About Me

Hi!

My name is Sarah.  I’m married with 3 children, aged 14, 11 and 8 (in 2014). I’ve had PVF/ME/CFS (Pst Viral Fatigue/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) since January 2012.  If you’d like to find out more about my experience with ME/CFS, then this post describes my crash and this post describes how I was affected in the longer term.  You can find more information about the illness, and lots of helpful information, at Action for M.E.

I have had a long time interest in feeding my family healthy food.  When I got ill I soon started researching what I could do to help myself get better and came across the book Natural Energy from Tired to Terrific in 10 days.  I followed the recommendations in the book, but sadly did not feel terrific in 10 days.

Over the next few months I read various books and websites and experimented with various supplements.  I eventually found the book Beating Chronic Fatigue by Dr Christina Downing Orr, and at about the same time I began working with my wonderful cousin who is a nutritional therapist www.nutrition-within.com. By  following her advice and the some of the advice in the book I have seen significant improvements in my condition.  When I started this blog I was experiencing cognitive improvements, but was still very limited physically.  Gradually I have improved.  By the end of summer 2014 I was about 90% recovered and working on the remaining 10%.  Now (February 2015) I consider myself fully recovered. Time will tell whether this is permanent or not.

I belonged to a great facebook group for PVF/ME/CFS sufferers .  I gained a lot of support and knowledge from the group, and we often discussed diets/suppplements that people are trying.  It was from my interest in those discussions that my idea to start this blog was born.

When I was looking for information about the best diet to follow with ME it was hard to find information.  Hopefully this blog will help fellow sufferers find the information much quicker than I did.

Additionally, a few months into my ME/CFS we discovered my daughter was gluten intolerant.  At this time food shopping (even on-line) and providing meals for my family was a HUGE struggle, so this extra constraint on what we could cook was difficult.

As I recover, my interest in food and cooking has been re-awakened.  I’m excited to share with you some of my tips for coping with providing food for a family when you are unable to cook, how to ensure you have a kitchen stocked with healthy food you can eat with minimal preparation/cooking and my understanding of what foods are good and bad for my recovery.

Update October 2017

My recovery has been pretty solid.  Overall, my health is really good, but I find that if I get ill I take a bit longer to recover than a “normal” person.

This year I have returned to work in a demanding role.  I am working part-time, but this is because of family responsibilities and my desire for a good work-life balance, not because of ME/CFS.  The transition to work has been fine, and I definitely consider myself fully recovered.

I still worry that I will relapse, but hopefully with time my confidence in complete recovery will grow.