Low Carb and Pain Free

I recently started a low carb diet.  I’m down a size, but that’s not what I’m writing to report – I am pain-free and it’s extraordinary!

Low Carb and Pain-Free – A food blogger’s journey of struggling with Illness, chronic pain, and fatigue from Arthritis and Fibromyalgia and how the Keto Diet Changed it all.

I’m about seven weeks into my low carb diet.  I’m following the Keto Diet.  Have I lost weight?  Yes, I’m down a jeans size, but the weight loss stalled a couple of weeks ago.  I only kept going because like with any diet, that sometimes happens and I wanted to give it a chance.

That’s not the extraordinary part though, what’s extraordinary is I’m pain-free.  As I explained in my post, Confessions of a Food Blogger, I have an illness called Ankylosing Spondylitis (along with a Fibromyalgia diagnosis I don’t bother mentioning because isn’t one illness enough?).  In the post, I talked about my battle with the chronic pain and fatigue I have had all of my adult life.

Guess what?  The pain is gone.  I no longer wake up aware of my body.  Only someone with chronic pain knows what it’s like to feel every movement you make.  Mornings have always been the worst.  I can’t tell you how many times I have had to wake my husband to help me out of bed.  Now I wake up fine.

Here we are in the dead of winter and I feel… Normal.  This time last year, my flare-ups kept me from posting for weeks.  I was in terrible pain, but last week I drove four hours to my inlaw’s with nothing but a little stiffness!  Seriously, that is AMAZING.  

But that’s not all!  I feel more alert.  The fatigue and brain fog that comes with chronic pain is gone.  I no longer lose words when I talk.  I used to be in the middle of a conversation and not be able to think of common words. It was embarrassing, not to mention frustrating.

But that’s not all the fatigue affected – I haven’t driven a car in years because I didn’t think I could safely drive on English roads without making a stupid mistake that could get someone killed. Seriously, if I struggled with stringing a sentence together, how on earth could I drive on the wrong side of the road in the wrong side of the car?  I let my driver’s license expire six years ago.

For years people told me cutting carbs could reduce inflammation, but I’m a foodie – carbs were my life! A food blogger that specializes in Italian food and loves to bake can’t possibly give up carbs, right? I wanted no part of what they had to say.  I only cut carbs because I didn’t want to be fat anymore. I thought it would be a temporary thing – lose weight and go back to eating normally.  How could I possibly do that now?

Don’t worry, Erren’s Kitchen isn’t going to go low carb out of nowhere, but I am.  I’ll probably post both low carb and normal food.  I’ll still be cooking and baking for my family (and for you), but for me, as long as I feel good – I’ll probably save the carbs for special occasions!

Please note, low carb diets aren’t for everyone.  I highly recommend checking with your doctor before trying it, but if like me you’ve ignored the talk of low carb diets and inflammation – I’m here to tell you to think again. 

If you’d like more info on how to follow a Keto diet, I read The Keto Reset Diet by Mark Sisson and Brad Kearns (click the link to check it out on Amazon.com here and here for Amazon.co.uk (As an Amazon Associate, a small commission is made from qualifying purchases).