Coeliac
Disease: (pronounced
see-liac, spelt celiac disease in other countries) is an autoimmune disease.
Gluten, which is found in wheat, barley and rye triggers an immune reaction in
people with coeliac disease. This means that eating gluten damages the lining
of the small intestine. Other parts of the body may be affected.*
This week is Coeliac Awareness week so I thought I’d share my
experience plus my new philosophy of eating which is replenishing my body with
the nutrients that my body was deprived of for so long prior to diagnosis.
Some of you will know that I am a Clean and Lean convert! It
is amazing and simply means cutting out processed food, refined sugar, caffeine
and alcohol as much as possible for a healthier and lean body. It is in no way a fad diet but instead about
wellness and enabling your body to perform at its optimum, which is now so
important to me after my struggles with food and eventual diagnosis with
coeliac disease.
I’m in no way extreme about it though. As much as anyone I
love to treat myself with dessert, take away and a few drinks with friends,
however I do make sure that the majority of my food is as natural as possible
and have reaped the benefits. I was diagnosed with Coeliac disease in early
2008 at the age of 26 after nearly ten years of being unwell. Over the years the doctors have treated me
for numerous conditions, relatively unsuccessfully resulting in food becoming a
major issue in my life.
I have had problems with food since childhood, I was known as
a young child to take hours eating a boiled egg and toast and through primary
school my parents would often find my packed lunch hidden away in my bedroom
where I hadn’t eaten it. I was bullied
for being so thin and lacked any self confidence. I always felt unwell and exhausted and the
teachers would get fed up of me bothering them when I felt sick.
For a time my weight and health picked up, I then became
interested in athletics and running became my life. Training made me hungry and I was eating
better than ever, mostly meat, vegetables, salads etc to become healthier and
aid my training. I was a promising
athlete, running for my club, school, county and country and became focused on
a career in athletics and competing in the Olympics my long term goal.
However, I started to become unwell again, tiredness set in
and I started to get injured more frequently which was put down to me over
training and not eating. The truth was,
I was eating but it made me sick. At one
point when I was 16 I was taken into hospital by my parents where they were told
that I had glandular fever even though the blood test results did not confirm
it. I was so unwell that I could not
walk unaided, had to be helped up the stairs and suffered severe gynaecological
problems. Even when I was well enough to
attend school was so weak that I only went in for essential classes. This lasted for the duration of my GCSEs and
into my A Levels. All I could see is my
life passing by, I obviously had to stop athletics and visits from my friends
became few and far between. I can’t
blame them, they were off doing the normal things teenagers did, whilst I was
complaining that I was too tired to do anything and becoming ever more
depressed. I left school during my A
Levels, partly as I felt too tired and unwell and partly as I had lost touch
with my friends and felt like an outsider.
My health continued to deteriorate and by my late teens I had
developed a serious eating disorder. I
was living away from home so to some extent it was easier to hide. I was living off a small bowl of cereal, chocolate
bar and milk some days or alternating between flatly not eating and binging /
vomiting. I still couldn’t tell you
exactly what it was about food that made me not eat. I wasn’t scared of eating and most of the
time not scared of getting fat. In fact
I hated losing my curves and looking like a child. I even enjoyed food and just felt
uncomfortable after eating, vomiting was easy and made me feel better. I was regularly taken into hospital as a
result of fainting and at one point spent almost two weeks in bed purely down to
exhaustion.
When I became pregnant at 20 with my daughter I knew I had to
eat properly for her sake. Although
suffering with morning sickness I forced myself to eat but this left me
vomiting even more. I spent a lot of my
pregnancy in hospital finding the whole experience very traumatic. By this stage I was used to my body being
extremely thin and the changes that were occurring and the weight I gained as a
result were very frightening to me. I
was on a drip and my weak body was struggling to cope, at around 8 months
pregnant my overall weight was only 7.5 stone.
Amazingly though I had a 9lb 1oz baby!
Over the years I have been treated for anorexia, bulimia,
depression, as well as one GP telling me that it was all in my head and there
was nothing actually wrong with me! Even
though my sister had been diagnosed with coeliac disease in early childhood and
I had made this known to them, not once was it suggested that I should be
tested for it. After years of being
treated for an eating disorder I managed to convince another doctor that
although I now had a body image disorder and was not eating properly, when I
was eating it was the food that was actually making me sick. Finally he arranged blood tests which showed
that my white blood cell count was higher than normal which indicated coeliac
disease. An endoscopy confirmed this and
I was put on a strict gluten free diet.
I stopped being sick when I ate and started to put on
weight. However, years of not eating and
being extremely thin made the process of putting on weight very uncomfortable
and I found myself once again not eating.
I was once again referred for assessment and diagnosed with anorexia. The doctors believe that I had coeliac
disease all along from the time I was told I had glandular fever at 16. It is
thought that over ten years of gluten making me ill had subconsciously made me
not eat. When I started to eat again and
gain weight as there was no gluten to make me sick I felt fat even though I
hated the lack of curves and looking like a child, my body did not feel as if
it was my own. Three years ago even
though I was not as underweight as I had been previously, I was told that if I
carried on the way I was my muscles
would deteriorate so badly that it was very possible I would have a heart attack
and die. I found an amazing therapist
who has taught me how to live my life again. She gave me the tools to retrain
my mind how to deal with the anxiety and insecurities that have developed over
so many years of being unwell and to help me come to terms with eating again
and putting on weight.
As a result of having not been diagnosed with coeliac disease
for so many years and my subsequent illness I have now got osteopenia (weak/low
bone density), a weakened immune system and suffer with frequent kidney
infections.
I used to get angry that I have been left this way due to the
lack of a simple blood test, however anger and bitterness won’t do me any good
therefore I now try to put all my efforts into staying as healthy as I can. Don’t get me wrong, I do sometimes get down
and frustrated that I get tired easily and often don’t feel 100%, my eating habits
will always take a great deal of effort to keep on track especially if I am
unwell or feeling down. My natural
response when I feel like this is not to eat or I crave and binge on carbs and
sugary foods for energy and calories.
However, my training in nutrition for the best part carries me through.
This is why I love the Clean
and Lean Diet by James Duigan*. I
obviously do not want to lose weight and to do this I just make sure that I am
never hungry, but by following the plan and cutting out refined sugars and
processed foods I have much more energy and am maintaining a healthy and lean
weight. The recipes are packed full of nutrients and replenishing my body after
so many years of neglect.
Bodyism and the Clean and Lean plan is not just about diet,
it’s about feeling good about who you are, which is something I’ve struggled
with for a long time. When I became ill
I lost my dreams of a career as an athlete and most of my teens. I still have my insecurities and get paranoid
about my body, but I am no longer considering surgery and am more comfortable
in my own skin. I can no longer train as
intensely as I could and there will be no Olympic medals, but through a
balanced exercise programme, a gluten free and clean and lean diet and a new
attitude based around mindfulness, I will hopefully gain a body that will carry
me for many more years to come!
I will post some of my favourite gluten free recipes some of
which have been adapted from the Clean and Lean plan, but most of them will be
based on the same principles. Whether
you are on a gluten free diet or not, I’m sure you will find them just as
delicious :)
For more information on Bodyism and Clean and Lean Diet go to
www.bodyism.com or follow @bodyism or
@CleanandLean on twitter.
