On food and back pain
I've been meaning to write this for a few days now, but haven't really had the time (or energy) to think it out properly. So, here we go.
My back pain is the frustrating kind where gentle activity helps, but sitting, lying or standing for any length of time is deeply uncomfortable. And too much activity is also a no-no. I'd imagine there are lots of people out there in similar situations.
That makes many aspects of normal life challenging, but feeding myself is one area of particular challenge. The cause of my back pain is inflammation in the SI joint. The inflammatory process is pretty hard and draining on the body: I'm told that it's part of the reason that I'm exhausted right now. To give my body the best chance of getting through this without doing any other damage, it is important that I eat regular, balanced, healthy meals.
I find that the pain is harder to cope with when I'm hungry, which is why I emphasise regular.
On the one hand, my activity levels may be lower than normal (although all the walking around I do to ease the pain and the physio exercises several times a day may be making up for this) so I don't want to eat a ton of high-calorie stuff. On the other hand, my body is using up a lot of nutrients on inflammation so I need to replace them.
At the same time, standing for long periods of time is hard so I'm trying to make meals that require minimal tending and standing. A big stir-fry may be very healthy, but it's a high-prep meal. Most of my evening meals are tending to consist of a protein source plus a big pile of veggies (which are easily steamed in the microwave). My lunch is wholemeal bread, some kind of filling and a helping of fruit.
The hardest part is finding a protein source that is tasty, easy to prepare and can be chucked into an oven (so minimal tending required) without resorting to boxed or package things more than once a week. As easy as it is to grab something from the freezer, a lot of prepared things are high salt and high fat so I try to minimize them even when I'm feeling good.
Thankfully I've got a reasonable repertoire these days and my local grocery store butcher and fish monger do some lovely things that are moderately healthy and require very little prep beyond popping into an oven. So most days, I don't struggle although I know a lot of people who find this side of things difficult.
For me, the hardest days are the ones where I don't want to eat.
I get days when I'm so exhausted from the pain, the lack of sleep and all the other fun stuff that the action of chewing and swallowing is too much. My swallow reflex wanders off somewhere else, things get stuck in my throat, and the thought of eating something is more than I can cope with. It's not just that preparing food is beyond me, it's that eating it is beyond me so there's no point ordering something in because I'll get through two bites and want to give up.
Those are the days when I have to bully myself into eating, find things that are easy to chew and swallow and generally be mentally tough over it. Food needs to be interesting and tasty to overcome my exhaustion, but not taxing to prepare. Grilled chicken breast may be easy, but it's hard work to chew and frankly boring so it's not the solution on those days.
I have to bully myself because not eating means not having my NSAIDs and that would be bad. If it weren't for the NSAIDs, I wouldn't bother on those days. As it is, those are the days when soup and toast is often all that I can manage to get down.
Then there are the days when I've gone beyond there and I'm nauseous from the pain and exhaustion. I'm not just too tired to eat, the thought of food makes my stomach turn. I'm too far gone for soup and the thought of greasy takeout is so unpleasant that I can't even stand to see the pizza place on my drive home from work.
These are the days when I eat some crackers or toast, so that I can take my NSAIDs, and give up entirely on eating anything more nutritious. I've had three days like that since this started and there may be more.
There are days when I swing to the other extreme, wanting to comfort eat myself silly, and those are almost as hard to deal with because all other foods become completely boring in comparison. Mostly I can tell myself to eat the good, nutritious meal that I am preparing and then I can eat some comfort (junk) food afterwards if I have room. As all those veggies are pretty filling, it curbs the worst excesses.
Those days when I can't eat are a part of the reason that I am so careful with my diet right now, but I have to carefully work out what to prepare so that I'm in a fit state to eat by the time it's all ready.
I can easily see why people put on weight when something like this happens. The temptation to grab something out of the freezer to nuke or order takeout can be almost irresistible when you're too exhausted or filled with pain to cook but haven't reached the can't eat stage. And it's easy to do it over and over, every evening, because it's easy to justify. It has become so common to see people who's weight issues started with an injury that it's almost a cliche.
It is probably less obvious that a lot of people lose weight in this situation. The side-effects from the drugs often include nausea and difficulty swallowing. If you're too tired to eat (never mind cook) or too nauseous, it's easier just to take the drugs and go to sleep.
It is hard to find that balance between between how bad you feel and what you need to eat to be healthy. Anyone who has never experienced chronic pain of any kind will struggle to understand. Missing the odd meal or indulging occasionally when you're healthy is not a problem. Missing lots of meals (or just eating toast all the time) is as bad as consistently eating too much or relying on takeout, though, and that is what happens to a lot of people with chronic pain. We end up at one extreme or the other, neither healthy, and that just makes the root problems worse.
This entry was originally posted at http://selenay.dreamwidth.org/384537.html. There are currently
babbles on the entry on Dreamwidth
My back pain is the frustrating kind where gentle activity helps, but sitting, lying or standing for any length of time is deeply uncomfortable. And too much activity is also a no-no. I'd imagine there are lots of people out there in similar situations.
That makes many aspects of normal life challenging, but feeding myself is one area of particular challenge. The cause of my back pain is inflammation in the SI joint. The inflammatory process is pretty hard and draining on the body: I'm told that it's part of the reason that I'm exhausted right now. To give my body the best chance of getting through this without doing any other damage, it is important that I eat regular, balanced, healthy meals.
I find that the pain is harder to cope with when I'm hungry, which is why I emphasise regular.
On the one hand, my activity levels may be lower than normal (although all the walking around I do to ease the pain and the physio exercises several times a day may be making up for this) so I don't want to eat a ton of high-calorie stuff. On the other hand, my body is using up a lot of nutrients on inflammation so I need to replace them.
At the same time, standing for long periods of time is hard so I'm trying to make meals that require minimal tending and standing. A big stir-fry may be very healthy, but it's a high-prep meal. Most of my evening meals are tending to consist of a protein source plus a big pile of veggies (which are easily steamed in the microwave). My lunch is wholemeal bread, some kind of filling and a helping of fruit.
The hardest part is finding a protein source that is tasty, easy to prepare and can be chucked into an oven (so minimal tending required) without resorting to boxed or package things more than once a week. As easy as it is to grab something from the freezer, a lot of prepared things are high salt and high fat so I try to minimize them even when I'm feeling good.
Thankfully I've got a reasonable repertoire these days and my local grocery store butcher and fish monger do some lovely things that are moderately healthy and require very little prep beyond popping into an oven. So most days, I don't struggle although I know a lot of people who find this side of things difficult.
For me, the hardest days are the ones where I don't want to eat.
I get days when I'm so exhausted from the pain, the lack of sleep and all the other fun stuff that the action of chewing and swallowing is too much. My swallow reflex wanders off somewhere else, things get stuck in my throat, and the thought of eating something is more than I can cope with. It's not just that preparing food is beyond me, it's that eating it is beyond me so there's no point ordering something in because I'll get through two bites and want to give up.
Those are the days when I have to bully myself into eating, find things that are easy to chew and swallow and generally be mentally tough over it. Food needs to be interesting and tasty to overcome my exhaustion, but not taxing to prepare. Grilled chicken breast may be easy, but it's hard work to chew and frankly boring so it's not the solution on those days.
I have to bully myself because not eating means not having my NSAIDs and that would be bad. If it weren't for the NSAIDs, I wouldn't bother on those days. As it is, those are the days when soup and toast is often all that I can manage to get down.
Then there are the days when I've gone beyond there and I'm nauseous from the pain and exhaustion. I'm not just too tired to eat, the thought of food makes my stomach turn. I'm too far gone for soup and the thought of greasy takeout is so unpleasant that I can't even stand to see the pizza place on my drive home from work.
These are the days when I eat some crackers or toast, so that I can take my NSAIDs, and give up entirely on eating anything more nutritious. I've had three days like that since this started and there may be more.
There are days when I swing to the other extreme, wanting to comfort eat myself silly, and those are almost as hard to deal with because all other foods become completely boring in comparison. Mostly I can tell myself to eat the good, nutritious meal that I am preparing and then I can eat some comfort (junk) food afterwards if I have room. As all those veggies are pretty filling, it curbs the worst excesses.
Those days when I can't eat are a part of the reason that I am so careful with my diet right now, but I have to carefully work out what to prepare so that I'm in a fit state to eat by the time it's all ready.
I can easily see why people put on weight when something like this happens. The temptation to grab something out of the freezer to nuke or order takeout can be almost irresistible when you're too exhausted or filled with pain to cook but haven't reached the can't eat stage. And it's easy to do it over and over, every evening, because it's easy to justify. It has become so common to see people who's weight issues started with an injury that it's almost a cliche.
It is probably less obvious that a lot of people lose weight in this situation. The side-effects from the drugs often include nausea and difficulty swallowing. If you're too tired to eat (never mind cook) or too nauseous, it's easier just to take the drugs and go to sleep.
It is hard to find that balance between between how bad you feel and what you need to eat to be healthy. Anyone who has never experienced chronic pain of any kind will struggle to understand. Missing the odd meal or indulging occasionally when you're healthy is not a problem. Missing lots of meals (or just eating toast all the time) is as bad as consistently eating too much or relying on takeout, though, and that is what happens to a lot of people with chronic pain. We end up at one extreme or the other, neither healthy, and that just makes the root problems worse.
This entry was originally posted at http://selenay.dreamwidth.org/384537.html. There are currently
babbles on the entry on Dreamwidth