What we eat is a powerful player in our healing journey, no question about that. While making changes to our diet can yield great results and help to minimize or eliminate symptoms, neglecting to focus on lifestyle choices as well can undermine all the work we are doing with our diet or could be the missing link to our healing journey.
When working to heal inflammatory conditions or autoimmune disease, there is often a discussion and focus on making dietary changes or perhaps taking medication, and in a lot of cases, the discussion ends there. Avoiding inflammatory foods (such as gluten, sugar, dairy, soy, eggs, nightshades, and grains to name a few) are often discussed, especially if exploring an elimination diet. Rarely does the focus include lifestyle choices, or there is often little emphasis placed on seeking a more balanced, joyful life.
We can be eating all the nutrient dense super foods and organ meats, drinking all the bone broth and kombucha, but if we aren’t considering and making changes to create a greater balance among our lifestyle choices, we likely won’t see great strides in healing, or will perhaps feel like we are stuck.
Of course each one of us is different and how soon and to what degree our symptoms are minimized or resolved also depends on many factors including how long we have been struggling with a particular condition (especially if undiagnosed). There could be other underlying issues such as SIBO, bacterial infections, candida overgrowth, parasites, thyroid or hormonal imbalances, and so much more. I have experienced and have met and heard from lots of people who have seen dramatic changes to their inflammatory symptoms and digestion due to diet changes. Often digestion begins to change, sleep improves, or brain fog and the 3 pm energy crash begins to lift. After a while, some people report feeling like they have hit a plateau and are struggling with lingering symptoms. Often additional attention to lifestyle choices can help further the healing process. This was my experience. Lifestyle choices were the missing link. Read on to learn more.
I remember when I was struggling with chronic Iritis (inflammation of the Iris) in my right eye when I was in my mid-twenties, my eye doctor asked if I was experiencing an abnormal amount of stress. I could identify a few things that were stressful at the time, but the conversation ended there. I experienced chronic Iritis for over a decade.
When I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease in 2012 at the age of 35, the focus and treatment was to eliminate gluten. Yes, of course, there isn’t a cure for Celiac Disease and the only known treatment is to avoid gluten, but the only focus was on adopting a gluten free diet and meeting with a nutritionist who could help me transition to living gluten free. There wasn’t any talk about my stress levels, how much I was sleeping, or questioning any other areas of my life that could negatively affect my autoimmune symptoms or stall healing from who knows how many years or decades of undiagnosed Celiac Disease. There was no discussion about what it meant to have an autoimmune disease or that I was now at risk for being diagnosed with additional autoimmune diseases, especially if I couldn’t get my chronic inflammation under control. There was no emphasis on how I could heal my gut, or how I could calm or prevent inflammation. Just. Avoid. Gluten. This approach kept me narrowly focused on avoiding gluten and therefore, neglecting not only other dietary choices that were negatively affecting my health, but the impact my lifestyle choices were having on my symptoms.
Upon avoiding gluten, some of my symptoms did go away, but many of them persisted. I was still experiencing chronic inflammation symptoms and was struggling with infertility. At the time I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease in 2012, I was traveling for work a lot (several trips per month), spending a lot of time in airports and on airplanes, not sleeping well in hotels, had long work days, travel delays, eating out at restaurants three meals a day, and wasn’t always able to work in regular exercise. While I loved the teaching and training I was able to do all over the country and abroad, the travel and life on the road that went along with it was stressful on my body. I was constantly on the go and pushing my body further than was healthy for me. I was also now getting deep into our infertility journey, which added additional stress (to put it mildly). Trying to get pregnant naturally was stressful enough and getting that figured out with a regular travel schedule made things extra difficult and consequently, stressful. The journey to fertility alone was a huge battle to tackle with all the highs and lows and emotional roller coasters. My body wasn’t at peace, or balanced, or able to rest, and was going through a lot trying to not only heal, but was getting battered trying to get pregnant. I had a lot going on and was definitely in a time in my life where I was experiencing chronic stress, to say the least.
So here I was newly diagnosed with Celiac Disease, expecting miracles from adopting a gluten free diet alone, living in a chronic state of stress and unbalance. I was focusing on avoiding gluten and neglecting to address the mounting stress on my body. Looking back, it makes sense to me that it took a long time for my symptoms to subside.
Eventually, I learned the role inflammatory foods played and discovered the Autoimmune Protocol, another version of Paleo. When people hear about Paleo or the Autoimmune Protocol of Paleo, they often automatically think “going Paleo” or “doing AIP” means they will focus on diet changes alone to help heal their gut or manage inflammatory symptoms. While they do include dietary changes, there is another important aspect that is often neglected – lifestyle choices.
It was then that I learned the role lifestyle choices also play in healing the body and preventing inflammation. I took an inventory of my life at that time and could identify several areas that could use some extra nurturing. It really wasn’t until I started focusing on restoring balance to several areas where I was struggling did I really start seeing things improve for me.
Since at the time I was still traveling a ton for work, I had to figure out how I could incorporate lifestyle changes while on the road. I turned long layovers in Atlanta into opportunities to walk and get in some movement. I can’t tell you how many laps of the airport I did over the years. I made sure to pack my sneakers and gym clothes to increase the likelihood I would make it to the gym more often during my trips to help with stress relief. I began journaling and ending each day capturing at least 5 things I was grateful for. Since I made my own travel arrangements most of the time, I would do my best not to schedule flights that would leave me getting in late or leaving at the crack of dawn to come home. I made sure I could get adequate rest when at all possible.
My life is different now that I am a Mom and I have new challenges to overcome so I can prioritize lifestyle choices that support my health. I still focus on dietary choices that support my body and I put emphasis on lifestyle choices that work to keep me more balanced. It is a constant journey. Some weeks my choices fall into place and my body feels aligned and I am full of energy. Some weeks I fall short and my body doesn’t feel as good. I do my best and I find keeping the knowledge that lifestyle choices can undermine my health as a focus helps me redirect when needed to help avoid a flare-up.
In my case and experiences over the last several years, making dietary choices alone weren’t enough to see drastic changes in my health. I was in a chronic state of stress from work and travel and dealing with the trauma, anxiety, grief, and loss associated with our journey to fertility. Our journey to fertility alone has been a big burden on my health in so many ways, and I will write more about that later. There was more for me to address than just the food I was putting in my body. Not managing stress alone can undermine everything we are doing to heal with diet. Little by little, I began to make lifestyle changes that honored the season I was in and were more supportive of healing and happiness.
If we take some quiet time by ourselves to be still with our thoughts and feelings, we can probably all identify at least one area of our life that feels out of balance. It could be in a relationship or lack of relationship or partnership, financial strain, life transition, chronic stress, dissatisfaction with a job, spiritual or religious connection, physical health, or emotional and mental wellbeing.
What comes to mind for you? What is one thing you can do to spend some time nourishing that area of your life? Pick one, start there, and see how other areas start to improve as a result. If you are at a loss as to where to start, do a quick inventory of your sleep hygiene or stress level. Making sure we are getting enough sleep and working to manage stress, especially chronic stress, yields so many benefits and can help us move forward.
