Thanksgiving is tomorrow, one of the biggest food events of the year. You've got turkey, stuffing, cornbread, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, pumpkin pie, apple pie. It's a feast of gluten, dairy, and sugar, and all the things we're trying to avoid to manage multiple sclerosis. That's hard. That's hard physically, mentally, emotionally, and it's hard socially. Will other people make comments or judgments about what you're eating or not eating? Will they ask questions that you're not prepared to answer? Will you feel separated from the family because you're not eating off the same plate as everybody else? I want to have a little heart-to-heart with you before you show up at your dinner table tomorrow. And I want to share some tips with you on how to navigate Thanksgiving dinner when you're trying your best to eat in a way that supports you in managing multiple sclerosis.

And my fellow MS sisters, 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 only accept three new clients. So if you're interested, apply now at Alenebrennan.com/coach. Now on to today's episode. There are 1 million people diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in the US, so that makes you one in a million. And you have a special purpose in this world that no diagnosis can take away from you. So if you are ready to reclaim your body, mind, and life from multiple sclerosis, welcome to my MS podcast. I'm your host, Alene Brennan. I remember my first Thanksgiving after I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2016.

It was my first family holiday since my mom had passed, my first family gathering since my diagnosis, and my first family meal since starting the WALLS protocol. It was a lot, and I hadn't told my extended family about my diagnosis. Needless to say, I was carrying a lot of emotions that day. I just wanted things to be normal. But how could they when the entire day revolved around food? And I just committed to a new diet that prevented me from eating virtually every food that was being served. And it wasn't even like we were eating at a restaurant where I could have a side conversation with the server or chef about my food restrictions. No, this was one big family meal cooked in a home kitchen with all the gluten and all the dairy all around.

And I decided beforehand that I wasn’t going to compromise my health for one meal. It just wasn’t worth it to me. And as much as I love my Uncle Joe’s stuffing, which I’m convinced has more butter than it does bread, the risk of what it could do to my health just wasn’t worth it. And that’s exactly what I want to help you decide now. And that’s a hard decision to make because Thanksgiving kind of kicks off the holiday season when we’re surrounded by good food and family. And for the most part, it’s an uplifting environment. So it can feel really hard when you aren’t able to participate in the food. It feels like you’re not able to participate in the holiday to a certain extent.

So that's what I want to help you kind of think through now, because I think it's so important that you decide before you show up to Thanksgiving dinner what you're going to do. The decision is not going to be easier if you're making it when you're surrounded by all the amazing smells of food and seeing everyone else put food on their plate. If that's the moment you're waiting to decide, you're not exactly stacking the odds in your favor. So let's think this through. Let's do a little game of choose your own adventure. Adventure one, you throw it all to the wind and you eat whatever you want. Adventure two, you stay on your diet, but you have to worry about what you're actually going to eat. Let's walk through these two scenarios.

So adventure one, it's a free for all. You're loading up your plate with whatever looks most delicious to you. I can think of no better way to tell this story than to tell you about a client of mine that I worked with probably about six or seven years ago. She eliminated gluten and dairy from her diet, and she really wasn't sure if it had done much for her, which is common because the changes that you feel from food are more gradual. In fact, they can be so subtle that it's easy to forget how bad you felt on day one. Anyway, she had been following her plan for probably about three or four months at this point, and Thanksgiving rolled around. And she comes from a big family, a family that absolutely loves big family dinners.

And she decided that gluten and dairy didn't affect her that much. So on Thanksgiving, she was going to have the traditional meal. And I wasn't going to stand in her way because we all get to decide what we want to do. That is a decision that you get to make. And she felt it was one meal. And then she'd go back to her plan on Friday. How much could one meal really do? So she had her normal Thanksgiving dinner and she didn't feel much different afterwards. She actually got kind of excited at the thought of not having to go back on her plan the next day. That was until the next morning when she woke up and all her symptoms were acting up. The impact from food, in her words, was undeniable.

But from her perspective, which I agree with, it was actually really validating and a really good experience for her to go through because it helped her to see that all of those changes that she had been making actually made a difference. Again, going back to what I was sharing earlier, because the changes can be so subtle and so gradual, you can easily forget how bad you felt on day one. And then you just start to think that this is your new norm. And maybe you actually didn't feel all that bad. And maybe you actually can go back to those same old foods, right? I mean. Don't we all think this at some point? But when my client had her regular Thanksgiving dinner with gluten and dairy and all the fixings, it was like a shock to her body.

It was such a sharp contrast from how good she had been feeling, but she didn't realize how good she was feeling because she forgot how bad she felt originally. So in many aspects, this was a really good experience for her because it helped her to see how bad she originally felt when she was just eating her normal foods and how good she was able to feel when she changed her diet. But of course, because she felt so crappy the next day, she hated the fact that her symptoms held her back from enjoying the rest of the holiday weekend, all because of one meal that seemed rather innocent at the time. She called me the next week and said, 'Alene, I'm more committed now than I ever have been before because I felt awful and I don't want to feel that way again.' I didn't realize how much the food was making a difference in my symptoms.

I didn't realize how bad I felt originally, and I didn't realize how good I was feeling until I had this meal. And that's what I always encourage my clients and I encourage you to do as well. Regardless of what you choose to eat, pay attention to the results. Pay attention to the results. And here's the thing, the results aren't always immediate. They can be felt up to three days later. And they're not only just GI related. I mean, yes, they can be gas, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, like all the traditional things, but they're often just as common to be felt as fatigue, brain fog, aches and pains, mood swings, headaches, like so many different things. So pay attention to how you feel, not only after your meal, like certainly pay attention to how you feel right afterwards in a couple hours afterwards, but also pay attention to how you feel for the next couple days.

Paying attention to your energy, your mental clarity, mood, skin, sleep. Basically, pay attention to your whole body because food doesn't just affect your stomach. It affects your whole body. So if you are choosing Adventure One and you're having a free-for-all and you're doing your thing, you're putting whatever you want on your plate, just keep in mind that you may not realize how good you're feeling right now because of the foods that you've chosen to eat leading up to today. You may be forgetting how bad you felt on day one, but either way, pay attention to the results. Pay attention to how you feel not only immediately after you eat, but for the next two to three days.

And just to give you a little help along the way, if you are doing the traditional Thanksgiving dinner, again, with all the fixings, you might want to mix in some digestive enzymes. So they're not a safeguard against gluten and dairy, but they can help give your body just a little help with digesting food. So if you have digestive enzymes in your supplement stash right now, grab two, put them in a Ziploc bag or whatever you need to do and put them in your purse so you can bring them to dinner with you. Or if you're hosting, just put them somewhere where you will remember to take them beforehand. If you don't have any digestive enzymes, one way that you can help to maximize your own digestive enzymes is to slow down when you're eating.

Pay attention to the food and chew each bite really well. Your body naturally produces digestive enzymes that help to break down your food. But as we age and as we're under a lot of stress and all kinds of different things, our body's natural digestive enzymes can start to kind of diminish. So if we have the opportunity. Certainly taking a supplement form can be helpful, but if not, just sitting down, chewing your food well, because even your saliva has some natural digestive enzymes. So when you're chewing your food, allow the food to mix with your saliva before you swallow. Don't just take a bite and immediately swallow it. And after all, I mean, if you're having a free-for-all with food, you want to be able to enjoy it anyway.

So savor all of those flavors with each and every bite. So again, if you're choosing Avenger One, pay attention to the results, how you feel not only that day, but the next couple of days, not only in your stomach, but your entire body overall. And to give yourself a little buffer, add some digestive enzymes in. And the other buffer you might want to add in is buffering those days after Thanksgiving in case you need a little more rest due to a flare or any symptoms that may be popping up. Now let's explore adventure number two, staying on your diet. So You've decided that you are not deviating from your plan. There's too much on the line. This is the decision that I made my first Thanksgiving after my diagnosis, and it's the decision that I still make now.

So, what do you eat? Well, first, it depends if you're hosting. I know a lot of my clients like to host for this very reason, because they have more control over the food. So certainly if you are hosting, then that gives you more control over how food is prepared. You know which ingredients are in which foods. So that makes it easier. If you're not hosting and it's one single person that's hosting, you can call them ahead of time to talk about what they're making and see if there's anything as is that you can eat. I personally would not be calling somebody, definitely not the day before Thanksgiving, but not too close to Thanksgiving at all, and asking them to change the recipes. I mean, Thanksgiving is a meal that you kind of don't want to mess with.

So I would be asking more, are there any vegetables that they're just steaming? Are they doing like steamed peas or steamed corn or I don't know, different things that you may not have anything on them. And they may say like, yes, I'm doing peas and corn, but we're going to add butter on it. Okay. Hey, you know what? Can I just get a scoop of that before you put the butter on? Those are some things that can be helpful to find out by calling the host ahead of time. With my family, everyone contributes a dish. So there's not one cook for the whole meal, which makes it kind of tricky because I'm not calling each person individually. That's too much of a production.

So what I do is I actually bring my own meal, which I make ahead of time at home. And it looks almost identical to the traditional Thanksgiving meal, but it doesn't include any of my allergies, gluten, dairy, soy, nuts, or eggs. I know, it's a lot. This year, we're cooking a turkey at home, but the majority of the years, I actually just went to Whole Foods and they have in their deli section something called Just Turkey. So it's just roasted turkey that they typically slice thinly for lunch meat. But what I had them do is I had them cut thicker slices and I told them what I was doing. I said, 'I'm trying to have this as my serving of turkey for Thanksgiving.' So can you just cut it as if it's like a a carved turkey slice for a Thanksgiving dinner.

So I think I got two, maybe three slices. They were kind of smaller, so that was all I needed. But that was a great option. I didn't have to go through the production of making a whole turkey. I got just the serving that I needed. And that checked turkey off the box. For mashed potatoes, I make mashed cauliflower. I like them. It's tasty. I'm getting a vegetable in in a way that doesn't feel like it's a vegetable. It feels more like comfort food. They're cheap and easy to make. You get a head of cauliflower, you do a little chop of it, steam it in some water on the stovetop. Once it's soft, drain it. Get an immersion blender and blend it up and you can doctor it up however you need to.

I typically will put either a little ghee or coconut oil in it and then just some salt and pepper. The coconut oil that I use in this case does have a butter flavor to it. So it's not traditional coconut oil, but nonetheless, that's my mashed cauliflower. And then for stuffing, we used to have a bakery close by that made allergy-friendly bread and it was so good. It was so good. And I would, of course, it was expensive, but I would get a slice for, or I would get a loaf for the holidays. And I would cut a couple slices for Thanksgiving, freeze the rest, and then I would have a couple more for Christmas. But sadly, they went out of business. So I don't have access to that bread anymore.

Now, you can obviously get gluten-free bread in the grocery stores, but I do have an allergy to egg. So most gluten-free breads have egg in it. So that kind of rules that out for me. But if you tolerate gluten-free bread, then I would probably just get a slice of that, toast it. And enjoy that in place of stuffing. Since I don't have that option, I make my own mock stuffing. And it's essentially roasted vegetables, roasted parsnips, carrots, sweet potatoes, some sautÃed mushrooms. I cook all of that up and then I put it in a food processor with some traditional Thanksgiving spices and blend it up in the food processor. And I know it sounds odd, but it actually comes out looking and tasting pretty close to stuffing enough that it satisfies my craving and enough that it has like that section on my plate filled.

And it's really not looking that different from somebody else. I mean, can they tell the difference? A hundred percent? Yes. There's no like disguising that. But it's enough, again, that it fills the plate there. And it makes me feel like I'm getting some sense of that craving for stuffing satisfied. And then I'll just have a side of veggies, whether it's the peas and the corn that are served for the whole family. I just grab some before they put the butter on. Or I've brought, I've also brought a thing of Brussels sprouts before. It kind of changes each year. But, you know, whatever veggies you're feeling, you have that on the side. I don't like to make a big production about having a separate meal.

So the first year I called my cousin and I told her that I had to make some changes in my diet because of some health things, because again, I hadn't told them about my diagnosis yet. And I just kept it short and sweet. I'm making some changes in my diet because of health reasons. So I'm going to bring my own meal. I don't want or need you to change anything. I just want to give you a heads up. I'm going to bring a meal. When I arrive, I'll put it in the refrigerator. And then right before we eat, I'm just going to pop it in the microwave. And that's what I did. And nobody really pays attention because when you walk in, you have your purse. We bring a bottle of wine.

We typically bring an appetizer. So having an extra bag, like nobody's looking through your bags to know what's in there. And it was just a little Pyrex container. So it wasn't that big. And I walked in, you say your hellos. And then once things kind of like settle down, I take the container and I put it in the refrigerator. And then once we're ready to eat, I take it out, pop it in the microwave. Is it ideal to microwave your Thanksgiving dinner? No, but it's just warming it up. It wasn't cooked in the microwave. It's just warming it up. And at that point, nobody’s really paying attention. Because everyone’s worried about their meal. Everyone’s starting to like eye up what dish they want and they’re getting their plate.

Nobody’s paying attention. So I just get my meal, warm it up, and then I will transfer it onto whatever plate everybody else is eating off of. So it looks the same. So again, is it identical? No, but it has a slice of turkey on it. It has my mashed cauli, which looks like mashed potatoes. It has my thing of stuffing on it, which looks like their version of stuffing. And then I have the vegetables there. So it might seem like a hassle, but it’s really not. I just, I prepare it ahead of time. And to me, it's actually less stressful because I don't have to worry about what I'm eating and eating something that could ultimately affect my health. I know that I have my meal prepared and all I need to do is just warm it up.

So if you choose Adventure 2 and you have the opportunity to prepare it in advance, great. But being that this is airing the day before Thanksgiving, if you're listening to this and you're like, 'Alright, great advice. Thanks for telling me the day before Thanksgiving.' Can you give me a little heads up here? What do I do now? No worries. We've got you covered. Here's what I would do. I would go to Whole Foods and get that sliced turkey. Again, it's in the deli section because they typically slice it thinly. I would just ask them to do thicker cuts of it. Get two or three slices, whatever works best for you. I'd get a head of cauliflower, make that because it's quick and easy and it's cheap.

And maybe I would do like a sweet potato with some coconut oil, cinnamon or something like that. Keep it simple, but you can put that together pretty quickly because the only thing that you're making really is the mashed cauliflower. And again, that's just chopping it up, steaming it, and putting the immersion blender in it. And in place of stuffing, if I didn't have the time or the whatever to make, I would just do a sweet potato. So I would have that on the side. I really like sweet potatoes. But if you didn't have whole foods, then I would honestly just get a chicken breast and cook it with the turkey seasonings. So are any of these things like ideal? No, they're not the real deal. But guess what?

You're eating foods that you know your body can tolerate and can help support your health. That is what I focus on. I can tell you that my mindset and my emotional connection to food has drastically changed since I first started this diet. So if this is your first year, know that this may be one of your hardest years. It does get easier because when you start to feel better, it's just worth it. It's so worth it. And now, yes, would I love to go and just pick whatever I want off of the buffet table? Obviously, yes. However, I don't have that same feeling of I guess, I just don't feel as though I did that first year because I look at it as like I'm choosing to eat this food over that food, I could, I could eat whatever I wanted but I'm choosing to eat this because I'm choosing how I feel in my body overall versus just enjoying one meal for such a short period of time.

So, That would be my recommendation if you are choosing Adventure 2, to either have your meal prepared in advance. If you don't have it and you're just hearing this, head over to Whole Foods, get a couple slices, make your mashed cauli and maybe make a sweet potato and then have some of the steamed veggies on the side there. Or if you don't have that, then you make a chicken breast with the turkey seasonings on it so it has that same kind of like flavor to it. And then you enjoy, again, the mashed cauliflower, the sweet potato, whatever vegetables you're going to have. Sometimes you just have to get a little creative, but it's possible to make it work even at the last minute.

Now, for all you indecisive people out there who don't want to throw everything into the wind for adventure one, but you're also not really ready yet to commit to adventure two of showing up with your own dish. Here's a little softer approach. If you need a route between option one and two, choose the best options that are available to you at your Thanksgiving dinner. So first, the turkey is probably going to be the safest option there because it's protein-based. May there be some butter on it? Sure. But at least that's giving you some good protein there. The next load up on the veggies. There tends to be a lot of veggies at this holiday season. So that's a good thing.

Fill as much of your plate with those veggies and try to avoid the foods that have like the most bread in them, like the rolls, the stuffing, anything like that. Try to minimize that. Same thing goes for the mashed potatoes because they sometimes have dairy in them. Sometimes they'll have cheese in them, butter. There's a lot of dairy that can be packed in there. So if you are looking for like a middle of the road here, add the turkey to your plate and then pack your plate with as many of the veggies as possible. And then sit down, eat it, enjoy it, and focus on the family. And one thing that I would say, regardless of what adventure you choose, drop any guilt. Feeling guilty doesn't change how your body responds to food.

So just drop the guilt. Pay attention to the results and keep doing your best each and every day. And then lastly, I want to touch on the social aspect of this because it can be hard. As I shared like that year one, it can feel really emotional. You can feel really deprived. You can feel resentful because you have MS and not only do you have MS, but now you're trying to eat this way and it feels so restrictive. And now you can't even enjoy like holiday meals together. It just feels like one big pity party. I hear you because I've been there and I'm here to tell you again that choosing the foods that feel best in your body is worth it. It is worth it. Now, it doesn't need to be perfect every time.

You do your best each and every time and you drop the guilt for anything that was not the way you really wanted it to go. You just drop any guilt from that and you pick up at your next meal or snack doing the very best that you can. Now you may have some onlookers who are asking like, oh, how come you're not having this? Or how come you're eating that? They're just nosy. They're getting in your business of what you're eating or what you're not eating. In those situations, what I find best is I will just kind of give like a very short response and redirect the conversation. You do not need to give a long explanation as to what you're eating or what you're not eating.

You don't need to justify it to anybody. You also don't need to over-explain your diagnosis or anything about your health. Certainly, if you want to have those conversations, go for it because you may inspire somebody who is interested in how you're eating to improve their diet as well. You never know where these come from. Conversations will go. I share the things that I do. I have no attachment to it because I know that you can't force anybody to change until they are ready to change. So I'm never out there trying to convince somebody to do something that they don't want to do. But I'm happy to share what I do and the results that I get from it. So if they're interested, they can learn from it and they can try themselves.

But my point here is, if you feel like you have some onlookers or some nosy people getting all up in your plate, give some short responses, redirect the conversation, and keep it moving. You do not need to overexplain your health or your food choices. You are the one that lives in your body. You are the one that lives with the results of your food. So you get to decide what goes in. You get to decide what you're eating and what you don't. And whatever you choose to put on that plate, you sit down, you enjoy it, you eat it slowly, pay attention to the results, and then pick back up at your next meal, doing the very best that you can. Okay, let's do a quick recap here.

Adventure one, that's your free for all. I'm not recommending it, but the option is yours. If you're choosing to do that, pay attention to the results. Pay attention not only right after the meal, but for the next couple of days and pay attention not just to your stomach, but to your entire body. Adventure two, that's committing to your diet. Prepping something in advance. It doesn't need to be elaborate. You can get it as simple or as elaborate as you want it to be. But my recommendation, especially at this point, keep it simple and don't make a production about it at Thanksgiving. Just come in, put it in the refrigerator, warm it up when you need it and enjoy the meal.

And of course that adventure in between there, choosing the turkey, fill the plate with the veggies and sit down and enjoy that. Do you see a theme here? You're making the decision that you feel works best for you on this particular day. You're paying attention to the results. And then you are most importantly enjoying the company that you are with. We spend too much time and energy focused on food when we have the most meaningful things around us. We have our family and friends. Focus your attention on that. Spend quality time with that. Present in the conversations. That is the true gift and that is the most nourishing thing on Thanksgiving. 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.