AIP for my Autoimmune Disease! (whole30, 60??)

[AuntB]

Eating gluten free was hard back when I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease in January of 2011.

 

My first whole30 in 2013 was 10x harder than eating gluten free.

 

Naturally, my next jump in the progression of "holy cow this is hard!" diets, would be AIP.

 

I am doing AIP because I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's at the beginning of February of this year. I've been suffering for years but because my levels were always within "normal" range, it was never caught. I had a baby last June, and I think this may have been the final kick for my thyroid. I felt increasingly worse after she was born, until I finally set up an appointment with my doctor.

 

My TSH was nearly 8, and my thyroid antibodies were 965. They are technically supposed to be zero, but labs forgive anything under about 30. My body is under attack and I KNOW the foods I am eating are NOT helping me.

 

I started thyroid meds on 2/6, and while I know I will likely need them forever, Hashimoto's isn't cured with medicine, jus the underactive thyroid.

 

So here I am! It's a learning experience, and not a very fun one. I hate cooking. Yep. I said it. I do not like spending massive amounts of time in the kitchen throwing together foods that lack in much real taste, and without even Ghee to help me here, well.. it's going to be tough.

 

I'm on day 4.. technically, but I ate olives the other day that had guar gum and other crap in them. I'm not sure what day I'm counting this as, but I will probably be doing AIP longer than 30 days, so it doesn't really matter.

 

 

[Loulabelle]

I'm on day 25 of AIP. Mostly my food has been very delicious, lots of roast veggies bursting with flavour. Despite that I have gone through a couple of days here and there where I was so bored with my limited choice of food  I really couldn't be bothered eating and had to force myself to stay on the right track. I wasn't mentally prepared for that since I love to cook and really enjoy food (normally). 

 

Best of luck with AIP, it's worth it!

[AuntB]

Thank you! I'm hoping it's worth it, but I kind of feel like I'm just going through the motions.. like I don't know why I'm doing it other than I see a lot of people say to do it when you have Hashi's. I know that sugar seems to bother me, and dairy had started to bother me. I LOVE my eggs, and would probably introduce them first.

 

I struggle with the every single veggie pretty much has to be cooked.. can't even open a can of peas or green beans and just microwave them when I'm not feeling up to cooking. I do eat canned carrots sometimes, but I know quality wise, they probably aren't the best.

 

The one saving grace has been cooking up everything and doing meal prepping. I cooked 2lbs of grassfed beef and two heads of cauliflower into mash last night and split it 8 ways. That way I can just grab and go, and cooking doesn't seem to be a pressing matter.

[AuntB]

I'm not even really much into counting days. I know that ultimately to keep my AI disease at bay, AIP will mostly be a way of life for me. I may try to add in a few things like eggs and nuts, but I want to keep processed sugars and most foods off limits.

 

This morning for meal1 I had Sweet potatoes and ground beef, and a banana. Tons of starch but I was getting my daughter ready to go to daycare and this is what I could grab!

 

Lunch was cauliflower with grass-fed beef and 2 slices of bacon on top. We get the bacon from butcher at the grocery store. Now thinking, it's probably not compliant. Sigh...

 

Not sure what dinner will be yet, probably more of the same. Eventaully i'll probably stop posting meals as they become very much the same. I like to mass cook and eat the same thing to keep from having to cook too much every night. I do have a ton of cubed butternut squash to boil up.

[Beets]

AIP is tough but definitely doable. There are more resources and recipes and blogs out there than even last year. Two years ago it was Paleo Mom. She's still a great resource but now there are more people doing it and more support.

When I did AIP I got into a habit of eating a few basic simple meals over and over. This in itself seemed to be calming. There are studies of isolated cultures who live on few sources of protein and veg and fat--so eating the same meals over and over with maybe a few seasonal exceptions--and these cultures are healthy and lean. Interesting things to think about.

When I added eggs I found I could easily tolerate yolks. This seems to be the way for a lot of people. I still don't eat many eggs but getting yolks back was amazing.

[heatherhactenus]

I started transitioning into AIP after Week 2 of my current Whole30 (on Day 26 right now), and surprisingly I have not found it as difficult as I might have thought -- or as difficult as friends who hear about my 'diet' think it is (the number of freaked-out, wide-eyed moments I've accidentally caused over the past few weeks astounds me!). The fact that I was never crazy about eggs/tomatoes/nuts/seeds/bell peppers that much in the first place is kind of a sign to me that maybe I was never meant to be eating them (I do love me some deviled eggs though!).

 

The one place where I do struggle however is with seasonings: A, because I like spicy food, and B, because red pepper and paprika in particular seem to be inconveniently added into EVERYTHING. Or at least, into some of my favorite "convenience" foods (like fully cooked organic sausages/brats, etc.) that I had tried to stock up on just so that I wouldn't have to cook things from scratch all the time. Plus, I had just gotten excited about my first batch of W30-mayo when I heard about AIP/decided to transition, and was sad to be giving up all the delicious aiolis that I had thought would be in my future. (And, I liked the slightly more savory taste of ghee with most of my foods rather than coconut oil -- though afterward, I learned the trick about "refined" coconut oil tasting less coconutty, so that's what my next canister of oil will be!). And admittedly, ever since I transitioned from W30 to AIP, I have also found myself feeling a slight tinge of bitterness/jealousy every once in a while, when I see a delicious W30-compliant but non-AIP recipe posted on the Instagram accounts I've been following for food-motivation, thinking to myself "don't they know we can't all have the luxury of eating [eggs/tomato sauce/whatever]??!"

 

But I started making substitutes, and life went on. I was getting bored with egg scrambles anyway, so now I'm really enjoying having heartier meats for breakfast. And my current favorite AIP veggie side, which goes nicely with any type of meat, is garlic-mushroom "risotto" using riced cauliflower, cooked in coconut oil (and the juices from whatever meat I first cooked in the pan), with a big handful of baby spinach thrown in during the last couple of minutes to bulk it up with some green. Also have been decently happy with basil vinaigrettes as my sauce in any recipe that would otherwise call for a red sauce (kind of as a "pesto substitute," because even vegan pestos still contain nuts... but the Glaser's brand of basil vinaigrette, in the refrigerated-salad-dressing section of my local Whole Foods, is basically like a slightly-thinner but nut-free pesto. I particularly enjoy it with cold cucumber-noodles and diced chicken breast.)

 

However, AIP or not, I still have not had any significant results with my inverse psoriasis over the past few weeks, so I plan to extend my W30 and see if several more weeks of strict AIP adherence will help with my condition (and if so, whether re-intro-ing causes flare-ups).