Implementing the changes we talk about in this book will take time and persistence. This undertaking does not happen in weeks or even months—both of us have been engaging in this process for many years now and are continuing to troubleshoot and edit, as necessary. The beauty of adopting a diet and lifestyle template instead of a prescription is that you can adjust your habits and routines based on the ebb and flow of your changing daily life. In times of high stress or flare, you “batten down the hatches.” You tighten your approach to the diet and lifestyle aspects of this process in order to restore balance. In times of ease or good health, you “unfurl the sails.” You embrace a more expansive approach that allows you to enjoy, experiment, and experience the boundaries of wellness with autoimmune disease. This is what the ebb and flow will eventually look like, but, in the beginning, you need to methodically follow the process, from start to finish.
In this book, we’ve presented you with seven powerful steps on the autoimmune wellness journey: inform, collaborate, nourish, rest, breathe, move, and connect. In addition to a wealth of information to guide your actions, we’ve given you all the tools and resources you need to get started, like meal plans, recipes, a lifestyle guide, and self-assessments. These changes, while powerful on their own, are synergistic and combine to form a comprehensive approach that will revolutionize your healing process. Gradually, you will learn how to integrate the best of medical care with these DIY modifications. Using the tools presented here to define your personal priorities on this journey will help you pinpoint which actions are going to be most transformative for you. Having walked this path ourselves, our goal is to make this process easier and more actionable.
One important thing we want to emphasize as we come to the end of our time together, is that perfectionism has no part in this process. Let go of the need to do it all right straight out of the gate. Take this slowly, patiently putting one foot in front of the other. If you hit a stumbling block, reevaluate, regroup, and move forward with your new knowledge. It’s not about doing everything perfectly; it is about understanding that effort over time will produce change. Water cuts through rock and makes its way to the sea not by know ing the exact route, but through persistence over time.
When we started to make these changes in our own lives, to be honest, the information overload made it feel like we were drinking from a fire hose. This process is unfamiliar and uncomfortable at the start. We’ve been in your shoes! Our culture makes these dietary and lifestyle modifications more difficult; by choosing to heal in this way, you will be going against the stream. You are taking responsibility for your health in a society that says, “Just take a pill . . . and stop for fast food on the way home from the pharmacy.” From that perspective, you realize that the adjustment here is not just about reorganizing your schedule or your kitchen or your food budget . . . it’s also about shifting what you see as normal. It is okay to have some meltdowns, because, in all honesty, this is going to be one of the harder things you’ve ever done.
We’re here to tell you it really does get easier with time! You’ll have it wired soon, and, as healing takes hold and energy returns, you won’t believe you thought that any other way was normal. Hang in there! There is a growing community of people who are undertaking these changes and shifting the way autoimmune disease recovery is achieved. If we didn’t believe it was worth it, if we had not experienced incredible healing ourselves, if we had not watched hundreds of other people experience the same, we would not have tackled this project!
The final chapter of this book marks the next chapter of your life with autoimmune disease—one that is filled with empowerment, action, wellness, and vitality. You are likely to uncover a part of yourself that you didn’t know existed. Our hope is that the tools and resources found in this book will help you make informed, practical choices, and that, once your health is restored, you will add your voice to the revolutionary shift that is under way in the autoimmune community. We invite you to take ownership of your journey and join us in pioneering this new era. This is wellness that outlasts the hype!