The Role of Nutrition and Exercise in Sustaining Sobriety

Recovery from a substance use disorder isn’t just about abstinence; it’s about building a healthy, sustainable new life in recovery. Exercise, nutrition, and sobriety are all interconnected and have a substantial impact on your recovery and overall mental and physical well-being.

By incorporating healthier routines into your daily life, you can improve your likelihood of staying sober and make your life in recovery so good that you’d never trade it for the life you had before.

Nutrition and Sobriety

Particularly in early recovery, getting proper nutrition can have a cascade of beneficial effects that help you feel better and resist relapse. Substance use disorders can often lead to drastic changes in weight, your dietary choices, and your body’s ability to absorb key nutrients. 

Making a positive change in nutrition can help bring these elements back into balance and have several benefits.

Repairing Your Body

The body may take substantial damage during months or years of substance misuse. Among countless other physical health challenges, many people recovering from addiction experience:

• Liver damage
• Gastrointestinal problems
• Worsened cardiovascular health
• Muscle deterioration

Eating a healthy and balanced diet provides your body with the nutrients it needs to start the work of repairing these organs and tissues and helping you get back to feeling your best.

In the majority of cases, people can make a complete recovery from the bodily challenges they experience during addiction. 

However, in cases such as cirrhosis of the liver, damage done during substance use can be permanent. All the same, eating a healthy and balanced diet can help mitigate the symptoms of long-term physical damage from substance misuse.

Stabilizing Mood

Vitamins, minerals, and macronutrients all play a key role in helping regulate your mood and improve mental clarity. Many people new to recovery are significantly deficient in essential vitamins such as magnesium or thiamine, which can substantially worsen symptoms of anxiety or depression.

Leaving these nutritional imbalances unaddressed can often lead people to feel like the rewards of recovery have been left unfulfilled, even if they’ve completed inpatient or outpatient addiction treatment. Finding ways to address these deficiencies can be the final key to unlocking your mental health potential.

Reducing Cravings

Hunger can be a potent trigger for experiencing substance use cravings. People can feel angry, irritable, or stressed out when they haven’t eaten enough throughout the day, which can all contribute to considering a return to substance use in early recovery.

By focusing on eating a diet filled with complex carbohydrates, sufficient amounts of protein, and healthy servings of fruits and vegetables, you can reduce hunger pangs that may contribute to your experience of substance use cravings.

Exercise and Sobriety

A regular exercise routine has long been touted as one of the best lifestyle changes you can make during your recovery. Studies have shown that exercise can help reduce substance cravings, improve mood, improve your physical health and longevity, and many other tangible benefits that can support you during sobriety.

Finding a Healthy Outlet

People new to recovery often have excess time they don’t know what to do with. Boredom is a powerful substance use trigger, and a regular exercise routine can help you fill this newfound time with a healthy and inherently motivating activity.

Improving Physical Health

Regular exercise can have incredible positive effects on your physical health and longevity. Some key benefits include:

• Maintaining bone density and strength
• Improved cardiovascular health
• Better balance and flexibility
• Increased energy levels and stamina
• Chronic disease prevention

These can be particularly important for people who have been living with a substance use disorder for years, as living with addiction can lead to an increased risk of a number of different physical health conditions. Further, the enhanced energy levels from regular exercise can help counteract lingering symptoms of fatigue from withdrawal.

Mental Health Benefits of Exercise

[Pullquote: The effects of a regular exercise routine are so powerful that many studies have found it is just as potent as therapy or medication for treating disorders such as depression.]

Regular exercise can help diminish mental health symptoms, regulate mood, and even release endorphins and other feel-good chemicals. 

The effects of a regular exercise routine are so powerful that many studies have found they are just as potent as therapy or medication for treating disorders such as depression.

For people new to recovery, your positive mental health is an essential component to maintaining your abstinence. Co-occurring disorders are exceptionally common, and mental health symptoms can substantially raise your risk of relapse.

By engaging in a regular exercise routine, you make a lifestyle change that can support your long-term mental health improvement, keep you active and involved in improving your personal well-being, and provide a positive outlet for you to engage in during your free time.

Start Treatment With SoberMind Recovery

Nutrition and exercise are two important components of making lasting lifestyle changes to support recovery. There are countless avenues you can pursue to sustain your recovery for years to come, including signing up with professional addiction treatment services if you need extra support.

SoberMind Recovery offers a wide variety of treatment services for our clients, from dual-diagnosis treatment in Los Angeles to medical detox to LGBTQ sober living and everything in between. 

When you’re ready to start seeking help to make a lasting and life-altering change, contact our team by filling out our confidential online contact form and begin the work of recovery today.