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Leading a healthy lifestyle can help you balance MS with your busy life.
Nutrition
A healthy diet for someone with MS follows Canada's Food Guide . A few tips:
- Avoid foods that are high in sugar or animal fats.
- Eat oily fish (salmon, mackerel, or tuna) 2 or 3 times a week.
- Switch to whole-grain bread, pasta, and cereal.
- Select low-fat dairy products.
- Get more fruits and vegetables in your diet (e.g., put berries on your cereal, have veggies and dip as a snack, buy bagged salad greens and put some on your plate at lunch and dinner, or put an apple in your lunch).
- Read MS and Nutrition for more nutrition tips.
Exercise
- Check with your neurologist before starting to get active.
- Plan your workout for a time of day when you have the most energy (for many people, this is in the morning).
- If you decide to go to a gym, choose one with staff who understand MS. Make sure the gym has many different options (classes, equipment) for people of different fitness levels and abilities.
- If your symptoms make it a challenge to use certain exercise equipment at your gym, ask a trainer or staff member to suggest assistive devices such as a grip cuff or hook, or to suggest an alternate exercise that does not use this equipment.
- Read MS: Exercise Tips to learn more about exercising with MS.
Managing stress
- Learn to recognize your signs of stress (e.g., tense muscles, sweaty hands, shallow breathing, irritability, nightmares, constipation or diarrhea, difficulty making decisions).
- Identify unhelpful thought patterns that may be adding to your stress (e.g., being too hard on yourself, thinking you're responsible for everything, "black and white" thinking).
- Talk to friends and family about how you're feeling.
- Think of ways friends and family could help, and make requests for help that are very specific.
- Read MS: Managing stress for more tips on managing stress.
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