Last night I was asked by a fellow MS warrior and beautiful woman how I was able to change my diet so easily? She asked what I eat daily, asked about my juicing adventure. She had asked me if I had a moment to put together a list of everything I eat daily. I replied happily to provide her with a day to day menu of everything I put into my body and I would even give her my grocery shopping list. I think this is such a great way to explore what is working for others struggling with Multiple Sclerosis. There’s no magic pill. No perfect diet. You must do trial and error to find what works best for you. You may find that only 6 out of my 10 theories work for you and there is nothing wrong with that. I encourage everyone to make the adjustments that are best suited for them because everyone’s body is different, and we sure know how this disease effects everyone differently as well. I have found that by eating clean and believing that food is medicine I've been able to juice back to health!
To my dear friend and MS Warrior Kara. This blog is you for love. I hope that it will bring others to challenge themselves to make baby steps in the direction that is best for their body, mind, health and to fight this chronic illness.
MORNING
JUICE TIME
I start my morning by juicing the following:
2 hand fulls of kale
2 hand fulls of spinach
1 hand full of chard
1 hand full of parsley
2 large sticks of celery
2 large ginger root chunks (they should fit in the palm of your hand)
1 small hand full of turmeric root
1 apple
1 orange for extra vitamin C
VITAMIN TIME
1000 mcg of Raw Whole Food B-12
1950 mg Raw Turmeric Capsules
Raw B- Complex
5000 IU Raw D3
600 mg Alpha Lipoic Acid
SNACK
½ pomegranate
½ avocado
LUNCH
Options
*Turkey Burger with no bun and side salad- kale salad
*Poke Bowl with Salmon, Tuna, Kale base (no rice), tons of ginger, red cabbage, seaweed
*Salad with chicken and vinaigrette dressing- walnuts are great to add in also
DINNER
Mahi Mahi Fillet or Salmon Fillet- All wild- nothing farm raised – I get the frozen fillets from Costco because they are prepackaged and easy to cook and all wild. No hormones.
Side- Kale Salad, or sautéed spinach with garlic and olive oil.
Side- Sautéed zucchini with walnuts, in olive oil and garlic, added fresh lemon juice is fantastic as well.
Other Dinner Options
Roasted Rotisserie Chicken- Costco baby. Cooked and ready to go!
Salad- with avocado, pomegranate seeds and walnuts.
GROCERY SHOPPING LIST w/ A HOT MS
Apples for juicing- for mornings only- high in sugar but ok in the morning
Oranges for juicing- for mornings only- high in sugar but ok in the morning
Berries galore- blackberries, blueberries, raspberries
Avocados Galore
Cucumber- also great for juicing
Dragon Fruit- Great for salads, snacks or even juicing
Pomegranates- excellent anti-oxidant
Cherry Tomatoes- Great for salads and sautéing with chicken and veggies
Celery
Parsley
Basil
Kale
Spinach
Chard
Cauliflower
Pineapple- Great for juicing also in the morning
Ginger Root
Turmeric Root
Garlic
Zucchini
Asparagus
Turkey Burger Patties- Costco baby
Mahi Mahi Fillets- Costco baby
Salmon Fillets- Costco baby
Chicken Breasts- frozen and prepackaged organic from Costco
Vegan Alfredo Sauce- Great for making Chicken Alfredo with Zucchini spirals instead of pasta.
Almond Milk
It’s not hard to see there are no processed foods on my shopping list. Nothing canned, nothing basically in any of the “aisles” of the grocery store. This may be terrifying for a lot of you. When I first started out of course I was detoxing my body away from all the crap I had been filling it with. I cut out breads, carbs, full fat dairy, eggs and sugars. Safest way to shop in a grocery store is to stay on the outer walls only. Don’t veer into the center of the store. Instead of using a marinara sauce full of chemicals and sugars grab some fresh tomatoes and crush them up making your own fresh lighter sauce. I dare you to go through your pantry and start reading labels. Read the labels on the processed foods. The more ingredients most likely the more harmful the food will be to your body.
Now I am not saying remove everything you enjoy from your diet and deprive yourself. This never works either because 9 times out of 10 when we do this, and we are healthy heroes for a week we hit a weak point and we cave and then it’s game on to break all of the rules. Slow and steady wins the race. Myself I could never remove pizza or ice cream from my diet. However, I have made minor adjustments to make sure I can still eat those fun foods I can’t live without. Cauliflower pizza crust works great with fresh ingredients at home and boom; home made pizza night. I’ve used dairy free cheese as well and trust me I won’t lie, being Italian cheese was my life, but it works. I will take it where I can get it! Ice cream even. I get my weekly treats, but they are dairy free and made with low sugar ingredients like cacao and honey. There are also tons of recipes that you can try to make your own ice cream. You just need almond milk, ice, some vanilla extract, a little honey and even some dragon fruit for a fruity flavor or raw cacao if you want something more on the chocolate side. Boom! Home made ice cream kids! Can’t live without it!
We must retrain our brains to think of food as medicine. Think to hundreds and hundreds of years ago. There were no chemicals because food was not being mass produced. Families farmed and raised their own live stock. It was fresh and all considered organic. When we truly start re configuring how we think of food that is when we start gaining the knowledge to use food and the powers it contains. It still baffles me to know we unfortunately live in a world where a Happy Meal is a ¼ of the price of a salad with chicken. But when you look carefully at my grocery list you are saving in the long run financially because pre packaged and processed foods don’t come cheap. I can buy a huge box of Bagel Bites for $12 or a Rotisserie Chicken for $6. When you start comparing your before and after receipts you will reap the benefits of these little changes.
So, I want to challenge you. Try it out. One day at a time and with baby steps. Little changes slowly overtime with lead to bigger changes that you are more likely to stick with.
Week 1- Introduce more greens into your diet
· spinach, kale, explore different ways to cook it. Pinterest is a great tool for recipes. This is where I get all of mine.
Week 2- Start cutting out processed foods
· Cut out 1-2 processed foods you purchase normally, replace with healthier choices
· Add in more greens to your diet
· Begin decreasing the full fat dairy- switch to low fat, skim or almond milk options
Week 3- Incorporate more fish and chicken into your diet
· Slowly start reducing the red meat in your diet. Red meat is known to add to issues with inflammation. Lean meats will reduce inflammation.
· Cut out 1-2 more processed foods you purchase normally
· Add in more greens to your diet
· Add in more berries and low sugar fruits
· Try more almond milk or coconut milk. Stay away from soy.
Week 4- Try your hand at juicing
· Start off with the basics- spinach, kale, apple, celery and ginger.
· Try doing this twice a day. Morning and afternoon are preferred but I enjoy a nighttime juice daily as well.
· Cut out 1-2 more processed foods you purchase normally
· Add in more greens to your diet
· Cut out more processed sugars
Week 5- Start incorporating all these changes at once
· Lots of greens
· Juice it baby juice it!
· Lean meats
· Fish
· Healthy low sugar fruits- bananas and water melon is a no no. Super high in sugar.
· No processed foods
· No processed sugars- find alternatives
· No full fat dairy- explore alternatives- almond and coconut options
I noticed for myself it took a good solid months before I started really enjoying the changes I was making. Everyone always gets super excited when they start a new food journey. They go overboard and do a crazy health food shopping spree and half of the produce goes bad within less than 2 weeks’ time. Shop little by little. We do smaller more frequent shops to ensure we aren’t throwing out anything and wasting food which in turn wastes money.
Baby steps. Don’t get overwhelmed. Once you start to reboot your system and detox off what you are used to you can test the waters with a “cheat” every now and again. You will notice what your body rejects and what it doesn’t tolerate of any longer. I used to eat McDonalds, Taco Bell and soda daily. I was over 200 lbs. and at 5’3” inches that is significantly overweight. I am now a consistent 135 lbs. and feeling healthier than ever. I know now that if I ever ate fast food, I would be sick and in pain shortly after.
I hope my daily menu and shopping list helps you make the baby step changes you need to better your healthy and quality of life. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. I am always available to assist other warriors in their fight against MS. We got this!