New here :)

rayzee12

Hi everyone! My name is Brie and I'm 22 years old. I've been keeping a food diary on MFP off and on for a while now, but decided to join the boards for some extra motivation. I'm not one to make excuses, but I tend to get discouraged a lot when trying to lose weight because of my health. I have 3 chronic illnesses - Gastroparesis, Dysautonomia/POTS, and Elhers Danlos Syndrome. For those of you who don't know what any of those are (probably most of you, even most doctors are clueless lol), basically EDS is a genetic disorder where you are born with faulty collagen. Collagen is everywhere in your body, so it causes lots of joint and muscle problems and weakness, and it affects your organs as well. For most people it causes lots of joint dislocations and subluxations very easily, but luckily I don't dislocate too much and I never have while exercising (yet haha). For me, when doing physical activity over time, instead of getting stronger from it and it becoming easier, it seems to become even harder, because my joints and muscles get more fatigued and weak.
Dysautonomia and gastroparesis are both caused by EDS. Dysautonomia means my entire autonomic nervous system doesn't work right, and basically my body is always is 'fight or flight' mode. Your heart races, there's blood pressure problems, heat intolerance, orthostatic intolerance (most people's pulse goes up only about 10 bpm when they stand, mine goes up at least 30), feeling tired all the time, losing your breath easily, and so many other things. Holding my arms up for more than 30 seconds is almost impossible for me without them trembling, and holding them above my head usually results in me seeing spots after 2 or 3 seconds lol. So the dysautonomia and EDS make it pretty hard for me to work out, and I always have to try new exercises to see what works for me and what doesn't, or I'll have to stop doing certain exercises after a while.
And then the gastroparesis, it means my stomach is paralyzed. It doesn't empty correctly, and it causes constant nausea, vomiting, acid reflux, stomach pain, intestinal issues, etc. I have lots of dietary restrictions - basically anything healthy for you I can't eat lol. I have to avoid most fruits and vegetables except a few that are low in fiber and cooked well, and in smoothies, no whole wheat or grains (so white everything for me, bread, rice, pasta, etc.), no nuts, seeds, skins, no red meat at all, etc. So you can see how a diet like that is very easy to gain weight with, when you can only tolerate lots of unhealthy carbs and processed foods (easy to digest since it just goes right through you and has no nutritional value). When I first got sick I lost about 25 pounds from not being able to eat, and after getting diagnosed I was slowly able to gain it all back, but the problem is that I kept gaining weight.
I'm determined to lose the extra 25 pounds that I've gained, and gain some muscle and strength back, figuring out how to in a way that's appropriate and healthy for my body is the big question haha. But I'm determined!