problems etc), any other good tips?
Any foods that are universally known to cause flaring, or cause flaring in the majority of Crohn's sufferers?
Any lifestyle tips that might help stop flaring, such as daily exercise, (by the way, I am not a smoker, I know that's the big one with Crohn's in terms of lifestyle)?
Thanks a lot, Alice x
I'm currently doing my finals at university (my illness and fatigue from it is not helping me at all with revision concentration haha - very, very annoying) and I finish in a couple of weeks. I am then taking a gap year before I start work in September 2015 and think that this year break would be the perfect time to figure out my health, figure out what I need to do to feel and be healthy. It will be the first time since my diagnosis where I have had no other important commitments or tasks that will be able to get in the way of my mission to get healthy; unfortunately I think I let my busy lifestyle in the past year overtake what should be my main focus, my health.
So, my yearly goal on my gap year, unlike others who get to travel, explore and find themselves, is just to smash this thing and get healthy and STAY healthy by figuring out what lifestyle I need to lead to avoid those annoying flare ups!
I am clueless though. Completely clueless.
Please, please if anyone has any tips that really helped them figure out what worked for them could you post, I've heard food diaries are good (as you get to keep tabs of the food that causes you problems etc), any other good tips?
Any foods that are universally known to cause flaring, or cause flaring in the majority of Crohn's sufferers?
Any lifestyle tips that might help stop flaring, such as daily exercise, (by the way, I am not a smoker, I know that's the big one with Crohn's in terms of lifestyle)?
Thanks a lot, Alice x