There is absolutely no doubt that the foods you eat have a direct impact on the inflammation in your body. The only way you’re going to see any changes is if you step up to the plate and proactively start making changes for the better.
Initially, you will meet with resistance within yourself. Human beings are creatures of habit. When you try to break old habits and build new ones, there will be temptations and opposing thoughts that creep into your mind to distract you from your goals.
You’ll feel sudden cravings for foods that you know you should avoid. You’ll get irritable, experience mood swings, feel like binging and experience other negative symptoms. All these are merely ‘turbulence’ that you need to go through before you reach cruising altitude.
Once you overcome these initial hurdles, your body will get into the swing of things. You’ll be able to get by on a diet that doesn’t have much sugar in it. You’ll be weaned off your sugar addiction. Your food will have less saturated fats and you’ll drink water instead of soda.
All these positive habits can only be formed once you break the old ones. Notice how they say ‘break’ bad habits? That’s because they’re hard and require effort to smash. So, don’t worry. The initial struggle is normal and you’re not alone.
Now that we’ve established that making a positive change will require effort on your part, let’s look at the 4 steps you need to follow to overcome inflammation.
- Educate yourself
Speak to your doctor. Read books on the subject and learn whatever you can about inflammation. The more you know, the better equipped you’ll be to handle this health problem.
You’ll understand how inflammation leads to other problems like diabetes and heart disease. You’ll learn what foods to consume and what to avoid. You’ll recognize the symptoms and also know the remedies. Educating yourself on the topic is imperative to treating it.
- Start a food journal
It’s an excellent habit to start a food diary where you write down what you eat daily. Do mention how the foods made you feel that day. Over time, you’ll notice that some foods make you feel energetic, while other foods leave you lethargic or drained. Your body is giving you signals about the food you’re eating.
You can only listen to what it says if you pay attention. The food diary will keep your focus on how your body feels. As you make positive changes to your diet and adopt and anti-inflammation diet, you’ll find that you feel better each day.
- Make a list of anti-inflammatory foods
Knowing what to eat is just as important as knowing what to avoid. Make a list of all the anti-inflammatory foods that you know about. Slowly introduce them into your diet and see what you like.
Monitor how you feel in your food journal. From here you can plan out your daily diet and once you know what foods make you feel good, just stick to these and you’ll be fine.
- Change your habits
Slow and steady wins the race. It’s best to slowly make changes to your diet rather than make an overnight switch. It’ll be less stressful to reduce consumption of sugar, fried foods, saturated fats, etc. gradually over a period of time.
You can use the food journal to monitor how you’re progressively moving towards an anti-inflammatory diet. Don’t aim to do it fast. Aim to do it permanently. Change takes time and if you go about it in a slow and steady manner, you’ll definitely progress instead of cave in to temptations and regress.
Follow the four tips above and you’ll be able to make the change smoothly and successfully. Once you’re on a clean diet, you’ll lose your excess weight and feel like a brand new you.
Your body is waiting to heal itself for you. All you need to do is make sure you’re not fighting it. Go on an anti-inflammation diet and watch your health improve by leaps and bounds.
Committed to Your Health,
Valarie