Healthy Living with Crohn's

This morning I jumped onto the scale and was surprised to learn I weighed 225lbs. Not so long ago I weighed 260 and I know for sure that 4 months ago I weighed 245lbs. Yes, to answer your question, I have been working out. I also have a gastrointestinal disorder, Crohn's disease, which I highly recommend you go out and get if you intend to lose some weight. Yup, nothing melts off the pounds than stomach disease.

My Crohn's disease has changed my life a rather lot, now that I think of it. Having lived with stomach and intestinal pain for so long, I was under the impression this is how the entire world lived, with gas, stomach distension, infrequent bowel movement and general all-around pain...I had been to doctors as early as 1997 complaining of discomfort, but it was shrugged off, and eventually I did as well. So now I have a name and face that goes with my pain, it also can give me insight into how I can adapt and live well with it. Crohn's is related to asthma and eczema, and I have both (although eczema not so bad these days, more when I was younger); and alledgedly what happens is that my auto-immune system attacks the healthy gastrointestinal tissues, weakening and rupturing them. I love statistics and the statistics are that 1 in 10 of Crohn's sufferers will eventually succumb to the disease, typically to septemia, or massive infection because the bowels rupture and waste seeps into the body. That one person will get very sick very quickly with high fever, vomitting, diarrhea, mental confusion, elevated blood pressure and eventually heart, liver, or kidney failure will kill them.

The key for me, for now, has been to stay away from raw foods, and bulky fibre foods, or insoluble fiber. And I have had to drastically limit my meal portions. What I am eating is typically what can be fit into a handful. Unfortunately due to my constraints in my current living situation this is often hard to get, especially with healthy foods, but nonetheless, it means one half or one full sandwich, depending on its size, one piece of fruit, or similarily portioned cut of meat, soup or chili. So far this works. I am eating more often, but it feels a lot better. If I have eaten too much during the day then I really feel pressure, especially when I exercise.

Yeah sure, there are symptoms of my disease, discomfort and whatnot, but so far it has been manageable.