Part 2: The First Stretch — Food, Coaching Calls, and What My Gut Did
3.5 months into 9.
This is what daily life felt like after I said yes.
Part 1 was the decision. This is the stretch during the first month.
The first job was to “eat clean” and discover what was lighting up inflammation, with the blood tests.
My B and D were very low. I am a health coach and still the worst person I know at staying on supplement protocols. So diligence was the assignment here.
The first month the labs were hard to navigate, as my coach and the MD didn’t have a clean baseline to compare them to.
What I could eat looked like a lot of protein, fats, and a farm stand of greens, squash, avocado, berries (in small amounts), lemon, and lime. What I could not eat was most of what a normal kitchen runs on. No dairy. No eggs. No gluten. No grains — corn, rice, quinoa, bread, pasta, oatmeal. No tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, white potatoes. No beans. No beef or pork. No soy. No sugar, no honey, no alcohol, no caffeine, no juice.
I already knew a lot of that list is hard on a troubled gut. I have always had some bowel issues. Nothing I would have called an emergency. I also know digestive trouble does not stay in the bathroom. It shows up everywhere else: brain fog, cognition, weight gain, inflammation.
The hardest goodbye was grain. I love making and eating fresh bread from whole grain. I had paid real money to look at what was going on inside me. That is a poor time to negotiate with toast.
I was not perfect. We went out with friends one evening. I wanted the imported Italian food — pasta with mussels. I paid for that for two days.
A normal day was protein and some veggies, about half my body weight in ounces of water, a food journal in their app so my coach could see it, and the first-month extras they handed me: a protein powder I actually liked, enzymes, and the rest of the plan. I was to eat three meals a day, mostly protein and fat, so the gut could heal. I was not to skip a meal, so I brought nuts with me wherever I went so I would not get hungry. Organic and non-GMO when I can. I switched maple syrup to allulose, Costco coffee to a mold-free one, and took bacon, tomatoes, beans, and eggs off the plate.
Coaching the first month was once a week, plus texts. If she did not have the answer, she asked the MD and came back. She treated me like a learner — someone who is supposed to become her own coach when the nine months are done. That is the only kind of help I can stand. Not a person collecting a slot. A wise person in the season with me.
I noticed almost no change from most of the new products. I noticed two things that mattered. When I told her I was tired in the day, she added L-lysine, and that helped. I also started taking a reformer Pilates class three times a week. That belongs more in the next post, Part 3, but it started here: I was tired, and I still needed to be in my body.
I also started a second cleanse after the first month-long protocol ended — something I chose because I wanted to keep going after my coach’s round finished. The part I can say without turning this into an advertisement: it moved my bowels a lot, and I felt better for it.
When I came off that second-month cleanse, my body had a setback. I had a bout of mild vertigo when exercising. So that piece is not finished. I need to go back to what was working rather than pretend I graduated.
The tiredness is better than it was. It is not where I want it at 3.5 months in.
What I listen to has changed. I took a lot of daily monitoring off the table and put meditation and journaling the Word of God back. God is still my Papa and healer, and the protocol is not a replacement for my time with Him. It is the work in front of me.
The fear underneath all of this is simple: I am afraid of the medical establishment, afraid of failing at taking care of me. This is expensive. I want to go slow and do it well.
I am that client now. I know how frustrating it can be when a client does not do what they said they would do. I want to succeed and be a good client. I am not a huge eater. I still drift toward what I love but should steer clear of. My coach has been patient with me, and that patience is part of why I can stay in it.
I was not surprised by my main lesson. The gut is not a side project. Junk in, junk out. Brain, hormones, circulation — they all use what is put into the digestive system. The body still needs proper fuel that the Creator provided for us on the earth.
I am still in the middle. No before-and-after.
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