OMG! What do I do now? And how do I survive the healing protocol?
I am sure this may feel a bit overwhelming and scary to have a healing protocol and to think you won’t be able to eat certain foods, especially if they are your favorite foods. Jus remember, the healing protocol is not forever!! Plus, after you heal and seal and tighten up your gut lining you will only feel so much better. So it only a win win!
I have done many many “cleanses” “diets” “parasite killers” “candida cleanses” so many times for many years, over 15 years actually, I had friends on my ice hockey team say to me, “Oh wait, can we all still eat at that restaurant…or is Jen on another cleanse”. I felt like, is this my life? I am not allowing other people in my life to eat a certain places because I can’t eat there….I had a lot of tummy discomfort and just couldn’t get to the bottom of my symptoms. SO, I did a lot of cleanses thinking they would help get rid of what ever wha causing my symptoms, however, realizing now that I never healed my gut, I just kept taking things out but never healing, so I never got fully better. I also felt that after I did a few tests at the doctors or naturopaths offices, I never was put on the correct path for healing, they only focused on one thing…I would feel better for a little while, but eventually my symptoms came back around over and over again. I started exploring what to do on my own before I went to school for nutrition with different cleanses and realizing now I was just shooting in the dark and choosing the “best” cleanses with what my symptoms were telling me…but was I ever correct? Possibly I was and cleared out a few things, but never addressed all the problems together with a healing protocol.
Fast forward years later, I have found what works, the best testing and the optimal labs that work. I put all information together to eradicate the pathogens, heal and seal the gut, remove food sensitivities, work with digestive aids, and bring ourselves back into balance. I develop and look into healing protocols not to be “mean” but to help get you to heal and find the balance your body that it has been searching for. Wouldn’t it be nice to eat your favorite foods without feeling terrible afterwards? Or be able to not feel sick all the time, or wonder if this meal will give you some sort of problem like bloating, gas, nausea, or burping. What about that arthritis, you’re acne, or itchy skin, did you know it can be linked to gut health, even migraines, asthma, eczema, gas, bloating, constipation, and the list goes on.
Now what to do, and it’s really not the end of the world….even though it may feel like it at first. The first week will be the hardest to understand why you need to let go of certain foods, (which will be personal to you from your test results) plus usually they are the foods that you eat over and over again. When the gut is leaky we have even more food sensitivities and by removing them we can heal up faster. No one can heal a wound by constantly opening it back up again, we remove the irritant and allow ourselves to heal….and on the flip side, if you think, why not stop eating these foods and things will get better, and my answer to that is you need to heal, if you leave yourself alone without taking out the pathogens, you will only accrue more food allergies down the road. This is what happened to me. I gave things up without healing the gut. So, these two things go hand in hand, taking out the foods that cause inflammation and also the gut healing protocol.
Here are some tips to help you remember, how am I getting through this healing protocol period.
- This doesn’t last forever….remember this, this is temporary and totally needed in order to heal yourself. How can you give yourself foods that are harming you and expect to heal, removing foods that irritate and cause inflammation are the first keys to healing successfully. So, if your body says no to peaches and that’s your favorite food, think, I am actually harming my intestines when eating this peach, you don’t want to hurt yourself, so finding foods that sooth and heal will only help you start eating the peach again faster…As this isn’t forever!! just need some time to heal, and then can introduce foods back in.
- Get your friends and family on board with your health, be excited about wanting to feel really good in your skin. The more support you have from your family the more successful you will be. Have them eat with you and cook with you and find fun ways to make this time exciting. There are so many delicious foods that are waiting to be brought into your life, and exploring new recipes with family and friends is a great way to enjoy time together.
- Finding the substitutes for foods that you are going to miss the most will help with the anxiety about feeling restricted. Can’t eat chocolate or have caffeine then let’s focus on an herbal tea that tastes sweet like licorice teas. No more peaches, and mangos are ok to eat, make the switch. We can make a meal plan together that will be exciting to eat and not feel like “you can’t” and feel like “you can”
- Caring for yourself is the only way to move forward, and no one can do this for you except you. So being diligent and getting clear on why you need to be successful is key. What do you need to be successful, is it throwing out anything that is tempting, re-organizing your cupboards, telling family that the next ____month/s will be gluten free, etc. so you all will feel the benefits too.
- Finding what works for you. As for me when I “couldn’t” go to certain restaurants or felt pressure because my whole team knew I couldn’t eat somewhere, I felt guilt that we couldn’t go, or at least they felt bad if we did go, I know I needed to take care of what would work for me, so I started carrying certain foods that would provide me options when I left my house. What I brought were snacks that were on my ok list, glass water bottles instead of bottled water, and I also knew the closest restaurants around that had great menus of healthy foods, so I could always grab what I needed and meet everyone afterwards.
- Buy some cookbooks, find a new way to eat, there are so many enjoyable foods that I bet you haven’t even tried yet. Sometimes I hit the grocery store and buy something that I haven’t done in a while, maybe there’s 100% grass feed meat on the shelf, so I grab it and when I get home google some recipes that have that specific item in it and go from there, don’t feel restricted, as this is what gets us into trouble.
- Think rotation. Rotation is key to getting your gut healing faster. Having a rotation schedule allows the body/gut to “cool” down with eating different non-reactive foods. Plus even though it may be a little harder on the checkbook, buying an assortment of foods, you can always make them and freeze, and reheat a few days later, instead of eating leftovers night after night.
When you are done the healing protocol you not only feel brighter, lighter, more energetic, and more focused, you will also have a wealth of knowledge on what to eat, how to prepare food, and when to eat. You will have an understanding of why it’s so important to keep the body clean, and clear out the pathogens, and keeping our digestive system functioning with the right digestive aids keeps those bad bugs away. Food is medicine, but the wrong foods are also our bad bugs’ food, getting a better understanding of what thrives our microbiome compared to the bad bugs allows you the education to move forward and feed yourself healthfully. Please see my website http://www.jewelwellnessmaui.com and my Q&A page for more questions. https://jewelwellnessmaui.com/nutrition-consultant-questions/
I am here every step of the way. You got this, and am excited to follow you on your healing path.
