My Fitness Struggles

Hey, welcome or welcome back to my blog! Today as it is my first proper post on my new blog, I thought I would write about my own fitness and health struggles, as it means you will know what I had to overcome to find balance. So the future posts will be all about how I overcame struggles and how I am overcoming current struggles. I really hope you relate to some of these, so you don’t feel as alone in the current situation. Some of these difficulties are still going on, so more chatty update posts will mean I can update you on how I am dealing with them.

The first struggle I wanted to discuss was my hormonal acne. Unfortunately, this is something I’m still working on, but recently I have significantly reduced it. I have tried many things and I have always had a pretty good diet (even healthier now) but I still noticed my skin was getting worse, so I started trying more natural methods to balance my hormones, so I am going to write dedicated posts on how I started my acne healing journey. However, this was one of my first hormonal, health struggles that I faced, but a few months ago, before I wanted to make it better, it was the worst it had ever been. I know this is a very common health struggle and it can be disheartening when you exercise, eat well, drink water and still don’t see results, so I really want to focus on what foods you should reduce your consumption of etc.

Now for a more positive paragraph, because this is about a problem I overcame. Six months ago I found out I had anaemia, which is an iron deficiency. I had been vegetarian six months at this point (I’m not anymore) and I hadn’t really been eating enough, even though I was eating healthily, meaning I didn’t get enough of the right nutrients. Anaemia can cause chronic tiredness, bowel problems, hormonal fluctuations (you feel low and emotional a lot of the time and it also made my skin much worse) and paleness. There are other symptoms, but these were the main indicators for me. I had really fallen into being very restrictive and over exercising, but I was so preoccupied with school I hadn’t comprehended how strict I was being with myself. When I look back I was definitely the skinniest I had ever been, because it was probably also stunting my teen development and I just wasn’t eating enough for the amount I was exercising. I went vegetarian for ethical reasons, but at the back of my mind I knew it would make it easier to eat less calories, if I wasn’t eating large enough portion sizes. Anyway, long story short I started eating meat again, but this meant I then went from restricting myself loads and I had felt really low, so Christmas came and I really indulged and just didn’t think enough about my health. I’ve never been at an unhealthy weight- I just became more curvy between the end of December and February 2020, partly because I stopped running so much, because before I realised I had anaemia I had fainted on my treadmill, from not eating enough, so I thought it would be safer to give myself a bit of a break. So I just wasn’t focusing on my health so much between December and February, partly because I had lots going on at school and I was spending most of my time revising and doing extra curriculars. I wasn’t eating unhealthily, but also not eating as healthy as I normally did before. Basically, I shouldn’t have reduced my exercise so much either. By February I was stressed about exams and my skin was worsening from stress and too much of certain food groups, so in March when lockdown happened I had a reality check. I realised I needed to focus on my health again, because I had been too preoccupied with school, and now the expectation of taking my exams in May had been cancelled, so even though I still have school work, I will no longer be taking my exams. I started eating healthy again and my skin got better. I also starting exercising a lot more and feeling so energised all the time. Nevertheless, a few weeks ago I realised I was over exercising and being very strict about when and how long I work out for. So I stopped following a strict schedule and if I needed a break- I took a break, even though I always have a compulsory rest day, as your body needs to repair itself. I’ll write a whole post about over exercising in the future.

The final struggle I wanted to talk about is my bloating and cramping problems. I don’t want to get too tmi, considering this is my first post and I don’t want to scare anyone off, but basically the past few months I have been getting really bad cramps and bloating after certain meals, and lets just say my bowels have been messing with me. When I was at school it didn’t bother me much, because the main thing I felt people were looking at was my skin not my bloating, but as soon as quarantine started I realised how bloated I would be and you know other problems lol. I started eating slower to make sure that wasn’t what was making me bloat. I had pretty much cut out dairy for hormonal reasons, so I knew that wasn’t setting me off. I didn’t consume many processed foods so I knew it wasn’t that. So my last option was a gluten intolerance, and I can confirm I have been gluten free for a few weeks and I feel much better, even mentally. I have been feeling very low recently, I’m sure like a lot of you guys considering the circumstances, so the bloating was just worsening the problem. I am very much adjusting to a gluten free diet- at first I didn’t know what to have for breakfast, but there are plenty of gluten free alternatives (I’ll do a post on this!) so I hope I can do chatty posts on gluten intolerance.

Overall, I have probably been over obsessing with my health a bit, purely because there are few other personal problems to focus on, because of course there is a lot of really unfortunate things going on at the moment, and I wanted to draw my attention away from these things. However, now I have started this blog to stop myself from taking the fun out of my fitness journey. I hope this gave you a bit of background on my fitness struggles, so you now know what sort of tips and posts I could possibly be writing about. Remember you are not alone, there is always someone else who will be going through the same thing as you. I can’t wait to develop my positive mindset even more through building a little fitness community- thank you so much for reading, I would really appreciate any comments you have and I would love it if you liked my post- it supports my blog so much. (P.s sorry this was so rambly).