From The Inside Out Mag.
For Personal Healing, Spiritual Growth & Development

by Rosanna Commisso

How to use this Dairy

If you like me, have been diagnosed with severe adrenal fatigue you need to really start taking care of yourself and become aware of every decision you may.

Everything you do affects your adrenal health and therefore your overall health in either a positive or negative way so it's important to know what impact your lifestyle is having on your health.

The most important things affecting your adrenal health are:

* The amount and quality of sleep that you get

* The food that you eat

* The physical activities that you participate in

* The amount of stress - both positive and negative in your life

I developed the Adrenal Care Daily Checklist and Diary (you can download the diary from the ChiYo Life website) to help keep me on track. As it is so easy when you are having a good day to forget that you have a serious health condition and to go back to your normal way of living which unfortunately means that when you relapse you will feel worse than ever before.

The Adrenal Care Daily Checklist and Diary helps remind you what you need to do each day to take care of your adrenals. It also allows you to record what you have and haven't done and then rate your overall wellbeing based on your behaviour. By keeping a track of what you do on a daily basis and rating your overall energy you can pinpoint what factors effect your adrenal health the most. The diary helps give you a picture of what is happening with your adrenal health and how the choices you make regarding food, exercise and sleep affect you.

The Diary also gives you the opportunity to jot down your thoughts, feelings and important incidences that occur each day.

My hope is that this diary will help you take control of your life and your adrenal health.

MEAL IDEAS

Breakfast ideas

* homemade porridge with milk, almonds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, lecithin, linseed, amaranth, cinnamon and apple

* scrambled eggs with tomato and soy & linseed toast

Lunch ideas

* Hot brown rice salad with mixed veggies and protein

* Soy & linseed sandwich with avocado, protein and salad

Snack ideas

* 2 wholewheat soy and linseed crackers with cheese or nut spread

* handful of nuts with a piece of fruit

Dinner ideas

* Fish/lean meat/chicken with brown rice and veggies

* Lentil and pearl barley vegetable soup

* Chicken and vegetable soup

FOODS THAT SUPPORT YOUR ADRENALS

Protein

Seeds & Nuts: sunflower, pumpkin, sesame seeds, chestnuts, walnuts, pine nuts, almonds

free-range, chemical + hormone-free poultry, eggs, yoghurt, goat's milk, beef, lamb, natural cheeses such as ricotta, fetta & cottage cheese shrimp, mussels, fatty fish such as wild-caught salmon or trout

Legumes: adzuki, black, kidney, mung beans, lentils, chickpeas

Grains

Brown rice, oats, spelt, quinoa, corn, buckwheat, pearl barley, rye, millet

Vegetables

Chinese yam, Chinese cabbage, parsnip, winter squash, sweet potato, kale, leek, scallion, mustard   greens and carrots, pumpkin, celery, beetroot, 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 pod,  cumin, cinnamon bark, ginger, nutmeg

Fruit

Avoid fruits high in sugar such as grapes, oranges, dates etc. In winter you my feel better eating stewed fruits e.g. 2 stewed apples with a pinch of sea salt added to balance the effect of their sugar content

Chocolate

I know everyone loves chocolate so as a weekly treat you can enjoy one square of any 85% or higher dark chocolate eg Lindt. If you do get constant chocolate cravings it could be that your body needs magnesium, so start taking a magnesium citrate or amino acid chelate supplement daily. You can increase the dose of magnesium until you reach 400mg daily. Magnesium is great for relaxing the body and helping it create energy, so if you are taking magnesium supplements take one in the morning and one at night.

Salt

Always use Celtic or sea salt in your cooking

Water

Experiment drinking room or warm water and see how you feel compared to drinking chilled water

Temperature of Foods

As the cold aggravates the water element and the kidneys, it is important when it is cold or when your energy is low to eat more warm and cooked foods instead of cold or raw foods.

Include the Taz adrenal support recovery soup into your diet. This soup, from Dolores S. Downey, has been proven to increase energy in adrenal fatigue sufferers.

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 one hour or until vegetables are tender. You can season the soup with pepper, if desired.

EXERCISE

Though it may feel like the last thing you want to do, exercise is very beneficial to the adrenal glands. It will also help you sleep better. Begin with light exercise, such as a 10-minute walk, and work your way up to more moderate physical activity. Just remember to listen to you body.

If you find that you have night sweats it's a good idea to go for a 15 minute power walk about 1-2 hours before you go to bed. Night sweats are thought to be a kidney yang deficiency and due to low night cortisol levels. Rapid walking will increase your cortisol levels and make your body more yang. But it's important not to over do it as if you push your body too far rather than creating yang energy you will be creating more yin energy. If you are new to yin and yang energy, I recommend that you read my article 'How to Make the Most of Yin/Yang Energy in Your Life', this can also be found at my ChiYo Life website.

You can download this diary for free from http://www.chiyolife.com.au/articles.html