Last year felt like a huge positive shift for my health. Through routine, small daily effort, and the right medications, a sense of balance emerged.
Three major things have changed since the start of 2024 which have brought an even more significant improvement – enough for me to want to write about.
Maybe this will help someone else. If not, I want to record it for myself anyway.
Lifting heavier things
Jesse started joining me for my strength training sessions, and having someone in the room with me was an instant boost. We brought home a set of heavier weights, started pushing and encouraging each other, and the difference is incredible.
I’ve said it many times, but I’m not interested in being thin. I’m interested in being strong, and boy do I feel strong – except for the days when I have crippling DOMS.
The best thing about a strength training routine is that it doesn’t feel temporary. I want to do this forever, especially as I move into my 40s. (There’s a lot of data showing the consequences of middle-aged women losing muscle mass, and that data should be enough to convince anyone to do a few deadlifts.)
Eating more protein
God, I sound like such a cliché, but: given the increase in strength training, I analyzed what I was eating and realized that both Jesse and I were dramatically under-consuming protein. We started centering our main meals around protein, and immediately felt better for it.
I’m eating more animal products than I’d like right now, which sometimes conflicts with my values. But once I hit the end of this muscle-building phase, I’m looking forward to backing off a bit and replacing some of my animal protein sources with vegan replacements.
What the ferritin?
Every few years I’d ask whatever GP I was seeing to run bloodwork. During periods where I was vegetarian or vegan, I specifically wanted to check my iron levels. And every time I got them checked, my iron was fine.
Well.
It turns out there’s a thing called an iron study, where they test four different markers in the blood. In May 2024, for the first time in my life, I got an iron study done, and discovered I was low in something called ferritin:
A ferritin test measures the amount of ferritin in the blood. Ferritin is a blood protein that contains iron. This test can be used to find out how much iron the body stores.
If a ferritin test shows that the blood ferritin level is low, it means the body’s iron stores are low. This is a condition called iron deficiency. Iron deficiency can cause anemia.
Surprise!
I had non-anemic iron deficiency, and I was most likely that way for decades without knowing it. I have a sneaking suspicion that my bout of ME/CFS was exacerbated – maybe even caused – by this deficiency.
I immediately started supplementing with iron, and within a couple of weeks, I felt better in a way that’s hard to explain. By mid-June, I felt fucking invincible. I wasn’t catching every single virus that I was exposed to. I wasn’t crashing with fatigue at the end of every workday – a thing I thought was normal. I was thinking more clearly. I had energy. I could push myself without fear of crashing all the time.
At first, I was angry. Why wasn’t this tested before, especially during the onset of my ME/CFS symptoms? I could have potentially avoided over a decade of health issues if we’d caught this earlier.
But the anger passed, and now I’m just marinating in feeling this good.
Three small changes in the last 6 months have taken my health from good to amazing, and I’m still reeling at how different I feel.
I can confidently say that the last time I remember feeling this good was in my late teens. I’m turning 40 in November. Holy. Fucking. Gratitude.
Good health is a privilege, and anything could happen tomorrow, so I’m going to enjoy the fuck out of this feeling while it lasts.