Marie-Noelle Marquis (00:06):
Welcome to the AIP Summit Podcast, your go-to resource for taking control of your autoimmune health, presented by AIP Certified Coaches. Hi, I am Marie-Noelle Marquis.
Jaime Hartman (00:16):
And I'm Jaime Hartman. And we're here to equip you with the tools knowledge and support you need to effectively use the autoimmune protocol.
Marie-Noelle Marquis (00:24):
And today we are answering even more of your questions.
Jaime Hartman (00:33):
This is the fourth q and a style episode that we've recorded for you, and we are going to be jumping in today with the assumption that you already have some knowledge about what AIP is. So if you're new to AIP or if you just think you need a refresher, we would suggest that you actually pause now and go back to listen to episode one, which was entitled the ABCs of AIP. And then you might also want to listen to our previous q and a episodes. You don't have to do that first, but you might want to do that in the process of learning more about what AIP is. Those are numbered six, 14 and 22.
Marie-Noelle Marquis (01:09):
Also, if you don't know who Jaime and I are yet, you might want to go back to listen to episode four and five to hear our stories. There will be a link to all these episodes in the show notes as well as links to our profiles on the AIP Certified Coach directory and to our individual business websites as well as a link to the form where you can submit your own questions for us to answer in a future episode. Now let's get started. Jaime, would you read the first question?
Jaime Hartman (01:35):
Yes. So we have five really great questions we're going to try to answer today. The first one is about cravings and the idea of willpower. So specifically the question writer wrote, I am struggling with cravings for sugar, especially after dinner, but also at other times of the day, how can I get stronger willpower?
Marie-Noelle Marquis (01:56):
I love this questions. There are a few layers there that I want to address. And the first one is the comment of how do I get a strong willpower? And I always want to remind our clients, we tend to see our body and our minds as two separate things and it's like, oh, I don't have strong enough willpower, I'm not strong enough. And it's like we're one, it's connected, right? So the first step is understanding this is a new against your own body, we're together. And so just shifting that mindset I think can be a really powerful first step when it comes to sugar craving. I personally, this has been part of my journey. I'm a sugar addict, so I've definitely struggled with that.
(02:45):
And there are two things about cravings. One, I think, and it's important I think to know why. Again, for me, knowing the whys is such a powerful tool to help you again gain that willpower or strengthen that willpower. So cravings tend to come for two reasons in my experience. So one, we can have something called dysbiosis, something happening in our gut, which literally these bacterias are craving sugars, they're depending on sugars for their lives, and as we're starving them and we're changing our diet, they're literally screaming at our brain that they need that sugar. So that could be a reason why the sugar cravings are happening. Two blood sugar dysregulation, which is really common with inflammation and our cell receptors are desensitized and insulin resistance creeps in and then you're craving the sugar because you're just not getting that glucose into your cells. So those are the two big reasons.
(03:44):
Now, how do you get to the why, which one it is definitely recommend working with a professional, whether you're working with a functional health doctor, an AIP Certified Coach, traditional therapy practitioner, someone that will really be able to get to that bottom of the cause with you and guide you through that wouldn't just, a lot of people will just be like, let me just throw all the herbs at it, and then you end up with a giant cupboard of supplements and you're completely lost and it's a waste of money and a waste of time. So I think cravings are really, they're real. They need to be addressed and I would definitely recommend jumping on that path of being guided by a professional. And one little tip too is that you can just think about when you have your meal, whenever you tend to have sugar cravings at the end of your meal, it tends to be that there was too many cards in that meal for your body to process, so it causes that extra craving at the end. So just kind of take a look at what you ate was there, maybe you need a little bit more fat, maybe a little more protein. How can you balance the macros on that meal to see if that actually impacts the cravings that you're dealing with at the end of your dinner? That's my thought. What are your thoughts, Jaime?
Jaime Hartman (05:04):
I agree with all of that, and the only thing I would add to that would be to, if this was my client, would be to ask them to review with me what the rest of their day is in terms of what they're eating.
(05:18):
Especially because zeroing in on the fact that the cravings seemed most intense after dinner, and I guess I didn't necessarily think of that as being immediately after dinner, although maybe that is what they meant. I was thinking it was that kind of nighttime, like I'm craving craving things and I was wondering if one of the things I'll check with clients when they tell me that is let's review. Are you skimping breakfast? Are you skimp skipping or skimping on your breakfast in your lunch? Sometimes we get that diet culture mentality and we think we need to restrict, restrict, restrict. And then you get to the end of the day, and you're,
(05:54):
Some of the craving anyway is just like you don't eat enough all day and so now your body's really depleted and it's of course asking you for the thing that'll give it that quick energy, which is going to be something sweet. So that's the thing I would add to that. And then the other thing I just was thinking because of the word willpower is to just remember that willpower is a really limited supply resource. You really only have so much. And so rather than thinking about how do I have stronger or more willpower, maybe thinking about how you can need less of it. So again, that might be looking at what did you eat all day so that you don't get to the end of the day feeling like you're still hungry working on the issues that you mentioned. Maybe there's some gut dysbiosis, maybe it's a blood sugar regulation issue that you can be working on so that you aren't feeling like you have to really strengthen yourself against those cravings.
(06:52):
So I guess I would just wrap it up by saying we threw out a lot of things in there and I hope whoever asked this question, anybody else who resonates with it feels like there's some hope. There's nothing wrong with you, you're not defective. You don't have to to feel like you are a captive to these cravings either. There's a lot you can do to help make them less intense. Not to say they'll ever completely go away. Sweet stuff is great. We're always going to still want it, but if you can get to the point where you don't feel like it's ruling your life and your emotions, that's a positive,
Marie-Noelle Marquis (07:32):
Right? Yeah, that's a great point. Someone asked, I'm a very picky eater. I have been described as having toddler taste buds. I'd be perfectly happy if I could just eat chicken nuggets, macaroni cheese every day, and I know that AIP would be hard for me, but I'm tired of feeling so bad. How can I overcome my pickiness? Any advice would be welcome.
Jaime Hartman (07:54):
First of all, kudos to you for recognizing this and then wanting to overcome it. It really shows some maturity and some sense of wisdom and a desire to grow and to improve your health. So again, kudos to you for recognizing this and being honest with yourself about it. So my first tip would be for you to think about adding foods in first, not necessarily about all whole AIP, or think about cutting foods out. So this person mentioned chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese. Let's not worry about that. You can keep eating those for now. Instead, just trying to work on training your taste buds in not just taste buds but your palate for texture and enjoyment of other foods. That might mean ordering a box of meals from urban AIP so that you can just kind of explore, see what they taste like, enjoy the different taste sensations.
(08:55):
Get used to that. Find what you like. Even if you didn't think you'd like it, try eating it anyway. Maybe you'll surprise yourself just getting used to eating these new foods. If you like to cook, if you might want to learn how to be a better cook, maybe this can be an inspiration for you to practice some new cooking techniques or explore some fun flavors. You might invest in a cookbook that has pretty pictures in it, something that gets you kind of inspired to think about just expanding your horizons. I had one tip that came to mind or one specific resource that came to mind and that was Michelle Hoover who I think we've mentioned a couple times in recent episodes.
(09:37):
She's an AIP blogger who her website is called Unbound Wellness. I'll put a link in the show notes. And she published a few years back a cookbook that I'm pretty sure you can still get on Amazon. It's been a few years, but if I find it, I'll put the link in the show notes for it as well. And it's specifically AIP comfort food. I've recommended it to a number of people who describe themselves similar to our question asker here, who reported back to me that they really like some of the recipes in it that gave them kind of that sense of comfort that they really were seeking and didn't want to give up by transitioning to the elimination phase of AIP. How about you Melle? Any thoughts on this question?
Marie-Noelle Marquis (10:24):
Yeah, I love what brought up, it's more gentle than what my thought was, but my initial thought was, okay, so your favorite food is chicken nuggets, let's say, and mac and cheese, right? Well, you can make, let's make chicken nuggets AIP way. Let's use some cassava flour and put some chicken tenders in there and fry and avocado oil and make that so that you're like, okay, this. Because I feel like you can't be 99% gluten for a year. It's like they say you can't be 99% pregnant. You're either you are or you're not either. So because I feel like gluten is such a key part of the elimination, I would want to get those out. But cassava or what's really good too is you can use pork panko like pork crumbs, what am I not thinking of the proper anyway that for batter with cassava flour, so you can make very tasty substitution.
(11:42):
And then same thing, jovial has great grain-free pasta, like elbow pasta and you can make a mac and cheese with that using AIP cheese recipes as well. And there's a ton online. So there's options. I would maybe look at switching to those recipes. So you have your comfort food flavors. My only hesitation with saying that is AIP isn't just about switching food, it's about nutrient density and healing. So if you're just being like, cool, now I've got safe version, but that's still all I'm eating, then you're not accomplishing the healing part. So absolutely, I agree with you, Jaime, of adding these flavors. How do you initially set yourself up and then those nutrients? I'm glad. Thank you for mentioning urban EIP. Half of my staff have autoimmune disease and are very familiar with AIP, and then the other half of my staff joyfully have no autoimmune disease and they can eat whatever they want.
(12:48):
This week we were all meeting and some of my cooks were like, this is crazy. I never thought that healthy food would taste so good when I knew it was AIP. I just imagined everything was going to be bland and everything's going to be broccoli and just no flavors. And they're like, this is some amazing food. And then we start realizing when you talk about eating whole foods, you're thinking more like your great grandmother's recipes or when people were cooking with real ingredients and that. So actually there are tons of flavors, so you might be surprised the idea that you have right now what AIP is that's going to be like, it's just going to be broccoli and I ate it Russell Sprout steamed. There are so much. And when you start cooking with animal fat using tallow and lard from healthy sources and grassed and pasture raised duck fat, what your body loves about that fried taste and that cheesy comfort, those elements that are so appealing to our body, naturally you can find that in that whole food cooking. So I think you'll be really surprised of how much you can fall in love with Whole Foods and what it can actually bring to you. And then when you start, you're feeling the difference in how much better you feel. That's also a huge help. I think.
Jaime Hartman (14:16):
That's awesome. Do your staff have any favorite recipes that they're really liking?
Marie-Noelle Marquis (14:25):
The beef cabbage rolls whenever we make them. One of my cook is like, I'm taking some home, right? Take some home. We can take some home, which is really exciting because it's such different and we made a no tomato sauce that I'm super excited about too. And it's fun to be like, wow, these people, they can have spaghetti sauce and they're, no, no, no, I'm going to choose this one instead. The bolognese is super popular chicken piccata and then the lamb, we have a lamb for the holidays as well, and the Mickey's lamb skewers, whenever we cook them, we have staff from the actual building, they're not part of the company walk by and they're like, Hey, you making those skewers today? So I think it's great to have that aspect of these people can eat whatever they want and they're like,
Jaime Hartman (15:22):
Wow.
(15:25):
Yeah, absolutely. Okay, next question. I'm going to ask this one. So this person is wondering how AIP is different from paleo and other healthy eating patterns that they've heard about. So they said, I have rheumatoid arthritis, hypertension, and I have a family history of cardiac issues. I'm 54, my doctor is suggesting statins. For anybody who doesn't know that's a prescription medication. So the doctor's suggesting a prescription medication and that's because my cholesterol is their words slightly high. We don't know. We have no numbers here. The person who wrote the question asked said, I asked him about AIP and he said that paleo isn't good and I should be on a Mediterranean diet. So again, how is AIP different than paleo
Marie-Noelle Marquis (16:15):
AIP being different than paleo? So while AIP, core elimination diet, part of the AIP protocol, the share similarities with paleo when it comes to which food you eliminate, again, AIP is a whole protocol. It's more than a diet. And the diet has different phases as well. And there's a lifestyle aspect that we always talk about. So as you reintroduce foods and find out what works for you, your diet might end up looking not paleo like at all, or it might, so that's very, in that sense, it's completely different. There's modified AIP also, for example, which allows rice, so that's different than paleo. So when you're thinking about the similarities, it's really more like that elimination paleo that's similar but so much more. And I think it's important to understand that where they come from the paleo diet is that paleolithic style of, let's go back to hunter gatherer habits before pre agriculture, before the food was processed because it's a anti-inflammatory and there's a ton of value in a paleo diet in my opinion, for the right person. Whereas AIP is science research backed for a specific purpose. So studies were done and then it's like, ooh, when we realize when this food is eliminated, this is the benefits that we get from it. And then again, it's a journey. It's only temporary and then you reintroduce as you're healing your gut.
(17:46):
I think that's the main difference. Now the whole thing about a Mediterranean diet, your doctor might be thinking, oh, it's going to be like they're going to be eating red meat and nothing else. Which again, I don't think
Jaime Hartman (18:00):
So to clarify the red meat, they would be thinking that when they said paleo, they're
Marie-Noelle Marquis (18:04):
Right. When you say paleo, they'd be like, okay, you're just going to be steak every day, which you could. Again, it's steak every day
Jaime Hartman (18:11):
For you and you could call that paleo. So I mean the doctor's not necessarily wrong if he's thinking that's paleo and he's like, that's no good.
Marie-Noelle Marquis (18:19):
I think that's sort of the culture thinks of like, oh, it's going to be red meat, it's going to be bad. You should go for Mediterranean, it's fish, whatever that thought is. You can do a very, very nutrient dense and healthy AIP with a full pescatarian diet. So the elements of the Mediterranean diet I think can absolutely be present on AIP. If your doctor is thinking I want low fat meat, basically low fat protein. So I think again, asking the questions like what is the thinking here? Why suggesting one versus the other? And then knowing that AIP is really sourcing whole foods and high quality so you can get wild caught fish and eat a lot of it and a lot of leaner protein and have a successful AIP. So that's my thought. What are your thoughts, Jeanie?
Jaime Hartman (19:08):
Yeah, I think so my thoughts first just about a Mediterranean diet. I really believe that's a healthy framework for eating in general. And I'm going to say clearly the doctor's not wrong about saying, oh, you should eat a Mediterranean diet. It's tough though because I've heard that a lot from family and friends. People are like, my doctor just said this and they didn't really give me any guidance of what that means, which is a whole nother conversation here. But if you are going to get a cookbook for a Mediterranean diet, what you're probably going to see that it's going to say use olive oil, it's going to eat a lot of vegetables. It's going to say have fish protein should be lean protein. You're not going to be frying things, you're not eating a lot of sugar if you're having grains or whole grains, you're eating legumes.
(19:52):
That's kind of what a Mediterranean diet is going to be typically people's interpretation of it. And so again, I think that's a healthy framework for a lot of people. When you mentioned the person mentioned their hypertension and some borderline cholesterol and a family history of cardiac issues. So that would explain to me why your doctor is taking a relatively aggressive approach about your heart health. And I can understand why as we said before, why you might say Poo P to paleo if he thinks that's what you meant about AIP, like something where it's has a lot of saturated fat in it, I get it, but it really doesn't have to be either or. You could absolutely do the AIP elimination phase and still be sort of keeping in mind the idea of the Mediterranean diet. I would probably suggest the modified AIP elimination for you because going to let you keep legumes in your diet.
(20:49):
As we know, those are really heart healthy. And so if your gut's happy with them and tolerating them well, that would be a great thing for you to include in your diet and see how you do. And then through the reintroduction process, you'd be able to determine if you can add back in nuts, which are also good for heart health. And then I'm keying in on the fact that they said they have rheumatoid arthritis and that's why they're thinking about AIP perhaps. So the reintroduction process would help them determine if nightshades are triggering their rheumatoid arthritis or not. And for anybody who doesn't know what a nightshade is, it's a family, a botanical family of fruits and vegetables and tomatoes are kind of the key one there. So that's one of those places where if you were to say like, okay, my doctor says Mediterranean diet and then you go and eat this Mediterranean diet that has tomatoes every single day, you might have more joint pain than you did before, whereas somebody else wouldn't experience that. So that would be a great way you can combine your doctor's guidance with what you know about AIP to test for yourself and see if that's actually a component of your diet that should be left out or not. So hopefully that helps.
Marie-Noelle Marquis (22:03):
Okay, next question regarding exercise. This person says, I know that movement is one of the pillars of AIP and that exercise is important for health in general, but I also know that exercising too much is bad for people with autoimmune disease and I think I've experienced the effects of that myself. How do I know what the right amount is?
Jaime Hartman (22:24):
Yeah, this question was one that we did a webinar a couple months back on autoimmune athletes and exercise, and I know this was one of the questions that was asked in a roundabout way, and I don't know that we gave a really great satisfactory answer to it because there isn't one simple answer. How do you know? I think first thing I would say is zeroing in on the fact that this person says, I think I've experienced the effects of that myself, meaning too much exercise. I think if you think that then you probably did
Marie-Noelle Marquis (22:52):
Because
Jaime Hartman (22:54):
You kind of know when it's too much. But how do you know what the right amount is? Because sometimes I know what happens to people is that they'll get into that state where they were exercising too hard, maybe they were training for a goal or they're trying to lose weight or they're trying to keep up with somebody else or do some kind of a challenge. I mean whatever it might be that they're exercising really intensely and they end up feeling really terrible. They have a big flare, they have a big setback, whatever happens in regards to their autoimmune health and they can recognize that the exercise was a factor there. It's very normal for you to then maybe be fearful about exercise and not want to do much at all. So how do you find that balance? First thing I would say, if you're not sure about the balance, working with an AIP Certified Coach might be helpful.
(23:45):
Part of their training includes evaluating that and they have an assessment tool that they can use with you to determine if you're currently moving too much or too little, and you can just get a baseline with that. So that might be one thing. And then once you recognize that maybe you were over exercising at some point and now maybe you're under exercising and you want to find that sweet spot, remember that there are three variables. So one is the intensity of your exercise session, like how intensity, is it high intensity exercise? Is it something where you're really, really breathing hard, working up a big sweat? That would be the intensity level or is it more gentle movement? So that's the scale of thing to consider their intensity. The second variable would be the duration of your exercise. So are you going for over an hour or is it a 10 minute little movement snack that there can be a valid place for both of those depending on your fitness and your health and your goals.
(24:51):
And then the third variable would be your frequency. So ideally you find an exercise that you can do at the appropriate intensity and appropriate duration so that you can do it frequently. If you find that after your exercise you're just wiped out and you can't even think about doing that again for several days, that's probably too intense and probably, or possibly too much of too long, the duration was too long, but you might have certain exercises that you enjoy doing, but you need to make sure you give yourself a full 24 hour rest period in between or 48 hours. Maybe you can do it every other day. So remember that though, because the three different variables are helpful for you to think about as ways that you can adjust. You'll go through seasons of your life where you might have a time where you can do this very intense exercise and then another time where you can do a less intense exercise, but you can do it more often or you can go longer.
(25:56):
And so that's something to just consider there. And I thought I would share briefly my own personal story about this fairly recently I've shared not too long ago that I ran a marathon this fall, and that was something I had been training for quite some time, and I worked with a coach to help me figure out how to balance all of those variables. And that was something I would highly recommend if you have a goal like that, something you want to train for. I tried training for a half marathon two years prior on my own without that support. It was just following a training plan that was designed for somebody just of average health and fitness. And I ended up having a series of things going on in my life that just became too much and I had to step back and let go of that goal temporarily because I was having a flare of my autoimmune disease.
(26:51):
And so I recognized there that I needed to just again, step back. It was really about intensity. Honestly, at that point I had to let go of that goal of trying to run the half marathon, still was exercising some but much less intensely and still moving, but doing it in a way that was more supportive of my health rather than this fitness goal. So it is true that exercise is important for our health in general, and it is also true that too much exercise can have a negative impact on your health. And so it is something that you have to consider for yourself and for relating to all of the other factors in your life at that moment, and it will not always be the same. So what the right amount is, is to really be honest with yourself and to check in and maybe get some professional support if you feel like you can't quite be honest with yourself or you don't quite know. But it's important because we know that moving our body gives us so many benefits, and one of those benefits is just your mental health. So finding some way to move in a way that feels good for your body and your mind and your emotions is really key to lifelong wellness.
Marie-Noelle Marquis (28:11):
And I think I love that story that you shared, and I love the difference that having a coach and you can be like, oh, but Jaime, you're a coach and all of this and you don't need anter, but we can all use guidance, and it's just having someone that can help you guide you and pace you through it. I think there's a lot of value. One thing I want to add with that is when you get into the fitness exercise, because most of us think I'm going to go to the gym and exercise, you're surrounded by people that are, we're not all the same. So you might be dealing with a personal trainer at the gym that just is about like, I'm going to push you to lose weight or I'm going to help you build muscles and that are not aware of the challenges that comes with an autoimmune disease.
(29:01):
So I think it's important to, if you are working with a personal trainer at the gym or somebody that has awareness of autoimmune disease and what that means with exercise and asking that question, are you familiar with exercise and how it impacts autoimmune disease? And that way because you need that support, you need someone that's going to be able to be like, Hey, I can see, you know what? We'll take a break. And that doesn't mean you failed because you didn't do the hundredth pushup. That mentality, I think it's key. And it's hard because you go with a friend and your friend is not dealing with autoimmune disease and they can do way more and you're like, oh. Also, I think I used to be for years sharing my own story for years I was really, really, really pushed to train every day, be at the gym and maintain a certain weight, blah, blah, blah. And I would feel like debilitate tired, completely wiped out and around me, people were like, it's normal. Of course you're tired. You just worked out. It's normal. You're just tired, it's fine.
(30:07):
And nobody understood the tired I was talking about. So then you end up feeling like, well, I guess I just need to do more. Just yeah, I guess. But no, it was just because it was completely inadequate for what I was going through and it was actually negatively impacted my health. So I think making sure that you're not listening to those standards because those are just for different people. If you are tired beyond, you may be tired in my opinion, and you may be tired for an hour, but it seems like if you need to rest for the entire day or hours and hours after you work out, that's too much. And then the other thing is as you're building it up, as you build up your strength exercise maybe doesn't mean being in the gym. Maybe there's activities that you can do and that just builds resilience and build stamina or even focusing on just light weights at the house or something. But using an activity might be a way for you to measure it more too, because if it's like I'm going to go for a hike and you get tired of hiking, you just sit down for a bit and it's like, okay, I'm going to pace myself before I get to the top of that hill or mountain, but when you're on a treadmill, it's like, what's the end of that hill? So tricks or not tricks, but yeah, ideas like that, tips like that, maybe incorporating more inactivity.
Jaime Hartman (31:38):
Yeah, I really appreciate that you mentioned the personal trainers at the gym because no shade to them. They do great work with the people who just come in off the street who don't have other health conditions, but if they don't understand what you need because you have an autoimmune disease, then you may need to tell them, I need you to understand if you don't, maybe we aren't the best fit for each other and that's okay. It's totally okay. Hopefully they would have the professionalism to recognize their limitations, but sometimes we don't even think to tell them because we think it's not relevant or it's important to be communicating with that professional about what you're feeling.
Marie-Noelle Marquis (32:22):
Yeah. Yeah.
Jaime Hartman (32:24):
Okay. We have time for one more question today. So this will be our last one for today. And it's a short question, but it might have a longer answer. We'll see, the question is how do I know if AIP is working?
Marie-Noelle Marquis (32:37):
It's really a reduction of symptoms, I think, right? So
(32:41):
If AIP is working, the concept right is you're going to start an elimination diet, apply the lifestyle pillars, and then see this reduction of symptoms. And when you've got this substantial reduction of symptoms and you start exploring the dietary introduction while you maintain the pillars of lifestyle, that's how I think knowing that, yeah, just seeing that pain going away and the brain fog lifting, that would be the telltale sign. But again, it is complex. You can't just jump on the diet and then forget to sleep and move and connect and do all the other things. You have to. And I guess my other thing I would say is just if you are doing AIP and you're like, it's not working, don't necessarily throw the baby with the bath water out, right? AIP doesn't work. Is it AIP not working or is it, again, you're doing the diet but you're not addressing the rest. I see a lot of clients being like, yeah, I know. I know I need to do the stress, blah, blah, blah. I'll do that later. I'm just focused on the food right now. And it's like it goes Jaime.
Jaime Hartman (33:55):
If anything in those situations, I'm like, if the diet and the stress and the sleep and everything is too much, maybe you let go of the diet temporarily and get your stress management stuff in place because it's going to make everything easier. So I would also add that you want to make sure you don't forget about more subtle symptoms like your sleep quality, your energy levels, just your mental clarity. And then that's important to say because if you have something like a skin condition that could take a really long time for you to see those, your specific symptoms change, you don't necessarily need to wait until those start to change to understand AIP is working for you if you're in tune with those more subtle things. And so how do you get in tune with them? It might make sense to before you start or early on when you're just starting to do some daily symptom tracking of those things like how well did I sleep last night? My energy level on a scale of one to 10, today is a four, and then another day it's a five, so you can see. And so maybe 30 days later you look back and you're like, wow, I was not sleeping as well as I thought I am now. I was not, my energy was not as high. Sometimes we don't even think of those as symptoms because they're just kind of like our life. So having that tracking from the beginning can help you to evaluate.
Marie-Noelle Marquis (35:15):
I like that a lot. Yeah, obviously working with an AIP Certified Coach also, they can help you get that baseline. Let's look at all these symptoms we have right now and then track and see the progress. But I love what you recommend. You can do it a lot on your own with the list.
Jaime Hartman (35:35):
And I think sometimes I just said something like, maybe you should do this before you start. And if you're already doing it and you haven't done it yet, you can always start today, start tracking your symptoms today, get that sense of where you are. And it's interesting how quickly we can forget how we felt just a few weeks ago. And especially if, I dunno, the skin stuff just comes into my mind, I can just picture somebody looking at these lesions that they want to have go away. I mean, they're just not going to biologically, they're not going to go away that fast. And so you have to recognize AIP is probably working for you in other ways before that's going to happen and not get really discouraged.
Marie-Noelle Marquis (36:19):
Yeah, I think we always say the body heals in layers and
(36:23):
As coaches we can help guide the priority, but the body has the answer so it will decide the order it wants to improve on these symptoms. So I think that's really important. And I just had a client recently who actually dealt with a lot of skin issues and when we first started working together, I remember her saying, I am supposed to connect my body. Everything hurts, everything. And she was very focused on her skin, but also everything. It was just such a mush of horrible symptoms that she was dealing with. And just last week when we spoke and she was saying, now it's just so easy. I know right away if I eat something, if I did something like, oh, maybe I missed an hour's sleep maybe, and it's just so easy to see. And I was like, do you remember when we started? And having be able to look back in those original symptoms and be like, yes, that's true. I had this, I had that, I had that. And all that's improved. And now that level of improvements is allowing her to clearly see that connection with her body. So I know when we first start or we were struggling, you don't have to be at the beginning, but when you're struggling season in that journey, it feels like we're so disconnected from our body. But as that healing progress, it's really amazing how you start seeing it. You'll know it's working
Jaime Hartman (37:53):
And I think we're disconnected from our body at that point as a coping mechanism and it completely makes sense. So don't feel bad if that's you, you're just feeling that that's describing you. I think in some ways it might help to just trust the process. Don't worry too much first if it's working or not. Just do your best. And I remember when I first started with my healing journey, one of the things that I think was the wisest piece of advice I'd gotten, I'd heard somewhere along the way was just do it for 30 days and don't, don't think about your body for 30 days any more than you have to just do all the things and then after 30 days, do an honest assessment. And so that helped me a ton. It helped me to not be day in, day out like, oh, is this better than yesterday?
(38:45):
Is it better than that? I don't know if this is working. I was just like, I just freed myself from having to make that judgment or evaluation and then got to that day that I'd counted down and it wasn't the day that I'm going to stop. It was the day that I was going to evaluate. And that I think made all the difference for me in that initial phase of getting going. All right. Again, we want to thank all of the people who asked these really great questions and we of course welcome you to Submit Your Own for us to answer in future episodes Through this podcast, AIP Certified Coaches aim to bring you resources so that you can feel confident about doing AIP on your own. But with the knowledge that you aren't doing AIP alone,
Marie-Noelle Marquis (39:28):
We'll be back with another episode in two weeks. So make sure you subscribe to the AIP Summit podcast and your favorite podcast player if you have not already, to make sure that you don't miss an episode.
Jaime Hartman (39:38):
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.
