Eileen

Loving Martine: A Legacy Cookbook & Sample Recipe: Fish Dumplings in Shiitake-Ginger Broth

My friend Martine Partridge passed away in 2017, but she left a legacy of love behind. She was known for her strength, sense of humor, positive outlook, and love of flavorful food! This cookbook is her legacy. It contains 130 paleo recipes, 100 of which are AIP. In this blog post, I share all the details, including a sample recipe for Fish Dumplings in Shiitake-Ginger Broth and an interview with Martine’s mother

Episode 121: Time Management with Laura Vanderkam

In this podcast, we’re taking a big picture look at time. How can we gain clarity on where our time goes? How can we start to feel in control of time, rather than buffeted by it? What makes it slow down in some moments and speed up in others? Is it possible to be productive and feel relaxed at the same time? And how can we flex our expectations and our schedules when our health fluctuates? My guest is Laura Vanderkam, an expert on the subject of maximizing time.

3 Myths About the Mind-Body Connection | Phoenix Helix

3 Myths About the Mind-Body Connection

Can the mind cure autoimmune disease? If all your tests come back normal are your symptoms “just in your head”? The mind-body connection is a scientific reality, but too often it’s misrepresented and misunderstood. In this article, I separate the myths from truths.

Episode 120: Scleroderma with Dr. Aly Cohen

In this podcast episode, we take a detailed look at Scleroderma. How does it differ from other autoimmune diseases, and how is it diagnosed? Can diet and lifestyle make a difference? What are the best supplements? Is medication always necessary, and how do you make that decision? My guest is integrative rheumatologist Dr. Aly Cohen. Her approach combines the wisdom of Western and Eastern Medicine together.

What’s the Difference Between Collagen and Gelatin?

Gelatin and collagen are highly recommended on a healing diet, but what makes them so special? And what’s the difference between the two? Are they interchangeable in recipes? Do they support health in the same way? I share all the details in this post.

Episode 119: Fatigue with Andrea Nakayama

Fatigue is a common side effect of autoimmune disease, but it can have many other root causes as well. For some people, it’s mild and manageable. For others, it can be disabling. In this episode, we take a detective’s perspective on fatigue. If symptoms are messengers, what is our fatigue trying to communicate about our own unique body? And how can we restore our vitality again? My guest is Andrea Nakayama, a world-renowned functional nutritionist, educator and speaker, whose mission is to change the way we do healthcare by empowering patients to reclaim ownership over their own health.

10 Ways to Boost Your Mood Right Now

Autoimmune flares can fill us with strong emotions alongside our physical symptoms, but did you also know that strong emotions can cause autoimmune flares? Mood boosts can be a wonderful daily practice. Not only do they help us through our darkest moments, but they also harness the anti-inflammatory power of the mind-body connection. Our goal isn’t to eliminate challenging emotions altogether; they’re part of the human experience. These techniques simply help us ride those waves with less suffering and greater health overall.

Episode 118: Boundaries and the Art of Saying No with Dr. Nicole LePera

When we’re trying to heal from chronic illness, self-care takes time – everything from preparing homemade meals, to taking time out to manage our stress, to prioritizing sleep at night. If we say yes to these things, we will need to say no to other things. The opposite is also true: if we don’t set boundaries, we won’t have the time we need to take care of ourselves. But today’s podcast isn’t just about time. Boundaries are also about respect and relationships. How do we want to be treated? What types of people do we want to surround ourselves with? And how do we have difficult conversations with those we love? My guest is holistic psychologist, Dr. Nicole LePera. Together, we share our best tips for building our boundary muscles.

Life on the Paleo Autoimmune Protocol – a Story In Memes

Three of my favorite things about the internet: (1) The ability to connect with a global community. (2) Access to information we would never have otherwise. (3) Inspiration for laughter. It’s this last one I’m celebrating today. I offer you 20 images to make you laugh and say, “OMG! That’s me!”

Episode 117: Eating AIP in a Non-Paleo Home

The Paleo Autoimmune Protocol is a challenging diet under the best of circumstances. But when you’re the only one in your household following this diet, and you’re surrounded by foods you cannot eat, how do you manage? Today, I’ve invited three people onto the podcast to share their experience with us. They all have autoimmune disease. They all went AIP to improve their symptoms and maximize their health. And they’re all making this work in non-paleo households. We talk about everything from avoiding food temptations, to eating safely in a gluten-filled kitchen, to blending your dietary needs with those of your friends and family.

Episode 116: The Gut-Brain Connection with Dr. Lili Wagner

Have you ever felt butterflies in your stomach when you were nervous? Or lost your appetite when deeply grieving? We’ve all felt emotions in our gut – there’s even the common saying “gut feeling.” In fact, the more relaxed and content we feel when we eat, the better we digest our food. But did you know the gut-brain connection also goes the other way? That the food we eat can impact how our brain functions? Inflammation in the gut can result in brain fog, mood swings, and even mental health disorders. In this podcast, we talk about the science behind this connection, and how we can harness it for our health – both mental and physical. My guest is Dr. Lili Wagner, a psychologist who specializes in this intersection between diet, lifestyle, digestion, and mental health.

The Complete Guide to Fats on the Paleo Autoimmune Protocol (AIP)

I don’t know about you, but I fell for the low-fat food craze, believing that dietary fat was harmful and the more I avoided it, the healthier I would be. I didn’t learn otherwise until I switched to the paleo diet in 2012 and learned that dietary fat is actually beneficial. It was mind-bending to realize! In this blog post, I share (1) Why our bodies need dietary fats, (2) Which fats are allowed on the AIP, (3) The smoke point and shelf life of each one, (4) Why saturated fat is so controversial, and (5) Which fats are especially beneficial.

Episode 115: Easy AIP with Mickey Trescott

This episode is all about making the paleo autoimmune protocol easier to follow. We share our best tips for easy breakfasts, easy lunches, easy dinners, easy snacks, easy sleep, and easy stress management. My guest, Mickey Trescott, is one of the women behind the Autoimmune Wellness blog and podcast, the author of three AIP cookbooks, and a pioneer in the paleo AIP community.

Tess' Paleo AIP Reintroduction Experience | Phoenix Helix

Tess’ Paleo AIP Reintroduction Experience

Are you curious (or confused) about the AIP food reintroduction process? I created this interview series so you could hear about other people’s experiences. Tess Ortega has anklyosing spondylitis. In this interview, she shares which foods she was able to reintroduce successfully, which reintroductions “failed”, how she told the difference, and what she learned along the way. The Paleo Autoimmune Protocol (AIP) has 2 phases: elimination and reintroduction. It’s this second phase where we learn how to expand and personalize the diet for our unique bodies.

Episode 114: Exercise Intolerance with Andrea Wool

Why does exercise feel so different after an autoimmune diagnosis? Activities that our bodies loved in the past can now cause an autoimmune flare. Yet, not moving at all isn’t healthy either. So, what do we do? In this podcast, we get professional insight into this topic. My guest, Andrea Wool, is a certified personal trainer and founder of Autoimmune Strong – a fitness website designed specifically for people with autoimmune disease. She’ll be teaching us about the connection between stress, inflammation, and exercise, alongside its potential risks and benefits to our health.

12 Tips for Eating Paleo AIP on a Budget

Are you afraid you can’t do the Paleo Autoimmune Protocol, because it’s too expensive? Or do you simply want to find ways to make your food dollars go farther? Either way, I’ve got you covered with these 12 tips

Episode 113: Healing Stories 6

If you’re a regular listener of my podcast, you know that I often start my shows with personal stories, where my guests share their health journeys from rock bottom to reclaiming a vital life. But at least once a year, I dedicate an episode to back-to-back healing stories, and I make an effort to speak to people with different autoimmune diagnoses each time. In this episode, we talk about Psoriasis, Psoriatic Arthritis, Crohn’s Disease, Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, Adult Onset Stills Disease, but also Autoimmunity in general. And if you want to hear the prior Healing Stories podcasts, check out episodes 1, 14, 30, 43, 61, and 87. Let’s inspire each other!

Episode 112: Best Of – Beyond Food: Healing Lifestyle

This is one of my favorite podcast episodes! As Dr. Sarah Ballantyne says, “Dietary changes aren’t effective in isolation. If you don’t address lifestyle factors as well, it won’t matter how ideal your food choices are.” In this podcast, I interview four people about one lifestyle change that has made a big difference in their autoimmune healing journey.

Episode 111: Best Of – Paleo Cooking and Baking Tips from the Masters

This is one of the most popular podcast episodes for a reason! When you first switch to a paleo diet, you lose a lot of your standard recipes, are introduced to a bunch of new ingredients, and it’s not uncommon to feel lost in your own kitchen. Thankfully, we have expert paleo tour guides! Mel Joulwan is the author of the bestselling Well Fed Cookbook Series, Rachael Bryant is the author of the AIP cookbook Nourish, and Laura Vein from the blog Sweet Treats is a former pastry chef turned AIP baker. They share their best tips with us.

Episode 110: Stem Cell Research with Dr. Jeffrey Cohen

Stem cell research is an exciting field with great potential for people with autoimmune disease. When we see the headlines, it’s easy to believe a cure is already here, especially since some commercial clinics promise that. In today’s podcast, we separate the hope from the hype. We talk about current clinical trials and what they’re showing, the risks vs. benefits of these treatments, which autoimmune diseases are the focus of the studies, and what we still have to learn. My guest is Dr. Jeffrey Cohen, a physician and stem cell researcher who specializes in multiple sclerosis.

Episode 109: The Science of Gratitude with Dr. Fuschia Sirois

When I was at rock bottom with rheumatoid arthritis and experiencing excruciating pain on a daily basis, I started keeping a gratitude journal. That might seem like a strange time do this, but I deeply needed to focus on something beyond the pain and suffering that had become my entire world. And it helped! It didn’t alleviate my pain, but it did reduce my suffering, because it helped me remember there were still good things in my life. It turns out I’m not alone in feeling these benefits. Research is showing that gratitude can improve both mental and physical health. In this podcast, my guest is Dr. Fuschia Sirois, an expert in the field of gratitude and chronic illness. We discuss the research, alongside practical steps for making gratitude part of our daily lives.

#NotPaleo Moments on the Paleo Diet

If you’re on Instagram, you’re familiar with hashtags, and if you follow paleo accounts, you’ll occasionally see a photo show up with a #NotPaleo tag. What does it mean? Have they left the paleo diet behind? Usually not. Instead, it’s often a conscious choice to eat “off-diet”, and there are many reasons someone might choose to do that. The same goes for the #NotAIP hashtag. In this blog post, I talk about the 80/20 rule, AIP reintroductions, the vacation effect, holiday temptations, flare vs. remission, and the difference between self-sabotage and worth-it-moments.

Episode 108: Trauma & Autoimmune Disease with Dr. Maureen Pierce

There’s a strong link between trauma and autoimmunity. People who are diagnosed with a stress-related disorder like PTSD are 30-40% more likely to be diagnosed with autoimmune disease. Childhood trauma has an even bigger impact. And the shock of an autoimmune diagnosis combined with life-changing symptoms can qualify as a trauma itself. When it comes to maximizing our health, being aware of this connection is important. Thankfully, there are trauma therapies that can help rebuild our health resilience. My guest is Dr. Maureen Pierce, a health psychologist who specializes in working with people with chronic pain and chronic illness. Not surprisingly, she’s a trauma specialist as well.

You Are Not a Failure

When I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, it felt like a personal failure – not just to me, but also to many people who knew me. “But you’re so health-conscious! How did this happen?” The unspoken words I heard were, “What did you do to cause this?” And that question has popped into my head at each step of this journey that I couldn’t control. In case you’ve ever felt the same, I want you to know this.

Episode 107: Research – The Truth Behind the Headlines with Dr. Sarah Ballantyne

Here’s the deal – headlines are designed to grab our attention, and it’s not uncommon for reporters to simplify, exaggerate, or completely misrepresent a research study’s results. So, when we care about science and how our choices impact our health, how can we be sure we’re getting accurate information? Today, I’ve invited a research expert onto the podcast who many of you know and love: Dr. Sarah Ballantyne, also known as The Paleo Mom. She’s going to teach us how to critique a scientific study for quality, bias, and limits of proof. 

Episode 106: From Victim to Empowered with Sarah Kolman

We all find ourselves in victim mode once in a while, especially when life is hard. There is a time and place for throwing ourselves a pity party. The key is not getting stuck in that pattern. How do we identify signs that we are in a victim mindset, and how can we shift to feeling empowered, strong and hopeful again? My guest today is Sarah Kolman, an expert in psychoneuroimmunology, the science of how our thoughts and emotions affect immune and autoimmune health.

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