Marie-Noëlle 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'm Marie-Noelle Marquis.
Jaime Hartman (00:17):
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-Noëlle Marquis (00:25):
And today we are talking about how to keep going with AIP even when the going gets tough. All right, so we got a question from a listener that we thought deserved a real honest answer. They asked, "Do I need to stick with AIP every day? What if I eat AIP during the week but give myself days off on the weekend?"
Jaime Hartman (00:50):
We love this question because this person is being so honest. It does get at something a lot of people are feeling, but maybe don't say out loud, which is this is hard and I'm wondering if there's a way I can make it a little easier.
Marie-Noëlle Marquis (01:06):
And the short answer is, well, the elimination phase specifically requires full adherence to work, but the longer answer is really about understanding why and then figuring out how to actually make that sustainable for you. So let's talk by briefly defining what full adherence means in the elimination phase context. So if you're choosing to use the core AIP framework for your elimination phase, that means that for at least 30 days you'll be avoiding all grains, pseudo-grains, dairy, eggs, nuts, and seeds, legumes, nightshades, and processed food edives.
Jaime Hartman (01:46):
And if you are choosing to use the modified AIP framework for your elimination phase, you have a slightly shorter list of foods to avoid, but it is just as important for you to avoid those foods entirely for at least 30 days. I know that some people describe the modified AIP elimination phase as air quotes here, less strict version of the AIP, but I try to not use that phrasing because actually it is equally important that you are strict with yourself about being 100% compliant during that period of time, regardless of which framework you use. The only difference is that with modified AIP, you have more foods available to you as options during the elimination phase than you would if you're using core AIP, which for many people does make it easier to maintain adherence.
Marie-Noëlle Marquis (02:38):
Listeners who want to know more information about the differences between modified and core AIP elimination phase lists may want to listen to episode one, which is the ABCs of AIP and episode six, which was our first episode devoted to answering common questions about AIP.
Jaime Hartman (02:54):
And of course, I'll put links to both of those episodes in the show notes. Now, I want to call attention to the fact that you might notice the importance we're placing on the elimination phase. We are not talking about needing to eat a very strict diet for the rest of your life. After you've achieved some degree of symptom improvement and you've progressed through the reintroduction process, you will probably have more flexibility with how you eat on a day-to-day basis depending upon the current state of your overall health and how much resilience you can build up. But for an elimination and reintroduction protocol to actually give you useful information, you do need to hold yourself to a strict standard of compliance for the necessary period of time.
Marie-Noëlle Marquis (03:40):
Yes. And of course, we're always talking about how AIP is more than just the food. Other factors like sleep, stress, movement, connection with others and with natures are also part of the protocol. And you can employ a litle bit more flexibility here. For example, if you have one late nigh, you occasionally skip your meditation practice or your regular workout or there's bedweather, busy schedule, something that keeps you from getting outside. All of that is okay. You don't need to do all of the lifestyle pillars every day, all the time to experience the benefits from doing it some of the time. But again, during the period of time when you are in the elimination phase of the dietary portion of the protocol, you do need to do the diet very every single day. Absolutely. And before we move on, I think it's important to acknowledge that having the weekend off instinct is completely understandable.
(04:34):
It's definitely not a character flaw. We think we all feel like that, right?
Jaime Hartman (04:39):
Yeah, absolutely. So now let's talk about why consistency actually matters physiologically. The actual physical reason it's important that your diet during the elimination phase is consistent. Marina Well, can you explain?
Marie-Noëlle Marquis (04:53):
Yes. So the dietary element of the autoimmune protocol uses an elimination and reintroduction method to help you determine a long-term way of eating that is best for you. So the elimination phase is essentially a reset. You're removing the potential triggers long enough for inflammation to calm down, symptoms to shift. And then once that's happened, the reintroduction phase allows you to methodically test those potential triggers so that you can see which one of them provokes symptoms and which ones you actually can tolerate.
Jaime Hartman (05:27):
Such an important point to emphasize. It's really important that you understand AIP is not just about eating healthier or cleaner. In fact, many of the foods that you exclude during the elimination phase, those potential triggers that Renewell was just describing them as are actually quite healthy foods that people without autoimmune disease can eat without any negative impact and that you too may be able to reintroduce later. But if you reintroduce them randomly or early, even if you're doing it unintentionally, that could restart the inflammatory response clock making it very difficult to get a clear read on your baseline. So remember, the minimum elimination period, which is typically 30 to 90 days, assumes that you were fully adherent to that elimination for consecutive days.
Marie-Noëlle Marquis (06:24):
Right. I want to call attention also to the language that you're using, the full adherence. We purposefully are not talking about, like you just mentioned, it's not clean eating or cheat days or applying the good and the bad kind of language around foods. This is all neutral and using neutral language is helpful because the goal of elimination isn't to be good quote unquote most of the time. It's to create that baseline that helps you trust what reintroductions will tell you later on.
Jaime Hartman (06:57):
And this is where we want to be really clear because we do think the framing here matters a lot. Doing AIP five or six days a week isn't almost AIP. It's just a different thing entirely. Doing that might be good for your overall wellbeing, but it won't help you evaluate your body's response to potential trigger foods so that you can determine what will best support you in the long term. Remember that the protocol is a tool and a tool only works when you use it the way it was designed. So if you are going to do AIP, you owe it to yourself to figure out how to do it in a way that you can sustain.
Marie-Noëlle Marquis (07:40):
Okay. Now let's talk about that sustainability problem and why is it worth solving? I would say that if someone is starting the elimination phase and already is eyeing the weekend as an escape hatch, that's useful information. It's something about their current approach that is not sustainable. So instead of reaching for that escape hatch, I would suggest they start looking at the root cause of what is making their approach to AIP too hard to sustain for the duration that's needed. For me, it was time and then simply that I don't enjoy ... I don't know why I feel bad saying that. I'm just going to say that I don't enjoy cooking. I just don't like it.
(08:25):
And then as soon as I was feeling better, there was a glimpse of feeling better. I just wanted to get back to the work I was doing that I love. Again, then I would run out of time and I kept battling this feeling that I felt confined in the kitchen and I felt like this is a reminder that I'm not like everybody else. And so there's a lot of emotional struggle around feeling restricted, but there can be so many factors. It could be social pressure, food boredom. You could be just, again, feeling restricted or feeling deprived and naturally we feel like rebelling against that feeling. Also for me, I was switching from being vegan. So when I first started IP, I was like, okay, fine, I'll reintroduce some meat. But I was eating very, very, very little protein and I was starving all the time.
(09:15):
So on that note, I think it's very important that we don't associate elimination phase with restriction. You're restricting your list of foods that you are eating during a certain period, but you're not restricting how much food you're eating. Maybe that's one way to look at the positive side, right? Okay, there's these foods I'm avoiding, but eat all the rest, as much as dive into the abundance, all you can eat, buffet and everything else. So not getting caught up in that mentality.
Jaime Hartman (09:51):
These are all such good examples. Another thing I see is that sometimes people are just not planning so they're getting caught without anything to eat and so they're feeling like it's really hard for that reason. I've also worked with people who live in just simply an unsupportive home environment the way it's currently set up. So we need to address that. We're touching on a lot of the things that I have seen in my coaching practice. Clients are going to tell me, they tell me all the time that they need help strengthening their willpower. But what that signals to me is their coach is that they actually have some kind of an emotional or a logistical need that really deserves a real solution because willpower is something you can rely upon for the short term, but it's going to run out. So from a coaching perspective, when I'm working with people who are expressing this, I try to reframe the question from, can I cheat on the weekends to what would make this feel doable for 30 to 90 consecutive days?
(10:52):
And I'll just add here, for those of you who are listening, who are coaches or other types of practitioners and are dealing with this in your population that you work with, think about it this way. When that client is expressing a desire to have a cheat day, instead of lecturing them on why they shouldn't do that, use that as an opening to explore what is actually hard for them.
Marie-Noëlle Marquis (11:16):
Yes, great advice. One thing I always come back to also is this idea that adhering to the elimination phase and that sustainability are not opposites, right? You can do it and still feel supported. And again, like we said, just even positive about it, if the conditions around it are right for you. I think when someone says they need a break on the weekend, I hear something about the weekdays is not working or something about your weekend might not be working.You might be like, "Oh, well, over weekend we have this big family gathering and I don't want to be the outcast." So there's, again, I love what you just said, Jamie, to really take that as an opportunity instead of feeling guilty that, oh, you didn't do it right, that discovery opportunity to go down to that root cause and find a way to support that.
Jaime Hartman (12:06):
Yeah, that root cause. It's not a problem with you as a person. It's a problem with their setup. So that means the great news is that means that it can actually be solvable. So we're going to transition now and let's talk about some practical strategies that might help somebody make that full adherence to the diet during the elimination phase something they can sustain. At the top of my list is doing things that reduce daily decision fatigue, that daily decision fatigue regarding what am I going to eat day after day, multiple times a day. So that might include doing things like batch cooking and meal prepping so that you don't have to be making a decision multiple times a day. I'd also put in a plug for stocking your freezer so you've got something already maybe made weeks ahead of time. If you need some guidance and some recipes that are freezer friendly, I would encourage you to check out the community cookbook that I edited a few years back.
(13:08):
It's called Freezer Cooking for the Paleo AIP and it has 120 AIP freezer-friendly recipes from 30 different AIP bloggers and I'll put a link in the show notes for that. And great news for people who live in the United States, you can even have AIP compliant elimination meals made for you and delivered directly to your door from Urban AIP. So you can go to urbanaip.com and of course I'll put a link in the show notes for that as well.
Marie-Noëlle Marquis (13:37):
Yes. Also, how both are complimentary. I love the Community Goodbook. It's such a fantastic and also it's community, which I love. It's such a fantastic resource. So being able to have sometimes something that's just delivered and easy not to think about it and then some radio recipes that are simple and supportive. I would say for people that are struggling with social pressure too, I suggest building an AIP social toolkit, things like just plan out what to say, how to navigate the restaurants and the gatherings. Things like we often mention, call ahead in the restaurant and just check, download the menu and you don't have to just feel like you're calling and be like, "Hey, hi hostess. I'm on an AIP diet, but look in the menu, be like, okay, these are things that I think fits." And then calling and asking questions on those items.
(14:38):
It's okay to,
(14:41):
For example, when I first started, I would be like, "Okay, well, you feel like you can't give them the entire list of elimination." And there is unfortunately, that's a whole different discussion, but there is this gluten-free. There's a lot of people like, it's just like restaurant workers be like, "Oh, there's just people being petty." I find myself, I always tell people I have celiac disease, I don't, but if I go, I just want them to take it seriously because I am just as reactive to gluten. So it's okay to mention that. Use that to your ... So that right there, I feel like if you call and you say, "Hey, I have celiac, I have questions about gluten," they'll get you the chef. They don't want to be sued, but making sure that, okay, so you have an idea of what you're going to eat.
(15:31):
If that social pressure, if you know that is something that's kind of a culprit for you, again, finding what to do to make it easier so you're going to know what to eat. And also I often say just share with your friends, your family will often feel like, "I don't want to be weird." But those are the people that love you and support you. They should be there and just sharing it, just be honest about it. And if you're not finding that support, I always say lean into the community. It's such a supportive community of you're reaching out to, whether it's AIP Certified Coaches, but the AIP Summit has a fantastic forum really leaning into other people that are going through this can just sort of shift our perspective like, "Okay, oh, we're not alone and there's other tips." And then you make virtual friends or local friends.
Jaime Hartman (16:29):
Another practical strategy that makes full adherence more sustainable also when talking about leaning into the community, also focusing on finding abundance in the protocol rather than focusing just on what's eliminated. Not only is that a good for your overall wellness because we know nutrient density and eating a variety of foods is going to help you feel better faster. It also can help you emotionally. So if you're feeling restricted, if you're really feeling like, "Oh, there's so many things I can't eat," you might try the exercise of actually taking the no list and the yes list and putting them side by side and notice that the list of foods that are yes foods that you get to eat is actually longer. Now, some of those foods might be unfamiliar to you and so you might not know how to prepare them, but fortunately there are a lot of resources.
Marie-Noëlle Marquis (17:22):
Yes, there's a ton of great resources. For recipes, if you're not sure how to use any unfamiliar sounding foods on the yes list, for sure. Yeah. And it's exciting too. Add that to the learning and discovery phase. Again, I know we're busy and be like, "I don't want to learn about outer chokes." I'll put in another plug for our friend and mentor, Mickey Trescott's website, The Autoimmune Wellness is a fantastic resource and her new book, The New Autoimmune Protocol, has great places for inspiration. If you missed it, you might want to go back and listen to our conversation with her in episode 43.
Jaime Hartman (17:56):
Good suggestion. I will make sure I put links to both her website and that episode in the show notes also. There really are so many resources available now that prove that there can be abundance even in the elimination phase, but I don't want to totally just dismiss the grief and belonging someone can have for some favorite foods that just don't have a good substitute. So for those, when you're grieving a specific food that you just can't eat right now, I do think that it can help to set a defined endpoint, to know that you're doing this elimination phase for up to 90 days, not forever and that can help shift that psychology. It's not to say that I think you should start just counting down the days and just kind of hold on for dear life until then, but reminding yourself that you won't be in the elimination phase forever can really help.
(18:53):
There will be a time when more foods are options for you and you will be in a position where you can eat with more flexibility.
Marie-Noëlle Marquis (19:04):
It's funny, when I started elimination, there were certain foods that I was like, "I can't wait to have that again." But as you transition, I mean, there's foods that we just love to have, but there's foods that sometimes we're craving because of the state of our health in a way. So sugary treats, I've been a gummy candy person since I was a little kid and then suddenly it was like, "I just don't crave that at all. " As you're shifting the nutrients that you're putting in your body, your cravings do change as you're shifting the health of your microbiome, that changes too. So there's some stuff that naturally, I guess having a relaxed approach about it, that food, you don't have to cling to it. It's not gone forever necessarily and just be like, oh, and maybe you'll want it and maybe you won't want it and there's that flexibility like you just said.
(20:02):
So
Jaime Hartman (20:02):
Yeah, it's really fascinating and I totally agree with you that you might not feel like it right now today, that there will be a point when you don't crave this food you can't have and maybe there won't be for you. We don't know. We can't predict the future, but it's entirely possible that you will get to the point where you could eat it and you'll just be like, "Eh, don't care anymore." And so it can help though from that emotional perspective to just put the time limit on it, tell yourself there'll be a day in the future when it might be an option and carry on.
Marie-Noëlle Marquis (20:33):
Yeah. And have that little bit of detachment, not like white knuckling it like,
Jaime Hartman (20:37):
Okay,
Marie-Noëlle Marquis (20:38):
Like you said, don't count down the days. That fluid energy is so important. And again, when it gets stuff, lean into the community, use others for accountability, all that. As we say, you don't have to feel like you're doing this alone.
Jaime Hartman (20:53):
And then finally, again, for those of you listening who are coaches or other practitioners and you're seeing this with your clients, we encourage you to think about how to help clients identify those specific sustainability gaps and really, really listen to what they say. Over the course of my career as an AIP coach, I've repeatedly been reminded that people are unique and that if I jump in with suggestions and encouragement before I really understand what's driving this individual client's challenges, I won't actually be of much help to them. All right. So we're going to wrap up now. If you are listening to this and you've been given yourself weekends off, we're not here to make you feel bad about that. We're here to say, now you know why it's worth trying a different approach and more importantly, that it is possible to do this in a way that doesn't feel like you're holding on for dear life like white knuckling it for months.
Marie-Noëlle Marquis (21:54):
And again, if you're a coach working with someone in this exact situation, we hope that this gives you some language and some framework for that conversation because helping someone find their version of sustainable is really some of the most important work that we can do.
Jaime Hartman (22:09):
That's what we're here for. So again, we want to remind you, listener, that AIP is more than a diet. It's a protocol with multiple branches and multiple ways to approach it. 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 it alone.
Marie-Noëlle Marquis (22:33):
We'll be back with another episode in two weeks so you can find the AIP Summit Podcast in your favorite podcast player and be sure to follow and subscribe so you never miss an episode.
Jaime Hartman (22:42):
And if you'd like to leave us a rating and a 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.
