How Fast Will Flare Free Eating Actually Work? The Truth About Your Healing Timeline

Prefer to listen? Check out this episode of The Edible Autoimmune Rx Podcast!

"How long do you have to eat Flare Free to start feeling better?" was a question I got from a listener so I wanted to answer that in today's blog because this is a really great question!

To be honest, it's going to depend on several different things:

1.) How severe your symptoms are

2.) How in-tune you are with your body

3.) How you approach it

4.) How consistent you are

5.) Whether or not you are eating for your biology

6.) What else are you doing besides eating Flare Free

The more intense your symptoms, the better you're going to feel relatively quick.

The more in tune with your body, the more you're going to notice how much better you feel after eating Flare Free for just a little while.

What do I mean by that?

I've got some friends with autoimmunity that have clinical diagnoses, but don't really have a ton of symptoms.

(Or so they think.)

And I say, "so they think" because so many people don't even know what feeling well is. Soooo many people walk around feeling like crap, thinking it's just a normal part of life.

That morning stiffness and chronic joint pain...it's not just due to aging.

That mid-day fatigue is not just because you're a busy, sleep-deprived parent.

That explosive (and excuse me here, but this is real life)...

That explosive diarrhea you get after a restaurant meal is not just because "you had too much cheese."

NONE OF THIS IS NORMAL.

These are all signals your body is trying to send you to let you know that something is off and that you need to pay attention to your health and fix it before it gets worse.

So if you have a diagnosis but you don't have a ton of symptoms (or you're not in-tune enough with your body to identify your symptoms as symptoms), you may not initially notice feeling any better after eating Flare Free.

But if you've been dealing with intense bloating after meals for months...

If you can instantly identify your joint pain intensifying after certain meals...

If you've been struggling with gas, reflux, sleep issues, mid-day energy crashes, eczema and other skin rashes, migraines, etc. for months or even years...

You're going to start feeling better relatively quickly after eating Flare Free if you approach it the right way and you do it consistently enough.

Which brings me to my next point.

If you approach eating Flare Free like I did in 2015, it's going to take you weeks or months to start feeling better.

See, when I started my healing journey, I was low key skeptical.

Even though I was the executive chef of a non-profit that delivers free organic anti-inflammatory healing meals to cancer patients undergoing active cancer treatment, and had read dozens of books from the top leading functional medical professionals and experts from all around the globe who prescribe food as medicine...

I had never experienced the benefits of eating anti-inflammatory myself.

And I was VERRRRRY skeptical of gluten being a trigger for me. (Or just terrified and depressed at the though of having to give it up.)

"People have been eating bread for thousands of years. I mean, it's in the bible for crying out loud," I thought.

So I started really slow.

I removed sugar. First by putting honey instead of sugar in my coffee in the morning.

Then I stopped drinking soda and eating desserts. And I did that for a good solid week.

But honestly? I didn't feel any better.

So then I removed conventional dairy. And started only eating small amounts of the less inflammatory cheeses like sheep and goat's milk cheeses. And I did that for another week.

But I still didn't feel any better.

So then, I decided to try and eat gluten free (even though I was convinced my bread and pasta wasn't the problem.)

And I STILL didn't feel any better.

But mid-way through that 3rd week, I realized beer was made from wheat and I had to stop drinking beer too.

(I know, I cringe every time I look back to that moment because it seems so common sensical to be now, but hey...you don't know what you don't know until you know it.)

So it wasn't until 3 1/2 weeks into my healing journey, once I ditched the beer and switched to wine...

That I FINALLY started feeling better.

Then my healing only sky-rocketed from there!

By the 3-month marker, my joint pain, migraines, and eczema I had dealt with for years, completely went away!

So how you approach it matters.

Are you going to be a skeptic like me and remove one inflammatory ingredient from your diet at a time, secretly hoping you can hold onto your most beloved food groups (AKA: take the long road to healing)?

Or are you going to a short cut and trust science and rip out all the top inflammatory foods out all at once so you can start feeling better ASAP?

FOODS LIKE:

• Ultra-processed foods

• Refined foods

• Fried foods

• Fast food

• Soda and sugary drinks

• Gluten

• Dairy

• Sugar

(But please note, simply avoiding these foods aren't going to make you well. You have to start eating a ton of deeply nourishing anti-inflammatory foods too!)

FOODS LIKE:

• Colorful in-season produce (organic if they're on the Dirty Dozen List)

• Organic grass-fed/pastured meat and eggs

• Wild seafood

• Healthy cooking fats like extra virgin olive oil

• Organic gluten free grains

• Raw nuts and seeds

• Organic beans and legumes

• Unsweetened soy-free vegan dairy products

• Low glycemic sweeteners like stevia and monk fruit

• Herbs and spices like turmeric, ginger, oregano, garlic, etc.

But don't feel like you have to memorize any of that. The best way to learn to eat Flare Free is just to go to my website, www.cheflaurarodriguez.com/freemealplan and download my free, "Quick Family-Friendly Suppers" meal plan that will teach you how to shop Flare Free, cook Flare Free, and meal prep Flare Free!

But to get back to the topic of this episode, what I have seen from my clients and students is that, if you quit playing, and actually commit to eating Flare Free at least 80% of the time, most people start to feel better in less than 30 days.

I've even had people feel better after just one day.

Take for example, one of my newest clients.

She had been diagnosed with SIBO, adrenal fatigue, insulin resistance, anxiety and leaky gut.

She suffers with SEVERE bloating after meals. I'm talking she looks 9 months pregnant after one meal.

She's had to up and leave restaurants from getting so uncomfortably bloated while eating, and she only makes tentative plans with her loved ones because her blood sugar spikes and crashes can be so drastic that she can't be certain she'll be able to follow through with activities and outings with friends on the day of.

All of this has caused her to have a ton of anxiety around food - which absolutely breaks my heart.

So, her functional doctor prescribed her a low FODMAP diet to start to heal her gut, and the first day I cooked for her, she was able to eat a full plate of deliciously flavored food (not just baked fish with green beans like she had been forcing herself to eat for weeks until I could cook for her) WITHOUT ANY BLOATING OR DISCOMFORT.

Here's what she had to say later that night:

"The meals were absolutely wonderful! You have no idea how much this helps me. It feels life changing!"

So she was able to feel better on day one.

Because her symptoms are quite severe and she's very in tune with her body.

But you don't have to have that extreme of symptoms to notice a difference in your health within 30 days of eating at least 80% Flare Free.

👀 Like my student Jackie who texted me and said, "Is it normal to feel this good after just 2 weeks?!"

(She's a busy psoriasis warrior and mom of three.)

💬 And Jose who was suffering with severe digestive issues and allergies who said, "You hear people say 'food is medicine' but you don't actually understand it until you experience it yourself."

(He started feeling better after just one week of eating Flare Free.)

🤯 And lastly, Kitty who after 3 1/2 weeks of eating Flare Free messaged me and said, "I am 24 days without cheating on my food list and almost pain free. I had no idea I would get these results."

Which brings me to my next point which I've already kinda touched on, but I do want to go into it a little more in depth..

Just like how you approach it matters...

How you execute it matters.

You can't just eat Flare Free here and there, once in a while, when you have the time, energy, patience, and wherewithal to cook Flare Free at home.

You have to commit to doing it consistently - long enough to make a difference in your health.

Long enough to start feeling the physical, mental, and emotional benefits of eating this way.

When you do it this way - you'll feel the results much faster.

And here's why the results matter:

It's THOSE RESULTS that become the driving force behind making this a lifestyle change. Not just an elimination diet or a cleanse that you do for a couple weeks and then give up on.

Because here's the thing.

Autoimmunity is a life-long condition. Even if you put it into remission, there's no guarantee it will stay in remission if you go back to eating the standard Western Diet (which is made up of 59% ultra-processed foods).

So the ultimate goal is to make eating this way a lifestyle. Something you'll do forever. And not just because you have to, but because you want to.

Because you've finally come around to accepting that your desire to feel well is way more important than the taste of any food.

Because you've finally come around to putting yourself, your health, your wellness, and your future, above the wants and needs of those around you.

When this happens, you'd have achieved what I call "Autoimmune Food Freedom" which is the freedom you'll feel when the food you NEED to eat to beat autoimmunity is the same food you actually WANT to eat.

No more punishing yourself into eating better.

No more cursing your body for not being able to tolerate the foods you grew up knowing and loving.

Just radical acceptance and understanding that:

1.) Healthy food CAN taste good

2.) No food tastes as good as Flare Free feels

Which brings me to my next point.

Autoimmunity is very complex. There are a multitude of contributing factors. Food is just ONE of them.

So decreasing the amount of inflammatory foods you eat and increasing the number of anti-inflammatory foods you eat is an incredible way to start.

But if after a couple weeks in, you're not feeling better, you'll need to dig deeper.

Maybe there's an underlying food sensitivity or allergy to something you're eating.

Maybe you don't have enough digestive enzymes to break down your food.

Maybe you don't metabolize fats well (even the anti-inflammatory ones).

Maybe you have blood sugar imbalance and need to eat your food in a different order.

Maybe you have an overgrowth of bad bacteria in your gut and that's why you have bloating, distention and gas after meals.

Or low amounts of beneficial bacteria and low stomach acid and that's making it hard to digest your food and that's why you have reflux.

So eating Flare Free alone may not be enough FOR YOU to feel well.

You may to need to dig a little deeper and find out what YOUR biology needs.

I've had to do this a few different times along my healing journey.

For example, there was a time when I had to remove ordinarily deemed "healthy" foods like grass-fed beef, potatoes, sweet potatoes, zucchini, butternut squash and onions from my diet, because I had developed gut dysbiosis and I didn't have enough of all of the beneficial bacteria needed to properly digest my food.

There were times when I had to only eat carbs earlier in the day...

Times where I couldn't eat a lot of fermented foods...

Wellness can be complex. And getting well once doesn't mean you're going to stay well forever. You have to constantly pay attention to the cues your body is giving you and analyze, test, experiment, etc. so you can feel exactly the way you want to feel.

I know it sounds like a lot.

But don't let that discourage you from ever starting.

If you have the right tools, resources, guidance, and support, you can achieve your autoimmune wellness goals.

Whether that's managing your symptoms, living symptom-free, or putting your condition into clinical remission.

Healing IS possible. I'm living proof and I see it every day with my clients and students who come to me when they're actually ready to eat Flare Free consistently, long enough to watch their symptoms subside.

Buuuuut....

And this is a big but. And before I get into my last and final point, I do want to preface this by saying...you DO NOT have to do everything all at once.

You CAN start extremely slow. You can JUST focus on food for now.

If you need help doing that, click here to download my "12 Steps to Eating Flare Free Without Over-Restriction and Overwhelm" Checklist that you can print out and stick on the fridge to help you start!

Buuuut...

Since there are so many contributing factors to the onset and proliferation of autoimmunity...

Like over exposure to environmental toxins, poor gut health, stress, trauma, nervous system dysregulation, underlying co-infections and viruses, etc...

If all you ever do to feel better with autoimmunity is JUST change what you eat, you're going to reach a plateau. You're only ever going to feel so good. And you will still be extremely sensitive and susceptible to flaring any time you do indulge in your trigger foods or encounter a stressful life event.

But you absolutely do not have to worry about any of that right now.

All you have to do right now is worry about getting your diet sorted.

So start decreasing your intake of the inflammatory foods mentioned earlier and start increasing your intake of the anti-inflammatory ingredients we discussed.

Flare Free living STARTS in the kitchen. But it certainly doesn't end there.

The easier eating to heal autoimmunity gets for you, the more you can start to slowly but surely work on other things.

And I'll have some functional practitioners on the podcast in the future to help you learn how to do that.

BUT FOR NOW, LET'S RECAP:

You can feel better in 30 days or less once you start eating at least 80% Flare Free depending on:

1.) HOW SEVERE YOURE SYMTPOMS ARE

(If you don't have many symptoms, or already eat pretty healthy, you may not feel much of a difference from eating this way.)

2.) HOW IN-TUNE WITH YOUR BODY YOU ARE

(If you know your symptoms well, can feel them immediately as they come on, and can identify them as being a response to something you've eaten, you're more likely to be able to notice a difference in your health quicker than folks who aren't in tune with their bodies at all.)

3.) HOW YOU APPROACH IT

(If you want to take the long road to healing and experiment with removing individual food groups one at a time (like I did back in 2015), instead of ripping off the band aid and removing all of the top inflammatory foods according to current scientific research, it can take you weeks or months to start feeling better.)

4.) HOW CONSISTENT YOU ARE

(Eating Flare Free here and there, once in a while isn't going to help you feel better quickly. It's best to commit to eating Flare Free 3 times a day, every day, for at least 80% of your week in order to start making a noticeable difference in your health.)

5.) WHETHER OR NOT YOU ARE EATING FOR YOUR BIOLOGY

(Not everyone can tolerate all foods all the time. In general, this is probably due to a gut microbiome issue that needs fixing, but for some...even healthy ingredients like onions, potatoes, grains, beans, nuts, seeds, etc. can cause digestive unrest. If you've eaten 80% Flare Free every week for a few weeks and you don't feel any better, it would be in your best interest to get your gut health tested to figure out which foods are causing you pain and discomfort.)

6.) WHAT ELSE ARE YOU DOING BESIDES EATING FLARE FREE

(There are many contributing factors to the onset and proliferation of autoimmunity. Adopting an anti-inflammatory diet is the easiest, and most effective way to start reversing your symptoms, improving your lab r work, and getting your pre-diagnosis life back. But it's not the end-all, be-all of healing autoimmunity. If you want to live symptom-free and/or put your condition into remission, you'll eventually have to address other factors like: toxins, gut health, stress, stored trauma, your nervous system, underlying co-infections and viruses laying dormant inside you, etc. But don't get overwhelmed. That stuff can come later. After you've gotten the food part down!)

Thank you, thank you for listening to another episode of the Autoimmune Edible Rx Podcast.

I hope you guys enjoyed this episode as much as I enjoyed making it for you.

Please share this episode with someone you love or leave the show a rating and a review! It really helps other foodies with autoimmunity hear this message.

I’ll see ya next week, and in the meantime, if there's only ONE LITTLE TEENY TINY THING you can do for your health today, please, please, please...eat your damn vegetables! BYE!!