"I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired."
I realized I never really put a more detailed explanation of AIP. I thought the simplest way to share would be to post these couple of cheat sheets and a couple links to pages with AIP information.
This page is an easy read. It’s also where I got those food lists above.
Here is another one that I’m posting here because I actually haven’t read through it all yet. This site also deserves the credit for the cover photo for this blog post!
So there you go! AIP!
Have you ever heard of nightshades (the group of food)?
I hadn’t until I started learning more about potential foods that can trigger HS.
These are foods that I love.
These are foods that are generally assumed to be good and healthy for you.
During the elimination phase of the diet, I have to eliminate all night shades.
That means no tomatoes. (Not even in my guacamole!)
That means no potatoes in any form.
That means no eggplant.
That means no PEPPER! I love pepper!!!
No bell peppers!
No chili peppers!
No paprika!
Hopefully when I get to the reintroduction phase, I will learn that my body is fine with these. I really hope so. I love pepper!
Click on the photo below to learn more about night shades.
“I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired”
I have been aware of the AIP diet for a couple years now, but I never did the complete elimination diet. For a long time I tried to just be careful about what I ate, trying to stay away from or limit dairy, gluten, night shades, processed foods, and refined sugar. I figured that was “good enough” and I’d feel okay having some pain sometimes (Hey, I’ve lived with it this long anyway, right?) and not constantly being too strict with diet. Well, I have finally decided to go ALL IN and follow the AIP diet with 100% compliance because I really believe it is worth it.
I think it took me a while for a few reasons. The idea of following the AIP diet with 100% compliance was really daunting to me. I knew I had a lot of challenges. My family loves to gather, and there is always so much good (bad) food to eat. I never wanted to get any attention for having food restrictions and being an inconvenience. I also had challenges with just being prepared with food. In order to not eat the things I shouldn’t eat, I should have food ready to eat instead. Yea. That never happened. Meal planning and prepping just for me, and having a whole separate set of groceries and pantry staples when I live in a home with 3 other people was kind of a weird thing. I love my mom’s cooking, and it’s free to me. Why go out and get other food? Haha
Like I mentioned earlier, I thought that having some pain and eating a little better was “good enough.” but after reading and hearing lots of stories of people who are feeling so much better now after doing AIP or another gut-healing diet, I was convinced that it really is worth it. My dermatologist made some interesting comments to me too. She said I am way too patient, tolerate too much pain before getting help, and could live with a much better quality of life. it’s possible! Her idea was through long term antibiotics and possibly Humira, though. I didn’t want to do that, but did believe I could have a much better quality of life. I also started seeing a doctor this year. I’m copying this straight from her website: “She is passionate about helping patients optimize their health through a preventative approach involving healthy lifestyle, dietary changes, targeted nutritional supplementation, and optimizing hormones.” This is definitely different from any other doctor I’ve had.
Over the past couple years, I’ve been collecting recipes that are AIP compliant and still look yummy to me! I follow a lot of great resources on Facebook and Instagram and have a Pinterest board full of these. Again, actually planning and prepping in order to have all my meals 100% compliant was daunting to me, but now I’m doing it because I have help! I called my super sweet and amazing friend, Donna. she’s going to help me get the process started and help to keep me accountable. I’ll be posting more about Donna soon. Having someone like her to help me out makes this process way easier to jump into!
So here we go. My first meal prep day will be Sunday, 10/25/2020, and I’ll be in the elimination phase of the AIP diet for as long as it takes to heal. I’m excited and scared – the two emotions I always am when I start something worthwhile!
Mission: HS Remission 