What is Elective Pain?
You are probably familiar with the terms elective procedure or elective surgery, but I bet you haven’t ever heard of elective pain, let alone why it’s important. Things like rhinoplasty and liposuction are elective procedures we schedule in advance, but aren’t medically necessary. Elective pain is choosing to do things that don’t serve us in the spirit of choice and pleasure. Choice is important because it gives us agency, giving us power over our decisions. Early in my healing journey, I used to say I was “being bad” when I ate things that caused me pain. I categorized food choices as making me a good or bad person. However, things aren’t binary and that perspective isn’t productive. and can be harmful. Discovering the power of elective pain liberated me.
I have been looking for ways to reframe my way of thinking about food. I landed on this idea of “elective pain,” to describe choosing to eat inflammatory foods. One could argue that things like BDSM or body modification classify as elective pain, and I would agree. However, I’m defining elective pain as “something we choose to do that we know will likely cause pain, but we are still choosing, because the experience or outcome is worth the pain.” In other words, elective pain is important because we choose temporary pain, in order to enjoy the greater experience. This reframe helped me make different decisions and changed the way I prepare for things. I no longer dip myself in shame sauce when I make decisions I know don’t support my healing.
Deprivation dieting versus elective pain
Let’s get specific! For those of us that struggle with autoimmune disease or chronic illness, food is a big part of our healing. It’s also a big part of hurting, but what does that mean? Many people suffering from chronic pain, exacerbate their physical pain due to inflammatory foods in their diets. Some people may know about the relationship between food and pain, but many do not. For those of us that are already intimately familiar with this, this isn’t news, but elective pain will be.
Studies in the International Journal of Obesity showed 80% of people were unable to maintain weight loss for one year or more. There are many reasons diets don’t work, but the reality is they are VERY hard to maintain. One of the primary psychological reasons for this is feeling deprived. In order for healing diets to work, they usually need long term changes to nutrition and lifestyle, in addition. However, this often creates feelings of deprivation, regardless of overall benefits. For some, it’s easy to make the change once they see how good they feel. Unfortunately for the rest of us, we ocassionally need to step outside the lines of our nutritional confines. This is where elective pain comes into play.
Choosing elective pain
Let’s face it, one of the primary reasons diets fail is because people feel deprived of things they enjoy. When you have followed a healing diet for years, it’s easier to stay on track, but every now and then, you crave nostalgia. This doesn’t mean completely reverting your lifestyle to the old chronic inflammation ways. Rather, it means understanding you can choose the alternative. You can choose “elective pain.”
For example, some people can eat eggs that have been fried or baked, but not boiled. This is due to the changes in the protein profile combined with each human’s bio-individuality. Let’s say once a year you really love to celebrate your birthday with a gluten free cake. Since you only do it once a year, you decide to endure the temporary joint pain for some cake. By still choosing gluten free food, you limit the impact and only introduce egg for this event. By keeping the exposure small and limited, the impact may be more tolerable. Having said that, kind of life-threatening allergies should only be made with the support of a doctor or licensed practitioner.
Bio-individuality
Every immune system is unique and the amount of pain someone “elects,” will be different. It reminds me of the scene in the movie French Kiss with Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline. Meg Ryan’s character is traveling by train through France, enjoying a beautiful plate of cheese. She even remarks how she hasn’t had cheese in years but she can’t resist, so she does it anyways. She understood the power of elective pain and chose the cheese. The scene culminates in a dramatic scene of pain and belching, as she succumbs to her lactose intolerance. However, she was enraptured by the scenery, her adventure and the exquisite cuisine known to France, so she elected pain. It’s the same as going “off-plan” to eat something we know doesn’t serve our bodies.
Why elective pain is important
Elective pain is an important part of healing. While choosing pain won’t help us heal, having the option to elect pain keeps us going. For the same reason that people binge on terrible food on their “cheat days,” those of us healing need “cheat moments,” although I’m hesitant to use the word “cheat.” Cheating implies we are breaking some invisible rule and this is not a game. According to research by Michale R. Lowe and Allen S. Levine, published in the journal Obesity Research, the ability to choose palatable foods is important to our modern day brains. This helps prevent negative outcomes like binge eating. While we don’t focus on weight loss at Pomona Wellness, this research is still applicable because we can’t always satisfy our eudaimonic well-being and must occasionally satisfy our hedonic well-being. Sometimes we simply crave comfort and pleasure.
Reframing Pain
When we are able to ocassionally reframe our desire to eat something “off-plan”, we are less likely to turn towards harmful and inflammatory foods. It’s important not to reframe these off-ramps from our standard highway of health as “something we deserve,” though. Primarily because we deserve to be healthy and pain-free, before anything else. To continue the highway analogy, every exit ramp resembled a bathroom break on our road trip, we would never reach the next destination. This is a helpful way of thinking about our healing. There is no final destination, but every stop can take you closer or further from healing. Some days we just want to stop at the next stop with a pretty view and rest for a bit. After our break though, we can get back on the highway and keep moving.
Perfection is the enemy of progress and since nobody is perfect, let’s try some progress! Every decision we make has potential impacts to our healing, but don’t get discouraged if you elect pain every now and then. Sometimes it can make the cake that much sweeter, and life is too short to not enjoy a taste of cake every now and then. Need support along your healing highway? Schedule a free breakthrough session with the Pomona Wellness team to learn more! You can also subscribe to Wellspiration and get access to even more content on our new Substack. Become a subscriber so you don’t miss a single thing.