I’m not going to go into a long thing about why microwaves are bad for you. I’ve been without one for over a year and this is how I manage…easily.

1. What about microwavable dinners?

I don’t buy microwavable meals, they are full of processed chemicals, expensive, and overly salty anyway. If you like prepared food, try making a ton of leftovers over the weekend for the week. If you don’t want to cook check out the salad and sushi bar instead.

2. How do you heat your food when you are not at home?

That’s easy, you bring food that doesn’t need to be heated such as salads, granola bars, veggies and dips, sushi, pasta salads, sandwiches, hard boiled eggs, pizza, and asian leftovers all taste good cold, just to name a few. Yes, all these food can be made paleo, but it will definitely take some cooking skills.

3. How do you heat your food at home?

I normally heat it over a small nonstick skillet or pan. There is usually one dish to clean, but that’s not much. I also put foil over a cookie sheet and heat up the food for 10 minutes in the oven. Then there is no cleanup when you toss away the foil. If you have the space, you can always invest in a toaster oven, but if you have an oven then a toaster oven seems redundant.

4. How do you make popcorn?

You just add a little olive oil to a skillet and throw in the kernals. Make sure the lid is on and watch it pop. We’ve tried it with coconut oil, and it doesn’t work. If you’re paleo, popcorn is technically a whole grain and you shouldn’t be eating it anyway.

6.  How do you defrost food?

Food defrosts best in the fridge, although it takes some time. You can also leave it out on the counter, or if you are in a rush, run hot water over it.

7. What about heating beverages?

This too can be done over the stove or look into getting an electric kettle. I would avoid this gadget unless you are tea obsessed and usually away from kitchen.

I started going to psychotherapy sessions at the recommendation of my physical therapists. At physical therapy, they guided me through some visualizations and breath work exercises, which can be helpful for those with an over active nervous system. These type of exercises are continued at my psychotherapy sessions, where I also get traditional counseling that addresses many of my fears and anger issues regarding my nerve pain. It’s been studied that individuals with chronic pain are likely to experience symptoms of depression as well (1).

Tension and stress that are held in the body can easily manifest as painful symptoms. One way of relieving that stress, without creating more, is to have a safe environment where you can vocalize your worries. I procrastinated paying for therapy for the longest time, and choose it work out my problems with my friends and family. Not only was this a drain on my relationships, but it can also caused additional stress when my friends and family were unable to handle or understand what I was going through. I eventually went to Dina Bernat-Kunin, LCSW. (Disclaimer: This is not a paid promotion, I’m merely providing one of the many resources I use to improve my health)

In conclusion, I’ve personally benefited from the whole body approach. You all know how important nutrition is to my healing process, but it is only one part of the puzzle. Having chronic pain definitely requires mental fortitude, which is why getting a professional to help you be stronger mentally can be just as helpful for your recovery as getting a physical therapist to help with your physical strength.

1. Ohayon MM, Shatzberg AF. Using chronic pain to predict depressive morbidity in the general population. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2003;60:39–47. [PubMed]