INTRODUCTION
MY HEALING STORY

Six years ago I was forced to make a radical life change after being diagnosed with a non-specific (that is, affecting several organs) autoimmune disease and fibromyalgia. In the first couple of years of my healing, the path was not easy. I spent three months lying in a hospital bed, coming to terms with the illness and the crippling arthritis. I lost more than 33 pounds (15 kg); hives and bruises covered my body from head to toe; and I suffered brain fog, hair loss and extreme fatigue. There were many days when I simply couldn’t raise the energy to get out of bed.

Think of your gut as a garden that can only thrive when the soil is healthy. Healthy soil requires healthy foods and nutrients that will allow the “good guys” to flourish. By feeding my body all-natural, easily digestible wholefoods, I allowed it to heal at a fundamental level.

During my time in hospital I was given a concoction of drugs – everything from immunosuppressants and antibiotics to steroids, anti-cancer drugs and anti-inflammatories. This was all in an effort to get the inflammation in my body under control. The big problem was that the drugs made me feel worse, with their Alfred Hitchcock movie-like side effects! I was nauseated, tired, blurry and foggy. From my days studying nutrition, I always thought that many pharmaceutical drugs only mask the symptoms of disease. Most days when I woke up from an intermittent and interrupted sleep, I felt like a forty-year-old in an eighty-year-old woman’s body – like Benjamin Button in reverse. I was bent double and unable to get out of bed, and my beautiful thick hair was falling out in clumps on my pillow.

As I lay there, I wondered if my condition could be diet-related and whether, if I healed my gut and gave my system a chance to recover, I would be able to regain my energy and health. I made a conscious decision to look more deeply at health and disease, to discover where my illness stemmed from and how I could heal myself naturally. Thus began the process of taking my medical destiny into my own hands. I was on a very restricted diet when I first got sick, because my body reacted to everything I ate and I’d started developing allergies and intolerances. So I began by eating lots of liquid foods, as I knew they would be easy to digest and my system would absorb their nutrients more effectively. This process of gently healing my gut lining took about four weeks, and it really gave my digestive system a chance to improve and recover.

After my gut felt better and I was in less pain, I started taking probiotics and eating probiotic-rich foods to heal my gut and replenish my gut microflora (my “good” bacteria). Once my gut began to heal, I started eating nutrient-rich foods. Soon I found I was ingesting more nutrients and absorbing them, and my health really took an upward turn. Think of your gut as a garden that can only thrive when the soil is healthy. Healthy soil requires healthy foods and nutrients that will allow the “good guys” to flourish.

I still have my autoimmune disease. Some days when it’s raining outside or cold, my arthritic symptoms flare up, but I now know how to manage them, and they never interfere with my life like they used to. I live an energetic, healthy and full life, and the gut protocol I followed and the eating path I’m now on have changed my life for the better. I’m no longer on any prescription drugs and I’m 90 percent recovered. It would be untruthful to say that I’ll ever feel 100 percent better, but a big part of my healing has been to accept my 90 percent, and in turn focus on enjoying every moment life has to offer.

Healing my gut was an integral part of regaining my health and vitality, and I want to share everything I’ve learned with you so that you too can heal your gut and get your life back.