*This post is sponsored by Blue Apron but as always, all opinions are my own. Thank you supporting the brands that support Sincerely Onyi*
Few know this, but 2011 is when I started my blog, started PA school, and started to suffer from painful gastric issues. They began with intense heartburn that I initially mistook for a heart attack (did I mention I was at the beginning of my medical program? I know, a wee bit dramatic but any chest pain should be fully investigated). All of my gastric symptoms worsened over time with the stress of school and the access to indulgent food on The Strip.
After the ER, I went through several doctor’s visits, tried living off of antacids and pain relievers, and it got to the point that I couldn’t handle it anymore. I knew I had to make a change. It wasn’t until taking my health into my own hands, adopting a cleaner diet, and focused on stress management that I finally saw relief.
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How Stress-Management Reduced My Symptoms
Why did this stress management and cleaner eating help relieve my symptoms? 2 words: Reducing inflammation. Inflammation in your body can be pinpointed as a source to several symptoms such as mood or cognitive disorders, constipation, bloating, fever anymore. To improve inflammation, we must first determine what is causing the inflammation in the first place. If we don’t know why, it’s hard to determine how to heal.
Managing the physical and mental stress in your life brings back balance to your physical and mental wellness. This is why the guy brain connection so important and why I’m excited to expand it and how taking control of the inflammation in your gut influences your stress response and mood, in future posts.
But for this post, we’ll talk about an easy way you can reduce mental stress or inflammation and stress by incorporating a meal service that keeps your health and wellness in mind. My favorite ways to target the inflammation caused by mental stress is through therapy, mindfulness, and deep breathing. All of these activities can alternatively relieve gastric symptoms that are heavily made up by the microbiome of your gut. This is influenced even more by what you intake such as supplements and most importantly the food you eat.
My Top Stressors
Back in the day, My stressors consisted of worrying about getting a passing grade, finding The right specialty for me, wearing it my boyfriend will propose or moving back home with my parents. I had enough time in my hands to incorporate yoga and clean eating on my own.
Now, my Mental stress consists of mommy guilt, the stress of running a business while practicing medicine on top of keeping my family safe and healthy. My life is hectic and busy or less downtime being few and far between. I can admit that it’s so much easier to order fast food to satisfy the hunger at home but life lessons, as we’ve talked about, remind me the long term in packs that can have on our physical and mental health.
Don’t get me wrong, everything can be good in moderation but as a busy mom, I often don’t have the answer on what’s for dinner. It takes me forever to look at all the ingredients in a recipe, makes sure I’m providing healthy meals for everyone, and then go grocery shopping, in the middle of a pandemic? That’s why I let Blue Apron take the meal planning off my hands for a cleaner lifestyle.
No More Meal-Planning Stress
Blue Apron allows me to eliminate the stress of ‘What’s For Dinner?” along with providing health-conscious meals where we don’t have to wonder about what’s in our food.
Reducing processed food has changed my life dramatically. Now, anytime I overindulge in processed foods for long stretches of time, those gastric issues start coming right back. But isn’t it a relief to know I have the power to improve my health? By getting control of the inflammation in my gut and the stress in my life.
Blue Apron sources the best seasonal ingredients directly from family-run farms. I appreciate how they are committed to providing nutritionist-approved, dietary options. You can take advantage of plant-based options, Weight Watchers approved meals, and my personal favorite: the Mediterranean diet! The Mediterranean diet consists of big flavor and lean proteins in recipes from Europe, the Middle East, and Northern Africa.
I can honestly vouch for how delicious the meals have been week after week. We’ve been amazed at how we are able to create restaurant quality food from the comfort of our home, with quality ingredients we can see for ourselves.
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