Six steps transition to a Medical Medium lifestyle
If you have been dealing with chronic illness and have discovered Anthony William, you may be feeling like you want to start implementing the protocols. I have written a simple guide that you may find helpful with the transition.
I would like to mention that it is important to honour where you are in your health and to take one step at a time. Many times people try to implement everything in one go, only to fail and end up feeling really bad about themselves. Habit change is a process.
Ayurveda teaches that we should implement changes in our lives slowly. There is so much wisdom in this. The brain is wired in a certain way. It is wired in this way because of years of thought patterns. These are like grooves in the brain. Our thought patterns are what drive our belief systems. So, if we believe that we are a morning person, we will take actions to support that, such as waking with the sun and starting our day early. It will feel strange to us if we sleep in an lie around all day. That kind of behaviour does not support that belief system. The body also gets used to our patterns of behaviour and starts expecting things to happen at particular times of the day. When we disrupt these patterns, it is stressful for the body as well as the mind. The mind is naturally lazy, so it will want to think in ways it is used to, hence the grooves.
So, making massive changes is not sustainable. If you choose to work through this process, stay with one habit change at a time. Once it is deeply anchored, you will naturally crave going to the next level. As you do, you will notice that there will be resistance that comes up in your mind as you make the changes. This is normal and expected. Just honour where you are at and be kind to yourself through the process.
Forcing change is unkind and unnecessary. The body is naturally calling us to vibrant health, because that is our natural state. But, it is process of getting there. The only way of getting there is through kindness to ourselves.
This is my suggestion. Feel free to go through the steps in a way that feels the most supportive to you. You may find that you want to add more fruit to your diet, while still eating some unhelpful food, as an example.
Step 1: Remove unhealthy oils and natural flavours
The most important oil to remove is canola oil. This is also classified as vegetable oil. Choose coconut oil, olive oil and sunflower oil. If I buy crackers or crisps, I avoid the ones that are made with vegetable oil. I have found some really yummy potato chips made with just sunflower oil and salt. Other flavoured chips which may also be made with sunflower oils, unfortunately end up having natural flavours. Thyroid Healing by Anthony William goes into why it is important to remove these foods. The most important reason is that they are feeding pathogens which are not supportive for the body.
Step 2: Start drinking celery juice
This is the classic Medical Medium protocol that is good for everyone, whether you are dealing with a chronic illness or not. You can read all about why it is good over here. The most important reason is that it builds hydrochloric acid in the stomach. In Ayurveda, this is called Agni - the digestive fire. When the digestive fire is strong, we have perfect health. The reason for this is that we are able to absorb all the nutrients from our food and also kill any harmful pathogens in the body, which are the culprit in so many health problems.
I drink celery juice every morning, if you follow me on Instagram, you can see me sharing it here. You can also read about my one year anniversary of drinking celery juice over here.
Step 3: Eliminate unhelpful foods, one at a time
Each of these foods are not supporting you if you are dealing with chronic illness. They are feeding the pathogens that are not allowing the body to be in its natural state of vitality. Please be gentle with yourself. Most of these foods are everywhere, and you may feel like you have to overhaul your whole diet. So, start with the easy ones and start dropping the rest when it feels right for you. To this day, I still occasionally eat some of these foods. It is not the end of the world. As long as you are doing it consciously, it is more important that you are in a space of gratitude when eating these foods instead of beating up on yourself for "breaking your diet". If I eat a slice of pizza, I make sure it is from the best pizzeria in town and I savour it and bless the chef and everyone who made it possible for me to enjoy that food.
Here are the foods that are feeding unhelpful pathogens in the body:
Gluten
Dairy
Corn
Eggs
Soy
Pork
Canola Oil
Natural Flavours
Step 4: Start having more fruit
Most of us don't eat enough fruit. Fruit is full of antioxidants, which is scientific speak for life force. They are incredibly healing to the body and adding fruit to my diet is what ended up removing my lifelong obsession with chocolate. Fruit contains glucose and the brain needs lots and lots of it to function and to be happy. I start each day eating only fruit until lunch time. You can see my breakfast recipe here. I really started seeing a huge improvement in my health when I added this step. My Ayurvedic doctor tells me that I am doing a fruit fast.
Step 5: Start having more vegetables and leafy greens
When I got to this point, I started planning my meals based on having 80% plants on my plate for lunch and dinner. I switched the focus from getting enough protein, to getting enough plants. Life Changing Foods is a wonderful book which will convince you to eat more vegetables and fruit. We all know that we should eat our fruit and vegetables, but this book showed me how much healing was actually happening by incorporating them into my diet.
Insomnia? Eat avocados, berries, cherries, dates, lemons, limes, mangoes, pomegranates, artichokes, celery, leafy greens, potatoes, radishes, sprouts, sweet potatoes, cilantro, ginger, licorice, turmeric, coconut and raw honey.
Fatigue? Eat apricots, avocados, berries, grapes, mangoes, oranges, papayas, asparagus, celery, cucumbers, sweet potatoes, licorice, turmeric, burdock, chaga and rose hips.
The book is full of any condition you can imagine, with explanations for how the foods are healing and how they support us emotionally and physically too. And the recipes are wonderful too.
Step 6: Start to decrease the fat in your diet
I noticed that I naturally wanted to decrease the fat in my diet because of all the fruits and vegetables I was eating. The reason for this is that fruits and vegetables have so many nutrients, that the blood in the body has to be thin for these nutrients to be distributed and absorbed. Too much fat in the diet makes the blood thick. I have also learned that too much fat is very burdensome on the liver. Taking care of the liver is so important as it keeps our systems clean.
Most people don't realise how much fat they are actually consuming. I certainly didn't. Almond milk in your smoothie. Guacamole with your chips. Nuts and seeds by the handful. Wild caught salmon for dinner. All animal protein contains fat, so I started decreasing my animal protein to once a day. Then it started spreading out. At this point in time, I probably eat fish and chicken 3 times a week. I have a weakness for beef and black bean stew, so I order that anytime we eat Asian food! I also adore sashimi.
At this point, some people go completely plant based, which I think is wonderful. If my body ever feels that it wants that, I will be happy to oblige. But I have no interest in forcing myself into a food ideology. I classified myself as a vegetarian once upon a time and I was miserable. I let it be part of my identity and became judgmental towards anyone who ate animals. I was not nice to be around and didn't feel good about myself. So, now I eat what my body desires and at this point, it is high vibration food, that is prepared by loving hands that I eat with gratitude.
At this point, some people also stop eating all grains, as grains feed strep. I feel like my body is craving less rice and quinoa right now. I am allowing things to unfold naturally for me, but for now, I am not giving up my beef and black bean stew with rice!
So there you have my guide to easing into Medical Medium protocols. This is a suggestion based on my own experiences of following the protocols for a year and a half. I allowed myself to ease in and I believe it is the reason I am still continuing. I did not have many detox symptoms as some people seem to experience, as I allowed my body to easily adjust to a new way of living. Sometimes I am surprised that I no longer have cravings for things I used to, but that is how we change our habits. A little bit at a time, so that we don't notice. As my yoga teachers tell me, "No pain, no pain."