What does recovering from long COVID actually look like? And how do you know if you're getting better when progress is anything but straightforward?
In this episode of Bounded Energy, Hannah gives Katya an update on her recovery after a major long COVID crash forced her to leave work.
Six months on, things are looking up. Hannah's chronic pain and fatigue have improved, she's managing more activity, and she even made it through her sister's wedding — with a few strategically timed rests and some enthusiastic chair dancing.
But recovery is hardly a straight line. Katya and Hannah discuss pacing, post-exertional crashes, the challenges of rebuilding stamina and more.
Hannah also shares her experience with the Optimum Health Clinic's recovery programme. They discuss nervous system regulation, psychological support and the difficulty of navigating an endless sea of potential chronic illness treatments.
An honest, funny and hopeful conversation about long COVID recovery, learning to recognise progress and finding ways to enjoy life without completely exhausting yourself.
A note for listeners: This episode discusses personal experiences of long COVID recovery and approaches to managing chronic illness. These are individual experiences, not medical recommendations.
Resources mentioned:
The Optimum Health Clinic: https://www.theoptimumhealthclinic.com/begin-your-journey
The Waking Up Meditation App: https://www.wakingup.com
Me + app: https://enerjoy.life/me-plus/
I Haven't Been Entirely Honest With You - Miranda Hart
Decode Your Fatigue - Alex Howard
Transcript
Katya: 00:01
Hello listeners, Katia here, and welcome back to the Bounded Energy Podcast. In this episode, Hannah shows an update on the progress she made since she quit work in November 2024 after four years of battling long COVID and COVID-induced fibromyalgia to focus full-time on recovery. She also talks about her experience with the Optimum Health Clinic, which is super interesting, and details of that, along with her other recommendations, can be found in the description for this episode. This will be the last podcast episode for a while now because if you listen to the previous episode, you know that I'm expecting a baby in about six weeks. But as always, if you want to get in touch, you can contact us at boundedenergy at gmail.com. Thanks for listening. I'm having a good day. Minute out week. What to do and how to be with the bees given to me, me and my bounded energy. How have you been, henna?
Hannah: 01:07
I've been okay. I um I like I said, for a week I've decided to tr start coming off Certraline for which I've been taking for like multiple years before I got on COVID for anxiety. And so I've been like I've halved it and I've been on that for a a week and I was like doing fine. And then yesterday I felt really shit, like really um, just really headache and like exhausted, and like I had sore, swollen glands, and I thought, am I getting a bug? What's going on? Um, and then overnight I just was waking up with horrible nightmares and like just waking up feeling like really anxious and stuff. So like I haven't slept super well. Um, and I like woke up feeling like and like just had like a feeling of anxiety for no reason, but yeah.
Katya: 02:02
Yeah, I didn't know you had it on anti-anxiety medication. Yeah, that's what's actually in this, right?
Hannah: 02:10
Yes, yeah, yeah. It's an SSRI. Um, yeah. I started that, oh my god, I can't remember how long ago now, like seven years ago, maybe. I wasn't on like a super high dose. Um, it was like a pretty small dose, just like helped kind of soften the edges of my anxiety, which I know I've spoken about on the podcast before about me being a super anxious person. Um but yeah, so I just I think the reason I decided to um start trying to come off it is because like generally psychologically, like I've been feeling pretty good, like despite the fact that I'm like, you know, unemployed and recovering from illness. I felt I felt, you know, good in my brain, as it was. Yeah. Um and yeah, that's you know, I think that's partly to do with the work I've been doing with this clinic I've been with, which I'll talk about a bit later. But yeah, it has made me feel a little bit more confident that like I have the tools to manage mental health. So maybe let's start trying to come off it. Um so I'm just hoping that I'm just going through a little rough patch and like within another few days or a week I'll be free from nightmares. I had like the nightmares, I get this nightmare like quite frequently where one of I'm looking for one of my cats in like a room or some kind of setting that's full of cats, and I cannot find my cat. I'm so stressful, oh my god.
Katya: 03:55
Anyway, so then I wake up like I've never had a bad stress dream. Mine is always that my teeth are falling out.
Hannah: 04:04
Oh, I've only had that once, and that was quite that was like this year, and then I was like, wow, I just had that dream that people say is a thing. And I've always heard it and been like, what, your teeth fall out? Yeah, it's horrible.
Katya: 04:17
Do you get that regularly? No, only when I'm anxious. For me, it's like a reminder to meditate. Um, how interesting though that coming off the drug has made you anxious? It kind of shows that it obviously did something, you know. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. But um, how are you? How are you feeling? Yeah, I'm good. I'm um I'm like I'm 32 weeks now, so eight months pregnant, which is mad. Gosh, I can't believe it.
Hannah: 04:47
Time's gone by so quick.
Katya: 04:49
And I have just l I feel like I'm slowly losing all of the energy that comes with the second trimester. Like I was feeling amazing for a while, and I've just started having like waking up with fatigue and having fatigue in the day. But actually, long COVID, all of my long COVID practice has been like super helpful because I just canceled all my plans, I've taken a couple of afternoons off work sick. I'm just like, you know, yeah, I'm fatigued.
Hannah: 05:16
It's okay if they just know how to handle this now. Yeah, exactly.
Katya: 05:21
So I'm yeah, so I'm fine with it. I'm not fighting it, I'm just going with it and like almost enjoying it. I think it's it's totally different because when you know, if you just say to people, oh, it's pregnancy, everyone understands that and they're fine. Whereas if you're like with long COVID, you're just like, I have this vague disorder that no one really understands, I'm exhausted, it doesn't have an end date. That's a lot harder to do it. Yeah, I don't know how to work around that. Whereas pregnancy, it's like, oh, okay, well, I guess in three months' time you'll be back. Yeah. I don't know. But I'm I'm tired, but I'm okay with it.
Hannah: 05:59
Yeah.
Hannah: 05:59
So yeah. Because also it just means like you're just on to the next stage of being pregnant, and yeah.
Katya: 06:06
Closer and closer until she enters the world. Totally. And she's huge. Like, I keep looking at pictures of babies born at 32 weeks. Um, because like if you're born at 32 weeks now in the UK, you have really good odds of surviving with no issues. And they look like babies, and like she feels like a baby, like she's I feel like she's huge. Really?
Hannah: 06:30
Well, I remember when I got to feel your tummy, and I was just like, this felt like she was like kicking or punching with her fist or something.
Katya: 06:38
Yeah, and like now her kicks reach my ribs, so like I the other day felt like two feet, like leg shapes on either side, like right below my ribs, and then she was like punching me right down in my like vagina.
Hannah: 06:53
Oh my god.
Katya: 06:55
This creature takes up the whole space now.
Hannah: 06:59
It's huge.
Katya: 07:01
But this isn't about I wonder how much she's gonna weigh.
Hannah: 07:04
I just she might be really massive. I'm just like, is that is she just a particularly big baby, or do all women have this? Is this just how what the baby feels like? Is it the sensation is that they're just oh they always feel big?
Katya: 07:17
Yeah, so in my week in my monthly measurements, which will now be every two weeks, I'm on the small end of normal. Are you? Oh and I think she's probably like one and a half kilos now. But the crazy thing is that she will be between like three and four kilos in eight weeks.
Hannah: 07:37
Oh my god, it's a miracle that women can like move.
Katya: 07:42
Yeah, when they're just bringing that weight. They just like so she's like her length, I don't think will change. She'll just get really, really fat, hopefully. Oh. And adorable. Yeah. Um, okay, let me op open up my questions because I know what we wanted to speak speak about today. Yeah. So we wanted to speak about how you're doing with your recovery, and I actually listened to your update episode just now. Um, and in that episode, we kind of we'd caught up since we spoke about your crash in I think it was November 2024.
Hannah: 08:16
October.
Katya: 08:17
October 2024.
Hannah: 08:19
October 24.
Katya: 08:20
That well, you were your body was no longer really functioning and you made the decision to quit work. And at that time when we spoke months afterwards, you were off work and we were talking about your cover recovery, and you had two goals, which were to attend your sister's wedding in May and actually participate, and to do a flat 45-minute walk. And I wondered, how are you doing? And how did you meet any of your goals?
Hannah: 08:52
Well, I think yeah, well, in general, obviously I have improved in my energy and symptoms since October. Um I find it hard to compare my energy levels now to what they were before my October crash because I've realized in hindsight that like all that energy that I had for work was just adrenalised energy. It wasn't really like real, sustainable energy. I was just yeah. So now what I'm hopeful now is that the energy I do have is actually real and coming from like a healthy place. Where, yeah, like when I think back to the stuff I used to do in my job before my crash, I can't like imagine doing that stuff now. That just seems crazy. But then I know that if my nervous system was like put under enough pressure that I was like, oh my god, I have to do this. Um, and I had like enough adrenaline in my body, I know I would find it. I would find the energy somehow to like deliver a lecture for a day or something like that. But, you know, obviously with a cost. Um so yeah, I would say that my energy is um better than it was in October, but I'm certainly not at like the level of activity that I was, you know, when I was working full-time.
Katya: 10:23
Um when you were working full-time as in like pre-COVID?
Hannah: 10:27
Oh um no, when I was working or just before the crash. Yeah, when I was working just before the crash. Yeah, yeah. That's interesting. I can't like me before COVID was just like a whole stratosphere. Yeah, yeah. When you are peak lifting, but I'm 50 kilos and stuff. Yeah, I'm just like, that's not just not relevant anymore.
Katya: 10:50
So that's interesting. Because because you you spoke a bit about that, like waking up with panic and your body surging with adrenaline and managing to do the day on that, and you did that for like months before your crash. And so it's interesting that you say now you don't feel like you have as much energy as you had then, because there's also like maybe you're more aware, and maybe you're just not willing to do that anymore, as well as obviously recovering from this crisis.
Hannah: 11:20
Because my body's now in like a much calmer state. I'm in like a rest digest state much more of the time, and I'm not pumping my body full of like adrenaline and cortisol just to like get me going in the morning, which is like just so unhealthy for you if that's what you're running on. Yeah. Um, but yeah, so um, like energy aside, like the general pain and like muscle weakness, muscle shaking, all of that stuff that I was living with, that has improved a lot. Better than when I was working before my crash. You know, I used to work, work, work, and then I would do nothing in the evenings, and I would be like really aching, like, really sore. I would wake up in the morning and be really aching and sore and gradually like have to like move my body, get up and try and shake it off and ignore it. Um, which I don't get now. Like, I don't wake up in pain, um, which is so such a relief. Um, I still get like my glands like in my neck still go up and down, like they swell up and get really sore and tender when I'm all tired and then unlike jaw pain and stuff. So it's wow, that that bit, my neck and my jaw is still sore, but it used to be like so much more than that in like lots of different parts of my body, which have largely subsided, which is incredible.
Katya: 12:57
Do you still get um because I remember once asking you about your pain? Because I I don't think I've ever had chronic pain. I think at the start of long COVID I had I was always achy, but that went quite quickly and I was more fatiguy. And you said you spoke about the muscle tenderness, but I remember you also said once that you would get like electric shocks on your skin sometimes. Yeah. You had that in a while or has that kind of resolved?
Hannah: 13:22
Oh no, that was like for a period of time, that was fairly early in my COVID journey. I think it was maybe after like the second time I had COVID. And for a period of time I was getting quite kind of freaky neurological symptoms like that, which did eventually go away, and it just left like the fatigue and pain behind.
Katya: 13:46
Yeah, yeah.
Hannah: 13:47
But luckily that stuff is is gone. Touch wood. Okay. Um, hopefully, I've seen the last of that. Uh no one. I think people have told me that I've got like a lot more colour, whereas I think I just went around with like a really like pale grey face for a lot of the time. Um so then I think people were like, Whoa, you'd look, you know, you look brighter in your eyes, and yeah, you look a bit rosier and stuff. Um, and people say that my like demeanor is brighter.
Katya: 14:20
Yeah. I can I can completely attest to that because I went to see you, Hannah, was it two weeks ago or three weeks ago or something? And um, I was completely shocked, completely shocked, because um, you just had so much more energy and it was visible in like the way you were sitting up, how long you were engaged in conversations, even things like the volume of your laughter, and you took a nap. We had a day together and you took a nap during the day, but then after your nap, it was like you were as you were in the morning. Yes, again, like completely ready to engage and like following it, it's really amazing. Oh, thank you.
Hannah: 14:58
Yeah, it's so nice. I think that is the best I've seen since you got. I struggle to see it. Um, like I have to like because I'm in it, it's like hard to step away and try and get an objective view of it. But yeah, I think that's another thing, is like I am bouncing back quicker. So now I can do like a long meditation or a nap, and I can wake up and kind of be yeah, back to where I was um in the morning. Whereas, you know, before I would spend all my energy and then crash and like take a big long nap and wake up and then just like not feel any different. I would have to wait till morning really to kind of feel something again. Um, or it would like you know be the other way around and I'd be buzzing in the evening and then shattered in the morning. Um there was a lot of inconsistency, but yeah, I think that's something that being outside of like that really hard to predict out of my own control working environment. It's like I've gained control back over my own routine, and I think the thing that's helped me a so much is just having so much like regularity, like monk-like regularity in my like routines.
Katya: 16:16
Yeah, in the You're like on a retreat. I'm not like it's like being on a meditation retreat, yeah, definitely.
Hannah: 16:24
Um, but yeah, in terms of goals, so I did attend my sister's wedding in May, and I did manage to do the full day, but I did take three short rests, um, like midway through the morning, and then once kind of early afternoon, and then in the evening, where I like stepped away and like lay down flat and meditated and then kind of came back and continued. Like, I think it's completely uh, you know, for the rest of my life, like I've kind of come to accept that maybe I will never be able to do a whole wedding start to finish without having to take those breaks. Yeah, um, but that's fine. Like, I've come to that point where I'm like, I can accept that, that's not too big a deal.
Katya: 17:12
No, but also that's massive, Hannah. Like a whole day with just like having to step away and take short breaks is just yeah, huge.
Hannah: 17:24
Yeah, like when I went to your wedding, I had to leave after the dinner. Yeah. Um, and when I was walking to my room from the dinner, I was shuffling because I couldn't lift my legs up above the ground because they were so tired from like the standing and the just the general activity of the day. Whereas this time I was like, I did some proper dancing on my feet in the evening. Like I wasn't dancing like for very long, maybe like you know, 15 minutes, 20 minutes or so. And then I sat down and did chair dancing.
Katya: 17:57
Yeah.
Hannah: 17:58
So like, yeah, I sat down and was just like moving my hands on like my upper body. And I had like yeah, boogie on my chair. Then I had my like sisters and stuff like dancing around me. So that was really, really nice. I had such a good time.
Katya: 18:13
Um, and yeah, chair dancing is chair dancing is just I think I did a lot of chair dancing during long cov like during long COVID and getting sick because I have always danced around the house.
Hannah: 18:23
Yeah.
Katya: 18:24
Like just as like put loud music on a dance, and I remembered I have done so much chair dancing through COVID, and it's just it's so brilliant. It's a really yeah, there should be like chair dancing classes.
Hannah: 18:39
I would literally love that, honestly. Like, I know I don't know, I've just got a very like, you know, I'm not like you, like I know you love to dance, it's like a real thing about you. Whereas like I like to dance occasionally, like when I've had like, you know, a couple glasses of wine and the mood takes me, I will have a dance. Um and like very occasionally I'll like have a little boogie in the kitchen whilst I'm cooking or something, and I'll yeah, but yeah, it just yeah, I just it hadn't really occurred to me that I could still have a really good time and not be standing up. Um I think also there's like self-consciousness, like I was worried I was gonna look weird, yeah. Um and people be like, what why is she just like standing up? Stand up chair, like stuff up.
Katya: 19:22
What do you think you're doing having fun on your chair? Like, get up.
Hannah: 19:26
And I was like, if anyone thinks that's weird, then just like I just didn't care. And I was like, No one is like that at weddings, yeah. And I was like, the people who know me like know why I'm doing it that way, and that's all that matters. Like so, yeah. Um but yeah, in terms of the walk, so the 45-minute slow flat walk on its own, like I I have not achieved that yet. Like I'm I would say I can do 20 to 30 minutes depending on the day. Yeah, I reckon I could do a 45-minute flat slow flat walk if I did nothing else that day, if I got up and I was like, right, this is my one thing, is I will go and do this walk. Whereas, yeah, I I could say that I'd say that most a few times a week now I'm going for like a slow walk around the village for like 15 minutes at least, and that's you know, I'm getting there. Yeah. At the start of my crash, my chest would like tighten up and like I'd be feeling quite lightheaded just after walking for like five, ten minutes. And it's just yeah, so I'm getting there. Yeah, not quite there. And you also you also did dip after your sister's wedding. I did actually, yes. That's something I should mention is that I had a great time at the wedding and I kind of really gave it my all. Yeah, and so yeah, for like a couple weeks afterwards, I definitely took a bit of a step back with my energy. Um, but it's fine, it was worth it. I think partly one of the reasons was that I did have some alcohol. Yeah. And I just think that alcohols me over.
Katya: 21:10
Totally.
Hannah: 21:11
Yeah, it's a hard no with long COVID. Next time I do an event like that, I'm gonna try and do it without drinking and then see if maybe I'm a bit more resilient afterwards. Um, I just I just like drinking.
Katya: 21:24
It's just it's just so much fun. I think I do that with my wedding, because for my wedding, I also like struggled. I had a couple of like a good two, three weeks on a low down after my wedding, because I did dance at my wedding. Um, but I hardly drank anything at all.
Hannah: 21:40
Yeah.
Katya: 21:41
Which I think might have saved me. Because another problem with alcohol, as much as I love being drunk and being drunk with friends, is just the most amazing thing. You also stop pacing.
Hannah: 21:51
Yeah.
Katya: 21:52
You have like one or two glasses of wine, and then you stop chair dancing, and before you know it, you're standing up and jumping with everyone. Yeah. And then you're like Really fucked because you really damaged your body.
Hannah: 22:04
So it's really you know totally, yeah. All of that like self-awareness goes out the window and it just it masks what your body's telling you as well. Yeah, um, it gives you like this kind of like false sense of energy that yeah, you're gonna pay for later. So yeah, next time I do a big event, I'm gonna really try and be strict with myself. Um, but I think as well, like, you know, I'm so used to I I don't really drink outside of like big social occasions like that, where I just really feel like I want to drink to kind of help help to loosen me up. Because like quite often in big social occasions, there's just so much going on, you know, before I had COVID, I could find them quite a lot from a sensory perspective, and like there was a lot of social anxiety, and I was just like, God, I need a drink, and then usually that would just like make everything easier. Um, so I definitely have relied on a few drinks at those things to get me through. And so it's it's just that like habit. And so, yeah, I've gonna have to be a little bit more strict with myself next time. But whatever. I it was I had a great time. That's really good. It was totally worth it for me um to get that experience.
Katya: 23:19
Um and yeah, conscious of time, oh yeah, you pretty much you're you're making you met one goal in your good progress towards your 45-minute walk. We were gonna talk about the things you've done since you quit work and slowed down in October to feel better.
Hannah: 23:39
Um, so some of what I've been doing is literally so embarrassingly basic that other long COVIDers will be like, what the hell? You weren't doing this before? Like, what is wrong with you? Um, but anyway, it took me a long time to like you know, finally implement the stuff that I knew theoretically I should do, but like really struggled to get into action, you know. So um, so I meditate now, um, like twice a day, every day, particularly body scans I found was the way to get into it. Yeah, I use YouTube, I use the Waking Up app that you sent me. I did that like 28-day introductory course on the Waking Up app and really enjoyed it. I use that app a lot now, so that was amazing recommendation from you.
Katya: 24:27
Meditation is huge. Most people I would say actually with long COVID probably don't meditate, but actually, it's such a useful skill. Yeah, and it is so helpful with like all of the nervous system stuff. Yeah. I feel like the benefits are not just while you're meditating, it then translates to like you're just generally calmer.
Hannah: 24:47
Definitely. When you have long COVID, your nervous system is just like dialed up, and yeah, that is not your fault. It's nothing, you know, it's your your nervous system is just really sensitive and will just be in that heightened state all day and not be able, not be flexible enough to just relax when it needs to relax on its own. And so the meditation really helps to like bring down my nervous system, calm me down, help me reset so I get a little bit more energy again later on in the day. Um, so I've been using this app called the Me Plus app, which you have to pay for, but for me it was worth the money. You create your own like morning routines, evening routines on it, and then every day you tick them off, and you get like lots of positive reinforcement for doing it. Umestly, it's helped me so much. I was like, oh god, an app. Well, let's just give this a go. Add technology, yeah, yeah, yeah. Adder and technology had a paper calendar, Atkinson could not was just like, no, but actually, it did really work. Um and because I realized that I like getting a pat on the head to say that I've done things well. So having this app being like, oh, you did all of your activities today, like gave me like a yes, I'm winning, it's something. Um so yeah. Um meditation, definitely. Um doing a passive stretching routine. Um, because I find that following like yoga videos and things like that is can be a bit dangerous for me. Like, yeah, I can really um it taps into that side of my brain that's like, I'm gonna hold this position a little bit longer, or yes, I'm gonna try that full thing today because she's doing it and I want to do it too, and everything like that. Whereas so I don't follow any videos, I just like looked up passive stretches online and just kind of like made my own little like mini routine. And for me, that's helped with my muscle pain and tightness so much. And if I go like a couple days, say I've been like away, like visiting parents or something, and I haven't done it, then I can feel that sort of bruised, tender feeling start to like creep back into my muscles. So the stretching has been great, and I've done that religiously, and then having a really consistent routine of high protein breakfast, high protein lunch, high protein dinner, medication, supplements, literally just not missing a single day of that, just being super, super obviously like on my sister's wedding, like I didn't have like a high protein lunch or whatever it was, but like you know, I still took all my chance. Yeah, I didn't bring up pack lunch to bring like my protein balls and stuff. But um yeah, I did as much as I could within reason.
Katya: 27:46
Yeah.
Hannah: 27:46
Um, so all of that sounds like really boring, but I think if you're not doing it or if you're just doing it sometimes but not every day, you know, it really does make a difference. But like the biggest thing is that I have been doing this, doing a program with the Optimum Health Clinic, which is based in London, but um it's completely online. Um, so that you can find online like their packages and what they include and what the prices are and everything. Like, I'm not gonna say anything here that's not kind of free to see on their website. Um, but through joining this clinic, I got access to the Reset Online program, which is like loads of content, like very structured, like lots of videos and activities and stuff to work your way through. And um I then became a member of the Healing Together community, which is part of it, so which has like a forum and then these weekly online talks that you go to, which are like educational um on loads of different topics around managing like chronic health problems, and that that's been really useful. And then I've had one-to-one sessions with a like a with a therapeutic coach looking at the psychological side of things, and then one-to-one sessions with a nutritionist. Um, and those one-to-one sessions have were very tailored. Um, and I'm I finished up with the psychology side of things, but I'm still seeing the nutritionist now. Um, and yeah, I've learned a lot from that. Um, and I came across it because I was in October, November, I was like just like lying in bed listening to audiobooks. And so I bought Miranda Hart's book. Um, I haven't been entirely honest with you. It came out in 2024 and about her living with like chronic fatigue stuff, I think from Lyme disease.
Katya: 29:39
And um we didn't know she had that, yeah.
Hannah: 29:42
Uh, but she mentioned working with the Optimum Health Clinic in her book and how how helpful it was. So I was like, right, yeah. Um, I'm gonna do that. And um yeah, like so. My experience with them has been very positive. It's given me a lot of guidance and accountability. I think it's so hard when you're trying to manage an illness and get better from it. It's like you just don't know where to start, you don't know where to be focusing your energy. It kind of gave me a structure, a direction. And then those one-to-one meetings have been really good with keeping me accountable. Like, okay, I need to now implement this because I'm gonna have to tell this person how I've been progressing with it next time. Um, and yeah, so it's like I've overhauled my daily routine in terms of how I manage my nervous system and psychological state. There's a lot of tools that they introduce as you go through the program that have been really helpful. And I was so skeptical about the psychological side of it. I think because I'm so sensitive to the idea that my mental health is causing my illness. So I was just very like, ah, no. Yeah, I just I didn't want to engage with it. Um, but I am actually so glad that I have because what I've realized is that you know, I have a sensitive nervous system because of long COVID. I'm stuck in fight and flight a lot of the time, and actually being able to control your thoughts uh and like um be in touch with your emotions and having all these tools in place to use um really helps to like keep my nervous system down. And yeah, so I really, really uh think it has helped.
Katya: 31:33
Um I I think that whole side of things is so easy to be skeptical about because you have to experience it. But for me, I think it's that the the the wellness that I experience after a meditation retreat, like the physical wellness and the fact that like a week-long retreat will just boost me for like a month, yeah, just shows that it's it's not in your head, but obviously your brain impacts your body. And if your brain is constantly sending these like alarm signals, it it's exhausting. So I I do believe, I do believe you, and I really actually really want to try the Optimum Health Clinic post maybe.
Hannah: 32:16
Yeah, yeah. Um and working with the nutritionist, I've sort of overhauled my nutrition and supplements. Um it's just been so helpful to have someone say, right, I'm gonna recommend these supplements introduced at these times, and they're very bespoke to you, um, and kind of helping me kind of work out what foods to be introducing. Um and yeah, just helping me shape like what should my daily diet look like. Um it's just helped taken it's just taken away all of that, that guessing and worrying and like when you look online for like nutrition advice, it's just such a mindfield, isn't it? So to just have someone kind of take that away for you and just give you that those guidelines and parameters to work within has been really, really helpful. Um and we started with just getting the basics in place because I was just a bit of a mess, like just eating, like living off like mueslee and protein bars and apples, and then Chris cooking me a dinner. And it was fine. Like it wasn't the worst diet in the world, but like it just was it was not enough for my body to be in an optimal state. So yeah. We started with the basics and we've moved on to like addressing different aspects of my body, like mitochondrial function, immune system health. Um, and it's very, it is very bespoke and it's very like um kind of staggered. If you just like throw the kitchen sink at your body, it's not necessarily gonna benefit from it if it's not ready. So it's very much like, oh, okay, I've been with the Optimum Health Clean Out for six months, and now we're looking at this, and only now after you've done all this work, am I gonna introduce this supplement at this point in time? And so yeah, I it has been good. I've definitely felt my energy increasing um with the work I've been doing with the with the nutritionist for sure.
Katya: 34:22
It makes me think of that whole like if you're super healthy, you can probably tolerate a bad diet.
Hannah: 34:27
But if you're not, then you are actually going to be very sensitive to what you eat. Well, yeah, and it's like similar with the psychology stuff. If you're a healthy person, you can probably cope with having anxious thoughts, like being a little bit like emotionally cut off and all of that stuff. But yeah, if you've got a body like ours now, like all that stuff matters like way, way more. Yes. Um, has way more of an impact than it would otherwise, I think.
Katya: 34:54
Yeah.
Hannah: 34:55
Um so yeah. Um, so I would I would recommend it to others if they were interested in going for it. Um, like they do like a free phone call with someone where you can kind of just like explain your situation and they'll ask you questions and you can ask them questions and kind of get an idea of whether it's going to be right for you. Um yeah, maybe in like the description of this episode, I can just we can put a link to where people can start if they were interested. But you know, I don't have any other clinics slash programs to compare this to, you know, but yeah, I can just say that for me personally I found it really valuable.
Katya: 35:36
Um how much did you pay for your the program you're on? And what was the name of the program you're on again?
Hannah: 35:42
Um so I so I've done like the full package, which was um access to the reset online programme, healing together community, and then like a certain number of psychology and nutrition sessions. And I paid um like just under £2,000 for that. And then if you want additional follow-up like one-to-one sessions after your like set is over, um, you can then pay sort of for further ones as you go. Okay. So yeah.
Katya: 36:20
Gosh, I would have paid £2,000 years ago when I first got this for that.
Hannah: 36:26
Yeah.
Katya: 36:27
Like in a heartbeat.
Hannah: 36:29
When I think back, I'm just like, ugh, like I do wish like I'd done something like this way sooner. Although I don't know, maybe I was just so caught up with work and just still trying to be normal and still stuck in this like denial state that it may not have like penetrated in the way that it is now because like I'm not working and literally just my life is my recovery now.
Katya: 36:59
But also, how do you know? Because like I I definitely Googled like chronic fatigue cures and stuff, and you get you know, spas in Spain offering you fruit juice um retreats, yeah, and like so it's just having a personal recommendation is really strong. Yeah.
Hannah: 37:18
And I think that's why that's what made me think, okay, let's go with the optimum health clinic. Literally because Miranda Hart said so, said it was good in her book. Like it is true, actually, when there's so many things out there and you don't know what to what to kind of sign up to, yeah, it is so true. Like her suggesting it kind of gave it more weight for me.
Katya: 37:39
Umry, Hannah, do you I don't need do you want to say anything else? I'm just conscious of time. No, I think I've yabbered on enough. I ended up talking loads. You did yeah, but you've done amazing. How are you? How are you feeling? Because this is 40 minutes of speaking to each other.
Hannah: 37:58
I can feel like I'm starting to feel a little bit tired now and like, okay, I need to break talking. Yeah. But yeah, I felt okay. Like considering that I didn't sleep very well, was having like nightmares and stuff out of the blue.
Katya: 38:13
Yeah, you're anxious. You it's a t this it's a testament to the progress you're making.
Hannah: 38:19
Yeah, like the resilience that I've got now.
Katya: 38:22
And I also I feel really happy because I've had this fear at the back of my mind of what happens post-pregnancy when the baby's here, if my long COVID symptoms return, or if I'm one of the people who get worse with their fatigue after pregnancy. And I feel like I know now that if that happens, I will go to the Optimum Health Clinic. Because I just having looked at the website, it seems like they really know, they seem to be the people who know the most about helping chronic fatigue in a way that is not. I feel like doctors, my experience with doctors has just been we don't know for sure that this works, so we won't recommend it. Whereas what I read on their website sounds a lot more like there's some evidence that this might be helpful, there's no evidence that it's harmful, let's try it. And I feel like that headspace is what I will want to go into if my long COVID doubles down after I give birth.
Hannah: 39:22
Yeah, yeah.
Katya: 39:24
So I feel excited.
Hannah: 39:26
I think something else that helps is that quite a lot of the people that there, like that run it, um actually have like recovered from chronic health problems themselves. Um, yeah, like Alex Howard, who wrote the book and is like, I don't know what position he has within the Optimum Health Clinic, but he's like the face of it. Um he's the one who does all the reset program talks and the healing together talks and stuff. Like he recovered from chronic um fatigue syndrome um himself, like as a young man. So that kind of it's people who like really know what it feels like, um, which I think is the thing that I've struggled with in the past is hearing people talk about you should do this, you should do that, but having no Yeah.
Katya: 40:20
They didn't have it for years, they had it for like three months.
Hannah: 40:22
Yeah. Or people who've had no lived experience of it whatsoever.
Katya: 40:27
People who've had no experience giving advice is uber annoying.
Hannah: 40:31
Yeah, like when I had like oh, anyway, I won't go into that. When I sort of did like a graded exercise style thing at the start of my journey with a physio, and it was just like Yeah, really damaging.
Katya: 40:45
Really damaging. Um anyway. Yeah. Okay, we'll wrap up. One thing I did want to say is I don't think I don't think we'll do another episode, Hannah, for a while, because I can just feel that I'm becoming less and less able to do anything apart from be pregnant.
Hannah: 41:04
Yeah.
Katya: 41:04
Um, so I can't see myself doing another an editing one. Um, so I was gonna propose that we say goodbye until after babies here, and then we maybe reconsider, maybe we do one other episode about like giving birth with COVID and having a baby, and maybe there's something else you want to speak about then. But I kind of want listeners not to expect an update for a while.
Hannah: 41:32
Yeah, yeah. Like, you know, we're living with long COVID and how it's gonna affect Katya like after pregnancy, like who knows? Like, and yeah, it's just an unknown. So I'm sure listeners will understand.
Katya: 41:48
Yeah, and also there are other um long covet podcasts. I think there's one called The Long COVID podcast, which I think has done an episode every week since like 2020. There are other resources on there. There are other, yeah, made by people more energetic than ourselves. Yeah, whole teams of people. Um, thank you so much for sharing your experience, Hannah. That's okay. I hope other people find it um helpful. They will, yeah. All right, I'll be in touch. All right. Sweet suit cats, lots of love. Lots of love.
