Navigating Life with POTS and Pans

Hello everyone!

I wanted to begin with a little story. So, I am at Trader Joe’s with my friend who is also gluten free and she tells me I absolutely have to try these gluten free coffee cake muffins. So naturally plop they go into my basket. Fast forward to when I get home and am shocked to find that this is THE BEST gluten free muffin that I have ever had. The texture and flavor was on point, it was delicious! So….guess what it was so good that I thought “oop well I’ll have two, how often is it that I find such a good muffin.” Y’all these muffins were not the mini-muffin variety. *whoops* So anyway, while the muffin eating is taking place I am having a little photoshoot with my suitemate with some beautiful sunflowers I brought back from Trader Joe’s. (I absolutely love sunflowers!) So as we are setting up all of a sudden I feel my head start to get foggy and I feel so drained and depleted of all the energy I had just a few moments ago. But, I saw how happy my suitemate was and knew how excited I myself was for this too to I pushed on, but I didn’t feel like myself for the next thirty minutes or so and guess what that was no fun!

Then it clicked for me. Eating those muffins, as good as they were in the moment did more harm than good. They became an obstacle in my way for showing up for both my suitemate and myself. It probably would have been fine if I had had one, but I had to learn that moderation is the key to sustainability.

Then I thought back to a few days ago when I had made a whole meal for my family and felt pretty good (with the exception of needing to drag a stool into the kitchen to sit on periodically) and guess what I had eaten, a delicious meal that I made at home with ingredients I could pronounce (the shrimp skewers down below)!

Once I linked the casual relationship of how the food I was eating was causing a flare-up of symptoms (which are not fun and so naturally I would do anything to avoid them) I realized the effect of food on my own life and the power it had to make a good day better or worse.

POTS is often characterized as a syndrome that is made up of many symptoms so management of POTS is a management of symptoms. For me, I have noticed how much power food has over these symptoms and how managing some of my POTS symptoms can be accomplished by fueling my body with nutritious whole foods.

Making decisions about food now looks a whole lot different for me. Once I began thinking about my food choices as choices that would determine the day I wanted to create, I began to realize that good food choices meant I was looking out for my future self, and that is the true definition of self-love.

Once I realized that I was in control of the progress of my day and of the way I felt (to some extent) it became a lot easier to muster up a little energy to create a good meal or snack.

However, some days it is hard to find the motivation and I am definitely making progress in this journey and am constantly having to remind myself to think about the effect of the food I am eating. And guess what, the best I can do is progress until it becomes second nature!

Looking out for my future self is something that I have been able to apply to many areas of myself and adjusting your perspective to look at the larger picture instead of just the here and now is the first step in helping us make difficult life-changes!

Here are some of the things that I have cooked up over the past two weeks that have fueled me! As always all of these recipes are gluten free and some are dairy free as well!

Cajun Shrimp Skewers GF, DF

I made dinner for my family of 6 over Spring Break and I started off with the most delicious appetizer, Cajun Shrimp Skewers! They are quick, easy, and delicious (seriously were gone so fast, my family devoured them)!

The recipe that I used can be found here and in order to make these super quick I’m not going to lie I just used guacamole I bought at the store for the avacado spread.

However, as you all know I have POTS so standing for this long was HARD. I carried a chair into the kitchen to help me between transitions and to sit in while I whipped up some of the food.

These skewers have protein, which is super important for my POTSies but also for everyone because protein helps stimulate the autonomic nervous system! The lime juice and cilantro adds a freshness to this appetizer and are perfect for summer…however I made them in March because I was wishing it was summer haha 🙂

Breakfast and Lunch Ideas: Classic Breakfast and a Delicious Sandwiches

Breakfast

First, let’s talk breakfast! This breakfast was super yummy, but not going to lie I couldn’t eat all of it. I have learned that eating big meals is also just not the best idea for those with POTS as many POTSies have digestive issues as well.

But because I was home for break I knew I needed to whip up some waffles (because there is nothing of the sort at UNC). I just used a box mix for the waffles due to time. Pro-Tip: Don’t wait until you have finished making your mix to heat up the waffle iron like I did 😉 My family also has a trick to making more flavorful waffles: substitute orange juice for water. Trust me you’ll thank me. Anything to add flavor to gluten free recipes am I right 🙂

I finished the breakfast off with some delicious strawberries, some frozen sausage I reheated in a skillet (super easy) and then I made an egg scramble.

Something I always remember about nutritious eating is to make your plate super colorful! Because of this I added some chopped peppers, tomatoes, and spinach to my egg scramble to add a little *pop* to my plate!

Lunch

Now, let’s talk lunch. This is my absolute favorite sandwich! My favorite gluten free frozen bread is the Honey White Bread from Grand Canyon, but as always with gluten free bread it only tastes good if it toasted.

On one side of my sandwhich I like to smear pesto, while on the other side I smear manaise and mustard together. On the sandwich itself we’ve got: turkey, Grillo’s pickles, avocado (which I put some salt and pepper on), Colby jack cheese, and sometimes we go all out and plop some tomatoes, cucumber, and spinach on that bad boy to make a monster of a sandwich. But let me tell you it’s so yummy and easily my go-to sandwich!

Tacos…in the dorm!

After I got back from Spring Break my suite mate and I decided it would be fun to cook dinner in our *little* dorm kitchen. So we really chef’d it up. We sautéed some veggies (we used green onions, some red onion, and some orange and yellow peppers), roasted some chickpeas (that we tossed in taco seasoning, and then let sit in the fridge for an hour, and then roasted in the oven), made some guac (red onion, avocado, salt, and lime juice…we added everything to taste), and finished it off with a fun mocktail of spindrift and tangerine juice!

It was really yummy and the guac was on point! It was a great way to start the final homestretch of my first year of college!

Eating Out and Cravings

Okay so food is fuel for sure…but cravings come and you will enviably go out to eat with your friends and family. So how do you manage all of this while still fueling your body?

Eating Out

I will have a post coming out soon about my favorite gluten free restaurants and the photo on the left is one of them, Silver Diner!

The meal was so yummy (shrimp not pictured…because protein and salt always!) and the cauliflower pita bread was *so yummy!* If I have learned anything from eating gluten free is that anytime a real food (often cauliflower) is used as a substitute it tastes so much better, has a better texture, and leaves you feeling so much better than when its just “gluten free.” This is why I recommend if you can ever choose to order pizza with a cauliflower crust as opposed to a gluten free crust, do it! Trust me, your body and your taste buds will thank me!

But eating out does not have to be bad for you! It is often just harder to make decisions that you know you will feel good about in an hour. But once you begin to see how good you feel when you start choosing food that is right for you, you will get hooked on feeling good, on feeling more alive that it will slowly become easier to make those good decisions!

Cravings

Now, let’s talk cravings. Your cravings tell you something that your body needs. I love the graphic down below as it tells you what your body’s is cravings are telling you! It is so important to understand what you can do for your body to remain feeling good and to have energy!

However, this is not to say that all dessert is bad! As my mom always says, everything in moderation!

As you can see from my little ice cream photo above I definitely enjoy a good bowl of ice cream! But, I’ve also been learning what amount makes me feel good and what amount is just too much. Putting peanut butter and fresh cut strawberries on my ice cream also leaves me feeling full and happy because I just love both of those foods!

Alright that is all I have for now! Goodbye, I will see you all later this week and remember to have grace for yourselves and others, this is a journey and progress is not linear, blaze your own trail!

❤ Ashley