When people ask what inspired me to start Chronically Awesome, I tell them two words: personal experience.
I stumbled into exercise and movement at a time when I was taking all sorts of medication in order to control my immune system. Over time that medication was reduced and stopped because I didn’t need it anymore (or as much). The only explanation I could find about what had changed was exercise. I also found that if stopped exercising for more than a few days then my symptoms would start returning, and they would ebb away again once I returned to being active.
I (and my husband) also tried to eat a more varied and exciting diet. It was – still is – a challenge as my gastric issues leave me with little in the way of appetite or motivation to cook. But it meant that we had to create meals that were delicious enough to tempt me to eat, as well as being nutritious enough to be the only solid meal of the day.
Eating well, even if it was only one meal a day, and moving regularly made a huge difference to my life. Not only was I taking less medication, I had more energy too. My unhealthy relationship with my out-of-control body started to heal, and I was the fittest and strongest I’d ever been. For the first time in years I could see and point to progress and felt a sense of achievement in learning to manage my symptoms .
On top of that, where I had been lonely and isolated, I found a network of people at the gym that turned into a group of friends who saw me face my challenges and cheered me on.
In short I was happier, healthier, more resilient. I felt ready – physically and psychologically – to strive again to achieve my potential and step back into the world of work, even if it was in a different direction to where I’d set out before I got ill.
But that journey was not a smooth one.
I struggled to find a personal trainer who felt confident in coaching me in a way that was adapted to my illnesses. Without the support of a personal trainer, I lacked the confidence to do some forms of exercise that could benefit me, such as weight training. Class instructors often didn’t have the expertise to advise on how to adapt classes either, so I was left to trial classes and adaptations on my own. I experienced setbacks and injuries along the way.
There was a financial cost too. The gyms with the most qualified personal trainers and the widest range of classes were also the most expensive. I was lucky that at a stretch we were able to afford the gym membership, but it left us nothing to spare.
My personal experience suggested that if you live with chronic illness, getting access to the right people, the right classes and the right resources is based on luck and disposable income. Although we are so often told to eat well and exercise – for example, to strength-train to support our joints, or to keep our cardiovascular fitness up as part of treatment for conditions like PoTS – the only time we’d be offered actual physical or nutritional support we get is short-term and as a reactive measure in treating illness or injury.
My experiences were echoed by so many others I met and who I heard from on the online community of people living with chronic illness.
That’s why I want to bring what I’ve learned, and the support of the teachers and instructors I’ve found, to others with chronic illness in a way that is affordable and available to everyone who needs it. I also want to unlock the wisdom of others who are on similar journeys as me, so that together we can help each other
Since there is already a thriving community via social media and blogs, I thought I could try to bring this to people through an online platform. That way people could access what we provide at a time and place that suited them, whenever and wherever that may be.
We won’t be able to help everyone, but we hope we can go at least some way to helping our community be fit for life.
