As Many People On Here That Have Been Worried About Health Issues Lately...

[Sweet_E]

I sometimes obsess over what I eat, which is all from scratch and from locally grown organic farms and meat from local pastured animals. However, recently I decided that I need to relax a little bit on this. (I'll explain a bit later). For exercise, I avoid strenuous exercise and stick to yoga and walking. I believe I have hormonal/adrenal issues due to constantly being stressed and the intensity of the flashbacks. On an adrenal fatigue protocol you are not supposed to do rigorous exercise because your body has trouble producing the hormones it needs to recover.

It is so hard to focus on all of the things I want to do for myself so I came up with a hierarchy of health areas to help me use my limited energy resources wisely. My hierarchy in order of priority is below. One of the yoga instructors where I study is also a research science and she also stressed the importance of hydration and sleep over nutrition and exercise.

1) Stress Management
2) Sleep
3) Hydration
4) Other Self-Care
4) Food
5) Exercise

Prioritizing Stress-Reduction Over Food:
So basically if I notice I am stressing over meal-planning, I cut myself some slack and take shortcuts in order to reduce stress. At the same time, when I do eat, I eat mindfully. I pay attention to how what I am eating makes me feel. One week I made a big pot of pasta sauce (gravy, if you're Italian) with meatballs, sausage and pork chops. All the meat was from organic, pastured, local sources and most of the other ingredients were organic. I don't usually eat pasta, but this time, out of convenience, I ate pasta almost all week. I enjoyed the pasta and having all of those meats already made and the delicious sauce. However, I did notice that I felt like my digestion had become a bit sluggish and the following week I really craved more vegetables. So then I tried to eat more veggies. But I am trying not to beat myself up for eating in a way that's more convenient. I've even let myself have ice cream when I want. The research scientist I mentioned earlier said that sometimes our body craves certain foods like sweets as a band aid for something it needs. So if I'm craving ice cream, I let myself have it, and just pay attention to how I feel. On the other hand, I try not to use food as a coping strategy - to eat even though I'm not hungry in order to feel something other than emotional pain. If I notice that temptation I will try to meditate or do some other coping strategy. But if I do eat emotionally I won't beat myself up for it.

Sleep:
I know this is so hard because most of us are anxious or even have nightmares. I really tried to prioritize this and it has helped me feel so much better. For me, I noticed that the more I let myself sleep, the better quality my sleep becomes. For me, my inability to sleep well in the past was due to hormonal issues (adrenal fatigue or HPA axis). I believe my body had trouble producing cortisol. Our cortisol levels are supposed to spike in the morning to give us energy to start our day. I have very little energy in the morning. But it feels like by the time my body produced the cortisol it was trying to make, it was time for bed, so I'd just be wired! I would somehow sometimes manage to get 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Eventually I got to a point where I was able to sleep for 6 or more hours! I overexerted myself with exercise last month (even though the cardio felt so good in the moment!) and I believe that set my sleep back. I may also have sleep apnea so I need to do a sleep study.

With sleep, my best recommendation is to try to detach from the emotions connected to insomnia. Sometimes not sleeping gives us anxiety and that just makes sleeping even more difficult. Make sleep a priority, but when you can't sleep, do something relaxing and enjoyable. For me, I would watch/listen to youtube videos on my phone until I fell asleep. I would let myself go to bed super early - sometimes as early as 7:30 if I was tired. I would take naps and let myself sleep as late as I wanted. I always tried to be in bed before 10 pm, which meant no late nights out with friends, even on weekends - except on a rare occasion. Eventually I was able to sleep through the entire night without sleep aids.

Even if you are not technically asleep, I have read that if you lay down and relax that you are still getting a percentage of the rest that you need. Sometimes that would give me comfort and reduce the anxiety associated with insomnia.

Hydration: Water is so cheap and it is so important for health! I notice my brain fog gets worse when I don't drink enough water. Most of us have damaged brains due to PTSD as well as other physical ailments so we probably are in even more need of water than a healthy person.

 

[Finchlet2]

FRIDAY, you mention symptom crashing when you've established a routine. I used to go off the rails pretty much every time my life got settled enough to enable me to establish a routine u ntill i realized my subconscious brain was protesting against the routines my conscious was trying to implement because they were always to harsh and never incorporated enough stuff that I'm actually "into" but I've addressed those issues and now excersise daily with minimal dramas. I understand if its external interruptions causing your routines to crash and burn.

 

[Tornadic Thoughts]

It's made the biggest difference in the world for me. I was raised southern style in the US with a lot of farm raised milk, meats and eggs, fast and frozen convenience foods, sweet tea, coffee, and sodas, and wasn't taught to move daily, outside of typical work stuff, for my health. I eventually weighed over 300 lbs, suffered from many severe pains, was damn near bed ridden for a while, suffered from insomnia, my moods remained in the ditch more often than not, along with massive brain fog and no energy whatsoever. I'd sleep as much as humanly possible because it was as close as I could get to death without the commitment. Then, add in all the various prescriptions handed to me through the years to supposedly suppress symptoms in one area, but ultimately created hellish conditions in other areas, and I was a miserable mess longing for death, but couldn't stomach the idea of taking my own life, even though I halfway tried a few times.

I was introduced to a local nutritionist via a time bank scene who taught me about gluten. I gave it up for a week and discovered what they'd been saying about it being toxic was right on point, as far as my biology was concerned. At the end of that week, I had significantly increased energy, less inflammation, and much less brain fog. Gluten got kicked to the curb for good that day. Then I learned more about high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, and the various yellow number 5, red number 2, blue number whatever, and such and how so much of what we call food isn't even recognized by our bodies. No wonder we stay so ill and dis-eased, our bodies are in a constant state of shock trying to defend against all of those foreign substances. Learning more about the digestive and elimination process helped a great deal, too.

My next elimination was soda/tea/coffee/alcohol. I really dreaded this one, most especially coffee. I switched to decaf and started drinking ginger kombucha in place of soda and beer. I eventually gave up the decaf and switched to dandelion tea and other various herbal infusions that did not contain caffeine. My favorite morning infusion (tea) is now freshly cut lemon wedges and ginger root with stinging nettle, or thyme, or red clover, or burdock root, or yellow dock, etc. My first experience with kombucha was on tap and tasted so much better than the bottled versions, so I'm grateful for that. I felt the withdrawal headaches for a few days, but then when I tried to re-introduce a cup of decaf, my head hurt a hell of a lot worse, so that was my deciding moment to finally end all caffeine. My anxiety lessened greatly during that time and my digestive system seemed to really be diggin' the kombucha..

I sailed along for quite a while with just those changes, along with using a stool to put my feet on when I used the bathroom (like the squatty potty, only it was just a stool I already had on hand) feeling marked improvements, still eating meat, dairy, eggs, but only locally raised, yet I still couldn't drop any significant weight, still suffered from inflammation and pain, and still felt stuck in depressive ditches more often than not. Would join the gym, but that required paying a monthly fee, gathering stuff to take with me, then driving all the way across town, then having to share locker rooms and showers (gross), and dealing with the depths of the self-esteem issues of being morbidly obese among such fit, able, and buff bodies. No thanks. I already felt shitty enough about myself.

Then came a medical emergency (gall bladder attack) that gave me time to think about things for many hours as I rested on a gurney under the influence of morphine. Luckily, they didn't have to do surgery as it wasn't that severe. The first person I called when I got back home was a friend I'd met earlier that year who strictly ate plant-based/vegan meals, always seemed happy and light-hearted, and had previously offered me advice and such, but I'd chalked her up to simply being way too "out there" for me to ever listen to because I had absolutely no desire to give up my favorite meats, cheeses, and eggs and saw no logical reason to do so, as I'd long been taught we needed them to survive. No f'n way, lady, was my only thought about it. Until that day. I was more than ready to give it a shot if it would keep me out from under the knife and out of the grips of even more medication side effect hellish episodes I'd experienced thus far.

From that day forward, I gave up all meat, dairy, eggs, alcohol, and caffeine and have not knowingly ingested them since. When one of them gets by me at a restaurant or wherever, my body quickly notices and responds quite uncomfortably. I dove in head first overnight and was rather extreme about it because I felt my life was on the line, or at least the quality of it. I painfully learned (as I do with most valuable lessons) it's much healthier to ease into it slowly. Slow rational transitioning and fasting have improved the quality of my life more than all the other things I've tried, combined. It is also the hardest thing I've taken on and tried to accomplish, thus far in my half century of existence. The rewards have equaled the efforts, by far. I've since lost 110 lbs., no longer take prescriptions for anything, can better recognize issues as they arise, have much less pain, much more energy, can think and speak more clearly, and I realize after that many years of unintentional abuse and neglect from the inside out, along with the abuse and neglect that others piled on top of that, I will likely always suffer from pain in some form or another.

My exercise is now much more accessible and FUN, too, which makes all the difference in the world. I don't even call it exercise, as that tends to bring up bad feelings of past experience. I call it purposeful daily movement. A mini-trampoline with a safety bar, an aerobic exercise bike thingy, and my home made hula hoops are part of my living room decor, right next to the stereo speakers. They can all be easily moved outside into the sunshine, too. Random dancing, some yoga poses, and lots of nature enhance my routines, as well. Interested in learning more about tai-chi and qi-gong, too, as they seem more my speed.

I never, EVER in a million years thought I'd become a vegan, and used to rather quickly dismiss anyone claiming to be, as I simply didn't want to hear them. I now realize that was my own discomfort and subconscious nudging me in the direction that I truly needed to explore in more depth, even though I couldn't recognize it at the time. I've also eliminated artificial fragrances and such in my hygiene and cleaning products. I used to burn candles, have plug-ins, use febreeze, have scented everydamnthing, diffusers full of synthetic scents made to smell like nature, used fabric softener and scented laundry detergents, etc. I've also painfully learned the cleaner my body gets from the inside out, the more sensitive I become to all other things, especially artificial anything, be it internal or external. Then I learned more about endocrine disruptors and connected even more dots. Tox-sick-city is what we are surrounded by around every corner and we continually have it strongly marketed to us and it's made so much more affordable than the cleaner healthier options. No wonder there's hardly a healthy human left.

Sorry for the lengthy response. It's a subject very close to my heart and one that has brought me relief I never thought I'd live to see, especially based on popular and specialized medical advice I'd received through the years.

 

[Gs172003]

It's made the biggest difference in the world for me. I was raised southern style in the US...

I don't buy into the entirely vegan thing. I do believe you should eat a MAINLY plant based diet and meat ( white meat very little red) and dairy eggs should be a side item not a main dish. But I also raise my own chickens. I know what they eat and I know how spoiled they are. I do love fruits vegetables and grains that are FRESH but it is so hard to get away from processed foods when you're busy. Ugh

 

[Tornadic Thoughts]

I don't buy into the entirely vegan thing. I do believe you should eat a MAINLY plant based diet and mea...

I didn't buy into it, either, until I lived it and directly learned more about how we can healthily nurture ourselves with well-planned vegan options. There's vegan junk food, too, and having a diet full of that won't benefit overall health anymore than typical junk food.

 

[ladee]

I am just now being more serious about diet and excercise. Because of serious oseoarthritus (so?) in my lower back and knees, just going for a walk in nature helps. I am so much more relaxed and sleep better.
Starting to eliminate foods at my own pace. Because of a very small limited income my choices are small. But trying to educate myself to see what my options are.
Started taking suggested supplements.
Just being more aware is helping me to make better choices.
If any of it becomes too regimental I reaccess. I put myself under enough pressure without adding that to the list.
Slow and steady. I accomplish better results that way.
Great thread!

 

[Gs172003]

I am just now being more serious about diet and excercise. Because of serious oseoarthritus (so?) in my l...

Thank you. There are ways of doing it that don't cost alot. Do you have an aldis? They are super cheap. So is Walmart market

 

[ladee]

Yes a Super Wal-Mart in the next city. I try to shop at H E B. Also in the next city. But beautiful fresh veggies and fruit. In the Summer we have quite a few Farmer's markets..but sometimes it's just not feasable money wise. Picking the lesser of two evils sometimes.
But am seeing changes slowly..so am doing something right.

 

[Gs172003]

For you ladee and anybody else interested. Cheap meal plan for those on a budget

Healthy Recipes, Healthy Eating, Healthy Cooking | Eating Well

 

[Beemo3780]

My next elimination was soda/tea/coffee/alcohol

I gave up coffee 6 months ago. I was a coffee addict, and my digestive system seems to react badly to it. The first month was really awful, but now I feel a lot better. I switched to tea, which mostly I drink chai because I like the flavor, but living in the Southern US, sweet tea is a big thing. I drink that more than I should. I never really drank soda until I married my husband. He loves Dr Pepper. I drank a lot of Sprite and root beer for a while but the sugar was making me sick so now I stick to coconut water and aloe drinks. I can have a glass of wine and have no problems, but I'm allergic to beer and liquor is never a good idea. Sometimes when I drink a glass of wine, it almost feels therapeutic.

I was a vegetarian for 12 years. I won't do that again. I think maybe I didn't eat right, because I always felt weak, and I was always underweight. Now I stick to chicken, fish, occasional beef (because I love steak), but very rarely will I touch pork. I'm really picky about which meat/fish/produce I will buy. I grow a lot of my own produce. I'm Sicilian and having my own tomato and garlic plants is a must for me. I make a lot of my food from scratch too, pre-packaged stuff is always a little iffy for me with my allergies.

 

[Gs172003]

I grew up on sweet tea but I don't drink it now. I drink a coffee in the morning and that's it. Water the rest of the day. Caffeine is not my friend

 

[anthony]

How many of you live a healthy lifestyle?

Pretty much... but not always. I eat my meats, veggie's, salad, exercise most days -- I try and maintain a nice balance, yet at times I like some yummy foods (chocolate, ice cream, desserts when out for dinner) in moderation, I like a beer or three at times too. Life must be enjoyed in all facets IMO... and as such an approach, yes, it makes me feel good. Eating healthy and adding daily exercise really helps curb the depressive aspects of PTSD for me. Actually, it helps kick the shit out of them... providing I keep things balanced.

I think its very individualistic... and really is a self answer -- what makes you happy?