5 changes I made to my diet that healed my Autoimmune Disease
If you have ever felt terrible in your body but have been unable to pinpoint symptoms or feelings, this article is for you.
In 2019 I was diagnosed with underachieve thyroid and Hashimoto’s Autoimmune disease.
Before that I had been feeling extremely tired for a while.
Eventually it got so bad that I couldn’t stay a full day at work.
I went to the doctors thinking I would need to take some iron supplements.
I didn’t realise that this tiredness was a key symptom of Underactive Thyroid and Hashimoto Autoimmune disease.
In reality I had many more symptoms than just tiredness.
But they had come on so gradually that I just thought it was part of getting old.
My symptoms included:
- Anxiety
- Terrible moods in the morning
- Aches and pains in my body
- Very slow digestion
- Constipation and hemmaroids
- Bloated belly
- Dry skin
- Brain fog
- Not bring able to focus
After I ate I would often feel so terrible that I would have to go and lie down. I couldn’t focus on what anyone else was saying. I felt poisoned.
I would often try and hide these symptoms from people. I didn’t want to be a burden. That’s a normal response when your needs are not met as a child and you have been told you’re making it up for attention.
Because I had felt like this most of my life, I didn’t realise it wasn’t normal.
With my results came the bleak prognosis that I would need to medicate for life.
It was pure prescription. “Take this pill and don´t ask questions.” There was no discussion of what I could do to heal.
When I asked my doctor what role diet had to play in all of this, he said there was no correlation.
It was at that point that I knew I had to take healing into my own hands.
TAKING OWNERSHIP OF MY HEALING
I started reading up on every related book I could get my hands on:
Grain Brain – Dr David Perlmutter
Why isn’t my brain working? – Dr Datis Kharrazian
The Autoimmune Solution – Dr Amy Myers
As I was reading these books I felt relief.
FINALLY someone in the medical community understood and could tell me what I needed to do to heal.
I noticed 2 things which all these books had in common:
1) . The authors of these books were FUNCTIONAL DOCTORS – meaning they have studied both Eastern and Western Medicine.
2) There seemed to be 5 keys principles running through all of them
And they had to do with diet.
As I read them I noticed my body reacting with excitement. This looked and felt like:
- obsessively reading and rereading particular chapters
- feeling goosebumps on my skin
- having multiple epiphanies and “aha” moments
That is always a sign for me that I’m onto something – when my body starts reacting positively.
I decided to experiment with these principles myself in the name of healing.
And I saw drastic improvements in my health.
1. I CUT OUT GLUTEN
When I first read about cutting out gluten I felt deep grief.
I had thoughts like
-how can I cut gluten out for good? It’s everywhere?
-How will I ever eat out with friends again?!
-So what I just have to stop eating all my favourite foods?!
-My life depends on it
For me, cutting out gluten was a process that took years. Every time I thought I had successfully removed it, I would still have a slip every so often. Then I would feel awful again and it would take me days to claw myself back to feeling good.
Now I have managed to cut out gluten for good. I’m not talking about having a bit of gluten here and there when I feel like it.
I’m talking about completely having removed it from my life.
And I’m so proud of myself. It wasn’t easy.
It’s difficult when your rational mind understands something is bad for you but your emotional body wants the very thing that is harming you.
It’s just like a toxic relationship.
I had to reconcile within myself that EVEN THOUGH it’s tasty, why would I tolerate it harming my body?! Would I allow that for my child?
I also saw a big part of staying stuck on the gluten train was PEOPLE PLEASING.
-If someone offered me something I felt bad saying no.
-If I was at a party and everyone was eating pizza, I didn’t want to be the party pooper.
When I started to put myself first over needing to please other people I was able to say goodbye to gluten for good.
I still have well-meaning people say “go on, just a bit won’t harm you”.
Or going to a lot of effort to cook me something special that…is still laced with gluten.
And I don’t blame them because being gluten free is a world unto itself.
I really appreciate the effort friends and family go to to support my gluten free lifestyle. I know they are looking out for me!
I also recognise that I am the only one that can take full responsibility for my healing – I can’t pass it onto doctors, to friends or to family.
The past version of myself would have eaten their glutenous offering so as not to cause offence.
But I cannot afford to be that people-pleasing Abbey anymore.
My health is far too important to me.
I have come to realise that the most important act of self love I can give myself it CHOOSING TO FEEL GOOD.
And for me that means choosing which foods enter or do not enter my body.
Most decisions that I make now are taken with regards to ensuring my energy levels are the best they can be.
This is the top priority in my life.
2) I CUT OUT DAIRY
When I discovered there was a link between gluten intolerance and lactose intolerance, I panicked.
I pleaded “OK, OK, take away the gluten, but please don’t take away the lactose too!“
It didn’t seem fair.
I questioned if I would ever be able to eat pizza again.
But the day I cut dairy out I noticed a change.
I quickly began to feel SO GOOD that the thought of going back to it was a no brainer.
Replacing yoghurt, milk & cheese with vegan alternatives wasn’t too tricky in the end. Most supermarkets nowadays offer lactose-free options.
For me vegan cheese was an aquired taste. But when I started to feel AMAZING in my body and my energy started coming back, I began to LOVE it.
And yes – I can still eat pizza. I either make my own or order from restaurants who are gluten and lactose free.
3) I REDUCED MY SUGAR INTAKE
I don’t want to claim that I have completely cut sugar out of my life. I believe in enjoying the sweetness of life. But I have greatly reduced my intake.
I remember a time I was addicted to sugar and my blood sugars were all over the place.
On one occasion, I was trying to load a bike onto my car. I was around 23. Suddenly my blood sugar crashed like OUT OF NO WHERE and I had no energy in my body to even stand up.
Because I felt so awful I spoke very irritably to my partner at the time. He didn’t understand what was happening to me and got angry, telling me to “STOP!” as if I was a little child having a tantrum.
He thought I was just making it up for attention. And I didn’t have the understanding or vocabulary to explain what was happening to me.
If anything, I was making up that I was OK so I didn’t cause a problem to anyone. This is typical behaviour of someone with autoimmune disease.
Sugar is the greatest legal drug of our time. According to a 2008 study, “intermittent access to sugar can lead to behaviour and neurochemical changes that resemble the effects of a substance of abuse.”
I can totally relate with that! I notice that if I even get a taste of sugar in my mouth I want more and ore and more! The worst thing I can do is have sugar for breakfast because then my body wants it all day long.
How did I cut down on my sugar?
- I no longer buy bags of sugar for the home (not even panela and CERTAINLY not white refuned sugar).
- I have my teas /matchas /coffee without sweetener
- I substitue sugar for honey
- I cook with dates to add sweetness
- I check ingredient lists and if it contains sugar where it absolutely doesnt need to (like jars of tomato sauce or vegan milk).
When I do have sugar I feel it in my system straight away. It feels like a dissonance, like something is out of alignment. It brings my energetic field down and I notice I am less myself, less present, and I enjoy other people’s company (and my own) less.
By reducing my sugar intake, my energy levels have come back into balance and I am WAY more focused.
4) I STARTED EATING MEAT
I was vegetarian most of my life.
My mum tells me when I was 5 I would follow her around the supermarket pointing to cuts of meat and asking “is that a dead animal?”.
When I had my spiritual awakening I became vegan because I couldn’t bear the thought of animals suffering. Not only through their death, but also through their life. I didnt want to carry the weight of the emotional suffering animals go through so that we can drink their milk.
The paradox is that I MYSELF who started to suffer as a result of being vegan.
All the autoimmune literature I was consuming pointed to the same thing.
That to heal autoimmune disease you want to be on a low carb, high-protein diet.
This is difficult to do if you don’t eat meat because vegetable protein such as legumes are high in carbs.
I understood with my rational mind that meat protein could be beneficial to my healing, but my emotional part wasn’t on board yet.
So I continued as a vegan for a while more. During this time I noticed that although my diet was clean from gluten, dairy and sugar, I still had dips in energy and my blood sugars were oscillating.
When I started the Impact fitness programme in Barcelona in October 2022, things changed.
During this programme, we cut out all carbs and prioritised sleep and excercise.
I could have chosen to do this programme as a vegan because of my beliefs.
But instead I decided to try something that went AGAINST my belief system in the name of HEALING.
I added in meat. And when I did I noticed that the energy in my body not only felt STRONGER but it also took on a different quality.
My energy felt stable. Grounded. Uplifting. It felt like it was releasing endorphines of peace and joy into my blood system.
Once I was comfortable eating meat, the next step was no longer so far away.
5) I started making my own Bone Broth!!!
This one gets 3 exclamation marks for obvious reasons.
It was the biggest mental hurdle I had to get over.
And therefore brought the biggest results.
When I first realised the books were telling me to drink bone broth I thought:
BONE BROTH?!?!? THAT SOUNDS F**CKING DISGUSTING.
I mean…I was VEGAN. How could I go from vegan to bone slurping carnivore?
There is a reason why people rave about it.
On the Impact programme, my friends Martin and Jamie told me they swear by bone broth.
The explained how they made it themselves at home by boiling up the bones of grass fed cows.
If I didn’t respect my friends’ lifestyle, and if I hadn’t felt how powerful their energy fields were, I would never have opened up to the idea.
But listening to them shifted my perspective.
And I wanted to heal.
The first time I tried it I couldn’t face cooking up bones.
So I began with the powder. It was odourless and tasteless, which was an easy start.
The first step was adding it to my smoothies.
The next step was observing how I felt.
I recognised that when I drank the broth I felt a deeper sense of wellbeing inside my cells. Like I was deeply nourished.
And that’s when I started to understand on an emotional level my WHY.
When someone TELLS you something you have rational understanding.
But when you TRY IT FOR YOURSELF and see the results in your own life, you gain embodied wisdom.
And with this wisdom at last I was ready to boil up my own bones.
The first time I went to the butchers to buy bones I couldn’t believe myself. The butcher had blood all over his hands. WHAT WAS I DOING?!
When I tasted it I liked it straight away. It tasted like my granny’s gravy.
I’ve been using bone broth for just over a year now and I couldn’t be without it.
Because it’s proten rich, it’s also super handy to dress your carbs. When I am about to eat something I know is carb heavy, I drink bone broth before to balance my blood sugars and avoid the crash.
BENEFITS OF LIVING BY THESE PRINCIPLES
OK so I’ve told you about these 5 principles I implemented in my own life. Now let me tell you how I FEEL living by them. I feel:
- mentally sharp
- calm (I notice now how eating carbs really gives me anxiety)
- grounded
- peaceful
- like I can enjoy my own company and that of others
- I am tapped into my own energy supply and don’t need stimulants
- my inflammation is down by 85% (based on my TPO antibody count)
And my energy field feels F**KING STRONG.
If you are suffering from symptoms right now and it is affecting your quality of life, then I want you to hear this.
DONT GIVE UP HOPE.
You are closer than you think to healing.
Make your healing a priority and you can’t go wrong.
Every avenue, even if it appears to be a dead end, is leading you one step closer to your healing.
I remember thinking it was impossible. That I would never get there.
When I was coming off the gluten I struggled at parties when there were no gluten free options. I gave in so many times. I would rather eat something, even if it had gluten, than eat nothing so I didn’t feel like I was missing out.
But I’m so glad I never gave up the search for healing.
The most difficult journeys have the most beautiful destinations.
Now at a party I would much rather eat nothing and maintain my energy levels strong and vital. That way I wake up the next day feeling well rested, energised and eager to start my day.
3 TIPS TO HELP YOU ON YOUR HEALING JOURNEY
1) Listen to your body. This is a super powerful tool if you can’t get any blood tests any time soon. When you start to listen to your body, she will tell you which foods resonate and which don’t. You can experiment at home. Take an item of food and hold it to your body. Close your eyes. Take 3 deep breathes. Ask your body if this food is nourishing to you. If you notice your body leaning forwards it´s a yes. If you notice your body leaning backwards, it´s a no.
2) Don’t ask google about your healing. There’s a reason why all the food in the supermarket is packaged and full of E numbers. If you are serious about your health and about your healing, you need to start buying books and consuming content from doctors at the top of their game who have studied alternative medicine.
3) Make your own bone broth. If you are considering making your own bone broth, here are 5 easy steps.
1) Buy 1kg of fresh or frozen grassfed beed bones.
2) Place them in a crockpot and fill with boiling water
3) Cook on a low heat for 24 hours
4) Allow to cool and then pour into jars or tupperware
5) Fridge or freeze. Before first use scrape the tallow off the top and keep in the fridge – you can use this for cooking.
If you have any questions about any of the principles, or where to buy grass fed bones, drop me an email. I love to hear from you!
I hope you got value from this week’s newsletter.
Love from Abbey xxx