I exercised for 30 minutes a day to manage my fibromyalgia. On day 40 I had my first pain-free day in a year.

• Charlotte Neal has the chronic pain disorder fibromyalgia, which causes pain all over her body.
• She decided to move for at least 30 minutes a day to help manage her condition.
• Despite flare-ups, she kept going, and six weeks in had her first pain-free day in over a year. 

As someone with fibromyalgia, Charlotte Neal has struggled with fatigue, pain all over her body, and brain fog for years.

The chronic pain disorder manifests in widespread musculoskeletal pain as well as fatigue, sleep, memory, and mood issues and there's no cure or treatment, but lifestyle changes can help manage the condition.

Knowing that exercise eases her symptoms, at the end of 2022 she made it her New Year's resolution to move for 30 minutes a day in January 2023 — and then she just kept going.

On day 40, Neal, 30, who lives in London, UK, experienced her first pain-free day in a year, she told Insider.

Neal shared the first six weeks of her journey with Insider and has decided to keep going for the whole year. 

"I really love the focus and direction it gives me," Neal said. She now puts exercise in her diary and makes it non-negotiable.

Neal was diagnosed with fibromyalgia after years of pain

Neal was sick and in and out of hospital for five years before she got diagnosed with fibromyalgia in 2019, she said. 

"The recurring theme was I'd have pain in a random place and nobody would be able to figure out why," she said. After all sorts of tests and scans, nothing provided an answer, and Neal got so sick that she didn't even have enough energy to brush her hair.

Eventually a rheumatologist diagnosed Neal with fibromyalgia, but she wasn't given any advice on how to manage the condition, she said.

"I figured out that people with fibro are pretty miserable, there wasn't anything positive I could find online about people living well with fibro, so I was determined to change that," she said.

Neal started reading about the benefits of exercise for people with fibromyalgia and started working on her fitness with a personal trainer, spinning, and doing yoga. She was the fittest she'd been and she lost 28 pounds, she said.

However, Neal said she lost her way last year partly because a man attacked her in the street in February. He ran up to Neal and elbowed her hard in the shoulder, resulting in a trip to the emergency room and a deep tissue injury that triggered a huge fibromyalgia flare-up. Neal couldn't exercise for three months. 

She was also diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome last year, developed chronic migraine, and found out she was severely intolerant to eggs, wheat, dairy, and yeast. 

"I had a massive life change and lost my way with exercise and motivation, and I found myself in a bit of a shit place," Neal said.

At the turn of the year, Neal decided she wanted to feel like herself again, and hoped getting back into regular exercise would help.

Neal pledged to move for 30 minutes a day 

Neal decided she would move in some way for 30 minutes every day in January, despite often feeling "devoid of energy" from fibromyalgia, Neal said.

In the first week of January alone, Neal did hot yoga, spinning, a resistance band workout, and walks. 

In the second week, she began working out with a personal trainer to boost her strength, confidence, and for accountability. After the first session, Neal realized she'd lost more cardiovascular fitness and strength than she realized, she said.

Neal knew there might be days where it simply wasn't possible, but her aim was to build exercise into her life and make movement a habit. 

"When you have a chronic illness, you don't know how you're going to feel every morning when you wake up," Neal said. "Some days you might be super energized and ready to hit hard and you might even do a double session and feel amazing, and then other days you might just be happy to get through the day and a gentle walk is all you can manage."

So Neal stayed flexible and varied her movement depending on how she felt each day.

Some days Neal did breathwork and yoga, stretching, or walking, other days she did a PT session and spin class back to back.

"I loved the challenge of having to push through that and it felt like a massive achievement at the end," she said. "I went into that session actually feeling quite crap and my symptoms were flaring, and I came out completely different and I think that's really powerful."

Neal was flexible and eased up when she needed to

Halfway through January, Neal was feeling good on the whole, and noticed that her symptoms were slightly less bad on the days when she exercised intensely. 

"I think the consistency's really good for me, I'm feeling a lot more positive mentally," she said at the time. Bue she added her symptoms were "all over the place" and she hadn't seen any major improvement yet, suffering from two migraines in one week and a panic attack the week after.

Neal kept moving gently even during harder days, but didn't beat herself up when she took the occasional day off.

"I was with my family for the weekend, it was pouring with rain, I just wanted to spend time with people and I thought, 'I'm not going to push myself so I'm not going to do it today,'" she said. "I just think wellbeing comes in different forms and on that particular day, my wellbeing was spending time with people."

On day 40, Neal had her first pain-free day in a year

Neal's enthusiasm for her challenge was strong into February and she kicked off the month with a long hike.

She had pain in her face, hands, knees, and migraines at the start of the month, but kept moving with a mix of PT sessions, spinning, yoga, gym sessions, and walking.

"I think if I wasn't moving, my symptoms would be a lot worse," she said. "When your mental health is bad, your symptoms then get bad, so for me it's as much a mental as a physical thing."

Neal was seeing strength and fitness improvements too — in her first PT session, she felt weak and couldn't do a push-up, she said. By her fourth session, she was comfortably doing multiple reps, as well as having shorter rest periods between exercises.

On day 40, Neal had her first pain-free day since before the attack, nearly a year ago. Entirely pain-free days happen "once every blue moon" for Neal.

"I'm really happy I've stayed consistent because it's obviously finally paying off," she said.

At the time, Neal was taking two weeks of vacation so was getting more sleep than normal which she thinks played a role, but the result gave her extra motivation to keep up her exercise, she said.

"I'm really happy that I decided to do this and that I've stuck to it 99% of the time," she said. "It's made me believe in myself again."