Like countless other women, I had endometriosis. Endometriosis can be a nasty disease that causes pain, infertility and abnormal periods. It can also have no symptoms. You can have the tiniest endometrial lesions and experience unimaginable pain, or you can have large amounts of endometriosis and have no pain whatsoever.

Endometriosis, in very simple terms, is when the very same tissue that lines your uterus takes a walk. It can attach itself to abdominal organs, blood vessels, your ovaries....literally anywhere inside your abdomen is fare game. Just as your hormones cause the lining inside your uterus to change over the course of a month, so do they exert such an effect on your misplaced uterine lining. So when you are due for your period, your lesions bleed. When your endometrial lining builds up, so do your lesions and so on. The problem is, your abdominal cavity is not designed to have blood lingering there. It is not designed to have tissue growing on it, and it is particularly unpleasant when that tissue acts like a glue and starts attaching parts of your body together that shouldn't be. Unfortunately, science has yet to figure out why all of this happens. However, it can be cured and the gold standard for cure is surgery.

My journey started in 2012. Although it probably started a lot earlier, but I was blissfully unaware. Despite having been on the same contraceptive pill for over a decade (outside of having my two kids), I suddenly started spotting mid cycle. I went off the pill and found myself quite literally, doubled over in pain every month around ovulation. It hurt to pee. I spent a lot of time in the bathroom with an upset stomach. I lost 10% of my body weight in the space of four months.

Thankfully, I have a wonderful gynaecologist who picked what was wrong, immediately and within a few weeks I was with a surgeon, being operated on. Turned out I had pretty bad endometriosis. It was all over my bowel and bladder and blood vessels. But I'm ok now. So what did I learn?

I looked for a lot of answers in food. Not the comfort in ice cream kind (though there may have been a bit of that too), but the "how do I eat so this doesn't happen again" kind. The fact is that there is no 'endometriosis diet'. I read a lot of things about inflammation and hormones and most of it was a rubbish, tenuously held together by half-truths.

Yes, there is inflammation caused by endometriosis. Yes, your endometriosis is affected by hormones. But you cannot rid your own body of those hormones - you need them! And you definitely can't do it with diet. You also can't prevent endometriosis from growing.

What you can do, is look after your health. Being in pain is stressful, gastrointestinal symptoms are challenging to deal with at best, and recovering from surgery is hard. I learnt a few things about my own limitations (and occasionally ignored them). Here are a few tips for looking after your body in the days before and after surgery that will help your recovery:

• If you are finding that you have digestive problems, try eating smaller meals more frequently.
• When you are cooking in the days leading up to surgery, make extra and freeze it. You will be thankful when you are hungry and there are ready made, nutritious meals on-hand.
• Stock up on snacks. And by snacks I mean fruit, veggies, cheese, wholegrain crackers and nuts. Good quality fresh, whole-foods. I have a great delivery service (which I will talk about in another post in the future) who I order seasonal boxes of fruit and veg from. They deliver from the markets and its all wonderfully fresh and locally grown. Its also comparable in price to the supermarket.
• Eat some iron rich foods because you will have lost, and be losing blood for a few days.
• And finally, be kind to yourself. Rest if your body says rest. Rest even if your body says "play play play play".

And here are a few longer term goals that will keep you feeling good, help you with your fertility (if that's where you are at), and make you the healthiest you that you can be. None of it is magic, its also not an endometriosis diet. Its just the things we are all supposed to eat and it will prevent and improve symptoms of more than just endometriosis:

• Eat your leafy greens. I may do a post down the track on why these guys are so good for you.
• Although they won't cure you, there is definite benefit to making sure you are eating foods high in omega-3. Things such as oily fish, walnuts, flaxseed. They are all great sources of omega-3. We typically have fish for dinner twice a week and lunches often have a tin of tuna or salmon thrown in.
• Exercise. Not only does it release endorphins that make you feel good, but your body was designed to move. You don't need to go for a run every day, but go outside for 10 minutes (you can find 10 minutes), stand in the sun, jump on the spot 20 times, do a few squats.
• Read your food labels - steer clear of foods that say they contain trans fats. I have nothing good to say about these.

If you have endometriosis - at any stage, or you want to improve your overall health and eating habits, drop me a note on my contact page. I can help you find sustainable ways to incorporate these habits into your day-to-day.