Brittany Roman-Green Nutrition

What do you wish people could see with your IBD?

Ready to work with an IBD dietitian? Click the link in my bio to request a consult.

Have you ever stressed out about NOT stressing out?

When you live with one or more chronic illnesses there’s a lot to keep up with when you’re trying to do what you can to feel your best!

But remember what you’re already doing for your health- it’s likely a lot! Keep that in mind and do what you can to feel your best, but give yourself a break because you’re doing all that you can.

Want to do a cleanse to start the year?

Okay, I tricked you. I would never recommend a typical “cleanse” or “detox” that you’ve probably heard of before.

Instead, what I recommend is working towards doing things that will help you feel better the more you do them.

What healthy habits do you want to focus on in the New Year?

Scroll past if you’re not in the mood today to laugh about diarrhea.

When you have Crohn’s/colitis, sometimes it can be helpful to laugh, and other times it’s may not feel like the right time to laugh.

If you’re in the mood- hope these give you a laugh today!

Do you have active crohn’s/colitis inflammation? If so, I created 5 tips for you.

Let me know which tip(s) you plan to try this week!

Have you ever worried about how your IBD affects your work?

Which of these have you heard before?

Here are 8 comments/questions you might receive over the holidays.

Has anyone ever said any of these things to you?

Do you frequently deal with fatigue?

If so, you're not alone. One of the things that has helped my clients is making small, achievable goals. Sometimes we have enough energy to start a task, but know that we don't have enough energy to complete it, which stops us from even starting it.

For instance, if you don't have enough energy to complete the workout you used to do, and you're craving movement, try adjusting your goal to be smaller, such as walking to the mailbox and back.

Sometimes we feel like these small goals "aren't enough" but in reality, it's these small goals that often lead us to accomplishing bigger tasks.

Can you relate?

Exciting news!!! My company, Romanwell, is now accepting insurance!

Click the link in my bio to request an apt to learn about getting started.

Which of these sound the most relaxing to you? Let me know below!

Feeling overwhelmed with all the health administrative tasks that you have to do?

Hopefully this tip will help! Is there anything else you find helpful in reducing overwhelm? If so, let me know below!

Have any tips for getting through the holidays with IBD?

Here are 3 from me!

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

What do you do to optimize your health over the holidays?

Here are my top 5 tips I tell my clients.

What else would you add to the list?

Have you ever had C. Diff?

If so, you're not alone. In fact, people with crohn's/colitis are 8x more likely to develop C. diff than our healthy peers. Since November is C. Diff month, I wanted to share some information about C. Diff that you might want to know.

Not sure what to say to someone when someone asks what you can/can't eat?

If so, I hope this quick tip will help!

Which of these are contributing to your fatigue?

These were found to be some of the most common causes of fatigue in individuals with crohn's/colitis.

Are any of these your exercise barriers?

These are the most common barriers to exercise in individuals with Crohn's/colitis.

Are any of these your exercise barriers? If so, is there anything you do to overcome them?

6 lessons I’ve learned from my PSC diagnosis about life:

(1) Try not to focus on things you can’t control in your life

(2) Worrying about tomorrow won’t empty tomorrow if it’s sorrow, it’ll empty today if it’s strength

(3) Everyone needs help sometimes
-reach out to a mental health professional if you’re experiencing any symptoms of anxiety or depression or just need someone to talk to

(4) Keep the most important things in your life a priority
-What really matters most to me is my family, & friends, my health, & helping as many people with IBD and PSC as I possibly can.

(5) Find people who lift you up, not down.
-You deserve a doctor & friends that will give you hope, not one that makes you feel hopeless.

(6) Say no to things that take away your joy.
-life is too short to not get to enjoy the little things. It's so easy to get wrapped up in the day to day, but there are beautiful things happening all around us when we take a second to notice them.

Do you resonate with any of these?

Have any of these factors impacted your relationship with food?

Let me know below!

I used to say I hated running and it was true at that time.

But I think why I hated it was bc I associated running with trying to change my body. To lose weight and be smaller.

Anytime I ran, it was to lose weight and bc that was my focus, it made running a punishing way to move my body.

I look back with empathy bc it’s sad I felt like I had to do that, especially when exercise has always been something I enjoy.

After working on my relationship with food and my confidence, I’m excited to share that I trained for and ran a half marathon!

It’s a beautiful thing, actually, because training for this felt like I am taking running back from diet culture. It doesn’t get to use running against me anymore. It’s held onto running for too many years!

Knowing that this could be a trigger for low body confidence, I was hesitant to sign up for a half marathon, but I wanted to see if running could be something I do for reasons outside of trying to change my body- and that has made it actually enjoyable! I’m now running for its meditative qualities, the mental strength is gives me, the reminder of my physical strength, aaaaaand as a way to say “screw you!!” to diet culture for using running as a way to get to me for so many years. It’s has been incredibly empowering.

But, I’ve also had to be careful and keep my guard up for diet culture thoughts or behaviors such as body checking in the mirror. When I have these diet culture thoughts that pop up, I remind myself that that’s not why I’m running and I don’t want diet culture to take the pleasure out of running again. I can’t let it do that to me bc exercise has always been such a solace from the world, from stressors of daily life, and a way to feel strong despite living with multiple chronic illnesses.

I wanted to share this with you in case diet culture has taken joy from you in some way, and if so, to think about a way to try to quiet those thoughts and instead add in more joy back into your life.

Just because it triggers symptoms doesn't mean you're worsening your disease.

So many people are worried about this so I hope sharing this will help remove some stress from eating.

Did you ever believe that when a food caused symptoms it was causing inflammation?

Disordered eating behaviors are common in individuals with crohn's/colitis and are not benign. You don't have to eat restrictively to feel your best with IBD.

Instead, focus on what to eat more of (not less of) in your diet. Here are some things to eat more of:
-whole foods
-fruits: peeled & blended are best tolerated
-vegetables: peeled and cooked are best tolerated
-omega 3 fatty acid rich foods: such as salmon, tuna, chia, flaxseed oil, walnut butter
-resistant starches: such as leftover rice or potatoes

Have you ever done an exclusion diet before? If so, did you notice an increase in fear of foods or restrictive eating after it?

In honor of ostomy awareness day I wanted to share a few tips to help thicken stool output.

Hope these help!

Are you fatigued?

Up to 70% of people with Crohn's/colitis may be living with fatigue.

Today I wanted to share the most common factors that appear to be contributing to fatigue in IBD.

Do you think any of these could be contributing to your fatigue? If so, which ones?

No need to supplement with L-glutamine when you have crohn's/colitis as research suggests it has no benefit on outcomes.

Have you ever heard this myth?

How do you exercise with IBD? Let me know below!

For malnutrition awareness week I wanted to share why weight loss, which can lead to malnutrition, is concerning when you have IBD.

If you've lost weight and are worries about your nutrition status, reach out and schedule a consult with our care coordinator to see whether we would be a good fit for you.

Has stress ever triggered a flare?

My last flare was right after my wedding. I left all the planning until the last three months 🤦🏼‍♀. I was in a constant state of stress and was exhausted on our wedding day. I believe it was this stress that led to the worst flare I had since my diagnosis. (interestingly, since I was eating nourishing meals, I wasn’t very symptomatic other than being fatigued so I luckily didn’t have to worry about symptoms on my wedding day)

It was at this point when I realized I had been lying to myself. For years, I told myself exercise was my form of stress management but the truth is that it actually wasn’t an effective stress management activity for me. I was reactive with stressful situations- I would get easily irritated & stress about upcoming events. I had no stress resilience.

Although, exercise may have helped me feel better in the moment, it never helped change how I reacted to stressful events. This flare helped me realize the importance of mindfulness-based stress management therapies.

Mindfulness-based activities such as walking meditations, body scans, breathing exercises, and yoga, and have been suggested in research to help reduce stress in individuals with crohn's or colitis (1). In one study, a mindfulness-based therapy program administered over 6 months actually improved inflammatory markers (2).

So ever since that flare, I've been doing a mindfulness-based therapy daily (or at times a few times a week) and it has significantly improved my stress resilience.

Although I’m a big fan of doing everything we can to feel our best, I think it’s also important to not put such a huge weight on our shoulders bc we're doing the best we can.
....and okay, goat yoga may not hit the criteria for a mindfulness-based therapy, but it sure was fun!

Do you do any mindfulness-based therapies? If so, which ones?



References:
(1) PMID: 30654993
(2) PMID: 32269278

What do you have control over for your crohn's/colitis?

So much of living with Crohn's/Colitis may feel out of control, but focussing on habits you can control can sometimes help you feel better overall. These might include things such as:

◻eating foods that make you feel good

◻Daily focus on stress management activities (meditation, yoga, etc.) to help you feel your best.

◻Quality time with family and/or friends

◻Daily time outside

◻Moving in ways that feel good for your body

◻Relaxing bedtime ritual such as reading or meditation

◻Self care which could include things like massages, putting on a facemask/getting facials, manicure/pedicure, relaxing baths, etc.

Which of these do you want to add into your life more often? Let me know below!