E214: Secrets to Eating Well Without MS Guilt

So for a lot of people, when they start eating clean, it starts turning into something else.

And what do I mean by this? It turns into super hypervigilance.

Like every ingredient label can be anxiety for you.

Going out to dinner might feel terrifying, especially when you're going out with other people, like friends or groups of people, and you're wondering what the heck you're gonna eat because you wanna support your body, number one, but number two, you see other people ordering french fries and hamburgers and fried foods and, and these are foods you really wanna eat too, right? Because they're delicious.

There's no denying that.

And then you find yourself eating a plate of plain steamed vegetables, and that's not very fun.

And other people are eating all these other delicious foods, and you know they're not good for you, but you're sitting there not enjoying yourself because you're not wanting to eat this plate of steamed vegetables, right? And then this turns into complete dread, but you eat it anyway because you think to yourself, "I have to eat this because I need to heal." So have you ever felt that pit in your stomach and you're wondering if the food is good enough for you to eat? So this mental issue, what I'm talking about, it has a name.

It's called orthorexia nervosa.

And I'm gonna be honest with you, I really think I had this while I was healing because I was so strict with myself for the first really three years.

You know, I healed everything after about five to six months, but then I continued eating like this and I judged other people.

I thought, "How can they be eating french fries when they know that that's not good for them?" Especially other friends that had the same condition that I did.

I saw them eating fried foods and I judged them, and I became super hyper anxious about what I was eating and how I had to have a perfect diet.

But let's be honest, nobody is perfect and you don't have to be perfect to heal.

And see, over time, this way of thinking becomes a mental trap built on fear and anxiety, and I don't want you to feel this way.

And there's an ironic, tragic truth about this.

If you know you have to eat healthy food, and there's a lot of vegetables, for example, that you know you don't like, and you eat them with dread, this will not help you heal.

I promise.

So I really want you to start picking out the vegetables and the fruits and the quality meats that you really love, and I want you to start ordering these things and creating meals with foods that you love.

So I wanna let you know that the body cannot absorb nutrients when the body is full of stress hormones.

To repair your damaged tissues, your nervous system needs to be in a state of rest and digest.

And this is when I want you to have joy when you're eating.

Now, it's true, the Wahls protocol did work for me, and I cut out dairy, I cut out all refined sugar, and I said goodbye to gluten.

And I was like this for two and a half or three years.

And then I figured out, you know, I don't think I need to be so strict anymore.

I mean, I'm perfectly healthy now, and I think I can eat some foods that I know that are not exactly healthy for me.