Eat More Plants!
This is the first post in a series on the Six Pillars of Lifestyle Medicine and how they can help you manage your fibromyalgia.
Lifestyle medicine is a branch of medicine that uses therapeutic lifestyle interventions to treat chronic conditions.
The Six Pillars of Lifestyle Medicine are: a whole food, plant predominant eating pattern, physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, avoidance of risky substances, and positive social connections.
Eat More Plants!
I recently completed a continuing education course on Lifestyle Medicine and Food as Medicine that focused on nutrition education for the prevention and treatment of chronic disease.
This quote succinctly sums up what I learned:
“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants.”
-From in Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
Eating a plant -based diets means prioritizing vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, lentils, peas, nuts, and seeds.
Want to know more? Check out the resources at the end of the newsletter.**
It minimizes or avoids animal foods, sweets, and highly processed foods.
A plant-based diet has many health benefits, it can help lower cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugar.
Is a plant-based diet a good choice for folks with fibromyalgia? The answer is that it can be with careful planning.
PLEASE NOTE: You should always talk with your own health care providers about your specific dietary needs before making any changes.
How to Eat Well for Your Precious Fibro Body
Dr. Ginevra Liptan in her book The Fibro Manual includes dietary recommendations focusing on the “why and “what” of dietary change based on her personal, and clinical experience and research studies.
If you do not already have Dr. Liptan’s book in your home library I highly recommend it.
She has also written a companion book called The Fibro Food Formula that focuses on the “how” of making dietary changes that includes several pages of yummy recipes.
Dr. Liptan points out that protein needs are higher in people with fibromyalgia because we use energy less efficiently. She suggests a few simple dos and don’ts for eating well with fibromyalgia:
- Do eat lots of protein and healthy fats to improve cellular and energy production and we do take steps to improve our digestion.
- Do take appropriate steps to improve digestion
- Don’t eat food additives such as MSG and aspartame that worsen pain hypersensitivity.
- Don’t eat foods that worsen inflammation.
As anyone with fibromyalgia knows eating healthy when you’re dealing with chronic pain and limited energy can be very challenging.
I have some clients who love to cook, others who hate cooking and everything in between.
I’m an in-betweener myself. Personally, I don’t hate cooking but I don’t love it either and I often struggle to find the energy to prepare healthy meals.
The other day, my recently retired client, Patty from Elizabethtown, Kentucky told me, “I’m cooking a lot more now that I’m not working and I’m not mad about it. LOL!”
She’s enjoying making time for the process of preparing and eating healthy meals. And she’s saving money as well by eating at home. I really admire that!
But, there are just so many steps in the process of getting a healthy meal on the table, it can be daunting! Am I right?
First of all, there is meal planning, list making, figuring out what we are going to eat and what we need to purchase. Then grocery shopping, putting away the groceries, doing the preparation and the cooking. Then it’s finally time to eat, cleanup and put away the dishes.
The whole process is labor intensive and exhausting for someone not feeling well, so it’s easy to see why we may be tempted to give in and eat whatever is handy without regard to its impact on our body.
We know from hard experience that eating just anything makes our symptoms worse and harder to manage.
Most fibromyalgia folks have food sensitivities particularly to gluten, dairy, eggs, sugar, nightshades, processed foods and so forth. And many of us struggle with IBS- irritable bowel syndrome.
However, we’re not all sensitive to the same foods. Identifying our unique food sensitivities and avoiding those foods can assist us in improving our fibro symptoms.
Could You Use Some Accountability, Encouragement and Support?
It can be super helpful to have a Lifestyle Medicine practitioner or Functional Medicine practitioner on your healthcare team as they can guide you in the process of assessing your dietary needs and determining the best diet for you.
I can work with you to help you find the right practitioners for your needs. As your health coach I provide accountability, encouragement and support for you as you implement your health care providers treatment plans.
Since the way we eat has a big impact on how we feel it makes sense to reserve some of our precious energy for figuring out how to eat well for our particular fibromyalgia body.
With a little forethought, practice and perseverance you can elevate the quality of your diet.
My clients and I brainstorm ways they can make healthy eating with fibromyalgia doable. Here are some of the strategies we use:
- Downloading apps to help organize meal planning
- Asking family members or friends to help with grocery shopping
- Ordering groceries online, this is especially helpful for staples
- Buying precut and/or frozen veggies to reduce preparation time
- Staggering preparation time throughout the day so you aren’t doing everything at once
- Purchasing high quality frozen dinners to have on hand
- Cooking in batches and freezing dinners to have when needed
- Using a meal kit delivery service for a few meals a week
- Ordering high quality take-out food occasionally
- Asking other household members to take on meal preparation chores
- Creating a stash of healthy snacks to have handy
Now, back to the topic of eating more plants, what would that look like for you?
First of all, you have to become aware. How many plants are you actually eating in a day?
Then, could you try adding more fruits and veggies to your plate for one meal per day?
Maybe try one meatless meal per week.
For example, plan a Meatless Monday every week and try making lentil soup instead of chicken soup.
It can help to follow a recipe service that focuses on whole foods, plant-based menus. There are many resources for easy plant-based recipes online, www.forksoverknives.com has a great collection of recipes to get you started.
Could you use someone helping you be accountable in implementing the eating plan your doctor has recommended?
Do you need some support in putting together a team of healthcare providers that can assist you in finding the best way to eat for your specific body? My support, accountability and encouragement helps my clients take charge of their health, and implement healthy eating plans so they can do the things they want to do with energy, joy and confidence!
Sound good?
I’m happy to talk with you to see if we would be a good match to work together. It’s easy to schedule a Free consultation HERE.
