​Ironically my life was super busy and active during the weeks and months ​before the onset of what lead to my Chronic Fatigue Syndrome diagnosis. There seems to be the general belief that we are tired or lazy or that we have some sort of unhealthy aversion or fear of exercise, but nothing could be further from the truth!

As we move towards ME Awareness month (May), I'll be sharing some of my health and fitness ​habits and memories from the months before I fell ill. I hope that this will help to dispell the idea that we are lazy and afraid of exercise and help people understand that the opposite is actually true. Now I know that sometimes healthy eating and exercise simply doesn't cure everything.

​Today I am ​excited to share ​Brenna's chronic illness story with you. She is a creative warrior who has been battling​ a multitude of chronic conditions including POTS, Gastroparesis, MCAD and many more for over a decade.

This interview is part of an ongoing series where we meet spoonie warriors from around the world ​who share their struggles and victories as they navigate life with various chronic ​conditions ​​or invisible disabilities. 

I hope this series will encourage you and perhaps help you to find answers ​and community. I know that many of the things which I now ​depend on to manage my conditions came from ​listening to patients with more experience. I hope that, by sharing these stories, newly diagnosed ​warriors will feel more supported and less alone.

​This is the first in a new series of posts where I will share all the art I have worked on for the month. I hope to be consistent with it, but life with a chronic illness is anything but consistent, so don't hold me to it. I am very grateful, though, that this month has been quite productive creatively and I am so pleased with the pieces that I have made. I hope you enjoy this little gallery too.

I'd like to speak about my own mental health. I feel like some people misunderstand my condition, so I wanted to address the matter directly. Yes, I have a severely debilitating illness. Yes, I practically live in bed. No, I cannot go out and I cannot have visitors coming over without paying for it​, but I am okay. Seriously.

​​In this interview series ​we ​explore ​how diet and chronic illness affect each other and today I have the honour of sharing Jo's story. Jo's ​appetite was severely affected by her mental health, but with the help of loved ones, she ​found a way to overcome it and get back to a place where she could once again enjoy a healthy diet.

When it comes to chronic illness, there is no one-size-fits-all solution, especially when it comes to healing through diet. ​It's up to us to try different approaches until we find our personal solution - the thing that our body responds to most positively.

I hope ​this series will inspire you to make changes to your diet too, you never know how much relief you could experience through just a few modificaitons. What you eat really can make a big difference!