June 3, 2015
I was sitting in my doctor's office waiting for results back from my celiacs panel. I remember that morning telling my husband how I wasn't nervous to get the results because celiacs disease was a joke and gluten intolerance was made up by the same people who said MSG was bad. It was a trendy fad and it would be forgotten about it 10 years. Up to this point I had recieved my hashimoto's diagnosis and was dealing with several other health problems, including a lump in my neck that had gone undiagnosed because even after an MRI and ultrasound the doctors could not figure out what it was. This doctors appointment I felt no fear of results and thought it was a waste of my afternoon and a babysitter. I had no idea how the words "you have celiacs disease" would have affected me and my family at that point.
My doctor walked in the office, sat in a chair next to me, and as nonchalantly as you could ask "how's the weather?", said to me: "today you are here to get your results, let's see, oh yea, you have celiacs disease." "your numbers are extremely elevated but don't worry you just need to stop eating gluten and you'll be fine". I kid you not. That was the whole conversation. Nothing about why this happened or how to get better or which of my 500 ailments the disease was causing...simply, stop eating gluten. I remember feeling like I had the wind knocked out of me. I couldn't quite catch my breathe for the rest of the day. I called some friends who have celiacs and asked for some advice, that was too overwhelming. I told my family, but we didn't really have a clear understanding of what it all was. Then the scientist in me took over and I dived head first into the research. My first few weeks without gluten were filled with gluten replacements and more crap as well as a huge die off of symptoms which had me practically bedridden. Over the year that followed I slowly cut dairy (after learning about casein), grains in general (going paleo), and finally for the biggest change and improvement I went full autoimmune protocol or AIP.
The ups and downs from this journey have been like a crazy roller coaster. I am stronger now that I have ever been. I lost about 40 pounds, started gaining some energy back and learned that I was truly the one in control of my circumstances. I am still not in the place I want to be. I have a tattoo picked out for the day I am back to 100%. I thought today would be the day but it is not. I am celebrating in other ways. I am still gaining new momentum everyday and still learning how to heal everyday. This journey has a higher purpose and I am trusting in this path.
If this blog post sounds a little too familiar to you, make sure to find someone who can support you through this process. If you are scared looking at day one, know that it will not kill you and all the trouble will be worth it. We have a choice every single day to take one step forward or one step back. Today is proof that I have survived 365 days of making the choice to heal. It will continue to take time as it took 29 years to break down this body but I will keep doing what I can to build it back up! Cheers to one year and cheers to the next 29 healthy happy years!
Thursday, June 23, 2016
Tuesday, June 21, 2016
Adventures on AIP (9 weeks) and 1 year gluten free!!
Today marks 9 weeks of strict AIP!
When I first heard about the autoimmune protocol I was sitting in a nutritionist's office and I was literally bouncing at 4pm. This was pretty typical for my body. I would either be so tired and sluggish that I was asleep (or close to it) or I was jittery, anxious and talking about one mile a minute. My adrenal glands had stopped doing what they were supposed to. Whether that was from an HPA-axis misfire or if my body stopped remembering how to take cortisol where it needed to go who knew.
Sitting in her office, I recall telling her my symptoms from bad headaches and exhaustion but not being able to sleep ("wired but tired") to bladder pain that could not be controlled with any pain medication. She asked about how long these things had been going on and I laughed. She told me to be patient. I needed to be strict gluten and dairy free for at least one year to heal and then highly recommended Eileen Laird and her book and podcast. I am by nature a questioner and by career a researcher. So naturally I took the next 2 months to listen to every episode of the podcast "Phoenix Helix" and read the book on AIP as well as collect as many cookbooks as I could. After being 100% strict paleo for a few months and giving up nuts for a candida issue going AIP was only one more jump: no nightshades and no chocolate. The nightshades took themselves out after I had an anaphylactic reaction to tomatoes in an in-and-out drive through ("you know what you did tomatoes!!"). I took the leap on April 25th, 2016 and on April 27th I won a place in Angie Alt's SAD to AIP in 6 group. God was telling me I was on the right path to healing. Along with winning that spot I won 4 cookbooks that I already had saved in my amazon wishlist. GO ME!
Reflecting back on this whole process. I wish I would have started sooner!! Of course everyone says that and I am sure that I wasn't ready until I actually took the plunge. The food and preparing food has come very easy to me, especially with the help of "The Healing Kitchen" cookbook (this one is by far my favorite and my go to for meal prep). I finally, after about 7 weeks, got the hang of meal planning, batch cooking, and where to buy all of my groceries for the week. I hate not having anything that is convenient but I am learning to prep when I feel awesome so there is always something in the fridge for me to grab. I miss treats but I know someday I will eat the best chocolate chip cookies ever and it will have been so worth the wait!!
Update on healing: When I first started on AIP I was immediately hit with a very bad bladder infection it seemed completely defeating. How could this happen if I was doing everything right?? But after research and serious reflection I decided that my body need to detox and was going to do so by clearing each organ and my bladder just got hit first! Since that point I have gone in reverse order healing. This concept is taken from "Herring's law of the cure" If you are ill and you haven't read about this yet, start googling!! For the past 9 weeks I have felt almost all the old symptoms I had since I can remember being ill back in my single digit days! It has been hard and some days down right miserable. But I stayed on track with my food, made sleep a priority, got regular chiropractic adjustments, started using acupuncture for pain relief and upped the amount of nutrient density in my foods. I have more energy now than I have in 10+ years, I have regular periods, I sleep every night without sleep aids, I wake up almost every morning ready to face the day. Instead of sleeping 3 hours in the middle of every day I use the time to read, catch up on TV shows, batch cook, clean my house etc. I actually called my husband one day during my kids napped time and yelled on the phone "are you freaking kidding me, people have time in the middle of the day that they don't have to sleep, do you know how much I got done today!!!" I felt robbed of my time. Time that I have spent sleeping and trying to cope with life that I now get to enjoy!!
I still have bad days, but now I have one bad day a week instead of one good one. I have more hours every day spent feeling good than bad. I finally get to take my kids to the park and play with them! I have gotten something in my life back that I didn't think I ever would. I do not think AIP was the only missing link to my healing and I certainly have a long way to go.
Thank you for going on this journey with me. I am looking forward to continuing these posts about my journey and AIP. I don't think I am ready to start re-intros yet but I am getting closer and boy do I miss eggs, chocolate and nut flour cookies!!
When I first heard about the autoimmune protocol I was sitting in a nutritionist's office and I was literally bouncing at 4pm. This was pretty typical for my body. I would either be so tired and sluggish that I was asleep (or close to it) or I was jittery, anxious and talking about one mile a minute. My adrenal glands had stopped doing what they were supposed to. Whether that was from an HPA-axis misfire or if my body stopped remembering how to take cortisol where it needed to go who knew.
Sitting in her office, I recall telling her my symptoms from bad headaches and exhaustion but not being able to sleep ("wired but tired") to bladder pain that could not be controlled with any pain medication. She asked about how long these things had been going on and I laughed. She told me to be patient. I needed to be strict gluten and dairy free for at least one year to heal and then highly recommended Eileen Laird and her book and podcast. I am by nature a questioner and by career a researcher. So naturally I took the next 2 months to listen to every episode of the podcast "Phoenix Helix" and read the book on AIP as well as collect as many cookbooks as I could. After being 100% strict paleo for a few months and giving up nuts for a candida issue going AIP was only one more jump: no nightshades and no chocolate. The nightshades took themselves out after I had an anaphylactic reaction to tomatoes in an in-and-out drive through ("you know what you did tomatoes!!"). I took the leap on April 25th, 2016 and on April 27th I won a place in Angie Alt's SAD to AIP in 6 group. God was telling me I was on the right path to healing. Along with winning that spot I won 4 cookbooks that I already had saved in my amazon wishlist. GO ME!
Reflecting back on this whole process. I wish I would have started sooner!! Of course everyone says that and I am sure that I wasn't ready until I actually took the plunge. The food and preparing food has come very easy to me, especially with the help of "The Healing Kitchen" cookbook (this one is by far my favorite and my go to for meal prep). I finally, after about 7 weeks, got the hang of meal planning, batch cooking, and where to buy all of my groceries for the week. I hate not having anything that is convenient but I am learning to prep when I feel awesome so there is always something in the fridge for me to grab. I miss treats but I know someday I will eat the best chocolate chip cookies ever and it will have been so worth the wait!!
Update on healing: When I first started on AIP I was immediately hit with a very bad bladder infection it seemed completely defeating. How could this happen if I was doing everything right?? But after research and serious reflection I decided that my body need to detox and was going to do so by clearing each organ and my bladder just got hit first! Since that point I have gone in reverse order healing. This concept is taken from "Herring's law of the cure" If you are ill and you haven't read about this yet, start googling!! For the past 9 weeks I have felt almost all the old symptoms I had since I can remember being ill back in my single digit days! It has been hard and some days down right miserable. But I stayed on track with my food, made sleep a priority, got regular chiropractic adjustments, started using acupuncture for pain relief and upped the amount of nutrient density in my foods. I have more energy now than I have in 10+ years, I have regular periods, I sleep every night without sleep aids, I wake up almost every morning ready to face the day. Instead of sleeping 3 hours in the middle of every day I use the time to read, catch up on TV shows, batch cook, clean my house etc. I actually called my husband one day during my kids napped time and yelled on the phone "are you freaking kidding me, people have time in the middle of the day that they don't have to sleep, do you know how much I got done today!!!" I felt robbed of my time. Time that I have spent sleeping and trying to cope with life that I now get to enjoy!!
I still have bad days, but now I have one bad day a week instead of one good one. I have more hours every day spent feeling good than bad. I finally get to take my kids to the park and play with them! I have gotten something in my life back that I didn't think I ever would. I do not think AIP was the only missing link to my healing and I certainly have a long way to go.
Thank you for going on this journey with me. I am looking forward to continuing these posts about my journey and AIP. I don't think I am ready to start re-intros yet but I am getting closer and boy do I miss eggs, chocolate and nut flour cookies!!
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