Days 1 – 10

As most of you know I already don’t eat gluten but my body has been really struggling this last year and a half. My son has been pretty concerned about my health, and mentioned it might be time to go back on Paleo. We had done it before as a family, and it was the best we ever felt.

It worked out perfectly, because he had been wanting to lose a little weight and I remembered that I felt great on Paleo. Oh What I would give to feel great again.

I asked him if he would be willing to take it a little bit further this time and start with the autoimmune protocol for the first few weeks before going directly to Paleo. I’m all about team effort and getting your family included makes it so much better and so much easier.

So as we do, we made up our minds pretty quickly to get started. If you don’t know what AIP is, it’s the auto immune protocol. Essentially it’s a food elimination, diet, a tough one. Your diet consists of meat, fruits and veggies minus nightshade vegetables. The idea is to eliminate all common inflammatory food. They recommend doing this for at least 30 days and then slowly adding back in possible food to see what works for your body and what doesn’t. You can go longer than 30 days and most of us with autoimmune diseases have to. It’s a little more complicated than this, but that’s the general idea and if you want more details, I can write a post about it later, but I’m guessing if you’re here you already know what the auto immune protocol diet entails. The Bottom line is it’s specifically made to eliminate foods that can be inflammatory and give your body a chance to heal.

Since I have two auto immune diseases, I know that even two weeks will give me a jump start into healing, but what I’m hoping is that we will last a full 30 days. I like having short term goals because then I can just adjust as needed instead of failure. I can do any diet for two weeks.

The reason I started writing this post is I was searching online for inspiration for example how do people fill in day four and then day six and I could find very little except for a few TikTok videos so I decided to write my own.

I know everyone is different but still it’s a point of reference for those of you going through the same journey. This post is for you but also for me. A journal for myself and hopefully helpful for you so you know you’re not the only one struggling or dealing with withdrawal. I’ll begin my journal with my first 10 days.

Day one

I start the morning without my beloved Diet Coke and drink my Licorice Root Tea instead, I sit on my balcony and sip my warm beverage, half dreading and half excited that this is the day I make a real effort to stop the suffering.

I love to cook with my son and I know we can make this awesome. I truly believe it in my heart. I get up and ready for work. My son and I pack our steak, broccoli and sweet potato lunch, we have an assortment of teas to replace our sodas. We are prepared.

This is where my positivity starts to fade. At work during lunch. I miss my Diet Coke. I have two hot teas. I need something fizzy I start to resent the diet. I haven’t missed cheese yet but when I get home that night, I want a snack and I sure don’t want to eat fruit. I want my Häagen-Dazs coffee ice cream. All the whining and complaining doesn’t really matter though because I passed out at 7:30 PM.

Day two

Not quite as chipper today, I pull myself out of bed, tired, and a little disoriented. Today I’m bringing chicken, fennel and white sweet potatoes. I eat one big meal every day and then have smaller meals and snacks in the morning and evening. I have never had fennel before and I have to say that I am not a fan Now I feel lousy and I hate my lunch. I’m hungry and I’m nauseous and my acid reflux is off the charts. I’m tired and ready to just go home and pass out and that is exactly what I do. Your body is going to be tired, be ready for that. I also had a massive headache today and just general malaise.

Day three

This day was by far the worst, at least so far. I go into work a couple of hours late because I feel so bad. Which I never do. I just have no strength and my stomach is killing me. I have to ask myself. Why the hell am I doing this. I seriously consider getting a cheese stick just to see if it helps or maybe grab a Diet Coke. I don’t, probably because I don’t have the strength but still I’m counting it as a win

I make giant sweet potatoes today filled with ham, broccoli, bacon, and avocado. When I finally do get to work, my body is in misery. I just sit there, staring at my screen with an unhappy look on my face. I hope that no one will come bother me. That was a dream of course but I managed not to rip anyone’s head off so again more points for me. I had the team out of there by a record-breaking 530 on the dot and I rush home so I can sleep it off. I should mention I generally sleep four hours a night, but this is kicking my you know what and I’m so tired. I have no choice. I’m asleep by 7 PM. Praying the nausea and acid aches and pains are gone in the morning.

Day four

I wake up at midnight, fall asleep at 4 AM and wake up again at 7 AM. Wait do I feel better today. Maybe. I mean, I feel my normal which isn’t great but after the hell of the last few days, I actually feel great. I usually wake up around 5 AM so I’m running late. I forget caffeinated tea and head off to work. I know you’re not supposed to have it on AIP, but cold turkey caffeine free hurts so I was easing into it.

It’s a crazy day, but I felt pretty decent all day. Then I realize I haven’t had any caffeine at all. This is amazing! My Acid is minimal and so is the nausea. I decided to see if I could make it the whole day and I do. I feel a little crappy after lunch, but that is normal. I struggle with nausea daily and Zofran is my Security blanket. I feel super excited, maybe the dairy flu is over or maybe it’s the artificial sweet sweeteners left my system. But I actually think it might be the no caffeine.

After all these years of having a love affair with caffeine, is it possible my body, just can’t take it anymore. I get a small headache, but an Advil fixes that surprisingly.

I’m still tired, but just physically having to hide feeling bad days is exhausting mentally and I didn’t have to do that today. That in itself, makes it a fantastic day.

Day five

I feel great today too. All right, I’m not risking the possibility of caffeine making me feel like garbage so I drink my herbal tea a little bit happier than the last few days. I sit on the balcony and I plan my day until it’s time to go get ready for work.

Today I have to start a new project, re-organizing our warehouse. I’ve scheduled an hour for it today really every day for the next two weeks. But my hour turned into the whole day and I feel great, invigorated even. It’s a small miracle for me that I had the energy to last all day.

I have honey chicken today for lunch. I feel a little crappy after lunch but again normal for me. I work in the office for an hour and then I’m back out there until 4:30. Finally exhaustion sets in and I have an apple and an orange for snack with a cup of apple cinnamon tea. I spend the last hour at my desk the team and I clean up the office and we all go home and I still feel OK but yeah super tired. I have company tonight but they’re good friends so they won’t care if I lounge around and be a bum. We visit a few hours and I promptly get in my PJs and hardly move the rest of the night. I do manage to stay up till 10 PM for the first time all week.

Day six

It’s Saturday and I wake up around 5 AM. I’m starving. I have no food in the house, so I eat a banana with honey and a coconut yogurt. Man, I’m craving a gluten-free English muffin, still I feel OK this morning. Not as great as yesterday, but still pretty decent.

I feel pretty bad after I eat lunch. I’m a little disappointed. But the nausea ends quickly and I’m back to knocking items off my list.

What I’ve noticed so far is the bloating is down and there’s no heaviness happening.

I’m pretty thin already because I struggle to eat due to struggling with never ending nausea. Hard to overeat when you feel sick all the time. Still I’ve lost 4 pounds this week. I’m not going panic because I’ve read that it’s water and inflammation and that seems right. My skin feels less tight and my body feels better in some ways. I can’t explain yet.

Day seven

Well, a little disappointing, I do not feel like a rockstar this morning. I’m tired, my acid is crap and my stomach is jumpy and rumbly. The nausea is manageable though so that’s a good sign. My eyes are very dry, but I put in eyed drops because rubbing just leads to problems. By noon, the nausea is bad. I have to take a Zofran to get it under control. Once the medicine starts to kick in, I get started again on my list. This is my dream to make it through the day without Zofran.

At 1 o’clock, I eat a salad for lunch but by 1:30 I can barely keep my eyes open. My stomach is grumbling. I really wanna nap but man I have a lot to do today. I tell myself I’ll get moving at 2 PM. It’s meal prep day and I just dragged out all my Christmas decorations so I need to get those up and put away.

Okay my Christmas tree is up, yes I realize Halloween is four days away. Did I mention I work retail and so my life can get crazy in the last quarter of the year. If I don’t do it now, it probably won’t get done so I always try to start my decorating and Christmas shopping in October at the latest.

I finally managed to pry myself out of bed and go into the kitchen. Four hours later food is ready, veggies are cleaned and cut, and the kitchen is clean. Success. I promptly fall into bed and fall asleep. The GERD was bad today, Im really hoping this will get better in time.

Day eight

It’s Monday and I wake up at 4:30 AM. I slept a little over six hours which is pretty good for me. Mornings are when I feel my best. I’m tired and wishing for my Diet Coke and quick energy but overall I feel pretty good and Im crossing my fingers that it lasts all day.

Overall, it was a good day. I didn’t even need Zofran. I made a rosemary chicken with roasted grapes, which was very good by the way. As usual, I had some discomfort after lunch, but I managed through it.

I was exhausted when I got home and got right into my PJs and haven’t moved since. Still my autoimmune symptoms, were manageable and I was very active today so that’s saying something.

Day nine

I don’t want to jinx myself, but maybe, just maybe things are getting better. Today I have a hamburger patty with fried bacon, apples, and mushrooms, and of course, a side of sweet potato fries. Which by the way was delicious!

Surprisingly, I didn’t need a Zofran and what’s really crazy is. I didn’t have any Digestive enzymes either.

When I realized this I freaked out just knowing I was going to feel awful, but somehow my body didn’t kick my butt for eating all that fat. One more day like this, and it will be the longest I have ever gone in over two years without medication and not feeling like I need to curl up in a ball after lunch.

I’m down 5 pounds now, I don’t look bad or feel bad so I’m not going to worry about the weight loss. I struggled to keep weight on before too. It’s hard to be hungry when you’re nauseous constantly and before ice cream was my go to for easy calories. Now I’m feeding my body much more nutritious food and my calorie intake is about the same.

I’m sticking with the inflammation theory and that it’s going down and that’s why I’m losing. The only downside is I’m still so tired, but hopefully that will pass soon.

Day 10

I’m sorry to say it started bad today. My stomach was a mess and my nerves were shot right off the bat. The indigestion was rough. I barely made it to midmorning before I broke down for a Zofran. I also must have messed up my back working in the warehouse so I was in pain.

I made a Tuscan baked chicken for lunch and asparagus wrapped in bacon, and of course, a sweet potato for carbs.

Tomorrow is Halloween at our office potluck, so no going home to rest. By the time I get done preparing for the party, I can barely stand, and I literally crawl into bed and wait for sweet relief.

I hope the next 10 days are better. Follow my next post if you’re interested in seeing how I make out.

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