Illustrated Remission, Energy & End of Insomnia - Returned to Running

Meowgical-Cat

New Member
I'm not selling anything, I'm not saying you should do this, I'm documenting as completely as I can what is working for me. I'm not online much so probably won't be around to answer questions but I hope you find this useful.

(Summary) I’m 45, female, complete anime nerd, shut-in / socially nervous, former runner and community college instructor in remission. I now take Iron twice a day in a divided dose morning and evening for energy (despite not testing low and having normal CBC blood test) and in the morning I drink a large ‘green’ drink which has completely resolved my life-long insomnia. I no longer have PEM and have returned to running / weights/crosstraining. I put in four runs a week of 2.5 - 5 miles and actually recover. So far my GI is better, not perfect but doing pretty well considering I have dairy in my diet now and GI irritating iron.

I’m still recovering and I’m not sure I’ll ever be “normal” but probably this is as good as it gets for me personally.

CAVEAT: Taking iron can be DANGEROUS. I take the recommended dose. I talked to my doctor who gave me an ‘okay’. I have a DNA test and know I don’t have hemochromatosis. This is one of those supplements no one should ever mega dose. Iron causes GI issues.

CAVEAT2: I know this ‘fix’ is too simple to be anything other than a little disappointing. I know people will give it a go. It won’t work. More disappointment. I’ve been there. But if it helps just one person in a thousand that's awesome. Additionally, I was nervous because I know the nutrition hounds are going to freak when they see that high-sugar fruit juice drink in the a.m. and write me nasty comments about the Pepsi corporation selling me expensive apple juice. It's horrible and shouldn't work but it does *shrug* I've really been tense about the armchair nutrition experts just ripping me a new one about this post. I hate conflict so if this dietarily triggers you, man, I'm sorry - I'm really sorry but please be nice and move on. Thanks. Just maybe appreciate the time I took to take the photos and write this out. Maybe write me off as a one-off weirdo who was anemic and didn't know it.

CAVEAT 3: I have read more than one post angry and negatively directed at a person who feels better that usually goes along the line of, "you must not have really been sick" and then the OP gets to spend a year of their life recounting horrible stories about their life in a defensive posture, "I was sick!". **sigh** It's a mixture of two things, anger that someone gets well and you don't (me, all over - you got well before me? Well I was bitter about that - see: chip on shoulder) and the human condition to never get believed. Watch a marathon of, "Monsters Inside Me" and you'll see cases like, "I was vomiting blood but the doctor said I was fine to go home" or the kid covered with Leprosy and they told him he was fine (they could clearly see the problem!)

I’ve tried to be as upfront as I can in exactly what I do, so I took photos of exactly what I take. And again I'll most likely never be 100% whatever 100% is.

8rWeDXx.jpg


  • 1 Cup of Naked Brand Green Machine (works with or without the other stuff)
  • 1 Teaspoon of Apple Cider Vinegar with the 'mother' in it because I keep reading that's good for AMPK production. Personally I just like the taste of it in the drink, I don't think it does anything.
  • 1 Scoop of Greens Superfood Berry Flavor, not sure this does much either but seems healthy so I keep wasting money on it.
j4QMghN.jpg

  • 10,000 i.u. of vitamin D (5,000 i.u. pills x2) because I live in the dark
  • 500 Vitamin C
  • 180 Vitamin E
  • 3 Grass Fed Beef Liver (also high in Iron, A, and B vitamins) but costs an arm and a leg
  • Mega Food Blood Builder Minis (because Iron really messes up my gut and makes me nauseated and constipated the tiny doses every twelve hours helps avoid the consequences of iron.)
Not Pictured:

  • Fructaid, an enzyme for fructose malabsorption. I can't digest fructose well at all. When my GI gets into trouble I can take this up to an hour after eating and it still works. Regular enzyme tablets do not contain this enzyme. And regular enzyme tablets do not work on fructose. Fructaid how I love thee.
  • Muscle milk brand protein drink one scoop per day - so I can look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. I recover much better with this protein drink then without it and my GI does better and stays healed up so I've kept it. Again, the nutritional hounds will have massive issues on several fronts with this product and I'm not saying they're wrong. They're correct, it's horrible, it works, I deeply apologize.
  • I meditate every day with the Calm app or Headspace for about 30 minutes. Not sure how I got a copy of both. Hmm. At night I do Yoga and stretch out which is also good for recovery but I never had energy for anything like that previously. I don't have a day job and probably never will, so there is that too. It's easier to do all this crap when you don't have as many responsibilities - I get it.
tYGRVdf.jpg

I kept a journal in Google Sheets

(EDIT: This has a Vegan column, my family went Vegan for a month, doesn't represent my normal diet, I have nothing close to that kind of discipline even though I love critters.)

I based this off a dot-journal. I thought I would post an example, above, encase you would like to track your symptoms (just fill in what you want to track of course). I had an entire year where the fatigue never improved at all and all the values were the same: bad. I also tracked my blood sugar and weight on a different sheet. Those are still the same.

Qg3S4Vj.jpg

Starting out - monitoring with my Fitbit (which I also wore at night). Can you tell when I started taking Iron? I track my weekly totals on a page in my Google Sheets. I send myself an email reminder weekly to fill it out. I also use Habitica to remind me to do things.

My current diet is usually: Green drink, coffee, workout, lunch is refried beans on a toastada with goodies on top like peppers, lettuce, salsa or just a salad, and supper is often a bit of chicken, vegetables especially cabbage my favourite, and a bit of rice. I love to bake so sometimes there are some rolls happening, a homemade cake, a scone or something else popping into my day. This is how I prefer to eat but you know, nomatter what you eat someone is going to freak out and think you're horrible, how did food become such a battleground? I don't know, but that's too bad.

I'll be honest, I was incredibly nervous about posting this -- I'm not a perfect ME/CFS person, I love coffee. I live in a cold dark area and it makes me filled with joy in an otherwise pretty ho-hum predictable existence of fatigue. I’ve fallen for every fad diet out there even though I hate to diet. I’ve taken a lot of questionable supplements. I’ve taken questionable over the counter pills like Benedryl every night for ten years to sleep and Zantac for ages even when it didn’t work. I’ve done a lot of stupid stuff and figure at least 50% of my current health problems are most likely self-inflicted through sheer ineptitude. I would describe myself as a gullible over-educated person who thinks they know stuff but apparently doesn't really.

Athletes do use more iron but although I love running, I’m more of a book worm who had to take up some form of exercise than an athlete. I was very literally always picked last for every team in P.E. I was nicknamed simply: DORK, all my high school years.

I'm really shy and I don't really do message board or online communicating so I'll say goodbye here. I want to say biochemistry is super complicated. We all have very complex health pictures built over a lifetime that create who we are. It's important to listen more to yourself & your own body than the Internet, books, health gurus and all that. For years it seemed like no matter what I did I just got worse or stayed the same. I had to block out the guru voices that took up so much space in my head and like to lecture me. Remission is just remission, I could be back at the starting block tomorrow, you know how it goes.

Best of luck to you all!
 
Last edited:

JameDiagonal

Active Member
I'm not selling anything, I'm not saying you should do this, I'm documenting as completely as I can what is working for me. I'm not online much so probably won't be around to answer questions but I hope you find this useful.

(Summary) I’m 45, female, complete anime nerd, shut-in / socially nervous, former runner and community college instructor in remission. I now take Iron twice a day in a divided dose morning and evening for energy (despite not testing low and having normal CBC blood test) and in the morning I drink a large ‘green’ drink which has completely resolved my life-long insomnia. I no longer have PEM and have returned to running / weights/crosstraining. I put in four runs a week of 2.5 - 5 miles and actually recover. So far my GI is better, not perfect but doing pretty well considering I have dairy in my diet now and GI irritating iron.

I’m still recovering and I’m not sure I’ll ever be “normal” but probably this is as good as it gets for me personally.

CAVEAT: Taking iron can be DANGEROUS. I take the recommended dose. I talked to my doctor who gave me an ‘okay’. I have a DNA test and know I don’t have hemochromatosis. This is one of those supplements no one should ever mega dose. Iron causes GI issues.

CAVEAT2: I know this ‘fix’ is too simple to be anything other than a little disappointing. I know people will give it a go. It won’t work. More disappointment. I’ve been there. But if it helps just one person in a thousand that's awesome. Additionally, I was nervous because I know the nutrition hounds are going to freak when they see that high-sugar fruit juice drink in the a.m. and write me nasty comments about the Pepsi corporation selling me expensive apple juice. It's horrible and shouldn't work but it does *shrug* I've really been tense about the armchair nutrition experts just ripping me a new one about this post. I hate conflict so if this dietarily triggers you, man, I'm sorry - I'm really sorry but please be nice and move on. Thanks. Just maybe appreciate the time I took to take the photos and write this out. Maybe write me off as a one-off weirdo who was anemic and didn't know it.

CAVEAT 3: I have read more than one post angry and negatively directed at a person who feels better that usually goes along the line of, "you must not have really been sick" and then the OP gets to spend a year of their life recounting horrible stories about their life in a defensive posture, "I was sick!". **sigh** It's a mixture of two things, anger that someone gets well and you don't (me, all over - you got well before me? Well I was bitter about that - see: chip on shoulder) and the human condition to never get believed. Watch a marathon of, "Monsters Inside Me" and you'll see cases like, "I was vomiting blood but the doctor said I was fine to go home" or the kid covered with Leprosy and they told him he was fine (they could clearly see the problem!)

I’ve tried to be as upfront as I can in exactly what I do, so I took photos of exactly what I take. And again I'll most likely never be 100% whatever 100% is.

8rWeDXx.jpg


  • 1 Cup of Naked Brand Green Machine (works with or without the other stuff)
  • 1 Teaspoon of Apple Cider Vinegar with the 'mother' in it because I keep reading that's good for AMPK production. Personally I just like the taste of it in the drink, I don't think it does anything.
  • 1 Scoop of Greens Superfood Berry Flavor, not sure this does much either but seems healthy so I keep wasting money on it.
j4QMghN.jpg

  • 10,000 i.u. of vitamin D (5,000 i.u. pills x2) because I live in the dark
  • 500 Vitamin C
  • 180 Vitamin E
  • 3 Grass Fed Beef Liver (also high in Iron, A, and B vitamins) but costs an arm and a leg
  • Mega Food Blood Builder Minis (because Iron really messes up my gut and makes me nauseated and constipated the tiny doses every twelve hours helps avoid the consequences of iron.)
Not Pictured:

  • Fructaid, an enzyme for fructose malabsorption. I can't digest fructose well at all. When my GI gets into trouble I can take this up to an hour after eating and it still works. Regular enzyme tablets do not contain this enzyme. And regular enzyme tablets do not work on fructose. Fructaid how I love thee.
  • Muscle milk brand protein drink one scoop per day - so I can look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. I recover much better with this protein drink then without it and my GI does better and stays healed up so I've kept it. Again, the nutritional hounds will have massive issues on several fronts with this product and I'm not saying they're wrong. They're correct, it's horrible, it works, I deeply apologize.
  • I meditate every day with the Calm app or Headspace for about 30 minutes. Not sure how I got a copy of both. Hmm. At night I do Yoga and stretch out which is also good for recovery but I never had energy for anything like that previously. I don't have a day job and probably never will, so there is that too. It's easier to do all this crap when you don't have as many responsibilities - I get it.
tYGRVdf.jpg

I kept a journal in Google Sheets

(EDIT: This has a Vegan column, my family went Vegan for a month, doesn't represent my normal diet, I have nothing close to that kind of discipline even though I love critters.)

I based this off a dot-journal. I thought I would post an example, above, encase you would like to track your symptoms (just fill in what you want to track of course). I had an entire year where the fatigue never improved at all and all the values were the same: bad. I also tracked my blood sugar and weight on a different sheet. Those are still the same.

Qg3S4Vj.jpg

Starting out - monitoring with my Fitbit (which I also wore at night). Can you tell when I started taking Iron? I track my weekly totals on a page in my Google Sheets. I send myself an email reminder weekly to fill it out. I also use Habitica to remind me to do things.

My current diet is usually: Green drink, coffee, workout, lunch is refried beans on a toastada with goodies on top like peppers, lettuce, salsa or just a salad, and supper is often a bit of chicken, vegetables especially cabbage my favourite, and a bit of rice. I love to bake so sometimes there are some rolls happening, a homemade cake, a scone or something else popping into my day. This is how I prefer to eat but you know, nomatter what you eat someone is going to freak out and think you're horrible, how did food become such a battleground? I don't know, but that's too bad.

I'll be honest, I was incredibly nervous about posting this -- I'm not a perfect ME/CFS person, I love coffee. I live in a cold dark area and it makes me filled with joy in an otherwise pretty ho-hum predictable existence of fatigue. I’ve fallen for every fad diet out there even though I hate to diet. I’ve taken a lot of questionable supplements. I’ve taken questionable over the counter pills like Benedryl every night for ten years to sleep and Zantac for ages even when it didn’t work. I’ve done a lot of stupid stuff and figure at least 50% of my current health problems are most likely self-inflicted through sheer ineptitude. I would describe myself as a gullible over-educated person who thinks they know stuff but apparently doesn't really.

Athletes do use more iron but although I love running, I’m more of a book worm who had to take up some form of exercise than an athlete. I was very literally always picked last for every team in P.E. I was nicknamed simply: DORK, all my high school years.

I'm really shy and I don't really do message board or online communicating so I'll say goodbye here. I want to say biochemistry is super complicated. We all have very complex health pictures built over a lifetime that create who we are. It's important to listen more to yourself & your own body than the Internet, books, health gurus and all that. For years it seemed like no matter what I did I just got worse or stayed the same. I had to block out the guru voices that took up so much space in my head and like to lecture me. Remission is just remission, I could be back at the starting block tomorrow, you know how it goes.

Best of luck to you all!

That is a good to know information, thank you for sharing. I might consider doing some.
 

Meowgical-Cat

New Member
August 2020 Update, I probably do not have ME/CFS but 'Green' Still works...

Since March I have narrowed down what was working in the 'Green Machine' juice to Alfalfa powder. I mix it in with my smoothie and sleep great. When I skip it for a few days I go straight back to insomnia. (Full disclosure I add in some Spirulina and Barley Grass Powder too to make it even greener).

For Vitamin-D I switched over to Cod-Liver-Oil, 1 teaspoon daily. I still take the beef liver and iron supplement and a multi-B vitamin.

At this point I have plenty of other symptoms that don't fit ME/CFS. I will need further testing to figure out what (when the Covid outbreak eases).

Doing about the same since March, just wanted to post in my update that it was alfalfa in the drink. Just buying powdered alfalfa is a lot cheaper and far less sugar than trying to drink Green Machine everyday. It also takes about 3 days of subsequent intake to work the best. I drink it daily in my lunch-smoothie. I'm not sure it will work for anyone else, I just kinda stumbled onto it.
 

Meowgical-Cat

New Member
tl;dr: A reverse osmosis water filter that removes fluoride and glyphosate is frickin' awesome and resolved my final symptom: IBS.

I have most of my energy back, it's probably not at a full 100% normal person energy, but far better then it was when I had ME/CFS. I did however had some IBS and GI mystery symptoms still, but completely eliminated that thus far by buying a pretty good multi-stage reverse osmosis water filter last month (rather my husband bought it, so big thanks to him.) After reading about glyphosate (brand name RoundUp) and how it damages the intestines and blocks absorption of vital amino acids, decided to make the expensive purchase. The result was shocking. Instead of feeling food pass through my painful upper GI and having an extensive list of foods that "don't agree with me" -- I can eat a lot more foods and no more GI symptoms one month in. It was surprising how rapidly my GI started feeling better. Our municipal water supply tests very clean but they do add fluoride, so that may be the culprit or something else entirely - like chlorine. I simply don't know, but I can say the filter made a huge difference. I am not a huge fan of all the filter parts being ye old plastic and the reservoir is plastic, but it was as good a system as we could manage to afford.

I still am on the 'green drink' 4-5 times per week which is now: Green Machine (8 oz or 1 cup), alfalfa, spirulina, and now 1 teaspoon of Calm brand magnesium and I top off the cup with water. I usually take Ancestral brand supplements beef liver supplement per day. With time I have experimented and simplified. 👍

I no longer have to track activity, what I eat, or energy levels. I drink a green juice everyday and drink clean water. Yeah, kinda anti-climatic for as long as I was ill.

If I relapse, get worse, or otherwise have a set back I'll update this post. My last remaining health issue has to do with mild to moderate seizures that I've had since I was young, but have been worse the last few years and occur once a month with my cycle. I don't think I'll be solving that anytime soon.


Fall 2021
Age 46, female


(I'm just indicating my experience and not here to argue about anything, thanks)
 

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