Conquering Anxiety: The role of Diet and Exercise

Hi everyone! I hope you are doing well. This is week 4 of our Conquering Anxiety series. This week we are talking about two underutilized tools when it comes to managing anxiety and these are diet and exercise. 

Let's assume you own a car. You do not put the right fuel in the car, then you go long periods without even starting the car, when you do take the car out, you go out in rough terrains with the wrong fuel and the car that has forgotten how it works. Would you be surprised it's not functioning as intended? I don’t think so. 

Human beings are so much more complex than a car, but logic dictates that us not having the right diet (physical and digital) and not exercising our bodies will make it harder for us to function well. But we often neglect the role these factors play in our struggles with mental health. Make no mistake, you can have a perfect diet, exercise, and live out in the woods and still be anxious or depressed but some people benefit greatly from fixing these foundations so this topic is worth being talked about. 

Diet

The food we consume

When it comes to the topic of diet about food, we will not go into the nitty gritty of which diet is superior and which one should be avoided at all costs. These choices are rarely that simple. However usually when people report that they are feeling better on a certain diet, there is an overlapping factor that most popular healing diets focus on whole foods, eating home-cooked meals, and being more involved in the process of making your food. The quality of the food you consume can impact your mental health just as it impacts your physical health. 

Here is what to keep in mind when it comes to choosing your diet

• Include foods that your body likes (whatever you can digest with ease, works well for your body)
• Avoid regular consumption of foods that make you feel lethargic or uneasy (this could be cake for some and broccoli for others)
• Plan, don’t wait for last-minute meal cooking. Who has the energy? Try meal preps and figure out backup options. Stick to realistic things based on your energy levels. 
• See this is a lifestyle change, unless medically necessary, you can still enjoy the things that don’t work for you in moderation, as part of a balanced diet.
• Consider reducing caffeine consumption if you have noticed it to worsen your anxiety. You may consider the same with your sugar and alcohol intake. 

Your digital diet!

Let's not forget how easy it is to overindulge in content that makes us feel terrible. Social media can be quite the mixed bag, you can start your scrolling in a good mood and put down the phone 20 minutes later with a new worry. 

Important points to consider

1. The content you consume is part of your overall diet. It greatly impacts your mood. 
2. Most of the content out there is biased and heavily filtered. You are not getting the straight facts

Most of us know we should reduce the time we spent on the web on things that are not directly related to our jobs/educaton or other such needs. But how do we do it?

Actions you can take now to get back in control of your digital diet

• Do not pick up your phone first thing in the morning. Get an alarm clock if you must. Spend the first 30 minutes of your day doing anything else other than being on a device. Bonus points if you can do something like a short walk, make your breakfast etc. This is setting the mood for the day. 
• Maintain healthy boundaries with your phone. Reflect on the times when your phone is not a necessity. Examples of such situations:
  • You are going for a walk with someone else who is carrying a phone
  • You will be working on your homework for the next 1 hour that requires no phone use
  • You are eating lunch
• In such situations, before you start this task/activity, put your phone in a drawer or a cupboard away from the place of activity. Do not take it out until you genuinely need it for something of value. 
• Consider a nondevice activity 30-60 minutes before bed. You can read a physical book, you can meditate, you can color, you can complain about not having your phone, or whatever helps you get the habit started! 
• Uninstall apps that do not benefit you at all. Replace the time you spend on them with something else that is beneficial and enjoyable for you. 

Exercise

Exercise helps to regulate your mood, it is a form of distraction, a way to exert your energy into something productive. 

Physical exercise

Here are some factors to consider when using exercise for managing anxiety or general stress levels

• Consistency is important but little is better than nothing. 
• Start where you are and with what is doable. For some this means walking for 10 minutes, for others it means taking the stairs
• Include micro movements/exercise snacks into your routine. Do a 100 steps every 3 hours, or park your car a block away. Create opportunities for movement. 
• For stress management and anxiety levels, it may not be ideal to do exercises that stress you out. Avoid picking up exercises that you dread. Don’t like going to the gym? Take some short walks instead. 

Mental Exercise

Sounds like a weird concept at first in relation to anxiety management but the reality is, unknowingly we have trained our minds to think the worst, indulge in our worries so it makes sense to give ourselves opportunities to think a bit differently. 

Some mental exercises to consider

• Gratitude journal (You can start your day by writing down 1-3 things you are grateful for, bonus points if you do it first thing in the morning)
• Challenging cognitive distortions (At the end of the day, think of any distressing repetitive thought and challenge it, what are the facts supporting it, what are the odds, what evidence is available against it, what is a more balanced way of thinking about the situation)
• Leaves on the stream meditation or other types of meditations that allows you to detach from your thoughts and view them as neutral
• At the end of the day, write down one thing you did well today. 

In summary, we want to be mindful or our food and digital diet and we want to add regular physical and mental exercises. Here is an example of how one person can include these 4 things in a day 

• Start the day by saying out loud what you are grateful for (time taken 30 seconds) - Mental exercise
• Go for a short walk after your breakfast/lunch/dinner (Time taken 15 minutes) - Physical exercise
• Get yourself a veggie tray and a rotisserie chicken after your grocery shopping trip instead of a take out lunch (No additional time taken) - Food Diet
• Ditch your phone 15 minutes before bedtime for starters (Time saved, 15 minutes) - Digital Diet

🔦Your task

Draft a realistic plan that includes at least 1 task/activity you will do that covers all 4 types (Food and Digital Diet, Physical and Mental Exercise). You have been provided with an example above. 

Please follow through with your plan for a minimum of 7 days. You will be asked about your experience with it in the series evaluation form at the end of the series. 

Now remember change can be uncomfortable and frustrating. It sucks to have your phone in a drawer when you would much rather distract yourself with it, maybe you don’t want to uninstall that one app that is reducing your joy but you are capable of doing hard things and the interesting thing about doing so is that it gets so much better, the more you exercise control.