Acid reflux tips from the icy trenches!

As most of you know, there were several states slammed by a massive ice storm this past week. The state that I live in was hit particularly badly and we still have many residents with out power. It was very difficult and the clean up will be lengthy but this storm taught me a few thing about acid reflux that I wasn't expecting to learn.

Due to the fact that the majority of our town was without power we were forced to eat all of our meals at home. My mother in law has a gas stove so we were still able to cook and the fridge at my sister in law's house next door was plugged into a generator. It wasn't the things that we had that made it so interesting but the things that we were forced to give up. That made it pretty clear what was irritating my stomach because I had absolutely no problems with my acid reflux until we were back in "civilization".

The first thing that I gave up is my second cup of coffee. While I was not forced to give up coffee all together we were very limited in the amount we drank. Just like camping, it isn't as easy to go back and forth to get more coffee during the morning. I had one cup in the morning and that was it.

I also gave up drinking a lot of diet sodas. It wasn't that they were not available but we were so busy that sitting and drinking a soda was somewhat of a luxury. It was also hard to keep them cold and who wants to drink warm soda anyway? Limiting those types of drinks definitely had an effect on my acid reflux for the better.

Fast food? Nope! All of our local fast food restaurants were without power. There was no quick runs through the drive through or "midnight snack" runs. That alone helped my acid reflux more than anything. Those high fat, salty and preservative laden meals were no longer available. I sure didn't miss them at all and can tell that not having them in my repertoire was helpful for my digestive system.

The last thing I learned to be helpful was from simply being forced to slow down and enjoy a meal. We didn't have the television on or anywhere to be so we had plenty of time to sit and eat without being rushed. That makes a world of difference in both your ability to enjoy and remember your meal and how it affects your digestion.

I will definitely be taking the things that I have learned this week and apply them to the way that I care for my health in the future. The ice storm was horrible and we are still dealing with the stressful issues of insurance and clean-up but hopefully these new tips will help keep my stomach and AR in check!