Day 21- Changes

Up until a few days ago, I was on several supplements from that nutritionist I was working with when I went on the AIP diet. This included an adrenal complex, Vitamin C, Zinc, Vitamin E, Hydrochloric Acid, Vitamin K, Collagen and a few others. My supply has dwindled down and as I ran out I stopped taking them this past month. A few days ago, I was still on everything listed above.

I had some time the other day to read more of Anthony William’s book, “Cleanse to Heal.” In it, he says to stop all the supplements that he doesn’t recommend because it can work against the cleanse, even collagen (which I just always thought was so good for gut health).

I figured if I’m going to do this, I might as well put in 100% faith and effort- so I stopped many of them. Also, I didn’t take my Enbrel injection when it was due three days ago. I plan to be done with it forever 🎉🎉

There’s good and bad to his supplement list..

The bad is that his list for people with RA symptoms is 20 supplements long, lol. This doesn’t include the barley grass, spirulina, or dolce, but I take them everyday in my smoothie, so I have them covered.

The good is that as far as the supplements go (not included in the cleanse), he says they’re optional. He says they’re wonderful, and enhance the process and heal you quicker, but you can heal without them.

Furthermore, he gives suggestions as to what few to start with and then a few others to slowly work in. But it’s very doable.

I ordered a few off Amazon, but they won’t be here until next week.

So, currently besides the lemon water, celery juice and smoothie, the only things I’m on is: Vitamin C, Zinc, Cat’s Claw, Vitamin D, Vitamin B12.. and I think that’s it. This is way more manageable and feels more natural. I have Lemon Balm, L Lysine, Curcumin and Turmeric that’ll be here next week.

I feel really good mentally about this regime, and think that’s very important!

I thought this was important to note, but I’ve been so rushed the past couple of posts, I haven’t had time.

Also, I mentioned the other day, that I didn’t feel “right,” didn’t want to go outside and had a general feeling of gloominess and might want to go back on Wellbutrin if it got worse or continued. Well, I started my period a couple days later. This makes so much sense! I usually have a day or two that I’m pretty grumpy and chalk it up to hormones. I didn’t even put the two together- and to be honest, it was more mild than my usual PMS so I’m pretty excited about that! I also thought it was important to note the start of my period (yesterday) in case there are any correlations with how my symptoms are doing.

My inflammation was probably a little higher this morning than it has been at wake up. I took Tylenol and Motrin when I woke up, but mainly because I wanted to take the cat’s claw and other vitamins with some sugar, not on an empty stomach- not because I couldn’t stand the pain. But both feet were pretty achy and I’m glad I took them because they hurt in the beginning of my walk but feel much better now that I’m at home and medication has kicked in. I’m still celebrating taking half the NSAIDS I was taking a month or two ago!

One thing, that I think I need to start working on, is night eating. This habit was fueled by my intermittent fasting journey. I loved it because I literally binged on chocolate like every night and still lost weight. It wasn’t even cleaner chocolate, it was candy straight from the Hershey factory.

Since I’ve been following the AIP diet, and now that I’m trying to be religiously gluten and dairy free, I’m only eating cleaner snacks at night. I’ve even been pretty good about not eating cane sugar for the most part, but am still eating foods with cacao, and sometimes sweeteners with coconut sugar or something similar. I also eat crunchy snacks like Paleo Puffs, or sweet potato or plantain chips.

I was reading a general article about inflammation and how to decrease it and it was suggested to not eat after 9:00pm (I think so that the body doesn’t have to work so hard at digestion while you’re sleeping, it makes sense). I’m guilty of eating up until I go to bed.

I’m going to try to tone it down tonight and see if it makes a difference. I feel like my snacks last night were more unhealthy than normal, and wonder if that’s why I felt a little worse today.

I still feel optimistic and this all feels manageable. I can see how a year or two ago, it was not. My habits were so unhealthy and it’s just about impossible (at least for me) to change everything at once. Now it feels like I’ve got this brick wall, but it’s not huge, it used to be huge, but it’s dwindling. I’m chipping away at it, and making huge progress and one day it’s going to come tumbling down.

Well, it’s still morning now. I’m just about finished with my nasty celery juice and celebrating that I’m finally done with all the celery I bought from Meijer. It was all organic and it all tasted so bitter. I will never buy celery there again- yuck! I’ll try to stay away from all their produce. My smoothie is pre-made from yesterday, so I’m done with all the cleanse work for today (hooray!).

Today is going to be a great day. I’m taking my boys out to lunch and then we’re going to get groceries. My oldest has this whole month off but just booked tickets to visit a friend in Pennsylvania for 10 days and he leaves on Thursday 😢 I’m sad about that but going to try to hang with him as much as I can this week, plus we have a vacation in the mountains in a few weeks to look forward to. Other than gathering nutritious food for delicious meals, I’m planning on having a low key, hopefully spiritual afternoon and evening.

Cheers to day 21!!!