A healthy lifestyle is important when fighting any addiction. Your success in ending your alcoholism or drug addiction is largely dependent on your physical and mental health. What you eat has a significant effect on your mental health. As long as you are ready to start and maintain a healthy lifestyle and get assistance, you can beat any addiction. Therefore, start your recovery journey by examining what you eat.
Evaluating eating habits is a powerful strategy to employ when fighting addiction. It’s a technique that will enable you to determine whether you are giving your body the nutrients it needs to function optimally. Today, there are many food journals online that you can use to record what you eat. You can also use them to examine your micronutrient/macronutrient ratios and caloric intake.
Once you start drug rehabilitation programs, the professionals you find there will teach you about good nutrition and its importance. This center is run by professionals that understand the predicaments of people with different addictions. They will teach you how to start and maintain a healthy lifestyle during treatment and after rehabilitation. Entering a rehab facility is the first and most important step. However, you need to change your lifestyle to lead a healthy, drug-free life.
Why You Should Be Keen on What You Eat During Recovery
Detoxification, therapy, and counseling are all effective methods of treating alcoholism and drug addiction. However, individuals that undergo treatment for drug addiction or alcoholism without making dietary changes have a higher vulnerability to relapse. A significant percentage of people in modern society eat processed foods. These are foods designed in laboratories. The main ingredients of these foods are refined carbohydrates, sugar, and vegetable oils. These foods are mainly designed to have great taste.
Processed foods and addictive substances light up similar pleasure-reward areas in the brain. Thus, eating some processed foods can lead to addiction just like addictive substances like heroin and cocaine. Essentially, eating dopamine-triggering foods subjects the human brain to the highs and lows, ups and downs, of addictive substances because ingesting them stirs a similar neurochemical pot.
It’s important to note that many people have severe nutritional deficiencies when entering drug rehab facilities. These deficiencies magnify the effects of the addiction problem. For instance, alcoholism can cause thiamine deficiency. It can also increase deficiencies of vitamin D, vitamin B12, and magnesium. These nutrients are all important for the optimal functioning of the brain.
Processed foods do not supply the most essential nutrients. Nutritional deficiencies can make you feel foggy-brained, rundown, depressed, and distractible. Addictive tendencies and junk food will robe your body of the important neurochemical ingredients it needs to function properly and achieve full recovery.
A Healthy Lifestyle Promotes Recovery
Research has shown that nutrition is very important when it comes to recovering from substance use disorders. Entering a rehabilitation facility is a great step towards a healthier, longer life. That’s because nothing can steal your overall well-being faster than a degenerative alcohol and drug dependency nature. However, the journey to recovery is not easy. Many challenges stand in the recovery journey.
Recovery is partially dependent on the development of new chemical pathways in the brain. It’s through these pathways that the brain overcomes the habitually addictive behaviors. Therefore, a healthy lifestyle that entails eating the right foods nourishes the brain. This poises it for stable moods, less intrusive cravings, and better learning.
When you eat to support your recovery from alcoholism or drug addiction, don’t make it a deprivation. Instead, focus on feeding your body and mind with essential nutrients from natural sources. This is the best way to take care of your body and mind, which is a crucial step in building self-esteem and your brain.
Individuals in addiction treatment centers or those recovering outside these facilities should adopt diets that minimize cravings and stabilize mood. Such diets should be high in leafy greens foliates, fatty fish omega-3 fats, and brain-healthy nutrients found in vegetables and colorful fruits. Eating healthy foods creates a sustained fullness feeling that fortifies individuals in their recovery.
Start Exercising
A healthy lifestyle is not just about eating the right foods. It also involves exercising. Exercising is a great strategy that promotes recovery from alcoholism and drug addiction. There are many benefits to exercising. Research has shown that exercise might be an effective adjunctive treatment for substance use disorders. Exercising during recovery enables the body to recover from drugs’ damage.
For instance, exercising regularly helps in the restoration and enhancement of metabolism. It can also enhance digestion. What’s more, regular exercise can improve sleep quality, weight management, and better mood.
Some of the exercises you can engage in while undergoing treatment in a drug rehab facility or alcohol treatment center include:
- Yoga
- Football
- Weight-lifting
- Pilates
- Basketball
- Tae-bo
If you want to recover from alcoholism or drug addiction without going to rehab, you can take several steps to get started. For instance, you can join a local gym. This provides a setting where you get ongoing support and encouragement from fitness experts. These experts will also instruct and guide you when engaging in different exercises. If you can’t join a local gym, consider befriending people that are focused on leading an active, healthy lifestyle. These will guide you when engaging in different exercises to ensure that you reap maximum benefits.
Get Enough Sleep and Relieve Stress
Lack of enough, quality sleep can cause many problems for people with alcohol and drug addiction. For instance, inadequate sleep can lead to stress, getting run down, and poor decision making.
Relieving stress should also be part of a healthy lifestyle when fighting addiction. Engage in stress-relieving activities like yoga. Such activities provide a physical and emotional outlet for daily frustrations. They also feed the brain with the feel-good endorphins.
The Bottom Line
When enrolling for drug rehabilitation programs, many people don’t think about healthy lifestyle aspects like diet and exercise. Their minds are preoccupied with withdrawal, counseling, and therapy. Nevertheless, a healthy lifestyle is very important in the war against addiction. If you or a loved one is fighting addiction, start by adopting a healthy lifestyle to enhance the chances of success.