Good nutrition and diet for a recovering person: Post-acute withdrawal symptoms

When it comes to proper management of alcohol and drug addiction, nutrition will always play a very significant role in the whole process. If you have been with us for a while now you must have read our postings concerning the post-acute withdrawal symptoms and how well they can be managed as a means of keeping the scourge of addiction to manageable levels. This is what we want to progress on while concentrating on the good nutrition and diet for a recovering person (addict). When considering nutrition, three things come to mind almost immediately and that is to say that there must be three well-balanced meals daily, at least three nutritious snacks daily and of course ensuring that there is no sugar and caffeine in our menu. Doctor Dalal Akoury a veteran addiction expert is very much concerned with what is going round in our societies today. She says that we are living in a very stressful society where everybody is running up and down because of the magnitude of stressful lives that they live. Because of this, this topic has become very necessary and doctor Akoury is not missing her words, she says that hunger produces stress.

I hope we are in agreement with you on that and so we must collectively and individually to seek for solutions to contain hunger and bring stress to manageable. From her many years of experience, doctor Akoury is advising that in order to live a healthy life based on good nutrition, the following will be very necessary:

Try to plan your eating schedule so that you do not skip meals and so that you can have periodic nutritious snacks
Do not eat candy, donuts, soft drinks, potato chips, or other high calorie, low nutrient foods
You should specifically avoid foods that produce stress such as concentrated sweets and caffeine. Both of these produce the same kind of chemical reaction in your body as being frightened or overly excited.
Concentrated sweets such as candy, jelly, syrup, and sugar-sweetened soft drinks will give you a quick “pick-up,” but you will experience a let-down about an hour later accompanied by nervousness and irritability.

With the application of these tips you are certainly going to see a big difference however, remember that your reason for eating a snack should be to combat fatigue and nervousness and having a nutritious snack before you feel hungry to prevent a craving for sweets will be very ideal say doctor Dalal Akoury. Just to further make emphasis on that let me share with you briefly what good nutrition can do and has done to other people. According to one of my patient who is a recovering alcoholic, she was in the habit of eating a large quantity of ice cream every night. She often talked about the craving for it she felt, and believed that by eating it she was reducing a craving for alcohol. The next morning she always felt sluggish and irritable. Throughout the day her stress increased until it was relieved by the ice cream. When one day out team of professional counselors suggested for her that she needs to remove the ice cream from her diet she felt she could not get along without it. When our counselors examined her diet it was evident that she consistently skipped breakfast and was not getting adequate nutrition throughout the day. She later agreed to try eating a balanced diet and to eliminate the ice cream on a trial basis. By and by she discovered that when she ate a balanced diet and ate regular meals and several nutritious snacks throughout the day her craving for ice cream disappeared and she could easily eliminate it from her life. What does communicate for you? Good nutrition and diet for a recovering person works and your situation is no different.

As you consider that it is also important to note that caffeine also causes nervousness and restlessness. It may also interfere with concentration and your ability to sleep. Loss of sleep or irregular sleep causes irritability, depression, and anxiety. These can be corrected in various ways including: Exercise, Relaxation, Spirituality and Balanced living. For the purpose of this article, we are going to make emphasis on the benefits of exercise and progress with the next three in our next article. This is going to be a continuation of this and so you don’t want to miss it. Therefore keep on the link and let us learn objectively together.

Good nutrition and Diet for a recovering person: Exercise

Even though many people don’t embrace exercise, physical activities are very essential in rebuilding the body and keeps it functioning properly while at the same time reducing stress. One of the goodness of exercise among other things is that it produces chemicals in an individuals’ brain that make them feeling pleasantly good. These chemicals are nature’s own tranquilizers to relieve pain, anxiety and tension. It is however important to note that different types of exercise are helpful for different reasons, like for instance stretching and aerobic exercise will probably be most helpful for your recovery.

Stretching exercises help to keep your body limber and to relieve muscle tension.
Aerobics are rhythmical and vigorous exercises for the large muscles. They are intended to raise your heart rate to 75% of its maximum rate and maintain that rate for at least 20-30 minutes.

Professionally we recommend regular use of aerobic exercise e.g. jogging, swimming, jumping rope, and cycling are common aerobic exercises, or you might want to join an aerobics class. Dancing can also be aerobic, but remember that it must be done vigorously. Many recovering people coming out from AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center will testify to the value of exercise in reducing the intensity of PAW symptoms. After they exercise they feel much better, find it easier to concentrate and remember, and are able to be more productive. Doctor Akoury therefore advices that for you to succeed in the journey of addiction recovery, it is important that you choose a form of exercise that is fun for you so that you will stick with it. Most doctors and health books will tell you to exercise three or four times a week which is fine, nonetheless we want to add and recommend that recovering people should actually make time exercise at least daily owing to its value in reducing stress. Any day that you do not exercise is a day that you are cheating yourself of a way to feel more relaxed, be more productive, and have more energy. Whatever exercise you choose, remember not to over-do it! And if it hurts stop doing it and seek guidance from the experts on a possible replacement. Take note that the theory that in the old adage “no pain, no gain” is not true for recovering people. Under this consistency and regularity are the key words for the recovering person.