The Coach Becomes the Player

March 25, 2019, updated November 23, 2020

I went to a Functional Medicine doctor last year, just for a check-up.  Seeing evidence of something she thought might be the beginnings of an autoimmune condition (I have two non-painful but arthritic-looking knuckles on my right hand), she put me on a strict elimination diet.  

The main tenet of Functional Medicine is that it seeks to find the root cause of an illness, while first calming the immune system down so that the body can begin to heal itself.  The idea behind an elimination diet is to get rid of the most likely suspects -- anything that COULD be revving the immune system up unjustifiably -- for a short period of time.  Each food is then systematically added back in, one at a time every 4 days, to see if any symptoms pop up.   If any do, you will then have that new bit of information -- oh!  eggs make me have a runny nose! -- and can choose whether or not to keep that food in your diet.  If no symptoms pop up, the food stays in the diet.

So, by removing the 7 food groups that the doctor told me to eliminate from my diet for 3 weeks (gluten, dairy, eggs, corn, soy, legumes and nightshades), I got a ton of information about what works and what doesn't work for ME.  I had recommended elimination diets to clients before, but had never done a FULL one myself (although I never eat gluten or soy and don’t eat much dairy) so, although it didn't thrill me to do it, I tried to think of it almost as a prerequisite for my job as a Health Coach.

I mention all of this for two reasons:  (1) many of us have autoimmune conditions and are never advised to try an elimination diet -- or even to just ditch the gluten and the dairy, which can be life-changing -- so I hope this might inspire someone to try it.  And (2) I admit to being a little whiney at the prospect of starting this diet but doing some prep work and finding a treat or two that fit into the plan changed everything for me.  If you want to try something similar but are nervous that you'll have nothing left to eat, please email me (tracy@better-fed.com).  I learned so much from the experience and thought it was so worthwhile. I think everyone can benefit from an elimination diet (even one that just leaves out gluten and/or dairy), but especially those who suffer from autoimmune conditions.