I’m going to follow the Wahls Protocol!  I looked at the extreme diet and decided it was too much to start with, then I looked at the mid-way version and it also looks a bit extreme, so I’ve decided to follow the initial/entry-level plan simply called ‘The Wahls Diet’.

So, the advice is to go gluten and dairy free TODAY!  Double crap…. I have blue cheese in the fridge that I really want to eat and there’s some chocolate in the cupboard and a bunch of other dairy-infused delicious things in my house ….. but I also want to kick RP in the arse, so that’s it!!!!  I am now officially dairy-free!  On the upside, I’m already gluten-free, so that’s a huge bonus and it makes me feel like I’m half-way to success already. 🙂

The second piece of the diet is to eat 9 cups of fruit and veg every day (there are rules associated with this too, but essentially it’s pretty straightforward) and then the final part is to eat organic, grass-fed, wild-caught meat and fish.  Sounds good to me!  I’ll have to go grocery shopping to do these bits, but that can be my priority for the weekend and I can start in earnest once I have the ingredients in-house.

The next step up on the Wahls Paleo diet (Level 2) is to reduce non-gluten grains to just 2 servings a week.  I’m an overachiever, so I’m going to throw this one in too – I’m already gluten-free, so figure I can make this adjustment at the same time.

Two other interesting parts of this Wahls Protocol are:

1. You need to have a higher-purpose and to journal the experience with the diet.
2. Your family needs to be bought in too, otherwise you end up not succeeding because they’re scoffing all the food you’re not allowed.

The higher purpose is interesting: it’s intended to be something that you want to achieve / a personal mission statement / your reason for being / a legacy or something like that.  I was thinking about this today and my obvious reason for being and pushing myself to be a healthier person with a long and active life ahead is my daughter.  She’s just 2 and a half and I owe it to her to be around for a long time.  I can’t have more kids because of this RP and the drugs I’m taking right now, so she’s it and she’s everything.  So, my commitment is to be around to celebrate and fit enough to dance and sing with her on her 40th birthday.

The journal writing to capture the experience is easy for me, but I’m trying to decide if I’ll put it here on the blog or in a separate document that’s just for me.  TBD.

Next up is the family commitment.  My husband is a fantastic person and more driven on the healthy and food side that I’ll ever be.  I know he will support me 100%, but I don’t intend to ask him to give up dairy…. that’s just not fair!  Also, and although Terry Wahls says that it’s healthy for kids, I’m not sure if it’s appropriate to cut out dairy and gluten for my daughter.  Perhaps I’ll experiment on myself first and then if it all works out ok, she can choose to follow or not once she’s older.  I can do this with support: not everyone needs to eat the same way to make it work.