Learn to cook and be creative. While you may look to pre-prepared meals to save time cooking, they do not provide you with the nutrients available in fresh foods. Cooking can be a creative break from your routine. Ever watch the tv show "Two Fat Ladies" - cooking was FUN. Get some of their videos and books. Experiment with cooking in Moroccan tagines, or crockpots or clay cookers. Get a bread maker, or a recipe book on "flat breads" and become a bread specialist.
Don't feel like cooking because of the fatigue or mental fog? What in the world is clarified butter? What oven temperature is "very hot"? How many tablespoons in an ounce? How many graham crackers will give you 1 cup of crumbs? What can I substitute for buttermilk? Suppose I have leftovers, how can I use them? Can I freeze this cheese, or pie, or casserole? For a care-free cooking experience visit my "Cooking" pages. You don't have to figure out anything - it's all right there....Cooking Terms, Temperatures, Measurements, Substitutions, Equivalents, Leftovers, etc.
The food you eat definitely affects the way you feel, both physically and emotionally. Poor diet is a key perpetuating factor in Autoimmune Diseases and Fibromyalgia and many other coexisting conditions. Your diet is an aspect of your perpetuating factors that YOU control You have to eat. Why eat foods that add to your symptoms, when you can eat better, enjoy your food more and FEEL better at the same time?
Some people do well when they eat three good meals a day. Others find they do better if they eat five or six small meals throughout the day. Others find they do better if they eat only when they are hungry. Experiment with what works best for you.
Avoid eating where you work. The temptation to continue working while eating will be huge. Give yourself the short breaks you deserve.
Learn to eat like a gourmet. Eat slowly, chew thoughtfully and enjoy EACH bite. Eat less, but eat mindfully, and you will be satisfied.
There is a difference between wanting food and being hungry. Explore that difference. Often people overeat to relieve stress. Eat only when you are hungry, and eat just enough to stop the hunger.
Eat a variety of foods.
Eat moderate amounts of fat. Fat will decrease the flow of carbohydrates into the blood. (Avoid margarine. Bugs won't eat it and mold won't grow on it. What do these critters know that we don't? It will not support or sustain life. It is partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. Partially hydrogenated oil is often hidden in foods like commercial peanut butter.)
Use sugar and carbohydrates in moderation.
Eat protein as part of every meal and snack. It helps use up the fat stored in your body. Caution on cottage cheese, eat in moderation and be sure you take supplemental calcium. Cottage cheese is extremely high in phosphorus. Your body constantly tries to balance the calcium/phosphorus ratio, and if ingest a lot of phosphorus, your body is going to compensate by pulling calcium from your body.)
Most vegetables and fruits (especially melons and berries) are very Autoimmune Disease and Fibromyalgia friend.
We need salt, but we need the RIGHT kind of salt, with all the trace minerals still intact. With all the pollution of the oceans, I stay away from salt gathered from the sea today. I prefer Redmond salt - a sea salt but gathered from an ancient and unpolluted sea.
Yogurt. Yeast infection, craving sugar and hypoglycemia are all connected. To avoid being overtaken by yeast infections eat a yogurt with live acidophilus culture. One cup of yogurt (with active enzymes) a day can markedly diminish the frequency of recurrent yeast infections (including thrush).
Drink plenty of fluids a day. Increase your water intake. Tiredness, fatigue and lethary can be linked to dehydration. Increasing your water intake can help improve these symptoms, and assist in improving your skin.
Some sodas have ten teaspoons of sugar per can. But even the "sugar-free" sodas are not very good for you. Phosphate in soda depletes calcium, because your body uses it's calcium to process phosphates. Drink sodas in moderation.
If you drink alcohol, do so in moderation.
While caffeine is an effective stimulant when you are tired, its effects are long-lasting. Try and restrict your caffeine intake to a couple cups of tea (black & green teas contain caffeine, herbal teas do not) coffee, or caffeinated soft drinks per day, or less if you are having difficulties sleeping.