My Story - Part two
It took a very public meltdown at the doctors reception desk to finally be taken seriously. I was offered another doctors appointment and a second opinion… in a month’s time.
During this wait time I attempted daily activities, taking the dog for a walk - thankfully he’s a very lazy miniature dachshund and would much rather snooze under a blanket than walk more than 10 minutes - or I’d drag myself around the supermarket behind my parents, sneaking treats into the trolley.
On one such occasion my ‘treat’ was a cold pressed green juice. The buzz and energy boost I got from this one green bottle was unlike anything I had ever felt before. I wanted to go home and go for a run or lift something heavy and stay up for hours. For the first time in about 8 weeks I actually felt good. What had been in this magic bottle of green stuff that made me feel so, so good.
Iron. The bottle was filled with dark green leafy veggies and kiwis.
When I eventually returned to the doctors, I was greeted by a GP who had actually looked at my blood tests, my iron levels were within the NHS ‘safe’ range by 1 unit. But, as someone who trains and as a menstruating female this was not sufficient for my lifestyle. The doctor advised me to eat more roast dinners (ha!) and drink orange juice alongside any iron supplements or iron rich foods - no explanation of why. The vitamin C in orange juice increases the bioavailability of iron incase you were wondering!
Fast forward a couple of weeks and days of fairly intense iron supplementation it was honestly amazing how different I was feeling. The dog got daily walks, my gym membership got use, as did my running trainers and I’d began training for the 2018 London Marathon - which I completed 6 months later. I also started my nutrition training, eager to fuel myself around my 26.2 miles and desperate to not back slide.
It took me nearly 8 months to recover my energy fully, there were days when I was overrun by tiredness and getting out of bed felt like too much but there were far more good days, I was able to go to and enjoy hen-dos, weddings but more importantly just do normal life.
I’m now more in tune with my body than I ever thought I would be and truly enjoy vegetables and eating nutrient rich meals - except for pregnancy when my favourite meal was hashbrowns, fish fingers, baked beans and melted cheese. Vegetables were few and far between.
