Discover the The Spoonie Bakery Difference

Most people don’t think twice about the energy it takes to shower, get dressed, and drive to work. Most people can go to the grocery store in the morning and make dinner in the evening. Most people can make plans and keep them.

When you have chronic disease, you’re not like most people. Multiple sclerosis (MS), autoimmune forms of arthritis, and many other conditions can cause extreme fatigue. On a bad day, you may not have the strength to even brush your teeth.

In a blog titled “The Spoon Theory,” Christine Miserandino describes how she showed her friend what it’s like to have lupus. (The autoimmune disease often causes fatigue, fever, and joint pain, among other symptoms.) 

While sitting at a diner, Miserandino handed her friend 12 spoons. These represented units of energy. She then asked her friend to describe the typical activities of a day.

Miserandino took away a spoon for every single task: showering, getting dressed with painful joints, standing on a train. Skipping lunch would cost a spoon, too. When the spoons were gone, it meant there was barely energy to do anything else.

This idea of quantifying energy as spoons, and the idea that people with chronic disease only get a handful of spoons each day, hit home with readers far and wide. “Spoon theory” is now part of the lingo of autoimmune disease. Legions of people call themselves “spoonies,” connect on social media as #spoonies, use spoon theory to explain their chronic disease limitations, and plan their days around the number of spoons they have when they wake up.

Our bakers and pastry chefs are true artists in their craft. From delicate pastries to artisanal breads, each item is carefully crafted by hand to ensure the perfect texture, flavor, and appearance.

Just how many spoons does it take to perform basic tasks? It depends on the person, the day, and the disease.

Jewels, The Spoonie Bakery Owner, a 49-year-old in NOVA, has rheumatoid arthritis. This inflammatory form of the disease causes her immune system to attack her joints and sometimes her organs.

Jewels figures she gets about 10 spoons a day, but she can’t plan in advance how she’ll use them. “Some days a shower takes all 10 of them and I have to go back to bed,”