Episode 389: Change Just One Thing

Change just one thing. I’m Annette Leonard of https://www.annetteleonard.com you can find me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/theannetteleonard/ I took the longest break I’ve ever taken since starting Chronic Wellness. It’s good to be back. I’m excited to announce that I’ll be starting a broadcast called Chronic Wellness Conversations on IG Live. This will be starting this fall on Thursdays at 11am PST. I’ll be chatting with authors, thought leaders, activists and other sick folks about how to have illness and pain while trying to also lead a rich and meaningful life. More details soon. I was at the Neurologist recently talking about my daily migraines. The doctor had several suggestions about things I should change from habits related to stress reduction techniques and diet, to medication changes both dosages of things I’m on now and adding in a new med. I was again reminded that when I’m eager and hopeful it’s easy to take on too much too quickly. Early on I would change multiple things all at the same tame and if something shifted for the better — I didn’t know how to parse what made the difference. Hence today’s topic, change just one thing. It’s simple but not always easy. Change one thing, wait, then change one more thing. With my neurology appointment, I’m going to change the dose of the med and wait 4-6 weeks, then make the dietary change and wait 4-6 weeks, then add the other med and wait 4-6 weeks. For me, it can take a while to really see if it will take a while to see what the impact of these changes are. Nutrition science is now telling us that we might not notice the effects of a change for up to a month. What does that mean for how we should structure an elimination diet? How slowly should we take out foods? How slowly should we add them back in? Yes, this takes a lot more time — but what could be more worth it? What if it saves time in the long run? Also, when we’re experiencing so much pain, it’s difficult to notice the discrete differences across and between the days. What makes a difference? The weather? The time of day? My hormones? The season? Therefore, tracking my pain matters a lot. Many of us, too, were taught to tune out our bodies messages. Tracking helps me learn my bodies signals. If I’m making changes, tracking helps me understand whether those changes are making a difference.