Staying Healthy in Early Recovery
A healthier lifestyle should be a necessary component to anyone that is recovering from alcohol or drug addiction. Recovery is an ongoing process that needs to include multiple avenues of treatment. This may include 12-step meetings, working with a therapist, talking with sober supports and friends, hiring a sober escort or companion, staying active, and eating healthy. Support for your mental wellness should be just as important as support for your physical well-being. A strong mind and a strong body will help ease the transition from addiction to a sober lifestyle.
Post-Treatment Addiction Consulting
While Recovery Care Partner offers post-treatment support such as sober escorts, sober companions, and sober transport, a certain degree of personal responsibility needs to come from the addict themselves. Maintenance of a healthy lifestyle can be achieved through outdoor activities, group activities, exercise, proper nutrition, and mindfulness meditation and exercises. 12-step meetings don’t hurt either!
Exercise in Early Recovery
Exercise has been scientifically proven to boost the neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine in the brain. These two “feel-good” hormones can contribute to better sleep, better mood, and an overall improved sense of well-being. It’s a smart idea to adopt a new exercise program or regime to help bolster yourself in early recovery.
Many people benefit from group fitness classes such as CrossFit, Yoga, Pilates, Spinning classes, and group weightlifting exercises. Finding other sober people that enjoy the same physical activities as you can not only motivate you to achieve better physical health; it can also help build new sober friendships and relationships.
Having sober friends can make all the difference in early sobriety, as it gives you a chance to connect with people who have gone through similar things. Many people do not understand just how devastating and debilitating addiction can really be. This is why having people that can relate to your experiences can make all the difference; they are also people that you can attend meetings with. Many former addicts in recovery state that the friends they made in early recovery have been friends for years.
Try activities such as rock climbing, camping, hiking, martial arts, kayaking, paddle boarding, and going to the beach! Group sports such as volleyball, basketball, and flag football are also great ways to build friendships and comradery.
Nutrition for a Recovering Body
Fueling your body with the right food is absolutely necessary! Early recovery is tough and many people choose to make it even more difficult by not giving their body the proper nutrition it requires. A body weakened by drug and alcohol addiction needs time to recover, so make sure you are eating plenty of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean meats, and legumes. Try to avoid foods that can cause mood crashes, such as processed foods, sugary drinks, soda, and processed sugar. While pizza is fine once in a while, try not to make it a daily occurrence!
Drinking enough water will help keep you hydrated and feeling healthy, so make sure not to neglect drinking this vital substance. Here are just a few examples of healthy food to help get you started:
- Fruits: apples, bananas, berries, peaches, plums, mangos, and avocados.
- Lean Meats: turkey, sirloin steak, chicken, ham, and turkey.
- Fish: salmon, trout, halibut, swordfish, tuna, mackerel, herring, haddock, mahi mahi, and catfish.
- Vegetables: broccoli, spinach, Brussels sprouts, kale, onion, asparagus, beets, carrots, peas, corn, sweet potatoes, celery, potatoes, tomatoes, garlic, cucumbers, chard, and red cabbage.
- Legumes: black beans, garbanzo beans, lentils, and navy beans.
- Whole grains: brown rice, oatmeal, whole-wheat bread, pasta and crackers, millet, bulgur, and buckwheat.
Mindfulness Exercises for a Calm Brain
Mindfulness meditation is a powerful tool, especially when used with other therapies. Mindfulness meditation means quieting your brain and becoming an observer to your thoughts; it means not emotionally reacting to negative feelings and deliberations. Zen can be thought of as the moment before a thought, and many people practice for a lifetime to try and reach this state. No one is perfect with their practice; trying your best is all that you should ask of yourself and others.
Mindfulness meditation groups can often be found within yoga groups and classes or through certain therapists. Ask around! You’ll never know what you may find through this powerful practice.
Addiction Counseling and Intervention Specialists
You can only help a person as much as they want to help themselves; this is why it is so important for an addict to take personal responsibility and care for their mental and physical well-being.
Recovery Care Partner offers people that are currently facing addiction – as well as recovering addicts – the chance to help them land on their feet. Everyone, at some point in their lives, is going to need a little help from others.
This is where Recovery Care Partner shines. Our sober companions and sober transition coaching offers people in early recovery the tools to help succeed in life; life skills augmentation, proper nutrition, mindfulness exercises, exercise regiments, resume writing, and skill building are all facets that our sober companions and addiction coaches love to teach.
If your loved one is struggling with addiction, or you need some additional support yourself while going through early recovery, do not hesitate to call Recovery Care Partner at (855) 727-2887. You can also reach us via our contact page by clicking here.
Respect your body. It’s the only one you get.
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Useful Books About Recovery
An adverse impact of a drug-filled life can result in the loss of friendship and families, the loss of joy in activities that used to bring you happiness, and a complete sense of disassociation. Sometimes knowing that you are not alone in your struggles can help you realize that someone has been through exactly what you are going through. There are quite a few books written on recovery, and reading about others’ experiences with addiction can help you relate and make you feel not-so-alone.
The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous
The gold standard of alcoholism recovery literature, the Big Book is one of the best-selling books of all time, having sold 30 million copies worldwide. In this tome, it describes the process of how thousands of men and women have recovered from alcoholism and shares many personal stories describing such. This book is used in multiple 12-step programs to help people recovery from eating disorders, drug addiction, love addiction, gambling addiction and other disorders. Time magazine placed this book amongst the top 100 most influential books written in English since 1923. In 2012, it was designated as one of the 88 “Books that shaped America” by the Library of Congress.
Gun, Needle, Spoon
Written by Patrick O’Neil, this book details O’Neil’s massive consequences associated with his drug abuse. To support his heroin habit, O’Neil would commit armed robberies to fuel his addiction. After being busted for several armed robberies, he was incarcerated for quite a few years. This incarceration led him to a life of recovery and rehabilitation, one which he writes extensively about in this novel.
How to Grow Up
A memoir written by Michelle Tea, this book details the harsh realities that often come with alcoholism: several broken relationships, empty bottles around the house and the sink, cigarette butts on the floor, and maggots in the fridge were just a few of the consequences associated with her disease. This book is a how-to manual describing how to get what we really want out of life: a child, a good job, and a spouse are all attainable if an addict decides to stop drinking for good.
Clean: Overcoming Addiction
This is a great book on what addiction is and why it can happen to anybody. Why does it happen to so many Americans and what are the socio-economic factors? It touches on the latest research and discoveries and explores the futility of the war on drugs. This book is a great foundation to build upon as addicts discover why addiction entered their lives in the first place.
Addiction Consulting Services
Recovery Care Partner is your go-to resource for addiction recovery in Washington, DC and many other states. We offer options ranging from intervention and post-treatment support to sober companions and sober transport. Visit our contact page or call us at (855) 727-2887 to learn more about our services.
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