It all started for me almost three years ago after my second son was born. It began small, with pain in my left foot. Over time the pain continued to get worse and spread, until one morning last year I woke up with severe pain in both my feet and ankles. My wrists ached and tingled, and my fingers and hands were very stiff. I could barely walk or move my hands.
And that’s when the reality of what was happening to me sank in.
Doctors could not figure out what was going on. In a last-ditch effort to relieve my pain, I began the Autoimmune Protocol (AIP) on the advice of my chiropractor. After less than four weeks, my constant, excruciating joint pain had been reduced to mild and occasional. During the following months, the other symptoms like, stiffness in my fingers, tingling in my wrists and forearms, fatigue, and brain fog, subsided as well. I did not start AIP as a weight loss diet, but losing 23 pounds (without counting calories) was a nice side benefit of eating healthy, healing foods. What inspired me to write an “AIP Starter Guide”?
When my doctor strongly suggested that I start AIP, the number of foods that were restricted was quite overwhelming to me. There was not a single meal that I was eating at the time that didn’t include foods on the “avoid” list. I started googling “AIP Recipes,” but many included strange ingredients, and the suggested AIP meal plans were so far from what my family was eating that they didn’t seem reasonable to serve at the dinner table. While it was nice to know that there was scientific evidence to back up AIP, what I really wanted was a step-by-step, approachable, user-friendly guide written for a busy woman like me that didn’t want to spend all her time in the kitchen. I wanted checklists and meal suggestions with a day-by-day plan that told me exactly what I should be doing and when. I also wanted to hear from someone who had been where I was, and could tell me that it would all be ok. I managed to cobble my plan together with a lot of effort in the beginning. I thought: “I wish someone had already put all this together for me! If only I had a good friend that had already gone through this, I could just ask her what to do instead of figuring this all out on my own!” So that’s why I decide to write this AIP Starter Guide for you. I wrote it as the friend that has gone through AIP before you and not only survived, but thrived. I wrote it to hold your hand and walk you through exactly what I did, and what I wish that I had done that would have made my life easier. I wrote it to help you learn from my successes and my mistakes, so that you can feel prepared to get started. Are you ready to crush your first 30 days on AIP? | 
