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PAIN IN THE A** Thriving with Chronic Pain Newsletter In this issue: • Advantages of an antiinflammatory diet • The importance of stretching and staying active • Your mental health: maintaining a growth mindset (even when you’re hurting!) • About the founder

Advantages of the Anti -inflammatory Diet The strict diet may help reduce low grade inflammation in those living with chronic pain and conditions that often have an underlying source of inflammation. It may be tough, but limiting intake of sugary, processed foods can have MAJOR positive impacts, and well worth the sacrifice. Talk to your doctor about ways you can eat for your conditions. Trust me, your body will thank you within a week.

Tips for Eating Well, Living Well You ask and we get you the answers from our experts. Q: Are there any good snacks for on-thego when you’re on the anti-inflammatory diet? A: I try to avoid processed foods, but with a busy schedule, that’s’ not always an option. My snack of choice is the Caramel Almond & Sea Salt bars by Kind. Salty, sweet and only 5 grams of sugar a bar. Q: The anti-inflammatory diet is SO restrictive! Is it possible to have cheat days and still get the health benefits of the diet? A: Believe me, I’m with ya! It was super challenging my first week on the diet. I learned the hard way that a cheat day reversed all the great feelings within the first meal. I know it’s tough, but stay strong!

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“I believe that the greatest gift you can give your family and the world is a healthy you”

-Joyce Meyer

Whether you’re going for a hike, trying out that Zumba class you’ve been saying you’d go to for weeks, or just enjoying an evening walk (now that it’s actually nice enough outside) you need to spend at least 10 minutes stretching first. Stretching helps increase flexibility, as most of us know already, but did you also know that stretching prior to your work out will greatly reduce the chances of injury. Even if you’re just hanging out at home, a good 10 minutes of stretching a day will help maintain joint flexibility, which can reduce arthritic pain and stiffness, and it can also contribute to a greater sense of well-being. For muscular pain disorders

“The more you do, the more you CAN do!”

STAYING ACTIVE

promise you a cure, staying active may help bring on more Why You Need to Get Up, Get out, and Get Moving good days than Physical activity is the most imbad, and for most of us, that’s a portant thing you can do to manage win! your chronic pain. Pain and stiffness commonly attributed to condi- Your workouts don’t only help your tions such as Osteoarthritis is bet- body. The mental health benefits of exercise include improved selfter managed with a work out than image, greater self esteem, reducwith any medication. Building tion in anxiety, better sleep, and strength in muscles that surround improved stress management. In arthritic joints may even help slow down the rate at which your arthritis my own experience, exercising also gave me a sense of control. Degenadvances. Let’s not forget about muscles! Resistance training helps erative pain conditions can leave anyone down in the dumps and increase muscle strength– and dissolve any hope for a future worth strong muscles are less likely to spasm or lock up. That means con- living for, but exercising a few times a week can restore hope and posiditions like Myofascial Pain syntivity. drome may also improve or at the very least make it easier to manage. While no option can ever

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Mental Health Growth mindset: Maybe you’ve heard of it before, maybe you haven’t. If the term is foreign to you, allow me to explain. A growth mindset is the belief that intelligence can be developed. In school, we use this term to describe students that are aware that they can get better with hard work– no matter how defeated they initially feel. Imagine utilizing this mindset to approaching all things: your new diet, exercise regime (and learning that new physical therapy exercise that you learned). Having a growth mindset means not being deterred from learning something new, even when it appears to be impossible at first. Growth mindset is just one way to stay positive while living with chronic pain. Maintaining a positive outlook is crucial, especially when it those inevitable bad days rear their ugly faces. Remember that self-care includes more than just physical activity; it means keeping your moods and mental state healthy as well. Photo used from creative commons for the public domain

Tips for a Positive Mindset:  Journal! Write one positive experience from the last 24 hours AND three things you’re grateful for everyday  Set daily goals. The easiest way to reduce stress and feel accomplished by the day’s end is to make a daily list of things to accomplish (even if it’s an easy day) We want to know what YOU think! What do you do to maintain a positive outlook? What’s the biggest challenge you have with your moods/emotions/ mental states? Got any tips to share? We’re always stronger when we can lean on one another. Send your responses and anything else on your mind to our Facebook page or email us.

 Let it out. Don’t bottle up those negative feelings. We all have bad pain days and we all need support through them. Draw, paint, write, dance, walk, anything that will help you express your feelings can help if you’d rather not talk.

EMAIL: [email protected]

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THE BIGGEST PAIN IN THE.. Just kidding. The creator of “Pain in the A**: Thriving with Chronic Pain” newsletter is Megan N. Ellett. After surviving a car accident as a 19 year-old pedestrian, she was diagnosed with osteoarthritis and myofascial pain condition. By 25, she her conditions worsened and forced her into early retirement from her career behind the chair. No longer a Sassoon stylist, she packed up her sheers and began pursuing a second career in psychology at Arizona State University. She has dedicated her life to helping others, especially young adults, regain their life after trauma. She firmly believes that anyone can learn to thrive once they have mastered the art of managing their chronic pain– both mentally and physically. This newsletter is a physical manifestation of all that is relevant and realistic for those living with chronic pain and/or conditions. And in case you missed it, we’ve got a pretty good sense of humor and are never afraid to laugh at ourselves. We hope that you can find important tools, information on new studies regarding chronic pain conditions, support from others like you, and get a good laugh.

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