I recently had a great lunch with a coworker. We went to a food court near the office and I enjoyed a kabob salad with curry fries (so good). My friend asked me how things were going with my diet, and that’s when it dawned on me. The last time we had gone out for lunch, the thought of eating out was very stressful. I had been worried about gluten hiding in the spices, or my food being cooked in cheap oils. I didn’t trust anyone when it came to food. I only truly felt comfortable with making my meals at home or going to the Whole Foods salad bar. Even when traveling. It was in this moment at lunch that I realized just how far I had come. I wasn’t panicked about what I could and couldn’t eat. I wasn’t stressing about the ingredients. I was level-headed and balanced about enjoying a meal with my friend. When I began healing my gut, I had no idea just how much I would learn and the hidden depths at which I’d need to go mentally to find the lifestyle that works for me.
It’s been a little over a year now that I did a 30-day gut-reset. It was the Fall of 2017 that a dietary and lifestyle change was recommended by my healthcare provider to address my autoimmune condition. Looking at me, no one would have known that my body was in a state of constant battle. Chronic inflammation, stress and poor boundaries had finally taken their toll. Changing my diet was non-negotiable. Along the way, there were many freakouts, lots of tears, tons of learnings and many meaningful connections with both old and new friends. Focusing on what I couldn’t eat really messed with my head, and with the right support, I found my way to a healthy place.
The gut-healing protocol I followed:
Autoimmune Paleo Protocol (AIP)
My ‘do not eat’ list:
No gluten
No dairy
No legumes
No grains
No soy
No eggs
No nightshades
No seed oils
No alcohol
In addition to this list, I also removed trigger foods identified on my IgA and IgG food sensitivity results. This meant eliminating some additional fruits and vegetables. Going grain free was the hardest of it all. No popcorn?? No rice?! Ugh.
It was my choice to go strict AIP and I worked my way towards this protocol from general paleo principles over the course of the first two weeks of my gut reset. Through this, I found it much more manageable to focus on what I could eat. Fruits, vegetables, fish, and meat. And for a long time, I kept it that simple. If it wasn’t an item that fell into those categories, I didn’t want to consume it. I liked the limitations of AIP, it made the decision-making process easier. The list of ‘safe’ foods was small enough that it really didn’t take that much thought when it came to grocery shopping and planning my meals.
The Undesired Side Effect
I never set out to lose weight and it was very upsetting to watch the pounds melt away. I was 135 lbs before going paleo and got down to 110 lbs (on the right in the pic) in the span of 3 months. This was very difficult for me emotionally. I didn’t want to lose weight. I’ve had a hard time putting weight on over the course of my life, and despite the advice to “eat more healthy fats”, the weight kept coming off.
My Gut Reset ‘Before and After’
I was on a Q&A call with Dr. Mark Hyman. Director of the Center of Functional Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, and he got a kick out of my question about how to put weight on because eating healthy fat was making me lose weight! He has worked hard to help people understand how our bodies respond to what we put in them as he corrects one of the biggest myths – that eating fat makes us fat – and shares research that shows how healthy fats can trigger weight loss and increase metabolism. What my body needed was more starchy vegetables, rice in moderation and sneaking in calories by adding things like nut butter wherever I could. I also found it helpful to indulge in quality chocolate at night and drink protein shakes in between meals.
I remembered something Oprah said years ago about not eating after 8 pm because after 8 you’re just feeding your fat stores. So I started having dinner at 8:30 pm because those fat stores needed to be fed!
Working with my integrative specialist came in very handy during this time. She monitored my blood work every 3 months and helped me understand how different supplements were affecting me and how to identify the proper dose so as to be gentle and go easy on my body while it healed.
Reintroduction Phase (or Lack Thereof)
The reintroduction phase is the next stage after an elimination diet. I found it was SUPER stressful, so I didn’t do it. Not in the recommended sense of reintroducing a food item that had been eliminated and track how you feel and wait a couple days before trying another food. Um, no thank you. Who has time for that? I didn’t want to spend my limited energy in this way, so I didn’t.
Since reintroduction was essentially a no-go, my approach was one of moderation. I’d eat whole foods (fruits, vegetables, meats) 80% of the time and “indulge” the other 20%. This was the mindset I’ve adopted as my way to say I will be mindful of what I eat when I have control and I won’t stress over it in the times that I cannot. I will also enjoy and celebrate with family and not feel guilty or fearful. Sometimes I have reactions – which have included at varying times: extreme bloating, fatigue, itchiness, muscle aches, runny nose, swelling veins, racing heart, anxiety, brain fog, poor memory – and sometimes I’m totally fine. I’ve also put on 16 lbs (yay!) As I refine the proper balance of exercise and healthy diet, I’m slowly and steadily putting on weight and I’m very pleased with how this is going. I have found supplements that really work for me and I can tell when I haven’t taken them for a few days, which is an indication that it’s not time to remove them just yet.
The protocol I follow now:
The Carlyn-friendly paleo-inspired clean soul-nourishing mind/body balance diet
What I’ve Learned
1. I still have occasional days where I feel puffy and inflamed.
The difference now is that I don’t stay in this state day after day. If I’m feeling particularly inflamed or heavy, I give my body a few days to recover by avoiding inflammatory foods (anything processed) and eat lots of vegetables in soups and salads in addition to clean and yummy meats (and I don’t shy away from the flavorful fats!) And there are times when these fluctuations are normal because my hormones fluctuate throughout the month.
2. I live by food standards that I have set for myself.
It’s not as much of “oh, I don’t eat that, it’s not paleo”, but from more of a personalized mindset of “how do I want to feel today? What can I give my body to feel that way?” And sometimes the feeling I want is to feel comforted, satisfied and safe. What’s the food that makes me feel that way? ICE CREAM. Yep, I will go to town on some ice cream when my body / mind / spirit is asking for it. And I do it without shame or judgment. Sometimes it’s the super fancy cashew milk ice cream from Whole Foods with ingredients that I’m completely comfortable with and other times it’s Coldstone and all the mystery that goes into getting anything fast food. And I’m perfectly ok with it. That is the difference a year has made.
3. I genuinely enjoy nourishing foods.
I get more excited about seeing organic navel oranges in the store than a piece of cake. I even started bringing them to enjoy when we would celebrate a teammate’s birthday at work. What made it more manageable is that I didn’t have the energy to feel sad or left out about not being able to partake in the birthday cake because I was so excited about eating my orange.
4. I’ve experienced relief from many of my symptoms resulting in the following:
Better sleep
No more night sweats
No waking in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom
Emotional improvement
In touch with intuition / awareness
Expanded range of emotions
Physical changes
Can wear contacts all day (no more dry eyes)
My eczema has healed
Smaller belly
Hyperpigmentation on legs is fading
No longer feels like I have a lump in my throat
Clear skin
Healthy weight gain
Increased strength, most noticeably in arms and legs
More energy, fewer fatigue days
Reversing hirsutism
Increased workout endurance (especially for running)
(Much) lighter and more regular periods
No more leg or foot cramping
Significantly less joint cracking
Smoothness on the heels of my feet
Relief from chronic shoulder and upper back tension
So this is where I am in the journey. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows quite yet. Far from it. But I am so much happier and am enjoying my life in a way that wasn’t available to me before.
Sitting here writing this now, I can’t help but think “I love my life.” It isn’t perfect, and I do have some pretty bad days here and there, but I’ve found a deep trust in myself and that is a great gift.
If you come over to my apartment you won’t find kitchen staples like milk, sugar or all-purpose flour. You won’t find a cupboard full of spices or a pantry full of food. But you will be greeted with carefully selected snacks that were picked out for us to enjoy together. Having said that, you will for sure find ice cream in the freezer and I invite you to help yourself! 😄 (please note: I do eat straight from the carton #sorrynotsorry #bachelorettelife)
I never knew what people meant when they said “just follow your gut.” Now that I have mine back on track, I totally get what they mean.
4 Comments
Amanda Malachesky
Thank you for sharing your journey with us all. I love how you adapted your process to suit your needs, and even more importantly, how you’ve learned how to manage your day-to-day symptoms by how you eat and live. I am always trying to help my clients get there!
Carlyn
Thank you Amanda! I was nervous to post about this, and every bit of affirmation helps so much!
CPort
This was a very enjoyable read! We have talked about some of these topics more recently but this post also sheds a lot of light on some of the struggles that I was not aware of.
It is so easy to fall back into the “I’m hungry so I’m just going to eat something”-mindset rather than “I’m hungry – what will my body get the most out of?”-mindset. I tried the gut reset a while after you did, but like I mentioned recently, I plan to do it again. I let the “reintroduction”-stage basically land me back into eating whatever (aka being sloppy about what my body wants and needs) without much reflection or planning. I think that starting from scratch again would be the best approach for me right now and reading this post helps give me more perspective of experiences others have had on this journey.
Also, #bachelorettelife needs to be a viral hashtag.
Carlyn
I’m so glad you liked it! Yeah, it was really hard to talk about it, mainly because I never wanted to talk about it, lol. Like we were discussing over Thanksgiving, I’ve been preparing meal plans and setting goals for January to start 2019 on the right foot. I’ll share my editable file with you. Maybe we can create something good together (and on a budget! #porterpower). That has been my major take away in all of this, understanding just how much preparation contributes to the joy in the process. Reintroduction is rough and it sounds like you learned from your experience which, in my opinion, is the best case scenario :) I’ve had my own “sloppy” phases where finding the time and energy felt impossible. I’m working on a post where I discuss how I dealt with that challenge because it is very VERY real :D
I’m eager to hear what inspires you. I daydream about waking up to traditional German breakfasts again like the ones you prepared for me. I was so spoiled!! You transformed the way I think about breakfast.
And #bachelorettelife should totally be a thing ;)