Jaime Hartman (00:07):
Welcome to the AIP Summit Podcast, your go-to resource for taking control of your autoimmune health, presented by AIP Certified Coaches. Hi, I'm Jaime Hartman. And I'm
Marie-Noelle Marquis (00:17):
Marie-Noelle Marquis. And we are here to equip you with the tools knowledge and support you need to effectively use the Autoimmune Protocol.
Jaime Hartman (00:25):
And today we are speaking with AIP Certified Coach Laura Wimberley about how she helps clients with Lyme disease break the cycle of pain so they can experience success with AIP. Laura, thank you for joining us.
Laura Wimberly (00:44):
Yeah, thank you so much for having me on and giving me the opportunity to share my story.
Jaime Hartman (00:49):
Yeah, we want to start by letting you introduce yourself as an AIP Certified Coach to our listeners. Tell us a little bit about what you offer in terms of both one-on-one support and perhaps anything else you have to share.
Laura Wimberly (01:05):
Sure. Yeah. I am a nationally board certified health coach and also a certified autoimmune health coach. In addition to the AIP Certified Coaching certification, I help individuals and families suffering with chronic Lyme disease to jumpstart their healing and rediscover hope with the Autoimmune Protocol. Lyme disease is a tick-borne illness where the Borrelia borre bacteria typically starts as an acute infection, but when it's not diagnosed and treated, it becomes a chronic condition, an autoimmune disease. I do offer consulting sessions for those who have been recently diagnosed or are having trouble navigating a life with chronic Lyme. It is not an easy road, but my AIP program is called the Lyme Lifestyle Program because it focuses on those lifestyle habits, nutrition, sleep, stress management, when you're ready, movement and connection, and I just love that AIP helps you build a solid foundation for health to reduce inflammation and support your body as a whole. That's super important for those with Lyme because you're typically not dealing just with Lyme, but a cocktail of co-infections and bacteria as well as other autoimmune diseases. So for example, I have chronic Lyme and Hashimoto's as well as PCOS and endometriosis.
Marie-Noelle Marquis (02:54):
Thank you so much for sharing that. That's exactly what I want to ask is what is your connection with the autoimmune world?
Laura Wimberly (02:59):
So autoimmune disease runs in my family, so I became aware of it at a very early age. With that also a sense that sometimes you need to adjust what you're eating for your health because I have family members with type one diabetes. I wasn't diagnosed with autoimmune disease, or at least this is kind of my thinking when I was 36. But I had struggled with fatigue for a while. Looking back, even as a teenager, a fertility specialist told me I had PCOS in my late twenties. But I didn't realize for a very long time that that was an actual diagnosis with lasting significance on my health. I just thought at the time PCOS was kind of an explanation for my fertility struggles, and I was blessed to have two pregnancies and two biological children, and I just thought, oh, PCOS is not really part of my story anymore, certainly not the case.
(04:14):
But then in 2010, after the birth of one of my children, I kind of view it as the bottom just fell out of my health. The fatigue that I had kind of pushed through up to that point became really severe, and I felt like I had the flu spoiler. If you look up Lyme disease and what Lyme disease feels like, that is the answer that you're probably going to get. It feels like a flu that doesn't go away. I was having migraines and joint pain all over achingness, insomnia, foot pain, which seems like a weird symptom, but it was very pins and needles kind of pain. There's a whole list of things, symptoms I was having. So I went to my primary care physician as you do, and he ran labs, but after these were over a few appointments and he said, everything's normal, you're just tired because your kids are young.
(05:26):
Here's some vitamin D, which certainly was helpful and I needed, still needed, but said, come back if you're not feeling better. No surprise, I did not magically feel better. After a month, I would go back, we'd kind of do some more labs. Nothing really ever came of that. It was just kind of a shoulder shrug. I don't know what's going on you, you're just tired. So after a few months after those appointments, my husband and I became really desperate. I was barely functional because I was in so much pain and the fatigue was debilitating. Our boys at that point were five and one.
(06:19):
So my husband at this point, I didn't even have enough energy to really help myself find a doctor or have the energy to look for help. So my husband started Googling doctors and symptoms and we came across the functional medicine doctor's information made an appointment, and they kind of said, this is exactly what we do, people that are really suffering with these kind of mysterious illnesses or symptoms, like we get to the root of the cause. So she was really the first practitioner that connected food with health for me. She put me on an elimination reintroduction diet. It was not AIP, she calls it a yeast cleanse. And I, within the first week, felt a huge difference. It was similar to AIP in that it eliminated a lot of inflammatory foods, so sugar, processed foods, gluten, dairy, and for someone who had never eaten without those foods or really focused on nutrition, I would have to say it was life-changing. I felt a huge reduction in my symptoms. I had more energy, which of course was a lifeline to a mom with young kids. She also did hormone testing, switched up my thyroid meds. At that point, I'd had low thyroid my whole adult life.
Marie-Noelle Marquis (08:04):
Did anybody, when you were diagnosed with hypothyroidism, did anybody make a connection to Hashimoto's?
Laura Wimberly (08:09):
Oh, no. No. It was years later actually. I mean, looking back, I remember when I was pregnant with my first child, they do kind of the routine pregnancy lab work, and that is the first time I remember that my thyroid was on the line of normal. I mean the minimum that would be considered normal. And I remember a doctor commenting, it's still normal, but we really need to keep an eye on this. And then I don't remember really paying any attention to that or it coming up until I was pregnant with my second child. And they're almost four years apart. I mean, that's some time. And so after his birth, I was put on some thyroid medication. So I've been on thyroid medication for a long time, but it was over a decade before anyone mentioned Hashimoto's to me.
Marie-Noelle Marquis (09:18):
I didn't want to interrupt you. I'm listening. Had that thought. So you're saying that you finally met with a functional medicine doctor who
Laura Wimberly (09:25):
Yes, and she did. I mean, she was treating the whole body, which was also a new experience for me. She did introduce me to supplements. I'd never really taken any supplements. And for me, that's been a huge help, a very important tool in my toolbox. So I was feeling good after this elimination reintroduction diet, and I had made these changes to the way I was eating. I was not a hundred percent, but at that point I was just happy to be feeling better. So good was kind of good enough at that point. And so suddenly I was eating in a different way. I was focusing on whole foods, no gluten or dairy. So I would Google gluten-free, dairy free recipes. But what most of the recipes I was coming across initially had 25 to 30 ingredients. They had some specialty ingredients, certainly gluten-free flowers, a lot of which had never been in my pantry before.
(10:42):
It was very overwhelming. There were a lot of steps in the recipes. And with young kids especially, I just realized very quickly, this is not sustainable for me. And so I'm back on Google. I am looking at recipes, but this time kind of vetting how many ingredients are required and the difficulty level, even though I had been cooking for a while. So cooking wasn't an issue. It was just they were, I guess, too high maintenance for me is how I would describe 'em. And so I started stumbling upon paleo recipes and I thought, oh, I mean, these recipes have less than 10 ingredients. It's simple, but I would make them and the whole family would love them. I mean, they were very tasty. And I was kind of shocked during this period of focusing on Whole Foods, how full I could be on a healthy protein and veggies that my body didn't really need to all the starchy carbs that before I had always eaten.
(11:59):
And then I actually felt a lot better not eating them. So that was kind of how I discovered paleo. And then as this was really working for me and I got really excited, this is really working for my life and I'm feeling better and I have energy, I felt like I was participating in my life again. And I found Sarah Ballantyne, and at the time, she had a podcast called Paleo Mom, and I began to really soak up all the information that she and her co-host gave on that podcast. And that was how I first heard about AIP. Unfortunately, at the time, I kind of thought, oh, I mean, this is cool Paleo, they have their own elimination reintroduction diet, but I've already done that and I'm eating paleo. I feel good, so that's great, but I've already done that and I don't need to do another one. I think I pretty much thought they're probably the same.
(13:13):
So life was pretty good. Like I said, I was just thankful to be feeling better, but there was kind of a lingering sense that for me, that I felt like my health was fragile, and that's really terrifying. I think I just kind of tried to ignore those feelings or push them down. Things were good at the time, and I had about a five year period where I felt really good. My husband and I welcomed a new baby through adoption to our family. So we have three kids. Life was good. And then in 2015, my symptoms started to flare, which was really terrifying to me because I was still eating paleo, so I was feeding my body. The nutrients it needed was not eating. The foods I knew were inflammatory based on the paleo diet. And I kind of went back to my functional medicine doctor and said, I'm really scared because I haven't changed anything and all my symptoms are coming back. So obviously whatever was happening five years ago that was making me really sick, it's back. I kind of had this mentality. It wasn't fixed.
(14:44):
It's coming back. So she did more autoimmune specific lab work at that time, and the only thing that popped up was one marker for Lyme. And so at that time, she did not specialize in Lyme disease, so she referred me to two doctors. One, I was told that I did not have Lyme disease and quote, because people on Lyme disease don't with Lyme disease, don't get Lyme disease in Texas. And the second doctor was a Lyme literate doctor, and the idea was kind of go to these doctors and get an official diagnosis and then hopefully treatment. So my Lyme literate doctor told me in her office at that point that she thought I had had Lyme for 15 plus years, which is, I mean, my mind still kind of explodes when I say that because I was aware that something was affecting my health for the past kind of five years, but it had been manageable.
(16:05):
So the fact that she thought based on labs based on talking to me about my medical history was just really hard for me to wrap my mind around. It was really devastating. It was really confusing because I thought, I have a tickborne illness. I'm not an outdoorsy person. I had been asked by practitioners after that, well, do you camp and hike a lot? Do you go to these parts of the countries? And I really had it. So it was really like, is this really the right thing? Is this really the right diagnosis? It was just a really hard thing to process, and that began a battle for my health for the next eight years.
(16:59):
And I've done a lot of Lyme treatment over the years, kind of spanning from antibiotic protocols. I've done herbal protocols, I've done holistic treatments including energy medicine. For the sake of time, I'm not going to go into all the details of the individual treatments that I'd done, but I know there'd be people really interested in those details. So please read those in my story off my website, laura wimberley health.com. So in 2021, my Lyme symptoms were under control. I was feeling good again, thankfully better I would say, than I really was before because I was implementing more lifestyle changes. I was focusing on my sleep. I was able to add movement into my routine. I was becoming aware of stress management, which has always been a difficult one for me.
(18:06):
But then in 2021, my mom passed away and the grief and stress were really hard on my body. So the next summer I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's. I definitely felt a difference. The fatigue was kind of back. I was having a lot of hormone related symptoms. My hair was falling out, things like that. And so before this time, I had switched to a different functional medicine doctor, and she was actually really shocked. I had never done AIP. I think her actual words were, so you have autoimmune disease, but you've never done the Autoimmune Protocol. And so I very quickly dove into AIP and proof my kind of been there, done that attitude wrong. When I started educating myself on AIP, it was very different in that it focused on nutrient density instead of restriction. It provided a framework for me to investigate which foods not just were hurting my body, but really focused on which foods are supporting my body's healing.
(19:33):
The elimination phase, it's tough to make those changes to your diet, to your lifestyle, but it's temporary and necessary so that when you do reintroduction, it can be a tool to really get to know yourself better. Realize that the first elimination diet that I had done years prior, I had not eliminated eggs, nightshades, legumes, all of which are healthy foods in and of themselves, but they can be very inflammatory for people with autoimmune disease. And so it was kind of a very frustrating realization that I had, that I had put all this work and effort in years prior and that for a decade I still didn't know after a decade of making all those changes and working really hard to support my body through nutrition, that I really didn't know if those foods caused a problem for me or not.
(20:44):
And so I realized I was kind of using the paleo diet, like a diet, eat this, don't eat this, and then I just avoided those foods because I labeled them as inflammatory, not because they were inflammatory for me, which I think is a big distinction to make, and I love that the AIP curriculum says that the goal is for you to find the least restrictive diet that most supports your long-term healing. So it's a very personalized framework for figuring out what foods may cause problems for you, but more importantly, what foods are going to really support your body.
Marie-Noelle Marquis (21:34):
That's great. I love that. That's how you phrase that, right? It's about the nutrient density, and then when you were introduced to it, that's where your realization was like, oh, nutrient density. It does make such a big difference. So today you are, you're dealing with your Lyme diagnosis, your Hashimoto's diagnosis, you're finding AIP. How soon did you see a difference in using, how did that
Laura Wimberly (22:04):
Work? Yeah, great question. I mentioned the original elimination and reintroduction diet, and when I cut out sugar, processed foods, gluten, dairy, which are also eliminated in AIP, I mean I think it was within five days, I noticed a huge difference because I discovered later what a big problem gluten is for me. So very, very quickly and cutting out those foods. By the time I did AIP, I had cut gluten and dairy and sugar out of my diet for over a decade. So I was really curious, how much of a difference is this really going to make because I'm already eating pretty cleanly. And I did, even though I didn't really have an understanding of the nutrient density with the original elimination diet, I was eating a lot more vegetables. So I had already seen significant improvement. But I would say with AIP, even while already had making those changes, I mean, I still felt a difference within, I mean, I would say the first week, but certainly within the first two weeks, I felt a difference in my stomach.
(23:32):
I still felt a boost in my energy level. I will say overall, I just feel better, which I know is a hard, it's not a real tangible thing to tell people, well, you're just going to feel better. But over the long term, I would see changes my hormones being more balanced, which has always been a struggle for me. So there were a lot of improvements. I wouldn't even say small. I mean, I think especially when you have struggled with autoimmune disease and you've had really certainly debilitating, but just daily symptoms that really interfere with your life. I mean, feeling better is such a huge deal. So yeah, it wasn't long. I mean, it was in the first two weeks I would say for sure. Just stomach felt better, more energy just felt better across the board. I also think, I mean sleeping better, just more deeply, feeling more rested in the morning, I think that's a huge issue for people with Lyme certainly and other autoimmune diseases. You're sleeping a long time maybe, but you're still waking up in the morning tired. So
Marie-Noelle Marquis (25:00):
At that point, I'm curious, what guided your path towards becoming a coach, an AIP coach, and also working with Lyme? Were you already working in that field or did you do a career shift?
Laura Wimberly (25:14):
Yeah, great question. I was already a health coach. I was kind of newly a health coach actually, and I had already felt a passion for helping people with chronic Lyme because that obviously is such a huge part of my story. And honestly, I saw a need. I mean, I was having friends text me, call me and say, I have a friend or family member who just got diagnosed with Lyme or has been really sick with Lyme for a long time, and I see that you're feeling better. What are you doing? Can I connect you with them so that you can share with them what's working for you? And so I had already realized that's why I wanted to become a health coach because I really was living a reason that people are suffering and they really need help. And so I think after my experience with AIP, I realized that AIP, it's completely personalized to how I was eating for my body's specific needs, and that really felt like freedom and taking control of my health, even though I had been eating cleanly for a long time, and I mean, I became an AIP Certified Coach because I believe it's the best nutritional and lifestyle program for those with autoimmune disease.
(26:41):
It helps our bodies from the inside out. And my recovery from Lyme has been really long because I had to figure out all these separate lifestyle habits on my own and then figure out how to implement them best. I could kind of figure out by the time I had found AIP, I kind of thought, oh, well, AIP kind of rolls these all into one protocol that you can do at your own speed. You don't have to do them all at once, but it kind of puts it in a neat little package. And I think the key is to really help people understand why all these things matter. Focusing on nutrition and lowering inflammation in your body that's going to hopefully reduce the amount of physical pain in your body, which then helps you sleep better. And then I feel like automatically reduces the stress in your life, even though that's not the only stress management thing you should be or can be doing, and just how movement and then connection with people really supports your health.
(28:14):
I mean, there's all these pieces and it was just really wonderful and eyeopening to discover all these things. Like I said, I discovered separately in this one place and program. I feel like if I had discovered AIP sooner, my healing journey could have been shorter or maybe a better way to say that is I could have been feeling better sooner. And so I really want that for other people. I hate that people are suffering that they're in pain and I want them to fill that relief as soon as possible. But it is, it's complicated. It takes a lot of work, but to be able to guide people on that journey just gives me so much joy and so much purpose and fulfillment that it's just always the best day ever when my clients tell me that they're feeling better and they're able to enjoy their life and participate in things that they haven't been able to in a long time.
Jaime Hartman (29:27):
Well, that's a great place to transition now to talking about your signature coaching advice, which you shared with us ahead of time. So what you said when we asked what you were going to share was that breaking each lime client's cycle of pain, identifying the area in their life that causes the most pain, and then focusing on that first so they can be successful implementing the rest of AIP. Would you elaborate on that a little bit?
Laura Wimberly (29:55):
Yeah, sure. I think that when we hear pain, like pain point, we automatically think of physical pain. I mean obviously, and certainly people with chronic Lyme have a lot of physical pain, physical pain, obviously I just referred to. This affects our sleep and stress level. All of those are related. So physical pain is just a given. I want to help my clients reduce that. But getting a diagnosis is a really big challenge for people with chronic Lyme disease. I mean, most people see many, many doctors and wait a really long time for diagnosis. Medical gas lining and misinformation is also a very common challenge for people with Lyme. So by the time I'm seeing most of my clients, they are not feeling seen or heard in their journey. There's often no prognosis and very few success stories for chronic Lyme. I hope that this is a very small part of helping to fix that and we'll start hearing more and more, but that's a really hefty weight on top of the physical pain.
(31:14):
So I really want to make sure that with my clients, I start by hearing their story first. Everyone is different, and hearing from them the challenges that they've already encountered is really important to me because I think validation and empathy is really essential to healing. Obviously, having someone say, I know what you're going through and showing another person their life, their suffering matters is very powerful for them. And not everyone around them has a lot of understanding for the changes they want to make in their health, and I really want them to know that they're not alone moving forward.
(31:58):
The stress that an illness can have on relationships could be the biggest point, sorry, pain point for someone, just the news that the diagnosis can lead you really shocked how and why is this happening to me? You can feel very lost and overwhelmed. So it can be really hard to even find a starting point. I also mean for myself especially, I feel like there is a lot of grief that can come with a diagnosis and how important it is not to just push that down or try to it and move on, but realize it's okay and normal to need some time to process and regroup. So I feel like that's really important to address those kind of emotional or what I would call more spiritual pain points. First, before you start making changes to your lifestyle,
Marie-Noelle Marquis (32:59):
What would be some, I'd say one or two actionable tips that they could do right now today to help them elevate what we say their wellness journey to new heights?
Laura Wimberly (33:11):
Yeah, I love that question. I mean, elevate to new heights. I don't know that this is a super glamorous tip or very exciting, but I feel like it's very, very important, and it's something I try to communicate to my clients very early on is please be patient and kind with your body. The people that I meet with chronic Lyme disease typically have been struggling for a very long time. They've been very sick for a very long time. Just remember that the Lyme bacteria has had months, or in my case years to spread and wreak habit. Healing isn't typically instant. It's going to take time for your body to recover. If you're frustrated that healing feels like it's slow or baby's just being encouraged that long-term health can start with baby steps and the better that you feel, the more things you kind of identify that work for you, and then you can make more changes or implement more things into your lifestyle so that you can see more improvements, because that's what we're all after is you want to improve, you want to feel better. If I want those with line listening to hear one thing, it's that healing is possible. You can feel better. Please be patient and just don't give up. If something is, you're noticing small improvements, those improvements can become big over time. So just give your healing time to happen
Marie-Noelle Marquis (35:08):
And if people want to connect and work with you, and let's say someone's really struggling, they feel like they have Lyme and they have all the symptoms, but they're unable to get a diagnosis.
Laura Wimberly (35:20):
Yeah, absolutely. So please visit my website, laura wimberley health.com. I'm also starting social media hopefully very soon. On Instagram I have an account called Laura's Line, so I hope that that will allow me to connect with more people with Lyme. And I would say if you're, if you do not yet have a diagnosis of Lyme disease, but you are curious and you want to invest further, please look on the Lyme disease.org website because they have a directory where you can look up in your area, a Lyme literate doctor that's a doctor who has a really good knowledge of chronic Lyme, a really good updated knowledge of treatments and what's available, because a diagnosis has to come from a medical practitioner that's outside my scope of practice. So I would just encourage you to also make sure that you have a medical practitioner in your group of people that are helping you.
Jaime Hartman (36:40):
Thank you so much for being here, Laura, it was great to hear from you, and we're wishing you all the best.
Laura Wimberly (36:45):
Yeah, thank you so much for having me and inviting me to do this with y'all. It's a huge blessing.
Jaime Hartman (36:54):
Thank you, Laura, for illustrating so clearly for our listeners, that AIP is not just a diet, but is a complete protocol with multiple branches, and that there are multiple ways to approach it. Listeners through this podcast, AIP Certified Coaches bring you resources so that you can feel confident about doing AIP on your own, but with the knowledge that you aren't doing it alone,
Marie-Noelle Marquis (37:17):
We'll be back with another episode in two weeks. So please make sure you subscribe to the AIP Summit podcast and your favorite podcast player if you have not already.
Jaime Hartman (37:25):
And if you would like to leave us a rating and review, it will help others find this podcast where we are committed to helping you use the power of the Autoimmune Protocol to elevate your wellness journey to new heights. The AIP Summit Podcast is a Gutsy By Nature production. Content presented is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
