Crohn's Flare and exercise
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lporter229
Posts: 4,907 Member
Hi. I just found and joined this group today because I am really frustrated and looking for advice from others who may have found themselves in the same boat. I am 41 year old woman who was diagnosed with Crohn's at 30. Most of my past battles have dealt with pesky fistulas and abscesses, but over the last several years, I have managed to remain virtually symptom free while on a gluten free diet. I decided to take charge of my life, get back into running and I even accomplished my life long goal of completing a full marathon. At 41, I felt like I was in the best shape of my life. Then, boom, out of nowhere, I find myself in a pretty bad flare. In addition to joint pain and chronic fatigue, I have been losing weight, as everything I eat goes directly through me.
One of the things that has me super depressed is not knowing what to do about exercise. I have worked so incredibly hard to get to where I am and was hoping to shoot for a PR in a fall half marathon. However, not only is running difficult right now, I know in my mind that I should not be doing it when I am already undernourished and dehydrated from all of the diarrhea. But it is hard to think that everything I worked for will be gone so fast if I skip out on it. I know that my health comes first, but this is truly making me depressed. Has anyone else dealt with this situation before? How do you handle it?? Also, any advice on things to eat that are going to be calorie and nutrient dense that will cause minimal pains and diarrhea?
One of the things that has me super depressed is not knowing what to do about exercise. I have worked so incredibly hard to get to where I am and was hoping to shoot for a PR in a fall half marathon. However, not only is running difficult right now, I know in my mind that I should not be doing it when I am already undernourished and dehydrated from all of the diarrhea. But it is hard to think that everything I worked for will be gone so fast if I skip out on it. I know that my health comes first, but this is truly making me depressed. Has anyone else dealt with this situation before? How do you handle it?? Also, any advice on things to eat that are going to be calorie and nutrient dense that will cause minimal pains and diarrhea?
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Anyone still in this group?0
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Just because your first flare up in a while happened to coincide with getting fitter does not mean that exercise was the cause.
I suggest you work on getting yourself back into remission and then trying again. Flare ups are frustrating and unpredictable. Many people go years without a flare and then have a series of them. I suggest you readjust your goals. Task 1 - get into remission, Task 2 restart full-on exercise. Pushing yourself to achieve a fitness level you have never done before in parallel to dealing with a flare up sounds like a disaster waiting to happen to me.0 -
Thanks for the post. I am sorry if I was not clear in my original post. I am not looking to push my self to new levels of fitness or anything like that right now. I am just looking for suggestions on how to maintain my current level of fitness as much as possible through this flare up. I agree with you that too much excessive exercise and a Crohn's flare is a disaster waiting to happen. That is why I am looking for advice on how to maintain as much as possible through a flare.0
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I have had my first major flare in over a year and it has completely knocked me on my butt, any suggestions on what to do so I can get back on the exercise track?0
