How We AIP – A Guest Post by Emma King from The Bacon Mum

This week the worldwide community of AIP bloggers has banded together to highlight how we each live our healing protocol lifestyle – in real life. We are each committed to taking personal responsibility for our own health, and supporting other people around the world who are interested in doing the same thing.

As part of #AIP4me week, I’ve joined forces with four other healing protocol bloggers. We’re each exploring two elements of the ‘AIP Evolved’ Manifesto created by Angie Alt and Mickey Trescott from Autoimmune Paleo, and we’re publishing the results on each other’s blogs.

Here’s where you’ll find us:

• Emma from the Bacon Mum is posting on Joanna Frankham and addressing Manifesto elements #11 Seek help and #12 Test, don’t guess.
• Jaime from Gutsy by Nature is posting on petra8paleo and tackling #14 Strive for balance and #17 Practice gratitude.
• Rory from the Paleo PI is posting on Gutsy by Nature and is concentrating on #3 Information is power and #16 Reframe the negatives.
• I’m posting on the Paleo PI and focusing on #8 Be a nutrient-seeker and #18 Eyes on your own journey.
• Petra from petra8paleo is posting on the Bacon Mum and writing about #2 Embrace the template and #4 Start simple.

These posts are rolling out all week and we’ll be linking them together as we go.

#HowIAIP. #AIP4me.

I’m very pleased to hand over the reigns to Emma, where she’ll be taking us through what #11: Seek Help and #12: Test, Don’t Guess mean for her…

Over 10 years ago I was an avid Scuba Diver, diving over 100 times in one year and loving the serenity and peace that the amazing world beneath the waves brought to me. Some days I would dive and the visibility (‘viz’) was amazing at over 80 feet, yet on other days I may not be able to see more than 10 feet. I never once left the water because the visibility wasn’t what I had hoped. I didn’t stop the dive because I knew that the clouds could pass up ahead and the visibility could improve, or the waters might calm and stop churning up the sand… It was an organic experience. In the moment, I soaked up what the ocean offered me.
I share that experience because as divers, we are taught never to dive alone. As with all dives, a buddy is critical to a safe dive in any visibility, but even more so in low visibility. As visibility decreases, so should the distance between you and your buddy – and in the worst conditions, divers should consider physical contact.

When I reached out to Angie Alt, via The Paleo Mom Consulting, to be my health coach, my visibility on my health wasn’t at my very lowest but it wasn’t at the clearest it came to be, either. I was working with an amazing functional doctor and clinical nutritionist, who had my supplements and tests dialed in. I had already successfully been on a Paleo diet for several months. While I could see the shapes in the distance that looked like good health, they didn’t stay around long enough for me to experience any benefit and really take advantage of improvements. I had discovered The Autoimmune Protocol but I aborted 3 times from following it because I just couldn’t focus on just how to eliminate the extensive list of foods to become AIP Compliant.

At the time, I was already training to be a health coach myself, following my success with Paleo and also helping my daughter transition to a grain and dairy free life. I knew I wanted to help others, but I just couldn’t seem to take that additional step on my own. I berated myself…

How could I become a health coach and help others, if I couldn’t do this myself?

Within three weeks of working with Angie, I was fully compliant! I had already eliminated grains and dairy, but by utilising Angie’s phased approach – which since has been developed into the successful 6 Week SAD to AIP in Six Program – and, working in conjunction with my functional MD, I had the buddy system I needed! Just goes to show – #Supportiscrucial

So, the visibility cleared for me, and I was swimming in the clearest waters I had ever swam in. I was experiencing life again, focusing on what mattered to me – friendships and family – and I felt like the ship-wreck I had become in those early days was slowly rising to the surface…

But I just couldn’t get it to the top…

I had been in the elimination phase of AIP for over 12 months. While I had managed to reintroduce certain foods, after a couple of months of eating said food my health would falter again, and I would have to go back to full elimination. So, upon the advice of my buddy system, I did further testing

Because, to keep guessing at what was behind this inflammation wasn’t going to give me the answers I needed.

Sure enough, I discovered that I had Lyme Disease. As I had shared with my clients time and time again – it’s so important to test and not guess why we are swimming in murky waters! #testdontguess

I am now following a homeopathic protocol to tackle my Lyme symptoms while continuing to stay committed and focused on AIP so that in time I see the clearest of oceans with my buddies at my side!

#HOWIAIP #AIP4ME

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Emma is a fellow Certified Health Coach through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She is healing herself of Rheumatoid Arthritis and Lyme Disease, and helping her daughter effectively manage an Autism Spectrum disorder, using the Autoimmune Protocol. Based upon her own family’s healing journey, Emma’s coaching skill focuses on families impacted by autoimmune disease and behavioral/ learning difficulties onset by food.

You can find out more about Emma by visiting her blog at The Bacon Mum.

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