Prefer audio? Listen to this episode on my podcast, "Edible Rx" HERrRE or watch the video on YouTube.
Today's topic is all about food freedom. What I call, "True Food Freedom". Where what you WANT to eat is synonymous with what you need to eat.
And there are two freedoms I want every autoimmune warrior to experience:
When you walk into your pantry, you can eat whatever you want to eat because you don't buy stuff that causes autoimmune flare-ups anymore.
You don't have to stand there and have this internal conflict with yourself and battle with your own will power like, "...Should I eat these Oreos or should I not eat these Oreos?"
Because you don't have Oreos in your pantry anymore! All you have to do is learn to stock your pantry the flare free way and you can start to reach for things like fruit, dried dates or stevia sweetened dark chocolate chips when you have a sweet tooth instead.
When all of the snacks and sweet treats you keep stocked in your pantry are Flare Free, there's literally no guilt, shame, no will power, or any of that involved in eating.
You just eat whatever you want, whenever you want!
This is such a freeing, liberating experience that I think most people don't even realize is possible.
Not only because diet culture tells us it's not but because the first thing we think of when we have to change our diet is all the things we're going to lose.
We don't focus on all the things we're going to gain.
Like the joy of trying new foods. The freedom of satiating a craving completely guilt/shame free.
Better nutrition, more energy, increased joint mobility, better digestion, blood sugar balance, and the freedom you'll feel when what's on the end of your fork no longer contributes to this perpetual cycle of autoimmune flare-ups and makes you feel like your body is betraying you at every meal.
This is something that I honestly don't hear many people in the autoimmune wellness space talking about very often, but I promise you - it is possible to attain. You just need the right guidance, tools, and support and time.
It took me years to achieve this but I don't want you to have to suffer that long. I I want you to be able to embrace your love of food and achieve radical rapid healing starting TODAY.
That's why I'm so excited to be able to put all of this mindset stuff right here in this podcast so you have a place to access it when you need it the most.
The second freedom that I want all autoimmune warriors to experience is that when you go out to a restaurant, you can order whatever you want off the menu.
And I have three things you need to do in order to be able to achieve that:
Eat 80-90% Flare Free for at least 3-6 months so that your immune system and gut can handle indulging in some of your trigger foods on occasion
Learn how to do "Flare Free Math" (AKA: "How many of my trigger foods can I eat in one sitting/one day without ending in a Flare?")
Experience the beauty of living Flare Free so that when you sit down at that restaurant to look at that menu, nothing on that menu will be more enticing than living Flare Free.
If you're able to accomplish those three things, dining out at a restaurant will no longer be a source of frustration for you. It will actually be a fun little biological experiment and a break from cooking from yourself all the time.
Because using food as medicine 3 times a day/7 days a week is hard work. It's damn near a full-time job. I know. I've been doing it for almost a decade.
These are freedoms most autoimmune warriors don't anticipate experiencing post-diagnosis, right?
When we're younger we can sit down at a restaurant, order anything off the menu and walk out not feeling any different.
But once you're sick, you start to notice every little thing causes reactions and the next thing you know, you feel like you can't eat out anymore because there's such a limited number of things you can actually eat. And who wants to go out to a restaurant to eat something you can easily make at home like baked salmon with rice and broccoli?
Plus, if you're like me and just genuinely enjoy the experience of restaurant dining, that can be a very emotional thing to have to give up.
But I'm here today to tell you that you don't have to.
If you can get to a point where you're eating Flare Free 80-90% of the time for at least 3-6 months, you've mastered the art of doing Flare Free Math (AKA: "How many of my trigger foods can I have in one day/one sitting without ending in a flare") and you've experienced the beauty of living Flare Free and realize that power and value of living a long, healthy, vibrant life free of autoimmune flare-ups is way more enticing than anything on any restaurant menu, you can achieve True Food Freedom.
You'll no longer mourn the things you can't eat when you're out at a restaurant because the things you need to eat will be synonymous with what you WANT to eat.
For example, this weekend I was in Chicago. For the past 6 years I would pretty much always eat pizza and Italian beef every time we went home to visit family in Chicago. No matter if they had a gluten free crust or not, I was going to get me some pizza. Those are two things you just can't get in Tennessee and so, for me, eating them a couple times a year was always a treat.
But now that I've achieved True Food Freedom, my desire to be able to walk barefoot on the beach with my daughter after dinner without any foot pain is far stronger than my desire to eat Italian beef and pizza.
So what did I do? I did my Flare Free Math and decided I was going to eat deep dish for dinner (because my daughter really wanted to try it for the first time and I wanted to participate in that experience) so for lunch, I ordered my beef without the bun and enjoyed that with a salad and fries.
It tasted great and I got to have my Italian beef! I didn't mourn that bun for one second because rather than telling myself, "I can't have bread", I was saying to myself..."Woo hoo! I'm having beef!"
Mindset matters.
And nothing tastes as good as Flare Free feels.
Ready to get the tools, guidance and support you need to embrace your love of food, get off the rollercoaster ride of autoimmune flare-ups and achieve True Food Freedom?!
Check out my FREE Masterclass that will teach you everything you need to know to get started on your Flare Free journey today!
Have a question about anything I discussed in this article? Drop it in the comments below and we'll chat!
xo,
Laura
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