By Guest poster, Jenny Beaujean
Ok, you have heard that Self-care is important to help with lipedema… but then you start looking into it, and there is so much information of what to do or try. Self care for an average person might be getting enough sleep, meditating, exercise. For us, it’s that and so much more. It can be overwhelming. Dry brushing! MLD! self-MLD! AIP! FODMOP! Keto! carnivore Keto! LCHF! compression! moisturize! exercise! swimming! Vibration! Quadrivas! Gua Sha! Cupping! Supplements!, no Supplements!, Warm then Cold showers! Epsom salt baths! And we are still needing to find this information on our own, how to do it and does it work? Can it be harmful to me? How long will it take to see some results? And even Will this help me???
I still feel like a deer trapped in headlights sometimes. And there’s internal voice in your head: “You don’t look ‘normal’ yet; eat less ; and all those other mantras society and advertising has bombarded with for decades… How do you figure out what to do, and how do you fit it in an already normal life-filled day? Especially women. We give and give and do for others. All. Day. Long. Consistently, we always put care of ourselves last. I don’t know the magic answer. I do know I am worth it and you are worth it to make adjustments to your routines to include some self care time. It is what enables you to be there for everyone else. So, I don’t have the magic wand that transports us over the bridge to the wonderful land of a perfect self care routine. But, I do know what I’ve done so far. We all need to start the journey with just one step… and another, and another. Then soon, you will find yourself well on your way down the road to good self care habits.
For me, first I started reading. Google sent me to blogs, Facebook searches sent me to a whole bunch of great pages of women supporting each other on the journey, and research. YouTube videos, and journal articles… And, I asked a lot of questions of my CLT about what I was reading…I learned pretty quickly that I knew more than her. But she and I discussed what I’d been reading and watching and that helped me find a way to start.
I wish I could say I had a list… and prioritized, and analyzed… but I did not do that. Somewhere in Cheryl’s story, she talked of the value of journaling what you do, so you can figure out what works, and what doesn’t… I didn’t do that then. I do that now, though.
What I did do, I did because I was determined to make lifestyle change, one step at a time. Once I learned that my body was not my fault for not doing enough in the past, I felt empowered to figure out I needed to look at Everything in my Life, and make choices and adjustments to my routine to maximize MY goals: Not have the lipedema progress – Stay mobile, and an independent person – and(hopefully) not get Cellulitis again.
To do that in the last 9 months, I added about an hour (or two if I am taking walks for movement – at least 4 days a week) to my day. Now when my alarm goes off at 5 am instead of 6… I do wake up and begin… For me, that means some deep breathing and just moving all my limbs. Next, I do self- MLD, every morning, head to toe. Followed up with about 20 minutes of exercises to promote the movement of lymph fluid… Then my morning shower… moisturize, and then put on compression. Phew. I can finally get dressed. Some days, it’s not easy and I cut myself some slack. I did quickly learn, for me if I skipped more than a couple days, all the hard work to reduce the excess lymph fluid in my lippy legs would start to come undone.
During the day I keep moving as much as my desk job allows. Wiggle my feet. Take breaks. Right now, I am adding two half mile walks into my day during those breaks. When I am winding down for the day, I also try to get my legs UP in the air. I don’t yet have a pump… that may be later this year. (part of that is how do I find more time? and for me so far, it is unclear whether it would be helpful…research continues) I also have made some solid and semi-permanent adjustments to the foods I eat. I keep my carbs down to about 125g a day… and slowly working my way down to 100g of carbs a day… I have figured out some of the foods that I am sensitive too (some are inflammatory, some give me rashes, or cramps, or headaches). But I have a long journey on that yet. I also indulge on occasion. If I am out with friends, I might have a beer or a glass of wine… or pasta (I have stopped most of the refined carbs like pasta and white bread) or dessert. It’s not about deprivation… it’s about the journey and staying on course. Of course, if one is using a sailing metaphor, one must make adjustments to the wind in the sails to keep moving… with food sensitivities, sometimes they change. so I shift course as needed.
It’s not a surprise if we don’t take good self-care of our Lipedema (or for me, Lipolymphedema), it will catch up with us. But change is hard, really challenging work. Take a good look at what is possible…and start small. Meaning, make sure you are not doing something that is not feasible to fit into your day to day routine.
The best way to make any behavior change is to make it as simple as possible, and achievable. For instance, in a perfect world I would go swimming every day… but that is just not possible with my life and my work… instead I chose to add more movement through walking. The first week, I could only walk about 15 yards without pain. And that is what I did, 2x a day. I also did the exercises at home that slowly started to reactivate my muscles. Now, I can rock a half mile without pain, and am working my way up to a mile at a time.
The key to self care, I think, is just to try. You may not do everything every day. Maybe you try one idea, decide to do it for, say 2 weeks, and you decide it just didn’t help you. Then try another idea. Keep trying until you find the strategies that give you the results you’re looking for. This is the secret with self-care — making each strategy a habit so it’s something think twice about every day.
