IBD and Holiday Stress

If only our lives were just another Hallmark movie. Everything is just picture perfect, right? It's not reality though. Whether you have an irritable bowel disease or not, the holidays can be downright stressful. A number of things add to our stress during the holidays. It can be troubled relationships, family, finances, our health, or our schedule busting at the seams. You know, that last one is one we ALL have to fight against. I am sure this week you have already been trying to figure out your schedule and decide how you can make it all work. Thanksgiving is right here and you might have 3-4 places you are expected to be. Not to mention Christmas parties and gatherings are already being planned and who can forget BLACK FRIDAY shopping!

The stress of the holidays has been on my mind lately, so today I wanted to share some things I am planning to do to help myself get through with little to no flare up issues. Two things that are key esp when dealing with an IBD are stress and the ingredients that irritate inflammation. These are a HUGE during this time of the year!!

Let's talk about stress. I have already mentioned how our schedules seem to fill up. To help me with this I have really tried to scale back. We do try to make it to every family event that we can, but not at the expense of my health. I have also learned that I HAVE to rest any chance I can. When I go go go I end up miserable and the only place I am going is to the bathroom. That will quickly remind me that it wasn't worth it. So, my plan is to get plenty of rest between events and mark off the things on the to do list that don't actually have to be done during this time of the year. That being said, if I miss an event you are hosting I apologize. More than likely it was something I needed to do to stay calm and well through the holidays. Trust me, I love to have fun and I don't like to miss out. The bottom line though is to scale back where you can and get lots of rest!!!

Then there is the food we eat. We tend to eat way more than we normally do and we eat combinations of food that we don't normally eat. Then we wonder why we feel terrible. Sugar is a key inflammatory ingredient. I talked about sugar and the inflammation it causes in a previous post. I don't starve myself or ignore my sweet tooth. I have just learned to make better choices. With the holidays around the corner I need to load up on good nutrition ahead of time. I have to add in the anti-inflammatory foods now. Otherwise, I will be a mess!!

I also will add good nutrtion to my menu for the holidays. When I am going to someone else's home I might try to take something more healthy. This way I know I will have something to enjoy. If I am hosting the meal or just cooking for my family I can add in healthy options for sure. It is best to choose lean proteins, lots of veggies and cut back on the sugar and fatty foods. I actually like having savory foods with lots of flavor. It doesn't have to be high in fat or loaded with sugar to be good. Learn how to cook using seasoning and food that satisfy your palate without causing inflammation and pain. You don't have to be boring!

I said I don't ignore my sweet tooth. Two of my girls, as well as my husband, love to bake and we all love to eat it. To make our sweets a little more "healthy" we use a non bleached flour (King Authors brand), we use pure cane sugar, sometimes we use coconut oil or olive oil in the place of other oils or ingredients, we use real butter, we add ground flax to a lot of recipes, we add walnuts, and we use coconut milk when possible. I am not saying our sweets are healthy by any means. What I am saying is that we have tried to swap products for more healthy alternatives or we add to ours to add something healthy to it, like the flax, nuts or maybe pumpkin puree. (FYI, for my UC and Crohns friends, ground flax makes a huge difference with fissures) Also, while I am on this subject I might mention that I use stone ground cornmeal when making cornbread. The stone ground cornmeal still has fiber in it. I know many people go to much greater lengths to be more healthy, but this is just what we do.

Here is the bottom line. The holidays are right here on us and we know they can be really stressful, and we also know inflammatory foods are going to be EVERYWHERE!! Knowledge is power though!! I KNOW I am going to be tired and pulled different directions and that stress contributes to inflammation. I KNOW inflammatory foods will lead to inflammation, and I KNOW both stress and inflammatory foods will lead to more UC symptoms. I have to make good choices about the foods I eat and the schedule I choose, and I HAVE to get plenty of rest. At the end of the day it is all about balance. It's about knowing all these things I have talked about and knowing how to balance them. It's is very difficult. I won't lie. It is a real struggle sometimes for me. It is my goal though, and my hope is that when the holidays are over I feel great!!