My Healing Kitchen Journey

Hang on, I'm back! I know it's been quite some time since my last post, on World Arthritis Day, when I had made the decision to start Enbrel Injections. I needed some time to figure things out before I updated all of you. I did the injections for 3 weeks. Those were 3 weeks spent on the couch feeling nauseous, tired with painful horrible swollen injection sights on my legs.  So, I stopped!

As I have said quite often, there has to be a better way than pharmaceuticals. Hippocrates said "Let food be your medicine."  In the past I have lived by that saying. I feel like I gave up on my eating plan too soon. Maybe....maybe not. Maybe I needed 3 weeks of misery as a reminder that I still believed in Hippocrates mission. 

I was sick, depressed, and without hope. A good friend of mine had recently been diagnosed with RA and when medication failed to help her she found another solution.   An amazing book that she recommended to me has changed my life.  Rocked my world.  The Healing Kitchen by Alaena Haber and Sarah Ballantyne came to my rescue.  

The Healing Kitchen teaches the Auto Immune Protocol diet. It's hard you guys! Really hard! When you are a foodie like me and cannot eat and cook in a way that you find fulfilling, it's quite a challenge. Much discipline is required. The list of acceptable ingredients is limited. In the beginning I felt like I was cooking most of the day. But, with the healing and positive results I've seen, this plan is so worth it. I feel better than I have in years and my body is beginning to heal.

Back to talking about food though. I have discovered that life as I know is not over because I can't eat pasta, cake or cheese. Oh wow! I miss cheese! My cooking abilities have been stretched and what has come out of it is only positive. I don't feel too deprived when there are great things to eat such as: 

Scrumptious Blueberry Thumbprint Cookies

Chicken Kabobs with Garlic Roasted Veggies

 Bacon Wrapped Dates......seriously decadent! 

So you see, life moves on and I still get amazing delicious food that is healing my body. It's a big adjustment with quite the learning curve and I can finally say (on most days) that it's all good. What worked in the beginning of my auto immune journey does not work now. Whether it is hormonal changes or progression of the disease that caused this change I cannot say. But, several months into this new eating plan and happily, 24 pounds lighter, I can say with great confidence that the Auto Immune Protocol has most definitely changed my life. So thanks to the book and the ladies behind The Healing Kitchen, I can say once again, "Let food be your medicine."

P.S. I won't just leave you here. I will be sharing recipes and ideas to help you navigate the AIP lifestyle a little bit easier and hopefully with a little less frustration than I had in the beginning. We are in this together friend.