I ate kale for dinner the other night. I also ate kale today for lunch. It was in a salad. It was by choice. New year, new me???
Actually, it is because I am desperate. I have hit a new low point of being tired of feeling like this. What do I mean by "this"? "This" is the symptoms of long covid that I have been enduring for 5 months now. At least that is what my doctor has diagnosed it as. It is the ridiculous exhaustion. It is the nightly headaches that sometimes last until morning. It is the brain fog that keeps me from remembering dates and appointments or writing them down in the wrong spot in my planner. I just feel like there is an answer for this out there and I am going to try anything, even kale, to find it. I hate the taste of kale btw.
Regardless of your views on COVID, vaccines, and your beliefs on how you get long covid, I can tell you that it is very real. I read an article tonight that said it is affecting roughly 10% of those who have had COVID. That is a lot of people! I feel like my Fibro diagnosis aided in me getting this. My overactive immune system took my COVID response and took it to the next level. My immune system is like someone who doesn't trust anyone so instead of a normal, sickly response, my body went above and beyond to protect me. So that same immune system requires a plethora of work in order to get it back to par.
The beauty of this is that I have been there and done that when I was figuring out my Fibromyalgia diagnosis. Fibro is an overactive immune response to ...fill in the blank...cause it is different for everyone. Much like how nobody knows what really causes Fibro and science is still trying to figure out what helps, I can apply that to this lack of knowledge with my long covid diagnosis.
So why kale? In my research to see if there was a long covid diet, it kept bringing me to an anti-inflammatory diet or the best foods to fight...again, fill in the blank. There is usually a natural approach to most treatments and I had done everything my doc had suggested besides changing my diet. So here I am following the advice of my doctor finally and the bulk of all my research. Kale was on every list. So were blueberries, nuts, tons of water, fish, and avocados. I like all that. It also said to cut most sugar and processed foods. So here I am. Trying to be sugar-free, minus fruit, and eat as healthy as I can. Long covid is no joke. Hopefully, this experiment will help others on the same journey as me. Good luck and blessings to all long covid sufferers. Hang in there. I am on day 5 and am starting to feel a bit better and the headaches are starting to subside so hope is starting to return.
