Episode 176: Joint Pain Gone Without Drugs (Using just these 4 things)

If your knees, hips, or shoulders seem to ache more than they used to, there's a reason. Discover what's happening inside your body during menopause and how small nutrition changes can help reduce inflammation and support healthier joints.


To schedule your free 1-1 Strategy Session visit:
www.MindStrongFitness.com

Transcript

Becoming MindStrong Episode 176: Joint Pain Gone Without Drugs (Using just these 4 things)

Speaker 1  0:00  
Welcome back to Becoming Mind Strong podcast. My name is Rachel, and I'm the founder and CEO of Mind Strong, where education is our jam because we work in the world of peri and post menopause only, and we know this is a time of life that can be super confusing because every 30 year old trainer on Instagram is telling you eat less, move more, and we're like, I freaking am, and it's not working. As an educator, I'm here to tell you, you are not crazy. Even if your own doctor has you feeling crazy, it is true. The tool bag of our 20s, 30s, early 40s, it doesn't work anymore. As educators, we are here to give you the new tool bag for this new body in which we are living. So, with that said, in today's episode, we are going to talk about one of the heaviest hitters symptoms that we see time and time again in this beautiful stage of life called menopause, and that's joint pain. As I like to do, we're going to start really big picture. We're going to talk about why joint pain is so rampant in this stage of life over 40. From there, we will hone in a bit and talk about some of the contributing factors to joint pain, and then we will hone in even further. And most importantly, again, leaning into that education piece, we're going to talk about what to do about it, how we can get joint pain under control without drugs using nutrition alone. Let me tell you a quick story first before we dive in. Sometimes when our 12-week program is called Ignite, and when Ignite members are graduating, as much as my schedule allows, I love to get on calls with members and just hear about their story. You know, where where were you? That was that rock bottom moment that got you here. What transformation have you experienced? What are you feeling like on the other side? And somewhat recently, I did an an interview with a graduating Ignite member who's actually going on to train to be a coach with us, and I can't wait because she's going to be such an incredible coach. What I love about this member's story is that she has lived with rheumatoid arthritis her entire life, and in my interview with her, she's like Rachel, pain is just a part has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. Like I just wake up and I'm in pain, and I go through my day and I'm in pain, and I go to bed and I'm in pain, and the story the the story she shared with me was that two weeks into her time in Ignite, not two months, not two years, two weeks, she had a moment that she was up, she was getting ready in the morning, and all of a sudden she's like, "Holy cow, I'm not in pain. And can you? I got goosebumps when she told me that because you imagine a lifetime of living with this, and in two weeks, no pills, no shakes, no injections, just a change in her nutrition. In two weeks, she was no longer in pain. Holy cow! No wonder she was like, "I need to shout this from the rooftops. I need to show every woman that there's hope. As the time I'm recording this, she is currently in our very thorough training stage to become a coach with us in the future. So I share that story up front to say, if you are someone living with joint pain, whether it's the extreme of arthritis or whether it's more of just the day to day of oh wow I'm over 40 things are creaking and popping, there is hope. You do not need injections to do this. So, with that said, let's zoom out. Let's start big picture. Let's talk about what's going on in your body. We'll talk about what's making it worse, and then the light at the end of the tunnel. We'll talk about what that member and all of our members do to to get joint pain under control without drugs. One of the themes of menopause, and if you've hung out here before, you can say it with me, I'll be like a conductor while I'll say it in unison.

Speaker 1  3:43  
One of the themes of menopause is that our estrogen starts to naturally drop. Estrogen has a tremendous number of roles in the body. One of which is to fight against inflammation. So it is a biological truth at this stage of life that as our estrogen starts to naturally drop. There's a very natural rise in inflammation. As estrogen drops, inflammation rises. Joint pain is a symptom of inflammation. So part of this is simply a biological change that's happening in our body. Now, there are some things in our day-to-day life that are making the problem worse, and before I list off what they are, I want to have a bigger life conversation. I want to zoom out before we zoom in. If you've hung out here before, you know what I'm going to say. If you're newer here, welcome. You will be sick of hearing me say this. One of the reasons I hate diet culture so much is because it's zero to 100 It's black or white. It's all in, all out, and that sounds great in theory. If it actually worked, we wouldn't be here, right? These hardcore diets that are like, oh, you're eating Mickey d3's days a week. Now eat nothing but chicken and vegetables. Oh, you're going from work to your car to your couch. Now go to the gym five days a week, and you're. Like a baby giraffe, and you can't stand up the next day, so of course you're not going back to the gym. Major life overhauls do not work, and I'm saying that up front because some of the things I'm about to tell you that make inflammation worse, what diet culture would have you do is cut them all out. I do not believe in that. In fact, I'm not a fan of that, because if you know me, your girl loves a Krispy Kreme donut and a glass of whiskey now and then. And if I tried to go zero to 100 I might be on great behavior for a few weeks. Maybe you have more willpower than I do, so you could do it for a few months. But at some point, when I have one donut, I'm going to go ahead and have six because I already quote unquote broke my diet and ruined it, and I'll start again on Monday and down the rabbit hole I go. One of the the whole basis of why we teach nutrition the way we do. One of the main reasons is because when we tell our brain think about anything but a blue elephant, where does our brain go? Right? When we tell ourselves this is a good food, this is bad. This is allowed. This is not allowed. We are just making the problem worse. We are ruminating about the blue elephant, so to speak. When we can step into our power of choice, okay, donut isn't the most most nutritious thing I could have. I'm going to feel like garbage afterwards. I'm going to have a sugar high, then a sugar crash. I'm going to be hungry again three minutes later. I'm going to have some increased inflammation. Spoiler alert: sugar, and that's okay because I'm choosing to have it today, and I've scratched the itch. I don't have to have six donuts. I fit it into my nutrition plan. I didn't ruin my goals. Life moves on. I'm still hitting my goals, including that donut, this is how we make it a sustainable lifestyle. So that was a very long-winded way of saying the list I'm about to tell you. Yes, it makes inflammation worse, and no, I do not suggest ever that you do a major life overhaul and try to cut all of these out. And these are some things that make inflammation worse. Real quickly, if you are loving my content, I want to invite you to apply for a free one-to-one strategy session with my incredible all-female team. On your session, we'll talk about where you are, where you want to be, a game plan to bridge that gap, and see if one-to-one coaching is a fit. You can use the link below to access the two-minute application, and we'll see you on your session. Processed food, okay. Now, I'm going to dig a little bit deeper into all of these for the reason I just said.

Speaker 1  7:28  
Like, I want to drive this point into the ground that it's not all or nothing. I made a a statement. I don't want to say a commitment. I did not make a commitment. I made a statement a couple weeks ago to Swomo, my partner, I was like, I need to stop eating as much processed food because of the way my workday looks. I really struggle with getting up from my desk, making meals, feeding myself. Right, I tend to during the day either not eat or just grab like a protein bar or some protein chips. Yes, it helps me get my protein, and those are all very processed. So about two weeks ago, I was like, "Look, put it out there. I want to stop eating as much processed food. It is now two weeks later. I have done a terrible job at this because I have not prioritized it. Literally, as I'm recording this podcast, I finally took an action step. I started. I ordered my first round of food from a meal prep company, so I'll have some food I can just heat up and eat, which is a little a little better than processed food. It's not the most the best thing in the world, but it's better. So I say all this to say, I would be the biggest hypocrite in the world if I'm like never have processed food because I rely on bars and shakes and protein chips. I love protein chips because the way my my work schedule looks, I'm working to fix it. It is not all or nothing. I'm not doing a great job right now. I haven't drawn the line in the sand. I haven't burned the chips, doing the best I can. And I know when I have those protein chips, they're very processed. It's not helping inflammation. And it is true that processed food makes inflammation worse for purposes of this conversation. Sugar very similar to processed food. It increases inflammation. You know how I feel about Krispy Kreme doughnuts. I do not suggest you never have sugar, and if you're going to have some, know that it's going to make inflammation worse. If you are someone with chronic joint pain, cutting back on sugar is a game changer. That's probably the lowest hanging fruit for a lot of people. If you can cut back on sugar, not cut out all sugar, but cut back on sugar, you will notice a drastic difference in your inflammation and, by default, your joint pain. Sleep is a huge one. When we talk about the big three here-cortisol, inflammation, gut health-sleep is at the root of all of them. If you are not getting enough sleep, if you are not getting high quality sleep, you are going to continue to struggle with this stuff. There are lots of tips and tricks for sleep. I can speak to many of them because my partner is the worst sleeper I've ever met. She's got eye masks on. She's got earplugs in. We've got meditation music playing. The dogs now sleep on the floor. There are lots of techniques you can try eating carbs about an hour and a half before bed. I've done podcasts on that before. Getting sleep in is vital to every human, especially in a menopausal body. Lack of sleep can lead to a rise in inflammation, which can lead to a rise in joint pain. Stress. This ties in again: cortisol, gut health, inflammation. In our world, we call them the big three. If you are living with chronic chronic stress, your inflammation is going to be higher, and by default, your joint pain is going to be higher. Alcohol, I'm going to put under the category of processed food and sugar. If you are someone who enjoys a glass of wine now and then, if you are someone who enjoys an even cocktail, you know I love my glass of whiskey now and then, and for me personally, alcohol is one of my biggest triggers. If I drink alcohol, I know the next day I am going to feel puffy, my ring is going to be tight, like I'm just not going to feel good in my body. And some days, especially on the weekend, I will choose to have a drink now and then. If you're someone who's like I don't drink at all, fantastic.

Speaker 1  11:03  
You're not going to have to deal with that. If you're someone who drinks maybe a little more than you'd like to, it doesn't mean you have to stop altogether. But maybe if we're doing three cocktails a week, we cut back to two. You will notice the thing I love about the thing I love about alcohol, and that's not different than I intended to sound. The thing I love about cutting back on alcohol is that the pain pleasure principle works in your favor, right? We all know alcohol is not great for us. We all know that it doesn't feel good later the next day. Feels great in the moment, not so much the next day. So as you cut back, because humans are pleasure seeking creatures, right? It becomes an easier habit to build because you feel better, and our brains are always looking for what feels best and going in that direction. And finally, things that are contributing to inflammation is our gut health. This is why when I talk about the big three-cortisol, inflammation, gut health-I always say you can't compartmentalize; they bleed into each other because as we get our gut health in check, our inflammation is going to go down, and by default, our gut health goes down. So let me recap the list of things that make inflammation and therefore joint pain worse, and then we will talk about the strategies to how to get it under control without drugs, processed food, sugar, sleep, meaning lack thereof or poor quality, high levels of stress, alcohol, and gut health issues. So let's let's go to the last part of of this episode and talk about how we can get joint pain under control without shakes, without injections, without pills using nutrition alone. There are four categories. I'm going to break this up into when it comes to getting joint pain under control using nutrition alone, I'll tell you what they are first. Then we will dig deeper into each of them. Number one is focusing on anti-inflammatory foods. I'll tell you what those look like in a second. That is one of the the lowest hanging fruit for a lot of people. Is what can we add in that's going to help lower inflammation, lower joint pain. Number two is balancing our blood sugar. Again, we'll dive more into how we do that. Number three is focusing on omega threes, and number four, not surprisingly, focusing on our gut health. Okay, so the four we're going to dive deeper into each of them. But anti-inflammatory to foods, balancing our blood sugar, omega threes, and getting our gut health in check. Adding in anti-inflammatory foods, as you heard me say, is one of the lowest-hanging fruits. So, what we do with our members is we go through this anti-inflammatory guide and we say, okay, here's your personal nutrition plan, right? Here's how many grams of carbs, fat, protein you have to quote-unquote spend in a day. A lot of these tend to be carbs, not all of them, but a lot of them, let's look for which ones you prefer, right? If you're someone who hates blackberries, which are a great anti-inflammatory food, we're not going to add those in. But if you love blueberries, here we go, because they're also great anti-inflammatory, and those are both carb sources. So where can we spend some carbs on these anti-inflammatory foods? Some great sources of anti-inflammatory foods: berries. All the berries: blackberries, blueberries, raspberries. You name them, all the berries are great. Leafy greens like spinach, kale, things along those lines. Excellent sources of anti-inflammatory. Your veggies: broccoli, cauliflower, all of the above. Fantastic anti-inflammatory choices, and then some some seasonings, turmeric and ginger. I almost always you can't always see it on camera if you're watching this on video, but I almost always have tea while I'm working, and I try to do a lot of turmeric and ginger tea because why not? It hydrates me, which is also great for anti-inflammatory. By the way, getting enough water in because it flushes out your system, and it's got anti-inflammatory properties. So, berries, leafy greens, veggies, turmeric and ginger spices along those all great sources of anti-inflammatory foods. Strategy number two: balancing our blood sugar. So, number one was adding an anti-inflammatory foods. Number two is balancing our blood sugar. There are two keys to balancing blood sugar.

Speaker 1  15:05  
Well, more than two keys, but we're going to focus on two of them. One of them is the heaviest ticker: as much as your schedule allows. And I'm not going to go down the whole rabbit hole I just did about processed food and sugar and alcohol. But I will say, as much as your schedule allows, I do not eat three perfectly balanced plates a day. I'm lucky if I get one in. As much as your schedule allows, we want our meals to be a balanced plate of lean protein, complex fiber-rich carbs, and healthy fats. So a quote-unquote perfect plate could look like if you're a meat eater, grilled chicken. If you're not, tofu. Those are some lean proteins. Some complex carbs could be things like quinoa or brown or jasmine rice, and some healthy fats could be avocado or olive oil. As much as your schedule allows, we want a balanced plate of lean protein, complex fiber-rich carbs and healthy fat. Does that mean that if we don't have three square meals a day, we've ruined our goals? Absolutely not. I do not eat that way. If you figured out, if you've hacked life and you can do that every single day, please share your secrets with me. Teach you your way. Teach me your ways as much as your schedule allows. Okay. With that, we talk a lot on this podcast about the fact that you will not lose weight in a menopausal body without complex carbs, without fiber-rich carbs. What we want to avoid are what we call naked carbs, which simply means carbs on their own. My favorite example of this is I love pretzels. I love a late-night snack of sitting on the couch, drinking some tea, having some pretzels, so I'm gonna pair my pretzels with a little bit of almond butter, because pretzels by themselves naked carb, paired with some almond butter. Almond butter has some protein, has some fat. That's a perfect pairing. It avoids naked carbs. Why? Carbs, complex carbs, are slow burning energy, and we want to slow that process down even more in the name of keeping blood sugar stable. Pairing complex carbs or any carbs for that matter, pairing carbs with fat and protein slows the burn down even more. Helps keep our blood sugar stabilized. So you need your carbs. Do not cut out carbs. You will not lose weight or be healthy in a menopausal body. And we want to avoid naked carbs. Pair it with some some fat and protein. I'll give you a bonus, a little third thing for balancing blood sugar. Taking a 10 minute walk after meals is fantastic for your blood sugar. Doesn't have to be anything drastic. You don't need a weighted vest. You don't need to go work out for an hour. A 10 minute walk after meals helps blood sugar. Do I do it after every meal, no. It is very rare that I get my butt on on a walk after meals. It is not all or nothing, and it is great for your blood sugar. So so far, we've got adding in anti-inflammatory foods, balancing your blood sugar, which looks like a balanced plate, which looks like avoiding naked carbs. Bonus: 10-minute walk after meals. Technique number three for reducing joint pain, getting inflammation under control without drugs, is focusing on omega threes. Now, a lot of people think that if you are vegan or vegetarian, you can't get omega threes in, and that is simply not true. It is true that things like salmon and mackerel and sardines, fish, are great sources of omega threes, it is also true that things like flax seeds, chia seeds, hemp seeds, walnuts; these are all also fantastic sources of omega threes. So, if you are a vegan or vegetarian, you can still do it. So, finding ways to quote unquote spend your macros, your carbs, fat, protein on some omega three rich foods. If you're a meat eater, then some fish, or a pescetarian, some fish. If you are not, then some seeds. That's going to help with inflammation, and therefore it's going to help with joint pain. And number four is the biggest one, in terms of bigger topic, and that's getting your gut health in check.

Speaker 1  18:57  
I say bigger topic because in our world we talk about that big three a lot right cortisol, inflammation, and gut health, and gut health being one of the bigger one of the big three is a bigger topic. For the purposes of today's episode, where we're focused on joint pain, adding in similar to how we're adding in anti-inflammatory foods, similar to how we're adding in omega threes, adding in some fermented foods is fantastic for gut health. So things like kimchi, things like sauerkraut, things like fermented pickles, things like miso, these are all fantastic for your gut health. We can also, again, I'm trying not to go down a rabbit hole of gut health here, but I love talking about this stuff. We can also identify and remove trigger foods. So, for example, dairy is a trigger food for a lot of people, causes a lot of inflammation, causes a lot of joint pain. Garlic can be a trigger food for a lot of people, causes a lot of inflammation, causes a lot of joint pain. So, when we work on the big three of gut health with our members, the first thing we do is identify trigger foods, take them out temporarily once your gut. Healed, you can put them back in. That's more of a deep dive conversation. For the purposes of today, let's recap. Part of the reason that joint pain increases over 40 is that our estrogen drops. One of estrogen's main roles is fighting against inflammation. As estrogen drops, inflammation goes up, leading to joint pain. Then we got some stuff that's making it worse: processed food, sugar, sleep, stress, alcohol, gut health. All of these things are making inflammation worse, therefore making joint pain worse. Beautiful news: you don't need injections, you don't need drugs. We can do it using nutrition alone. Adding in anti-inflammatory foods: berries, leafy greens, veggies, certain seasonings, working to balance our blood sugar, which means balanced plates to the best of our ability, avoiding naked carbs, maybe taking a 10-minute walk after meals, adding in omega threes. If you are a meat eater or pescetarian, that could look like fish. If you are not, that could look like seeds or some nuts, and then working on one of the big three are gut health, which could look like identifying trigger foods and adding in fermented foods. There is hope. I said it at the beginning. I say it again. It's a word that I use constantly. Joint pain can feel debilitating for a lot of women, right? And and I think, and I'm speaking from personal experience right now, it can be a self-identity thing, right? In the morning, I'll spend not a lot of time, but three, five minutes stretching in the morning, and things don't feel like they did in my late 20s, right? As you get older, there's there's more snap, crackle, and pop, and things just hurt a little more than they used to, and that can be that can be a bit shocking, an identity shift, an ego crush, and the more we focus on these things, the more we can get it under control. I see so many women losing hope, so many women turning to drugs, so many women turning to injections because they feel like all hope is lost. Nutrition, I would say, is king, but in our world, we know that Queen Trump's king. When you get your nutrition under check, under control. I'll bring you back to the story I told up front: living rheumatoid arthritis for her entire life, living a life of pain to waking up two weeks later. I mean, we we can do this for two weeks. We've got this, right? We can make incremental life changes, not a major life overhaul, and in just two weeks of doing that, to have a morning waking up being like, holy cow, I'm not in pain. That is giving you your life back. I would say if we're talking about the pain pleasure principle, right? We talked about that with alcohol. I'm going to bring it back here. That's worth it. Our brain is going to say that feels incredible. Let me do more. We do not need to do a major life overhaul. We do not need to take a list of everything we spoke about in this episode and go do it all at once, because humans are pleasure-seeking creatures.

Speaker 1  22:47  
So as we do a little bit of this, and our joint pain lessens, and our inflammation goes down, and our body and our brain say, "Wow, I feel incredible! What else can I do? We will take another step, another and another, that, my friends, that, my love, is how we make this a sustainable lifestyle. For more information on MindStrong Fitness or to apply for a free one-to-one strategy session with my incredible all-female team, visit www. www.mindstrongfitness.com.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai