Spoon Theory

Spoon Theory – Managing your Spoons

It’s very hard to explain chronic fatigue to someone who has never experienced it before. I used to describe it as being like a little toy soldier whose key had stopped turning and needed a wind up. If I’m honest that’s more like what happens to me when I eat gluten. In an hour my body stops wherever I am and I cannot keep my eyes open. It lasts about an hour, I have little prior warning and need to be somewhere safe so I can pass out. I also have to be careful of the food I eat for the next few weeks or months until my gut has healed enough to handle the grey area foods. Think of it like the game Trouble when you get sent right back to the start.

How many Spoons do you have?

In the darkest days of Hashimotos, I had to make choices. For example, do I go for a walk in the fresh air or do I do the vacuuming? Doing both in one day was out of the question. Some days having a shower and feeding myself was a big achievement. There was never any thoughts about the future as each day seemed like such a big hurdle. Planning was an exercise in futility as the chances I would be OK and had enough in the tank to commit to anything was a crap shoot. It sounds crazy now, but it was very real and debilitating. Some days when the stars aligned I had more energy, but usually I would pay for it the following days. I never knew when those good days would be. In my research days, I came across a more accurate way of explaining the ongoing fatigue by Christine Miserando – You can read her version here spoon theory.

The short version of spoon theory

The short version goes something like this. Two friends were in a cafe, one has Lupus and the other asked what it was really like to have Lupus. There were 12 spoons in the middle of a table. Christine (with lupus) asked what her friend did in a day and then equated each action with a spoon. Some actions required 2 spoons worth of energy. By the time she was ready to go to work she had used up 6 spoons of energy. You have to choose what you spend your spoons on wisely or there will be nothing left once they are gone. There is no borrow anyone else’s spoons, you cannot buy any more spoons, you can borrow from tomorrows spoons but that would equate to a day in bed the next day. There have to be enough spoons to cook dinner, eat and wash up (2 spoons worth). You manage your energy all the time, it is never far from your mind… Energy became my currency. Unfortunately it’s something most people take for granted.

Meet Healy

Gratefully, about 3-6 months into using my Healy I stopped having to manage my energy. Life is so much easier. I still have energy fluctuations, but everything has raised up a few levels to what I would describe as normal. My average energy level is no longer scraping the bottom of the barrel. I knew when I heard what Healy did, this was what I needed and what I was looking for. Working with microcurrents, the cell membrane voltage increases the energy in the cell. More nutrients get into the cell and more toxins exit. Yay, better functioning cells, happy body! Energy is still my currency, but now I can include who and what gives me energy, as well as more choices to how I spend it. Why did it take longer for me to see results? Because the longer a person has been living with a condition, the longer it takes to see results. My full story is here.

There is a FB group for people with very sensitive Autoimmune conditions who have Healys and other frequency devices. Frequencies for Lyme and Other Extremely Sensitive Autoimmune Conditions.