About Charbel
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Hi my name is Charbel! I am the creator of Healing cookbook blog.
In this blog you will find tasty recipes made with love and carefully chosen ingredients that will make your cooking simple, easy, and healing.
I was diagnosed with Lupus 5 years ago. If you’re not familiar with this autoimmune disease read more about it here. It was a year after my third pregnancy. I had never been very active, but in 2018 I decided that it was my year to get fit.
After a few months of eating better and exercising everyday, I started to feel a lot of pain in my joints. I started thinking for a few days that I needed to lift less weights and that maybe my body needed a few days to recover from the hard work over the past months.
After a week, I went back to the gym with energy, but my body just started to get very tired really fast, and I started to experience extreme fatigue and more pain in my joints.
So I went to my doctor, and after a few minutes of talking he told me that I should start exercising with movements that weren’t very high impact.
I went back a few weeks later because my symptoms didn’t improve. He sent me to see a rheumatologist since he thought it may have some to do with arthritis.
I went to my first Rheumatologist, and I spent 5 minutes with her, and she diagnosed me with Fibromyalgia.
I went to home a little discouraged with that diagnosis since she told me my treatment would just be to eat better and be active, which is what I was already doing it.
A year later my symptoms kept getting worse, and that is when I started feeling depressed, chronic fatigue, and constant pain – not only in my joints, but in my muscles as well.
My primary care doctor gave me a new referral for another rheumatologist, so I went there and after a few blood tests she told me that I had a borderline Lupus. She prescribed Plaquenil (Hidroxocloroquine) and in a few months my symptoms improved a lot!
A year later she said my numbers were still looking good but she didn’t help me understand what I was dealing with. So, in my ignorance, I thought taking my medicine was all I needed to do to keep Lupus under control. Two years later I stopped taking my medicine because I got pregnant unexpectedly. During my pregnancy I felt great since the doctor explained to me that the hormones during pregnancy are very beneficial for autoimmune disease. I was happy and I had not felt that good for the past 3 years!
She didn’t tell me that I need to get back on my medicine after my pregnancy, and since I was foolish enough to think that my lupus wasn’t actually lupus I thought I would be fine without it. I was so wrong!
After another year my symptoms came back, but this time they hit me even harder that what I was experiencing before, and I was a completely useless most of the time.
Shortly after, we move from the state we were living in, and I found a new rheumatologist who took my new labs and they came back 100 per cent positive for Lupus – no more “Fake Lupus” for me, and it also showed that I have cardivascular disease.
It was just then went it really hit me for the first time that I have an autoimmune disease that I had been ignoring about it for a few years!
I was depressed for a few days after the diagnosis, but I have to face it for my kids, for my husband, and for me.
So I decided to research, research, and research some more about Lupus – about the symptoms, the flare ups, and how it affects everyone with this illness.
I started to take care of myself like never before, and I understand that diet plays a huge role in controlling lupus, so I decided to share my recipes with everyone that may be affected with lupus or another autoimmune disease.
We are not alone. We are in this fight together and together we can live a happy and healthy lifestyle. We need to take care of ourselves and put our health first no matter what. I hope these recipes can allevaite the soreness in your body and make your cooking easier.
There is hope for people like us fighting for our health everyday and I hope these recipes can reach the people that need them. Share them with your loved ones that may need them because sharing is caring!
XOXO
Charbel