On Progress When Managing Endo

I never thought I’d find the idea of lemon zest so joyous, but at the sound of my partner the other night saying, ‘I think I’m going to try adding lemon zest back into our meals,’ joy was indeed felt.

Endo diet for managing symptoms

Part of how my partner manages her endo symptoms has always been diet. By cutting down on certain foods and increasing others, she can reduce the amount of inflammation in her body, stabilize her blood sugar, and regulate her hormones.

This all helps with leading to less symptomatic and more manageable endometriosis. This mostly cuts down on sugar, caffeine, and dairy, but she also gets severe bladder pain, and cutting out citrus has massively helped.

Mostly because we eat together and I want to help be a part of her endo journey, but also partly because I can’t be bothered to make two meals. I’ve also taken on a lot of her dietary changes.

Most of the time, I don’t even notice, it’s become second nature, but I didn’t realize how much I’d missed citrus in our cooking until that moment – as if we’d just discovered the secret ingredient to the vibrant dishes of the past.

Now, this article isn’t to bemoan how restricted my poor diet is or garner sympathy for how much I’ve sacrificed by leaving out a few ingredients in cooking. Rather, it’s celebrating progress and highlighting that things can change when managing endo.

Expanding life beyond endo

It doesn’t always have to be taking away, restriction, or discipline; sometimes those sacrifices pay off, and your progress. You can relax and live again.

My partner had a symptom and found a coping mechanism. I’m sure it’s a pattern many of you are familiar with and one that can lead to more restriction and a smaller life.

It's natural to feel like you're sacrificing a portion of your life when you must adapt to manage endometriosis. But I'm starting to realize that, in some cases, these adaptations can make your life bigger rather than smaller.

This doesn't mean that all those changes will lead to progress, but it is still encouraging to see small successes. It’s encouraging to see that sometimes, by sticking to successful strategies, researching, and making progress, you can feel better and begin expanding your world again.

It may start with lemon zest but doesn’t have to end there.