Energy Economy - Grocery Shopping and Chronic Illness

When dealing with chronic or disabling illness, preparing the food that goes in our mouths is difficult enough.  Even worse is shopping for the food.  These are suggestions that I and others with chronic illnesses have found helpful.  

Park in a disabled parking space.  If you do not have a disability parking tag then see your doctor about getting one.  

Use an electric cart.  Do not feel guilty or embarrassed about this.  The fact is that those carts are made available specifically for people like you – whether you regularly use a wheelchair or not.

Purchase a mechanical "claw" so you don’t have to stand to reach everything.

Energy Economy - Food Matters Part 3

Well, you thought I was done, and so did I.  But, it turns out there is more to say on the subject of nourishing ourselves while coping with chronic illness.  Following are a few suggestions from readers. 

Stock up on healthy freezer meals.

• Cook or do most of the prep work at your best time of day.  If your best time is just after waking up, try to put on a crock pot meal, or prep a dish so you can put it in the oven for dinner without having to do anymore work.  If your best time is at night you could get breakfast together and prep a crockpot meal so that you can just turn it on the next day.    Again, here is my pinterest board for inspiration.
• Make more than you normally eat in one setting so you can have two or three meals from it and only cook once.

Energy Economy - Food Part 2

 

Because food can be such an issue when you are chronically ill it is good to simplify things as much as possible.  In Part 1 – we went over four basic suggestions that can simplify the process of nourishing ourselves.  These five more suggestions are slightly more advanced. 

•  Cook sitting down.  I mean, gather all of your utensils, plates, ingredients, pans, cutting boards, etc… and do all the prep and cooking sit down.  I can’t stand for longer than about two minutes.  So this is the only way I am ever able to cook – even just an omelet.  I’m also less tired afterward.
•  

Energy Economy - Food Part 1

We have to eat.  We cannot fight our illness without energy.  Food is energy.  However, getting the food to our mouths may be difficult.  In the past year I have been completely bedridden, requiring all my meals to be brought to me.  Then I improved to eating what somebody else prepared but in the kitchen rather than my bed.  Then I progressed to being able to get very simple, basic meals for myself (we’re talking things like a ham sandwich or boiled eggs).

In the next two Energy Economy posts I will list some practical suggestions that either I or people I know implement to make eating more doable.  

• Keep snacks by your bed, especially if you are bed ridden, or wherever you spend the most time.  Some Ideas for non- perishable snacks are:  Dried fruit and nuts, granola or fruit bars, peanut or almond butter, and crackers.

• Make a list of very easy, simple foods you can get in about five minutes.  I’m talking basics like PBJ, ham sandwich, eggs, can of soup, smoothies, etc…  You can see my personal list of easy five minute foods here and here.  You can also do searches on google, bing, or pinterest.  You’ll find some good ideas.  I find that I need the list as a reminder.