Welcome. Let me be honest with you from the first day.

If you found your way here, you are probably tired in a way that sleep does not fix. Perhaps you have been told that your labs are 'normal' while you can feel your body saying otherwise.

I lived in that exact place for 7 years before anyone named my Autoimmune and everything that came with it: Hashimoto's, hypothyroidism, IBS, SIBO, imbalanced hormones, low sex hormones, and poor iron absorption and anemia.

The first thing that made an astounding difference for me was the Autoimmune Protocol. It works. And it asks a lot of you.

Everything I share with you here is part of the Autoimmune Recovery Method (ARM), a complete approach to moving an Autoimmune condition 'Toward Remission'. The Autoimmune Protocol is the food piece of it, the first doorway in, and over these pages I will walk you through the rest.

To consider the Autoimmune Protocol for yourself, I think the most important question to ask is this: 'On a scale of 0 to 10, how serious am I about moving my Autoimmune condition toward Remission?' Not toward a 'tidier life' or a 'calmer week'. Toward Remission.

Because how you answer this question influences everything about how the next months will go for you, if you say yes to the Autoimmune Protocol.

If you want IT only a 6 or 7 out of 10, AIP is going to feel like 'punishment'. You may white-knuckle the food, resent the planning, and wait for it to be over. A 7 is not enough fuel for this. And I say this with love and understanding, not judgment.

If you want to move your Autoimmune toward Remission at a level 9 or 10, something different happens. The same challenging days are still sometimes 'hard', and you will meet them as someone who chose this, on purpose. That is the whole difference.

What this really comes down to is what you want, and how close to your 'Why' you stay throughout this process.

Hear me clearly, because this matters. 'Wanting' is not a number you will feel every minute of the day. Some moments in your days you will be very present to your 10. Some moments in your days you may limp in at a 6. That is human.

The point is not to manufacture the 10. The point is to always be able, authentically and with self-honesty, to find your way back to it.

Refresh your 'Why', every day

So this is the practice I invite you to explore, starting today and every day after. Refresh your 'Why'. Let me explain what I mean by that.

Your 'Why' is deeper than the motivation that comes from your mind. It is what your whole being wants. We are not only thinking our 'Why'. We are feeling it, in our head, in our heart, and in our solar plexus.

We do not present ourselves to our 'Why' only at the beginning and then just carry on. We have to feel into it every morning, especially to start the day, and then again throughout the day, whenever things feel challenging.

Get quiet. Breathe into your solar plexus, into your belly. Breathe in deep, exhale long, and remember. That long belly breath quietly tells your nervous system you are safe, and it helps the whole body settle. Feel exactly why you are doing this, whatever it is for you:

• the grandchild you want to be well for
• the work you are not finished doing
• the fulfillment you wish to experience in your life
• the adventure
• the enjoyment
• the care you get to give
• the fullness of your precious human life
• the simple, enormous wish to wake up in a body that feels like home, safe and comfortable

Whatever your 'Why' is for you, return to it often throughout the day. Your 'Why' is the engine. It is the main meal, the real nourishment, not the parsley set on the side of your plate.

What you are actually working on

Let me back up a little and speak to what generates an Autoimmune condition in the first place.

Researchers who study Autoimmunity, one of my favorites being Datis Kharrazian, describe a model where an Autoimmune condition, whether it is Hashimoto's, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis, or type 1 diabetes, usually needs 3 things to line up together:

1. A genetic susceptibility.
2. A more permeable gut barrier, what you may have heard called intestinal permeability or 'leaky gut'.
3. A triggering load, and that list is long: infections, chronic stress, certain foods, hormonal shifts, toxins, a hard season of life.

This is a proposed model. These 3 components are a very useful map.

Here is the part that hands you your power back. YOU cannot change factor 1. Your genes are your genes. Factors 2 and 3 are the ones that turn the volume up or down on factor 1: the gut barrier and the triggers. These are not fixed. They respond. They are like a switch that can be turned up or down.

AIP goes to work on factor 2, and on much of factor 3 at the same time, because the 2 overlap far more than most people realize.

The food calms an immune system that has been on high alert and gives the gut barrier the conditions it needs to settle and repair. And because food is also one of the biggest triggers there is, the very same plate that soothes the gut is already easing your triggers too.

Your body has been responding, intelligently and for good reason, to everything it has been carrying and living inside. Your symptoms are a language, and together we are going to learn to listen to them.

Factor 3, the triggers, is the daily discovery. AIP moves through a few phases: a transition to prepare, an elimination phase to calm things down, and then reintroduction, where you bring foods back one at a time.

Reintroduction is every bit as important as the elimination phase, because it is where you learn what your own body does with eggs, with nightshades, with a stressful week, with too little sleep. This is the heart of how the Autoimmune Recovery Method works over time.

You keep discovering, meal after meal, season after season. Even when you are sure you already know yourself, your body will keep teaching you something new. And the triggers reach beyond food, into your sleep, your stress, your relationships, the rhythm of your days, all of which we come to in time.

I am not here to promise you a single 'cure'. Autoimmune is something we can work toward bringing into Remission, not something we erase. What I can promise you is that you will not be guessing your way through this, and you will not be doing it alone. There is a real structure here, and a companion for the whole of it.

Before you tap to the next screen, do one thing. Take a moment to bring your gaze inward, and ask yourself: 'What is the heart of my Why for saying yes to whatever it takes to move my Autoimmune into Remission?'

Find your 'Why', and see if you feel it at a level 9 or 10. Then come back tomorrow and do it again.

That is how this works. One honest day at a time.