The phrase “make diet and lifestyle changes to help MS “ can feel pretty vague when you don’t know what those changes mean or are.
Sure, you know you want to do things differently, but what does that actually look like? Let’s break MS diet and exercise down a bit.
Oftentimes the first question people have is should I change my diet to help MS?
Depending on who you ask, the answer may vary. However, I believe that there are some diet changes that we can make to help improve our MS symptoms.
Gluten.
Yup. I don’t have many hard and fast rules about anything, but this might be one of them. I believe that there are very few people if any who have an autoimmune disease who can eat gluten without issue.
Gluten creates certain proteins in our body and gut that can be detrimental to healing leaky gut.
Omega 3s
The low fat craze that started in the 1960s really did a number on our health. Our body needs fat to survive. With the reduction of fat came a reduction in cellular function as well unfortunately. focusing on getting good quality fats into your diet is going to be really important especially if you have MS.
Fruits & Veggies
Incorporating a variety of colorful vegetables and fruits is going to be another important thing you can do to help your MS symptoms. Colorful fruits and vegetables contain various antioxidants, vitamins and minerals that help our cells to function properly.
This also doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to jump into a whole new diet template right away, like The Wahls Protocol or AIP. Sometimes just making a few tweaks can be really impactful.
Focus on getting a few extra servings of omega 3 foods, fruits & veggies each week and that is a great start.
Lifestyle Changes
Lifestyle changes comprise all of the other stuff. Sleep, stress management, movement, exercise, community, being outdoors.. all of those things can fall under the category of lifestyle.
Many people find that they need to start incorporating some type of daily or proactive stress management tools. Some find that exercising helps them to feel better and lessen their symptoms. Improving sleep time and quality might be the most impactful for some other people.
Finding what is most helpful for you it’s going to be a little bit of trial and error.
Start by taking inventory and all of these areas, which areas are you doing awesome in? Which areas are you struggling with?
For example, you might have a solid routine of meditating in the morning to help your stress levels, which is awesome! But you can’t stay asleep to save your life.
Starting with stress management might not feel the most impactful for you because you’ve already mastered that. So I’d suggest starting to optimize sleep.
Same idea applies with lifestyle changes as diet. You don’t have to do it all immediately.
Even taking one small consistent action each day is going to be so helpful for you in the long run.
Maybe that’s starting your day with a breakfast full of veggies or maybe that is starting your day with meditation or movement.
Every time you have mastered one habit then you can move onto the next.
It has taken me years of learning my body and how it responds to certain things to figure out what is the best MS diet and exercise strategy for me.
Does this feel totally doable? Out of reach?
If you said out of reach, my Holistically Healing MS course might be for you!
Let me know, how have you been doing with this MS diet and exercise process??
I’M ALISSA!
I help women who have also been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis make specific and personalized diet, lifestyle & subconscious changes so that they can begin to heal their body, reduce disease symptoms, and return to a life they love.hey there,
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