Is there something that you know you should be doing to improve your health, but you can't quite seem to make it happen? If you're listening to this podcast, you may be thinking this about the Wahls protocol. It's a scientifically proven diet to prove quality of life with multiple sclerosis. The very thing you are desperate to achieve, yet we can't quite figure out how to stay on it. It feels too restrictive. The meals seem boring and bland.

As a nutrition coach specializing in multiple sclerosis and autoimmune disease, I'm sharing with you my top five tips for staying consistent on the Wahls protocol. And my friend, if you want a more personalized approach to creating your MS diet and lifestyle, check out my private coaching program. It includes a comprehensive assessment, personalized strategies, and lifestyle support. Each month, I accept only three new clients.

I'm your host, Alene Brennan. The better part of the last seven years, I've been coaching clients on how to make the Wahl's protocol more realistic for them. So many people reach out to me saying, 'Alene, I want to follow the Wahl's protocol, but I can't figure out how to make it work in my life. It just feels so restrictive.' The meals don't look appealing and it's too time consuming. I have a life, not to mention an ongoing battle with fatigue and brain fog and all the other daily reminders of living with MS. I don't have time to make every meal from scratch. I can't spend my entire day in the kitchen. I need something that's going to be quick and easy. Does it sound like I'm reading your mind right now? Well, if so, it's not just you. And spoiler alert, you're not the problem. It's not your lack of motivation. It's not your lack of commitment. And it's not your lack of knowledge either. Look, the reality is it's not just about what you know. It's about what you're doing. But when you're trying to follow the wall's protocol, it can feel like you're trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, right? Like you read the book, you watch the videos; they

help you maintain your quality of life. And then you start to feel guilty because you know there's something that you can be doing to help feel better and improve your chances of maintaining a high quality of life for years to come, but you're not doing it. And you keep telling yourself that it's your fault. So if you hear nothing else from this podcast, which I do hope you stick around because I do have some good information for you. But if you hear nothing else from this, I want you to know this is not your fault.

But I am willing to bet that you will find at least one that resonates with you and that can help make this journey a little bit easier for you, enabling you to start today, not tomorrow, not next week, not next month, because your body, it needs you now. It needs you to start making these changes now so that it can start healing and feeling good in your body for years to come. So step number one,

I'm going to be that person who lives that lifestyle and I'm going to feel so good. And then you looked at the plan and you realized just how strict it is. And you thought, maybe I'll start next week. And you thought of a million and one different reasons why you weren't ready yet. You're committed. You're going to do it, but just not yet. You have to figure a few things out yet. You have to wait for things to calm down. You're just not ready yet.

It feels so intimidating. So you hold off. I think one of the biggest mistakes people make when looking at the Wall's protocol is thinking that it's an all or nothing approach. And listen, I'll admit like I very easily have that mindset as well, because in part, that's been some of the messaging out there. Like one cheat could have detrimental effects and that's true. However, that's not meant to stand in the way of just getting started.

And that's what I want to encourage you to do today. Where are you at right now? Where are you at right now? What would be one step that you can take that starts getting you closer to the wall's protocol? You don't have to do everything at once on day one, but don't keep putting off day one because you're not ready to take any steps yet. Figure out how to take just one step. Dr. Wahls, I promise you, is not going to come and pound down your door if you choose to have two servings of vegetables today because yesterday you only had one. So that's progress for you, but she's not going to come and yell at you because you didn't get the nine cups in. That's not how this works. Where are you at right now? What is one improvement that you can make starting today? And start focusing on that and trust that your body will start to improve in time as you take one step at a time. And as the health starts to build and the momentum builds, that is when you can start getting some good traction, but it starts with that one step.

See how that just feels better when you're like, I'm going to have one more serving of vegetables today versus I have to have nine cups of vegetables. I am not knocking the science or the importance of getting those nine cups in. That is important. Dr. Wahls put a tremendous amount of research into it, and she was able to identify the different categories that are helpful for us, the leafy green, the sulfur rich, the deeply colored. But I have heard from Dr. Wahls directly because I've asked her this question over and over again, and she's very consistent with her answer. The reason why she developed the Wahls protocol with the nine cups is to make sure you don't go hungry. So, somebody who is petite is not going to be able to get those nine cups of vegetables in every day the way somebody is who is maybe a construction worker who is outside and very physically active and has a much bigger build of their body. It's going to be much easier for them to consume nine servings or nine cups than somebody who's super petite and doesn't have a very active lifestyle. So don't get caught up in all of the precision.

It's not meant to be intimidating, and it's not meant to be a barrier that stands in the way of you just getting started. So my friend, our first step in being consistent with the Wahls protocol is setting realistic goals. So I encourage you right now, what is one step of the Wahls protocol that you can start doing today? Because here's the thing that we know about the brain and goal setting. If you set a goal that feels unrealistic, or it feels like too big of a leap from where

haven't seen it, and now all of a sudden your brain is bringing your attention to it. You're flipping through a magazine or you're scrolling online and all of a sudden you see all these amazing recipes for vegetables that look appealing. When you set realistic goals, your brain gets on board and it starts identifying all the steps that are in front of you every single day to help get you closer to that goal. So set realistic goals, allow this to help engage your brain; they will say, they're like, 'Alene, you just made this realistic for me.' I tried doing this so many times before and it never felt doable. It never felt realistic for me to maintain with my lifestyle. And you met me where I was at. You didn't force everything on me, but you also held me accountable. You helped me to make

alright, next up, meal planning and prepping. Oh my gosh, did I just lose you? You hear meal prep and you're like, 'all right, done, skip.' I'm on to the next episode. I get it. Nobody, including me, wants to spend their entire Sunday in the kitchen making meals. I enjoy cooking. I enjoy discovering new recipes and how to make healthy food taste delicious. I really do enjoy that. But I don't enjoy spending all my day, time, energy, and everything else in the kitchen. That's not fun to me. I have a

change. You have to be willing to make a change in what you're eating. And that starts with what you're buying at the grocery store. So you don't need a complete overhaul of the kitchen, but you do need to start getting some healthier food options in your kitchen and making it more appealing to choose them at meal or snack time. So how can you make planning and prepping easier? Because again, the whole message of this is being more consistent and to be consistent,

I don't have the time or the energy for it. I just need to have something to eat and I just want to sit down. I want to be done with my day. You're not making the best choices if you're not planning ahead of time. So get out a piece of paper, look at your calendar and write down what meals that you're going to have for dinner each week. That in and of itself, even if you're not changing what you're eating, even if you're just being more intentional and starting to set that habit of planning your dinners out for the week, that's a big win.

I do a meal prep every week on Sunday. I make one dish and that's my breakfast for the week. And then I also will typically do a whole chicken in the slow cooker on Saturday night. So then that gives me some chicken that I can have throughout the week for salads, for lunches, for allergy-friendly paninis or quesadillas. Like it's quick, it's easy. It's plain chicken that can be doctored up or used in so many different ways. Our goal is quick and easy. Don't overcomplicate meal prepping.

That automatically goes into the fridge or the freezer for leftovers for you. And that brings me to point number three, variety is key. You have to switch up the meals that you're having. Now, in the beginning, it's definitely common to pick one meal that is quote unquote Wahls compliant, and then you just have that on repeat. You're eating it every single day because it's easy. You don't have to think about it. And it just feels like that is your lifeline to staying consistent. And I did it myself.

That's not sustainable. That's not going to help you stay consistent on the Wahls protocol. So if this is something you struggle with, head over to Alenebrennan . com backslash smoothies and join my five day smoothie challenge. It has recipes, shopping lists, videos of all the different smoothies that I make in there. It's simple and it can spark some inspiration for you to vary up your smoothies. But you can do this again each

week, you're going to have 52 different recipes that you have made throughout the course of 2024. That's pretty fantastic. I'm willing to bet that's a lot more than you did in 2023. So make sure that you are varying it up. That's not only important for you to be enjoying the meals, but it's also important for gut health too, because our gut microbiome needs the variety of foods to help keep the bacteria in our gut healthy and strong. All right, two more to go. Let's go here. Number four, routines and rituals. You want to establish routines so that you are incorporating this into your everyday life.

Whatever works best for you, look at your schedule ahead and start mapping out the meals that you're going to have. Keep it simple, but just map out the meals that you're going to have. This is on Friday. And then maybe Saturday morning is when you do your grocery shopping. And then on Sunday morning, maybe that's when you make one meal. So establishing these routines helps to get all of the decision-making off your mind. So you're not having to think about like, all right, when am I going to go to the grocery store?

Morning routines. Again, keep it simple, but start creating some routines that make this simple for you. Okay, and then rounding us out with step number five, create a support system. So this is really important because it can feel really lonely living with MS, an invisible disease, but it also can feel further lonely when you are following a food protocol that's

That said, not all family members are ready to make these changes with you. And you don't want to let that stand in the way of you making changes for yourself. So if you can get them on board, great. It's going to make a big difference and it's going to make it a lot easier for you. But if you can't, don't let that stand in your way. You can get support from an online community. I'd love it if you would choose ours. You can get support from this podcast right here. And most of all, you need to be a cheerleader for yourself and not a cheerleader in the aspect of pushing yourself on the hard days, more from the perspective of having some self-compassion and forgiveness, because there will be slip-ups.

That doesn't mean that you throw everything to the wind there. You recognize what you had, you pay attention to the results, and then you begin again. You begin again. So I share this with you because this is a long journey. We're living with a chronic illness and we're making lifestyle changes and dietary changes that are pretty significant. And that's not always easy. So whether you're able to rally your family to be your support,

or life gets in the way, or you're managing life with a chronic illness, and you're managing life with a chronic illness and making dietary changes that aren't the easiest to make. So keep it simple, but put one foot in front of the other and keep taking one more step each day. So let's do a quick recap here. Five steps to consistency on the Wahls protocol. Number one, set realistic goals. Number two, meal planning and prepping. Keep it simple, keep it easy, but do it. And number three, have some variety in your meals. Mix it up.

family on board. get a friend on board. I actually have a client who said that a friend from church reached out to her and she's like, hey, listen, she's like, I heard about what you're doing from a diet perspective. I'd love to be your accountability buddy if you'd want to. I have some things that I'm working on myself. So maybe just each day or each week, we could send each other a text and it could just be something simple like done, or it could be, I ate spinach today, whatever it is.

More tips to reclaiming our body, mind, and life from multiple sclerosis. Well, my friend, we've reached the end of this episode. Pick one lesson from today's discussion and put it into action now. It's time to reclaim your body, mind and life from multiple sclerosis. And for more resources, events and programs, head over to Alenebrennan. com. See you on the next episode of my MS podcast.