big to big

one of the symptoms of adenomyosis is dysfunctional uterine bleeding. in order to control my symptoms my doctor advised me to lose weight. according to her, i have too much estrogen in my system. the fatter i get, the more estrogen hormones are released in my body.

below are pictures of me. they were taken more or less three years apart of each other.

august 2008 - april 2011 - march 2014

at my fattest, i had the worst symptoms. my period was erratic. its duration was unpredictable. there were times i would bleed for 3 weeks. but there were also times i would be period free for two to three months. as my period became unpredictable, my doctor put me on pills to regulate my cycle. during these times, i also had pain symptoms of labor magnitude minus the baby. it was then that i made a decision to try the nutrition approach and go on diet to help my body.

i managed to successfully lose weight just by eating cruciferous vegetables (the cabbage family), no pork and beef, no instant food, no softdrinks, no pastas or anything with "wheat" in it. just vegetables, fish, brown rice. all my food were cooked either boiled or steamed. strictly no oil. but if i had to cook with oil, i had to use extra virgin olive oil. apart from dieting, i was religious in exercising (yoga and dance). as a result, i no longer feel any pain symptoms. sure, i still have my adenomyosis. but the best part is even if i would bleed for more than a week, i no longer feel any pain. i'm completely pain-free.

the bad thing now since i feel better, and able to manage my symptoms well - i am back to my old self. i'm still pain-free most of the time, but slowly i'm noticing that once in a while i feel some pain. but very slight. probably just a 2 or a 3. of course, this is a result of foregoing the diet and not doing any exercise at all.

time for me to wake up and hit my little yoga room and go easy on my food.

vegetarian pasta

wheat. it is, according to a book i've read, one of the food ingredients that women with endometriosis should avoid. red meat is also another thing to avoid to lessen one's pain symptoms. when i thought my symptoms were getting worse, i once tried avoiding these two. but i only managed to successfully do it for six months. why? in that six months, i felt better. since i felt better, i went back to eating fast food, red meats, breads, pastas, etc. stupid, eh? every time i go back to not watching the food i eat, i again would have longer periods. so, the story of my life consists mostly of going back and forth - from watching the food i eat, to indulging on meats, breads, and pastas.

when i'm on my best behavior, i usually resort to eating the following:
meatless macaroni

yes, most pasta noodles are made of wheat. but luckily, i found a brand here in the PH that is not only wheat free, but gluten free as well. the pasta noodle is made from brown rice!!!