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Why Do You Need to Embrace Change? A Letter to Young MSers

I’ve said it before and I’m going to say it again: our entire life is made out of choices. The fact that you’re reading this post is a choice you’ve made. Everyday, we make dozens of decisions, selections. We choose, choose, choose.

With each one, our life changes. For most of the times, we decide to do or not to do something because of the impact it might have on our future. Outcome matters the most in choice. Change is the only certainty we have. The smartest choice in this case is to adapt to our present life. Accept it and embrace change with all that it has to offer.

In MS, our bodies can go through rapid transformations. We are OK now and can be unwell tomorrow. The degree of uncertainty is high and we all had to deal with it at certain points. Wanting to keep things a certain shape is too rigid to be useful on the long run.

We tend to hold on tight to the things and situations that are familiar. We are afraid of the unknown. But here’s the thing. If change was bad for us and we could not adapt to new conditions, we wouldn’t have left the crib when we were babies.

Because we got out and explored the world, adapted and learned after each tumble and scar, day after day, year after year, we got this far. We embraced our lives as they were and we made changes when needed. Keep the same child-like wonder towards life, even if it all seems to go downhill and we feel like we’re losing control.

Stop. Breathe. Be calm. Relax every piece of our body. The best and as much as we can, we’re all different. Take a few minutes, days and even months to analyze the situation and figure out what we can and need to do next. Nothing is more important than our health and wellbeing.

"Stop. Breathe. Be calm."

STOP and analyze your current situation. How are you feeling? What can you still do well? What you need help with? What can you improve? What will make you feel better?

BREATHE. Close your eyes and take as many deep breaths as you need to feel your body relax. The tension, the stress and even fear only make the situation worse. Think about what your fears are. Then find at least 2-3 ways to make those situations better. What will you do to cope? To get better? To heal? Keep those in mind and then breathe deeply once more What will happen in the future is of no use now, you’ll get there at some point. The present situation needs more of your attention.

DO some of the actions that you thought will make you feel better for the time being. These might be some stretches, tea in bed, a nap, a movie / podcast, music, anything that makes you feel good in your own skin. Sleep is often times the best choice, plus it’s antiinflammatory. Use it as medicine.

ACCEPT where you’re at. EMBRACE your body. It is not a tool of the mind. It’s not here to only mechanically fulfill your demands. The brain and body are connected. Our minds will tell us that we can’t do certain things, they will try to convince us to stay away from other things. In the end, we can choose to try.

Train your mind to become flexible, to adapt to what the body needs at a certain moment. Of course, it will not be easy, but that’s not the point. We aim to learn, to transform our lives for the better. We can’t get it right from the first try. Growing takes time, takes sweat and powerful emotions. Choose to keep at it, continue and focus on getting better.

"We are not at war with ourselves."

It’s better to embrace change. It takes less energy than fighting it. We are not at war with ourselves. Be gentle, you’re already going through a lot, more stress will surely not make you feel any better. The harder you push, the more tired you’ll get. Why put on more weights to your body? It’s already trying to cope. Help it get better.

Our bodies are smart. Our brains are smart, although we might have lesions. We constantly learn from the experiences we have. You go through a rough time and focus only on the negatives? Your neurons will make more neuronal connections to support those negative experiences.

Reframe the bad ones for the good and soon, your brain will be able to see the bright side. I’m not talking about a flower-power kind of positivity, that makes you feel like you’re on LSD. Just a subtle process that allows you to focus on the blessings you still have, to be grateful for what you still can do. We are all different, so for some it might take longer, for others it will work quicker.

Stick to it. Make it a habit. Choose to do it everyday.

Teach yourself to get better by accepting the state you’re in at the moment. Use this as the rock-bottom that you begin to rebuild your body and your life from scratch. Help yourself heal.

What our reality looks like depends on what we focus our mids on. The brain sees it as a priority and works on fulfilling that plan. Accept your situation and move on. Make the choices that lead you to feeling better in your own skin.

As always, thank you for dropping by. Remember, transformation comes from within. Subscribe to receive SMart articles each weekday.

Sincerely,

Alex

Deliciously Toxic! Why You Become Addicted & Sick from Today's Food - #SMartWednesday

This week on #SMartWednesday we do a short analisys of addiction and how you can better cope with it in today’s fast pacing world. Make the smart choice and read all about it in the article below.

WHAT IS ADDICTION & HOW DOES IT WORK?

The compulsive use of a substance or activity that provides pleasure, interfering with your day to day activities such as work, relatioships or health. There are mainly two types of addiction:

1. behavioral - compulsive use of natural rewards such as food, exercise or sex;

2. drug-related - compulsive use of chemicals that influence your brain connections.

It works by increasing the concentration of synaptic dopamine (happiness hormone and neurotransmitter) in the brain, thus giving you a rush everytime you use the behavior or substance. Your brain gets a reward each time and that feeling is highly addictive.

Sometimes, you are not aware that you have an addiction to something until someone points that out to you. This is one of those cases.

If I started by telling you cocaine and heroin cause addiction, that would be totally redundant and a waste of time. Telling you that most food you eat today makes you addicted and sick, will most likely catch your attention.

WHY DO YOU GET ADDICTED TO FOOD & WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT IT?

Modern society is proudly displaying the advances of technology and the way we are now able to make more food and have supermarkets full of ready-to-eat products, perfect for our fast-forward lifestyle and Earth’s growing population.

These products are highly processed foods with loads of added fat and refined carbs known to influence addictive behavior when they are consumed in high ammounts. Fat is a taste and flavour enhancer, thus making you unable to resist the taste and goodness of food. Refined carbs, once ingested, quickly metabolize into sugars (glucose) that spike your insulin levels only to drop them even faster, and make you crave more of that product.

You eat those products because they help release stress and make you feel good instead. The reward (feeling better) is greater than the negative outcome (you get fat). Conditioning the brain to release dopamine and make you happy after eating certain foods, makes you addicted. The brain identifies them as a pleasure-generating stimuli and you’re hooked!

Sugar and fat rarely occur in the same food naturally. Think grapes. They contain sugar (fructose) but zero fats. Nuts are full of fats, but have no sugar whatsoever. Processed foods have been genetically engineered to have high amounts of both (ex: pizza, chocolate, cake). The taste is amazing and so rewarding. You get addicted without even knowing it.

In drug addictions, a concentrated dose of a substance increases its abuse. It’s absorbed faster into the bloodstream, thus the rush is much quicker. The same with highly processed foods. It’s packed with chemically produced sugar, carbs and fat, that are many times more concentrated than the ones you find in nature (raw, organic foods).

The link between high glucose levels and addiction areas in the brain makes you crave food just for pleasure. The nutritional value is gone, and you feed yourself only chemicals that pose as delicious food. Deliciously toxic, that is. And addictive.

Any foreign substance that enters the body is facing an attack from the immune system. It fights to protect the body from anything alien. Any attack results in inflammation. Any inflammation could be the result of a chronic illness or acute discomfort. Are you willing to take that risk just for that yummy pizza?

Here’s what to do.

MAKE SMART CHOICES, IMPROVE YOUR HEALTH

I know it’s very hard to make healthy choices when you are bombarded with food-porn images and videos all over the internet, on social media, advertising and cooking shows. It’s hard. Damn hard.

But you know what’s even harder? Living with a chronic disease generated by chemical food and a chaotic lifestyle. It’s all about the choices you make.

Researchers at the University of Michigan have identified the highest addictive foods, the majority of which are highly processed. The top 10 items are also the most pleasurable ones for many people living today.

Pizza (gluten, dairy, sugar in tomato paste)
Chocolate (fat, sugar, dairy)
Chips (fat, sugar from the amidon found in the potatoes)
Cookie (gluten, sugar, dairy)
Ice cream (dairy, sugar)
French fries (fat, sugar from the amidon found in the potatoes)
Cheeseburger (gluten, sugar, dairy)
Soda (not diet) (sugar from corn syrup)
Cake (gluten, sugar, dairy)
Cheese (dairy - lactose and casein)

I’ve said it and I’ll repeat it untill it sticks: quit sugar, gluten and dairy alltogether. In today’s world, if you are not sure where your food is comming from, you should practice caution and not eat it.

The chemical formulas of these three foods are very similar to those of cocaine or heroin. You wouldn’t want to be on the road of no return with one of these two drugs, would you? Then why do it with sugar, gluten and dairy? Only because they taste good and are heavily marketed in our consummerist society? Think about it!

All food that comes from a cartboard or foil packaging is not good for you. I don’t care how pretty it is, I don’t care how tasty it is, I don’t care how much you like it! I have been there for most of my life and what does that helped me with? Only with enhancing the probable predisposition I had for developing multiple sclerosis.

OK, agree! It is only a probability. But are you willing to live with the doubt all your life? Feeling sluggish, cranky and getting fat? With a hammer dangling above your head, posibly favoring chronic illness? I thought you wouldn’t! Neither have I. As much as I loved (not liked, LOVED!) soda, pizza, cheese, chocolate and icecream, they made me sick.

How do I know that? I spent days without any sugar, gluten or dairy. I began feeling better. Then I did test meals. Surprise, surprise! Guess who got bloated, cranky and sluggish? Guess who had more symptoms and malaise? That’s right! ME!

Think about it. We have been used to eat this way since we were little. For the past 20 years, the food industry has boomed with loads of products that only mimic real food. Our taste buds have grown accustomed to them. But are they feeding us the nutrients we need to live in a healthy body and enjoy a long life? No.

That’s why it's all about choices! You have the power to decide which food goes into your mouth and which stays on the shelf.

Join me tomorrow on #HealthyThursday to find out what are the best choices and hacks for healthy eating (with or without a chronic illness like multiple sclerosis).

This was all for this week’s #SMartWednesday! Thanks for being here!

What’s your story? Tell me all about it by writing a comment in the box below. I would love to hear what you have to say and help if I can.

Don't forget to subscribe in the upper right hand corner.

Lots of love,

Alexandra

How To Deal With Stress in Everyday Life

Hey there! Welcome to a new #HealthyThursday! As always, I am here with topics that are on your daily agenda, if you have or don’t have a chronic illness. Today’s area of interest is especially important if you do live with a condition such as multiple sclerosis. Let’s get into it!

PUTTING THINGS INTO CONTEXT

During human evolution, individuals faced all sorts of dangers. Ranging from an angry mammoth chasing you because you poked it to hard in the foot, to the enemy army bombing your home town, it all had to do with stress.

These situations generated the fight-or-flight response, which is the hardwired psysical stress response your body has when facing any type of danger. Through it, you can either stand and fight, or run and hide. Depending on the situation, after the danger was is or you get used to it, the body relaxes, in order to resume its normal functions.

Our generation doesn’t have these kind of issues. We grew up after the World Wars, the majority of us even after or right at the beginning of the end (pun intended) of the Cold War.

BEING STRESSED IN THE 21ST CENTURY

So, what are the dangers we face on a daily basis?

Staying up to date with this fast pacing world, with its tech and developing interconectedness. You have to stay on top of the game if you want to adapt and “survive".

Work related deadline. Now that’s a hard one! You have to make it, because your job depends on it. Hence, survival.

The world being so open, we need our private space and time to unwind, to do our own thing. If someone tresspasess, we become agressive, moody or just sad. Our territory has been endangered. We must “protect” it and … fight for survival.

Enter the BIG problem of the 21st century: people are plugged in 24-7. This has been an issue created only about 80 or 100 years ago when our world began rushing. Think about it, even only 20 years ago, we had a slower pace. Living in 2015 got even faster. We like it, we immerse in it, we love all the social media, all the technology, we love it all!

But our body doesn’t!

How do I know this? Because I lived it. I payed my dues to stress and coping with the “treadmill” that our society is today. And I said stop. But about my reasons and for a more detailed story, you’ll have to be patient.

Long story short: at 28, in July 2014, multiple sclerosis slapped me in the face. With a whip. And I had to stop and relax.

To avoid that happening to you, let me talk a bit about stress and the effects it has on your body. I’ll try to be as brief as the information will let me, because I know your time is important, as much as mine is.

WHAT IS STRESS & WHAT CAN IT DO TO YOU?

Stress helps you get passed “danger”, it is meant to be a short-term solution. When it becomes long-term and it lasts too much, it can damage your internal organs. Its chemistry is based on cortisol, adrenaline and norepinephrine hormones. In bigger quantities, these three can cause bloodpressure, hypertension and increased risk of stroke.

You become a boiling pot: the heat gets higher, the pressure pumps up and you… pop! Of course you don’t want that! Who would? Can it happen to you even at an early age? Yes it can.

Moving on to the next issue caused by stress. The endothelium (the tissue that wraps around all your blood vessels’s and organs’s interior, acting like a protective blanket) can malfunction because of the constant presence of cortisol in the body. Thus leading to problems like leaky-gut syndrome and atherosclerosis.

STRESS & MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS

Given the fact that this protective tissue exists all over the body, it’s possible that it also damages the blood-brain-barrier, making the brain vulnerable to outside cell environment. That is crucial for people with multiple sclerosis. White T cells can now freely enter and eat the fatty tissue surrounding the neurons, issue that helps brain cells communicate with eachother.

When your brain is high on stress, this gets communicated to the gut nervous system, through the autonomic nervous system. It can now interfere with the normal digestive processes, causing heartburn, increasing the waistline and affecting your gut bacteria.

You start eating comfort food, thus increasing the visceral fat (the one around your belly). This leads to the emission of certain inflammatory proteins called cytokines, favorable to chronic diseases and a surplus of hormones that get to influence your immunity. Even more than that: stress can slow down the action of your immune system, making you more susceptible to getting sick.

Some other colateral effects of stress are fatigue, lack of concentration, irritability, acne, feeling discouraged in facing other challenges that may appear down the line.

All in all, stress is a major problem that you need to face daily. It won’t just go away if you rest for a few hours and then get back on the treadmill. No. Really, it won’t!

WHAT CAN I DO TO REDUCE THE IMPACT OF STRESS?

Oh, did I mention that stress being an INNATE response you cannot get rid of it? Unfortunatelly you have to live with it. And so do I. Let me tell you how I deal with it and how you can do that also.

Getting off the couch might help. Seriously! Get up! Get outside if you can’t get up. Or simply get the window open and breathe deeply and stretch. There’s no such thing as I can’t. Really! Even with multiple sclerosis. Am I crazy?

Not really. The mind is the most powerful tool you’ll ever own. If you think you can’t… well… you won’t! Train it into a can-do attitude and you will gain more freedom. Even if just from the wheelchair. I know it’s hard. I can relate. Not been in that exact situation, but I had numerous times when I just stood in bed crying that my life is over and that I don’t feel like moving because my knee hurts, my forearm has a knife through it and my eyes are sore (this happened yesterday, by the way).

At 7 a.m. I sat up and began my daily routine. Meditated for 10 minutes, got up, drank my lemon water, layed down the yoga mat and did a 20-23 minute routine. Had a shower, then breakfast and sat down in front of my laptop and began brainstorming ideas for this post. Then it was time for my treatment. I injected my right arm, had a small brunch and began writing.

This is how determined I am. Are my eyes still hurting? Yes. Is my knee still bothering me? A bit, but yes. Is my forearm OK? Mostly, yes. But I did not write this to complain. I wrote it with the intent of helping you get passed everyday stress. I hope that you start building up more and more courage to face your challenges.

Start with stress. This way (these are advice, you can create your own coping mechanisms)!

Exercise daily. Even if you only do it for 10 minutes, even if you are sore, even if you don’t feel like it. It’s moving medicine to your body. It makes you feel good, feel the blood moving and it helps you feel stonger. (Plus it makes you lose weight! ;) )

Eat more vitamins! That includes seasonal and (as you can) locally grown vegetables and fruit (go easy on these, they DO contain sugar), fish and seafood (as you can afford, I’m not telling you to throw your savings out the window), chicken and turkey, rice, quinoa and WATER! Yes, I did mention the most ordinary item ever! Water hidrates and helps the body flush out toxins. Speaking of which: exclude processed foods (to make it simple, all that comes prepackaged and has igredients longer than 9-10 letters and for which you need to use Google), quit smoking(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! & !!!). Walking is better than any temporary and induced relief a ciggarette or a chocolate biscuit might bring you!

Relax. No, I don’t mean sleeping. That’s a metabolical regulating process. I talk about taking time to put your phone on airplane mode, unplugg from the treadmill, close your eyes and just be. Meditating, praying, just sitting is good. Choose the one of your liking. Yes, you do have time. 10 minutes in the morning after you wake up and 10 minutes at night before you go to bet should do the trick. If you have the time to check your Facebook, you sure have time to sit still.

Read a book, take a brisk walk, play with your kids or pet, watch a TV series or a movie, have a glass of wine, or start a blog, like I did! Everything that helps and makes you feel better.

And most of all, do whatever puts you in a zen-like mood, people! As long as it’s safe, legal (!!!) and healthy… do it all! I can’t give you a map to follow, it’s your life. I’m only here to support you through the process. I am here to inform and teach what I know.

This was all for this week’s #HealthyThursday! Thank you for reading and if you would like to receive my next articles right into your mail, subscribe to SMart Choice Lifestyle by filling your email adress in the box on the upper right. Join my SMart Warriors list to receive access to Premium content and many more!

Have a most wonderful day!