After being diagnosed with RA, I immediately did a TON of research online. A reoccurring theme was nutrition and diet. I don’t want to tell people to try to fix everything with diet – I’m on methotrexate and Enbrel myself right now – but I do think it’s an important component for feeling better.

Based on research, blogs, books, webmd, magazine articles, conversations with a friend who is a nutritionist and a friend who has an autoimmune disease herself, I made a few changes.

• No red meat
• Less white meat (chicken, turkey, etc.)
• More omega-3 rich fish (hello salmon!)
• No gluten 😦
• Less caffeine (and I was a serious coffee addict!!)
• More green tea (antioxidants)
• Less dairy (I switched from cow’s milk to almond milk and cut my morning yogurt in favor of fruit)
• More omega-3 foods like avocado
• More nuts and legumes to replace cut protein
• MORE veggies and fruit – lots more

These are by no means the changes everyone should make. A friend with Hoshimoto’s Disease decided to go on the paleo-diet (red meat, nuts, berries, wheat), while another friend with Celiac’s is obviously gluten free.

I’ve had these changes in place for about two months and, overall, along with the drugs, I’m feeling much better! Making these changes has definitely made me more conscious about everything I consume, which is likely a good thing. I’m a single girl with a downtown job – I go out to eat a lot and am not a huge fan of cooking, but this diet has forced me to pay more attention to menus and eat at home more often. I also love to workout and therefore usually am able to maintain a steady weight while eating whatever I want, so being really conscious about eating healthy has been a huge shift.

It has been a lot of fish, salads and smoothies. Here are three of my fave smoothie concoctions so far:

Can’t Beet It

• Beet
• Kale
• Apple
• Ginger
• Water

• Strawberry
• Banana
• Unsweetened cocoa
• Almond milk
• Ice

• Avocado
• Banana
• Shredded sweetened coconut
• Chia seed (for added omega-3)
• Almond milk
• Ice