How to use this dairy
If you, like me, have been diagnosed with severe adrenal fatigue, you really need to start taking care of yourself and being aware of every decision you may make. Everything you do affects your adrenal health, and therefore your overall health, either positively or negatively, so it’s important to know what impact your lifestyle has on your health.
The most important things that affect your adrenal health are:
* The amount and quality of sleep you get
* The food you eat
* The physical activities you participate in
* The amount of stress – both positive and negative in your life
I developed the Daily Checklist and Adrenal Care Journal to help keep me on track. Because it’s so easy when you’re having a good day to forget that you have a serious health condition and go back to your normal way of life, which unfortunately means that when you relapse you’ll feel worse than ever.
The Adrenal Care Daily Checklist and Diary remind you what you need to do each day to care for your adrenal glands. It also allows you to record what he has and hasn’t done and then rate his overall well-being based on his behavior. By tracking what you do on a daily basis and rating your overall energy, you can identify which factors affect your adrenal health the most. The journal helps give you an idea of what’s happening with your adrenal health and how the choices you make about food, exercise, and sleep affect you.
The Journal also gives you the opportunity to write down your important thoughts, feelings, and events that occur each day.
My hope is that this journal helps you take control of your life and your adrenal health.
MEAL IDEAS
ideas for breakfast
* homemade porridge with milk, almonds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, lecithin, linseed, amaranth, cinnamon and apple
* scrambled tomato and toasted soy and linseed
ideas for lunch
* Warm brown rice salad with mixed vegetables and protein
* Soy and flax sandwich with avocado, protein and salad
snack ideas
* 2 whole grain soy and flax crackers with cream cheese or walnut
* handful of nuts with a piece of fruit
dinner ideas
* Fish/lean meat/chicken with brown rice and vegetables
* Lentil and pearl barley vegetable soup
* Chicken and vegetable soup
FOODS THAT SUPPORT YOUR ADRENALS
protein
Seeds and nuts: sunflower, pumpkin, sesame seeds, chestnuts, walnuts, pine nuts, almonds
poultry, chemical and hormone free, eggs, yogurt, goat’s milk, veal, lamb, natural cheeses such as ricotta, fetta and cottage cheese shrimp, mussels, oily fish such as salmon or wild trout
Vegetables: adzuki, black, kidney, mung beans, lentils, chickpeas
Grain
Brown rice, oats, spelt, quinoa, corn, buckwheat, pearl barley, rye, millet
vegetables
Chinese yam, Chinese cabbage, parsnip, winter squash, sweet potato, kale, leek, spring onion, mustard greens and carrots, pumpkin, celery, beets, green vegetables, sea vegetables, sweet potatoes, turnips, onions, olives, avocado
herbs spices
Chives, garlic, cloves, basil, rosemary, angelica root, parsley, fennel, dill, anise, caraway, carob, cumin, cinnamon bark, ginger, nutmeg
Fruit
Avoid fruits with high sugar content like grapes, oranges, dates, etc. In winter you may feel better eating fruit compote, eg 2 applesauce with a pinch of sea salt added to balance the effect of its sugar content.
Chocolate
I know everyone loves chocolate, so as a weekly treat you can enjoy a square of any 85% or higher dark chocolate, like Lindt. If you have constant cravings for chocolate, your body may need magnesium, so start taking a daily supplement of magnesium citrate or amino acid chelate. You can increase the dose of magnesium up to 400mg daily. Magnesium is great for relaxing the body and helping you create energy, so if you’re taking magnesium supplements, take one in the morning and one in the evening.
Salt
Always use Celtic or sea salt in your cooking.
Water
Experiment with drinking room or lukewarm water and see how it feels compared to drinking cold water
Food Temperature
As cold aggravates the water element and the kidneys, it is important when it is cold or when your energy is low to eat more hot and cooked foods rather than cold or raw foods.
Include Taz Adrenal Support Recovery Soup in your diet. This soup, by Dolores S. Downey, has been shown to increase energy in those with adrenal fatigue.
Combine one medium onion, one sliced zucchini, one cup chopped celery, one cup chicken broth, one cup tomato juice, one pound green beans, one cup spring water, two tablespoons raw honey, and one teaspoon paprika in a large pot. Simmer the soup for an hour or until the vegetables are tender. If you want, you can season the soup with pepper.
EXERCISE
Although it may seem like the last thing you want to do, exercise is very beneficial for your adrenal glands. It will also help you sleep better. Start with light exercise, such as a 10-minute walk, and move up to more moderate physical activity. Just remember to listen to your body.
If you find that you have night sweats, it’s a good idea to take a brisk 15-minute walk about 1 to 2 hours before bed. Night sweats are thought to be a kidney yang deficiency and are due to low nocturnal cortisol levels. Walking briskly will increase your cortisol levels and make your body more yang. But it’s important not to overdo it, because if you push your body too far instead of creating yang energy, you’ll be creating more yin energy.