What comes to mind when you think of a symptom tracker? If I'm keeping it real, I think of it as just one more thing to do. Add one more thing to the list of things that I need to do because I have MS. I think of it as something that takes more time away from my day. And why am I doing it? Just to have a tangible reflection of living with multiple sclerosis, that sounds depressing. And it gives me zero motivation to start a symptom tracker, let alone be consistent with one. And yet I'm about to start one back up again, not because it's something that I should do, but because I stepped outside of the box and took a bit of a non-traditional approach. So it was something that worked for me. I created my own tracker and I'm sharing a free copy with you today. And this discussion is actually going to take place in two parts.

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 onto today's episode.

Okay, if you're like me, you may be thinking, I have enough lists. I don't need another list, let alone one of my symptoms of MS. I don't need a list to remind me of the fatigue, brain fog, and all the other joys of living with multiple sclerosis. That mindset is what prevented me from being consistent with a symptom tracker. It just seemed like another thing to do when my plate was already full. And I don't want to do a symptom tracker just to say I'm doing a symptom tracker because it's what I should be doing to best manage MS. And I don't want to feel guilty for skipping one small aspect of a wellness plan. Managing MS can feel all consuming. And if you're feeling this way too, I'm so glad that you are listening today because one of the main reasons why I started this podcast was to help us all feel a little less alone.

And when we learn something along the way that makes life a little easier, we want to share it with one another. So my podcast is one of those ways that I do that. And I'm sharing with you the tools, the habits, and practices to reclaim your body, mind, and life from multiple sclerosis. Listen, some of the things that I share will hopefully resonate. Others may not.

First, what is a symptom tracker? It's pretty self-explanatory. It's a journal, diary, log, whatever you want to call it, of your symptoms over a period of time. It could be days, weeks, months, or for the really dedicated years. I originally saw symptom trackers as something that people did when they're in like extreme pain or people who have complex health issues. And despite the fact that I have MS, debilitating migraines, and a lot of other things, I guess I just never put myself in that bucket. I don't know. I also view trackers for people with the super analytical brains who love to track data and trends. And while I'm fascinated by people who do this and often jealous of their charts and data and all the fun things that they have, it's just not how my brain works.

So I assumed trackers weren't for me. And yet I'm about to tell you why I'm recommitting to my tracker. The reality is living with a chronic illness is a long and exhausting journey. I like to refer to it as the marathon you never signed up for. I mean, we weren't exactly given a training program or a fun registration box. We were just handed a diagnosis and sent off to figure out life. Now with MS, this long ongoing journey. But how exactly are we expected to figure this out? Depending upon your diagnosis, you may be seeing your doctor every three, six, or maybe even 12 months. Those are long stretches in between when you’re living with daily symptoms or at best chronic uncertainty of your health. Now, if you’ve been listening to this podcast, you know, season one is all about the road to diagnosis. So if you are newly diagnosed, we have a lot of resources for you.

A symptom tracker is designed to help you track symptoms so that you can see any potential immediate connections that you have to any habits you may be doing, whether it’s foods that you’re eating, quality of sleep you’re getting, medications you’re taking, or even certain environments that you’re in. Any and all of these can affect how you feel in your body on a daily basis,

as well as the longer-term connections. Because without tracking, we're left to rely on our own memory, which quite honestly, isn't the most reliable source when you're living with multiple sclerosis because of brain fog or fatigue or just natural aging; forget MS, natural aging can make your memory a little less reliable.

They tend to be more of like the subtle changes that can go easily unnoticed. In fact, I often hear my clients tell some variation of the following experience. Here's what they'll say: 'I was dealing with a lot of fatigue and brain fog.' So I finally decided to change my diet. I eliminated gluten and dairy, and I did my best to reduce sugar. And I started drinking smoothies. I ate more salads. I just felt like I was eating cleaner. Well, I was doing really well for a while and felt great. But after a while of feeling good, I started to doubt if it really was the food that made me feel better. Maybe I just got better on my own. So I started to slip a little bit with what I was eating, which of course is a slippery slope.

And I didn't feel immediate reactions from any one food that I was eating. But then I started feeling tired again, but it was so subtle. I didn't make the connection until now when it feels like I'm back at square one. I'm so disappointed because I did all that work and I know that I feel better when I eat better, but I just wanted to believe that maybe, maybe I was the exception, that maybe I just got better on my own and I really didn't need to follow a different diet. Have you ever felt this way? Making changes in your diet and lifestyle don't create dramatic results. Eating one salad or taking your supplements for just one week aren't going to take away your symptoms. It's a gradual process, so gradual that it's easy to think that there's no connection between the two. This is just one of the many reasons and benefits for doing a tracker. It offers both a close-up view of the day-to-day changes, as well as a high-level view of the more subtle changes that you may experience over a period of time, which brings me to my next topic. I mentioned earlier that I created my own tracker, and here's why. A traditional symptom tracker is just that,

I wanted a bigger picture view. I wanted the full picture of my health. So that's why I have a wellness tracker. Just the name in and of itself feels better. A wellness tracker versus a symptom tracker. I'm a big believer in that what you focus on gets bigger. That which you focus on gets bigger. I have an entire module in my coaching program on mindset for this very reason, because our thoughts and the words that we choose are really powerful. Now, let me be clear. I am by no means making symptom a bad or a negative word. It's a really useful word. I just don't want it to be the name of a journal that I use every single day. So focusing on wellness felt better to me. This is more appealing.

Now, what kind of stuff is worth tracking? You track what's most important to you. I'll share a list of ideas with you to offer some inspiration or jog your memory of some things that you may have tracked in the past that were helpful. First, I'm a nutrition coach, so of course I'm going to say food. Now, this doesn't have to be a detailed log, just general information that you can easily fill in at the end of the day.

Complexity is the enemy of execution. In other words, don't complicate things. The more you complicate them, the less likely you are to do them. Keep it simple. I'll share a quick example with you now of how this became really helpful for one of my clients. She was dealing with a lot of fatigue. And up until this point, she was really hesitant and skeptical, I would say, to eliminate gluten from her diet.

Well, enough time went by with her not feeling well that she finally decided to give it a try. So she eliminated gluten and within weeks, she had such a significant shift in her energy. She herself said she couldn't deny the connection between the two. But yet she wasn't feeling 100% where she wanted to be. Well, long story short, she continued to track and she was tracking both her food and her energy. And she realized anytime she had this particular chicken dish, which quite honestly, she had quite often, it was at least once a week because it was just like her standard chicken that she had. Anytime she had it, she started to feel off. And she's thinking that doesn't make sense. It's just chicken.

Standard chicken dish. And inevitably, her energy was affected by it, which again, doesn't make sense when you're just saying, 'I have chicken breast.' But when you start to look at it and think like, 'wait a minute here, I do always marinate that chicken breast.' Let me take a look at the ingredients of the marinade. And then you look at the ingredients and sure enough, at the bottom, it says contains gluten. So for her, she eliminated it and got to feel so much better.

And she was also able to see the broader picture of it because when she eliminated gluten completely from her diet, she noticed her day-to-day energy felt better. She said she didn't realize how bad she felt until she felt as good as she did. It's something that I hear from clients so often. So that comment in and of itself is helpful because a tracker helps to remind you of how bad you felt when you first started.

All right, so food is definitely one. Sleep is another really valuable thing to track. The hours of sleep that you get, as well as the quality of sleep that you get, and how you feel when you wake up. Your body heals during sleep. So if you're not sleeping well, you may be missing out on valuable healing. This isn't meant to stress you out and keep you up at night. This is to help you prioritize the practices that help you to improve your sleep.

Awful. She wanted to make a change. So she was willing to put in the work as exhausted as she was. Well, she started to notice that her sleep patterns were affecting migraines for her. It was one clear step that she could focus on to help reduce the frequency and intensity of migraine attacks. So sleep is really valuable to track. So we're

saying this tells you a lot about digestion and your overall health. Pay attention to your poop. Let's track what's happening in the toilet. Next energy. I think this one's kind of a given when living with MS, rating your energy and your strength. This one will likely be most valuable when looking at it compared to other areas of food, sleep, elimination, and the next category, which is exercise.

Make a strong connection with exercise as well as energy. So that's why I say energy is one that you are tracking because that will help you to make really valuable connections with some of the other areas that you're tracking as well. And then last but not least, track any unique symptoms that are relevant for you. So for me, that might mean migraines. For you, it might mean pain. For the next person, urinary frequency or brain fog. Track what's most relevant for you. Okay, so here's a recap. We're tracking food, sleep, elimination, exercise, energy, and any unique symptoms. Now, you may hear that list and think, that's great, Alene, but I don't have the time to track all that. Well, I'm so glad you mentioned that because that takes me to my next point, how to track.

I knew in order to start and maintain this tracker, I had to keep it simple. I had to be able to do it in five minutes or less. If I could do it in five minutes or less, I was far more likely to do it than if it took 30 minutes out of my day every single day. My friend, keep it simple. I repeat. Complexity is the enemy of execution. Keep it simple. One of the things that I ask myself so often throughout life is if this were simple, what would it look like? If this were simple, what would it look like? And challenge yourself to really see where you can simplify things. So for me in this case, if it were simple, it would be one page that I could fill out in five minutes or less. So that's what my tracker is. One page that I can complete in five minutes or less. On days that I'm not feeling my best, I keep it short and sweet. On days that I'm feeling better or I have more to share,

now let's talk more about why to track and what to do with this information. I already mentioned several examples from clients and then my own personal experience, and I have many, many more, but here are what I see as the biggest benefits of a tracker: awareness, spotting trends, accountability, and having more informed conversations with your doctors. First, let's talk about awareness. This is a tool that can help you get honest with yourself. Look, days blur together and we might ignore or downplay our symptoms. It's easy to tell ourselves that we're doing okay or that we are following our health plan. But are we really? Are you really doing okay? Or are your thoughts getting the best of you? Or is your heart feeling really heavy with emotions?

Maybe you're scared of this diagnosis or a new symptom that popped up. A wellness tracker is like a daily check-in with yourself, not just with your body, but with your mindset and your heart too, because they're all connected. That's why I talk about reclaiming your body, mind, and life from multiple sclerosis. It's about understanding your body's language. And sometimes that language speaks in symptoms. This trains you to start listening to the whispers that your body is giving you so it doesn't have to get out the megaphone in order for you to hear it. Listen for the whispers so it doesn't have to get the megaphone out. Next, spotting trends. When you regularly track your health habits and your symptoms, you might start to notice some patterns. Do certain foods trigger symptoms? Does stress play a

I never like to admit how much stress impacts my health, but the truth is it does. And when I see it on paper, it's so much more motivating for me to manage my stress and to prioritize that self-care so that I can reduce my stress and the stress that I do have in life, I'm better able to manage. But also, it's not just about the negative stuff. You may spot some positive improvements and some good habits. So days that you're feeling stronger, days that your energy has improved, all of these connections that you're able to make are so valuable. They're so helpful. They can really help be such a tremendous guide in creating your health and wellness plan and managing MS long-term. Okay, accountability. This is another crucial aspect.

I mentioned it before, but it's easy to tell yourself that you're doing okay or that you're following your plan. But again, are you really? A symptom tracker is a great opportunity for you to note the things that are most important to you. Are you following through on the healthy habits that move the needle for you? Are you taking your medication and supplements? Do you rest when you need to? The accountability of these things are really big. Lastly, having a symptom tracker arms you with concrete data for your doctor's appointments. Instead of trying to remember how you felt weeks or months ago, you have documentation of it in

and you just try to go in and wing it, that is a recipe for disaster. You go in there and you finally get your 15 minutes with the doctor and your mind goes blank, or you have all the things come up and you feel so scattered and you can't prioritize your most important question and the time goes by and then you're walking out feeling so frustrated and deflated because that was your one opportunity to talk with the doctor and the appointment's gone now and you don't have any more.

Now, I hope this conversation has inspired you to start tracking. And if it has, I encourage you to keep it simple. Keep it simple and make it personal for you. But if you need a starting point or you want one that's already done, you can download a copy of my wellness tracker at Alenebrennan.com/tracker. It's free. You download it, print it, use it, learn from it. Okay, before we wrap, I want to do a quick recap of today's discussion. First, a symptom tracker is simply documentation of your symptoms over a period of time. I'm encouraging you to not just focus on your symptoms, but to focus on your wellness. Include your healthy habits in there and call it a wellness tracker. That feels so much better than a symptom tracker. Keep it simple, one page, five minutes or less. You're tracking food, sleep, elimination, energy, exercise, and any unique symptoms. And the benefits, it's increasing our awareness, it's spotting trends, it's keeping us accountable, and it's empowering us to have more informed conversations with our doctors. Okay, that is a wrap. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and that inspired you to take action to reclaim your body, mind, and life.

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.