I love reading success stories of autoimmune warriors on the AIP diet. Their very first steps, the challenges they overcame, all the way to the transformation they experienced. Such stories are encouraging, inspiring, and provide us with the motivation to continue on our own healing journey. It is my privilege to collect and share those stories on the blog. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do! To submit your AIP success story, click here. To read more AIP success stories like this one, click here.
Rosemary was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s during her pregnancy in 2011. Giving up carbs was hard for her and she felt so tired that cooking simple meals was a real struggle. She got her life and energy back though thanks to the Autoimmune Protocol!
Diagnosis and Symptoms
- Autoimmune diagnosis: Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis – diagnosed during her pregnancy in 2011, suspected Crohn’s disease.
- Symptoms: Eczema with summer sun exposure, exhaustion (hard to exercise), anxiety attacks (when I cheat on AIP), constantly cold, acid reflux (when I cheat on AIP), intestinal pain, hair loss, difficulty staying asleep, major brain fog.
- How did your symptoms make you feel? How did they impact your life? Sometimes I have a lot of fear and worry about the future (aging with an autoimmune disease doesn’t sound like fun), feeling like it is hard to engage with my children the way I’d like to, wishing I felt like I had the energy to look after myself better. I feel SO TIRED, frustrated I can’t sleep better. I feel embarrassed about how my eczema looks on my hands. Sometimes I just want to give up, especially with new diagnoses. And yet, I feel like AIP is helping me look after myself BETTER so that also gives me HOPE when it comes to aging, that I will carry these good habits on. It’s shifting my sense of self-worth (which was battered during my childhood) as my husband shows me he thinks I’m worth looking after and I start sending myself the same message. Hubby is super-supportive when it comes to making AIP meals when I am too tired.
AIP journey
- AIP start date: January 2017
- How did you find out about AIP? What did you think of it when you first learned about it? Did you doubt that it would help you feel better? I had hired a coach who also had thyroid disease – unknown to me before we started working together. She recommended AIP as she had had great results personally, so my doubts were quite low. I’m not sure I would have jumped on board so quickly without that personal testimony. I was so worried to start, though, as I had no idea how I could give up all that good food!! So I started by doing the “I Quit Sugar” diet first to get off sugar and gluten.
- At what point did you decide to commit to AIP? What made you take the plunge? What was the turning point for you? It took months to get started as Beth had told me about it in late Spring 2016. I was so sick, could barely walk up the stairs without crying because the mental energy to muster up the physical energy was too much for me. Being in that state and caring for 2 young children was terrible. I had to do something. In the fall I did the I Quit Sugar diet. I had a really good experience and that launched me into feeling like I could take on AIP.
- What were you thinking / feeling when you made the decision to change and start the AIP diet? Really hopeful and like I was really hoping it would work because it felt like things couldn’t go on that way.
First steps into AIP and challenges
- What were the first steps you took? As I said, quitting sugar and gluten first (oh boy, I started really SLEEPING again, and that result pushed me on). Then ordering (just 1!) AIP cookbook from Amazon and researching recipes online. Next was getting rid of certain foods from my kitchen and shopping for AIP compliant foods.
- What were the challenges you encountered when starting AIP and how did you overcome them? Giving up carbs was SO hard. Like I was already a sugar addict and had given that up. I had no idea how giving up so many carbs was going to hit me like a ton of bricks!! Learning to include AIP compliant carbs was so important! Now sweet potatoes and plantains are my best friends! Feeling too tired to make AIP food was also tough. Thank goodness my hubby steps in to cook for me when I’m too tired. And this really was my saving grace because when autoimmune fatigue hits you and you need to eat, it can be so hard to not just grab some bread or a bag of chips!
The transformation
- What transformation have you experienced on AIP? Have your symptoms improved? I feel like I got my life back. If I had to put percentages on how it feels, it feels like my meds help 20% (bare minimum functioning) and AIP fills in the other 80% – the change was that great. I think the clearest transformation for me was the panic attacks I used to have almost every day before work – they went away, and then resurfaced when I cheated on AIP by eating grains. It was SO CLEAR. Amazing how much AIP helps even our mental health! Oh! And my prescription amount has lowered. So my symptoms have improved immensely, and so has my ability to look after myself and believe that I’m worth it!
- What can you do now that you were not able to do before? Exercise, stay patient with others, go to work happy, do all the normal things like enjoy a day at the beach, do laundry for my family, fall asleep easily in the evening, and I’m sure there’s more.
- What would have happened if you had continued to eat/live like before? I shudder to think about it…. deep depression, more meds, inability to function, really.
Bigger impact on family and work-life
Yes. Immense. My relationships improved as well as my abilities at home and at work. My mental health has improved as well 🙂
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