We discuss how:
– Kerry Anne got a bowel infection in 2014 and was really sick
– She was given antibiotics for three months and that wiped her gut out
– She was diagnosed RA after a year and went on tons of medications
– Her Plaquenil and Methotrexate doses went up very quickly
– She was still feeling terrible so she started searching on the internet for a solution
– She found Clint’s TED Talk and changed her diet completely
– She joined the Paddison Program about one year ago to reduce her Rheumatoid Arthritis symptoms
– After 7 days her heartburn went off completely
– Her family gave full support from day one
– She’s now a very active member of the Paddison Program forum and helps many people with her example and advice
Clint: Today I’ve got a guest who’s going to share her fabulous progress update on the Paddison Program for Rheumatoid Arthritis. We’ve met personally when I put on an event in Florida. She came to the event and actually stole the show early on by kind of grabbing the microphone and say listen everyone you got to make sure you pay attention throughout this whole event. Because I am a living, breathing example of what can be achieved if you follow the Paddison Program. And we have known each other prior to that event because she’s a loved and highly contributing member of our online support forum where I’ve been following her progress and assisting with some of the decisions over the past 12 months. I think it’s been 12 months around about exactly hasn’t it Kerry Anne?
Kerry Anne: Yes, to the day.
Clint: Thanks for joining us today to share with a much larger audience your progress and to provide people with some additional insights and tips and motivation because other people are on a journey similar to yourself. So let’s get a snapshot from you like a 30 second commercial style so that people can get a feeling for what we’re in for.
Kerry Anne: So my name is Kerry Anne, I’m a nurse by trade so I really understand how this disease works. And I joined the Paddison Program a year ago, my aim was to come off my medications and we’re on the journey. And it had been a life changing experience both from the lifestyle that our family has created to the level of support from the forum and from Clint. To completely take hold of this disease and say you know I don’t want this in my life I’m going to make the change.
Clint: Yes. And you’ve influenced a lot of people with your own progress as well so I want to cover that in this call as well. Just give us a feeling of how far you’ve come with your medications.
Kerry Anne: So when I started the program a year ago, I’ve been sick for quite a few years before. I actually in 2014 got a bowel infection called Clostridium Difficile, one of the biggest hospital infections actually in the country that can kill people. And I was really sick. I was in hospital for a week and I was given antibiotics for three months that I didn’t know at the time completely wipe to my whole gut out.
Clint: Yeah that’s it. That’s the defining moment.
Kerry Anne: I got better from the CDS but I just never got better.
Clint: Yeah.
Kerry Anne: And I lived for the next three years, and I just knew being medical that something was brewing but just couldn’t put my finger on it. Fatigued, and I just felt terrible all the time in getting out of bed, everything. And then one day my joints just popped, and I went from having movement to not having movement. I was lucky that a very dear colleague of mine has lupus, and she said immediately you need to see my rheumatologist. I was then within a week. And it took them a year to diagnose because they didn’t want to diagnose too quickly. But that’s because I was seronegative and got diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. And so initially my meds went up really quickly. So I was on (inaudible), I was on tons of medication for my GI tract.
Kerry Anne: I had terrible acid heartburn. I was on gut motility medication. Then she started me on the plaquenil that went up to maximum dose at 300 mg daily. Then my methotrexate started at 2.5 and worked its way up in increments all the way to the maximum dose of 20 mg a week. So I was on a lot of medications and to be honest I was functioning but I still worsen at 80-85%. I just walking in the morning to the bathroom on my heels can’t put my toes down, couldn’t do my buttons up and my hands and my feet were really my real trouble. And I went back to her and I said you know I still can’t manage and she said, alright so it’s time to talk about biologic and the thought of starting a third one, I just turned 40 at the time and I have a young family and I said to my husband I’ll get 10 years and then where am I going to go. And so I do what every good nurse scholar does. I went to the Internet. And I didn’t know I was looking for you until I found you, and I found a comment in a forum somewhere about. At first I was reading stuff about diets and anti-inflammatory and I thought where do I go. I’d already given up red meat and I’d already given up dairy so I knew I was on the right track but I had ten different things a day that was it.
Kerry Anne: Lots and lots of sugar, lots of stuff that was cooked in oil and even now 10 Things I didn’t realize that were probably the 10 worst things I could be eating and you know everything outside it gave me terrible diarrhea. It was really a mess. And I found you and I was like “Let me check out this TED talk” and I watched your TED talk and I said to my husband this is it and he smirks. But you only eat peas as a vegetable and you’re going to change completely to this like plant based life and I was like oh yeah, I’m gonna do this. And he was like Okay dear, thinking it would be like a day or two. I said Look at this guy look at what he’s done. And my husband said: anything you want.
Kerry Anne: So I had his support from day one after the initial smirk. And we went out and he went big style. He went and bought me a juicer, he went and got everything I needed and gave me my first celery and cucumber juice which I didn’t really like at all. And we started our journey together, and that’s the start. I remember a week or two after starting the program we got vacation booked at the beach and we’ve got a condo, and my husband looked to me and he went “So are we taking it all with us?” And I was like ” I guess we are” so the quinoa packets, all the grains and the juicer. Have you ever done that? I mean I just, it was crazy.
Clint: Yeah absolutely. We used to travel with a rice cooker and a juicer. And as you said actual packets of the pseudo grains and various things. In fact one time we were traveling on a bit of a road trip and I used to have a Mazda MX5. So in the States it’s called a Miyata. It’s one of these two doors sports cars and I purchased that in my early 20’s because I was part of the like the tech kind of explosion so all the young guys who were good in the tech field were getting stock options and all this stuff. Unfortunately, I lost virtually all my money in the tech collapse, the bubble in 2000 but I had enough money to buy this new sports car. So I’m getting around in this car. Anyway, when Melissa entered my life and I had to work through this condition, we travelled on this road trip and we had everything packed into this tiny sports car in every nook and cranny with the hood pulled over the top right. Anyway we took the rice cooker in and throughout the entire journey. We could hear this noise and it was like “ting”, “ting”, “ting” in the first two hours. We didn’t know what it was so I was checking the car and stuff like “ting’, “ting”, and then we get to like a service station or something and we and we looking around and then we realize it’s the stupid button on the rice cooker. That every time I go over a bump, the little bell would hit the metal, would hit together. And boy, that trip we laugh about that trip all the time when we drive to Orange, I drive to my sister’s place that we don’t have put up with that stupid ding because we couldn’t fix it.
Clint: It was at the bottom of a huge pile of stuff and in a tiny car you hear everything. Oh yeah rice cooker on cruise ships, I used to have a rice cooker going on on a cruise ship. And on the first day I put the rice cooker in my room, I turned it on and I was cooking brown rice right and then I left my room. I went and did something else, and brown rice takes about 40 minutes right, so come back 40 minutes later. And I walk in the corridor on a cruise ship, goes on for a very long way like it might be you know a hundred meters long the corridor. And I enter that one end, and could smell that earthy, nutty, flavor of brown rice from the other entire end of the entire corridor. And I’m like, God I’m not going to be able to hide this entire trip so I got to be cautious about this. So, at the time my rice cooking because you’re not allowed to cook in the rooms obviously, but when you’re on a mission you take matters into your own hands. And you’ve got to break the rules sometimes if you gotta get well because, the rules are stacked against you on things like cruise ships and when you get away from your house. So I can totally relate to your story shortly after you started the program and travelling with all that stuff.
Kerry Anne: Well when I went on the cruise this year, they were amazing and they cooked everything Paddison Program, and they had a juice bar, And the definition of a vacation for me is 7 days of juices without washing the juicer.
Clint: I invented that. That’s the biggest problem isn’t with the juices, cleaning the damn thing. If it could self clean, if someone can make a self-cleaning juicer.
Kerry Anne: They should do that.
Clint: Yeah. That’s the solution.
Kerry Anne: (inaudible) because I have my husband, and he’s normally the one that’s giving you a good wash afterwards, he’s a good man.
Clint: All right we’ll return to your story where you were a few weeks into the program, obviously you’re making some progress because you’re sticking with it and you’ve taken all the stuff on with you on your trip. How did things go from that point onwards?
Kerry Anne: Interestingly the first thing that it affected was my GI tracts, at the first couple of days I remember going on the forum and saying, “My stomach is as tight as a drum, is this meant to happen?” And you were so kind to let me know about the bacteria, and you would like to stick with it. And then I got to day 7, and I can tell you I can remember it like it was yesterday. I clicked on to your day second video, and anyone that starts the program when you get to that video and I was like okay I think I might be done. And you were like, you think you’re done, you’re not done. This is the day you have to continue. I was like, that’s just what I needed to hear, it was like he was reading my mind. And I said to my husband, you have to come see this video. Clint says this is normal, and I need to carry on. And he goes well and you listen to the man, and I said okay.
Kerry Anne: So we got past the day 7, and just something amazing happened with the cucumber and the celery juices. All my heartburn went away, like I started saying to my husband I don’t feel heartburn, I’m not burping, when the stomach bloating start to go away. And I went to my GI doc, and he’s like well this is great, we need to get you off your meds. So the first thing that happened was on my GI meds, the whole cocktail of them came off . So that took about a month, if that and I’ve not been back on them since, which it’s pretty incredible when every time you get some chest pain you like having heart attack and the pain in the back and all of that went. I mean that in itself was amazing. So that was like alkalizing juices.
Clint: And the acid reflux, what about the acid reflux?
Kerry Anne: Yeah, went away. It’s incredible, and the cocktail of meds I was on for that before. That in itself was amazing because, you have the aftereffects of that causing diarrhoea and things you know you get into that vicious cycle. And so to be able to break that, and you know I was in stuff I’d never even dreamed of, like green stuff. And I was thinking that was going to upset me, in fact that didn’t it was the opposite. And I was just laughing when you said (inaudible), because when you cook buckwheat for the first time, that’s pretty special. And I was like, oohh this is going to be great. And you just, your taste buds, you can taste everything as soon as I stop the sugar, and I stopped the artificial stuff. My children do not like you though, because we clean the whole house so I said I’m not having it in the house. We started looking what was in food, and corn syrup. And literaly I have been on a mission, and I mean my family are practically 85-90% with me. My daughter Apsley loves it now, of course you met my daughter because she was intending to meet you. She looks at you a little bit like your hero because she fixed me, and she came and spoke as well because she didn’t want to miss you talking and she was 11 when I went on the program. She’s 12 now and she tells everyone about it.
Clint: Your daughters are wonderful, beautiful sort of beaming little girl. And I remember clearly the two of you holding hands and cuddling the entire time. Al vente ran for over three hours, and I don’t think you stopped cuddling and holding hands for the whole thing. And she is just so proud of what you’ve done. And watching you two together at the event was one of the most special parts of the event for me because, just the depth of connection that the two of you have and how happy she is that you’re so much further along than where you were at the time. It’s great, it is amazing isn’t how unusual benefits come out of putting in a righteous effort. So yeah, the two of you connecting and building this additional bond obviously there was such a strong bond already. But like it’s a new layer, and a different perspective that you now have together as well as a mum and daughter.
Kerry Anne: I think that people really underestimate how this disease can take away so much. You think it’s just you that it affects, and you become very depressed and very isolated with it, and you don’t realize how much it affects your family. And when I start getting better, and she want to get on the bikes or whatever and she be when I could come back if I didn’t need to sleep on the sofa, you don’t realize how much that impacts it until you start feeling better again. So I encourage anyone that’s watching this with a family that has really made you suffer with your family dynamics. This program was for all of us, this program wasn’t just for me.
Clint: Yeah. Nice. Well tell us I want to hear about how your family, not just your you know you the people you live with but also others have benefited. But also I want to hear the rest of your story up until the end of your first 12 months, which is where you’re up to at the moment.
Kerry Anne: So the first 30 days are pretty much stuck religiously until the first section in the program except a really really wanted to try out. Because someone told me out (inaudible) muffin. And I think how is on day 21 and I was like I am so naughty, I’m a rebel, I’m going in 9 days early. And I have this small bowl with oats with blue breeze and it was just delicious. And I was just way in, say I’m very lucky because I can eat something if it doesn’t agree with me, my stomach swells, and then my joints pop the next day. So I’m not someone has to wait 24 hours to see if it affects me, pretty much know what affects me and what doesn’t. And the oats didn’t do anything to me, and I was so happy. And then I confessed on that program, and you are like that’s okay you know you can start early you just have to monitor it. But then I didn’t want to eat them for 10 days because I thought I was going to push harder. But now I have them every morning, I have the biggest bowl of oats as a lot of my protein that I get and I had a little bit honey, blueberries, and that set me up for the day. So that was, I think that was an early introduction though. I mean oats you told me were quite significant.
Clint: Oats took me forever, like oats took me a couple of years and that’s not uncommon. Yeah. So you know definitely it just with your particular set of circumstances you were able to tolerate them after a month which is great, and we should be looking and pushing forward with our food reintroductions. Because I believe I sat far too long before trying to reintroduce things, I was on the baseline foods for most part of a year, and that’s just nuts. When I realised that when I tried something else a year later I didn’t have any additional pain, I thought hey could I have tried this months ago. For me it was basmati rice, and I was so conservative that I only tried the Basmati rice at home because on some special occasions we were out at night. And for like a birthday for myself or for Melissa, we would go to an Indian restaurant and of course they serve everything on rice. And so I would have just a little bit of Dahl and mostly rice so I would sort of basically eat rice with like Dahl flavoring. Because I was concerned with having you know or anything eating out at that time and then I’d find the next day you know what I’m I’m okay. And so then that’s when I said Okay look I’m doing good I’m going to try basmati rice, and that was fine. And then the reintroductions came quite quickly after that. Like given that I had been so slow prior to that, I found them to be significantly quite quick after that.
Clint: So yes look we should be pushing forward with the reintroductions, and if you’re able do oats after a month that’s great. I think oats are a wonderful food for breakfast. That’s what we have, my family have for breakfast and I consider oats to be an insurance food. It’s like ensuring your body against potential problems. Some people, this is more for listeners than relevant to our situation. But what you can find is that because oats are slightly acidifying, I see that sometimes oat inflammation or inflammation resulting from oats can be a creep effect. So after a week or two of eating oats, people feel sometimes that their body pain levels have crept up without noticing any particular change. And often in that situation, I say take out the oats just for a couple of days, and you might find that things settle again. And then reintroduce them again, they might be right on that border of acid alkaline balance. And that particular intervention can often be enough, not to stop otes completely just take a day or two off them. And that might be fine, and then reintroduce them again. And slowly with time, the body may be able to adjust and accommodate them. And eat more leafy greens because then that will alkalize the body and offset the acid.
Kerry Anne: I was just going to say, before I eat them I always have my juice and I have not deferred away for my juice at all. And I think it’s really easy to do that when you get into it and you can’t be bothered with the juice. It’s a pain to get the juicer out and wash every day. And I think that would be easy to do, I know that that was one thing my mom and I kind of talked about because she started with juices and then she kind ah, Oh it’s such a fast. That because I do that that might be why I have such love with oats.
Clint: I believe so. Yes that’s a great insight, alkalization through the green juices. They’re so alkalizing cause they’re mineral rich. So okay. Excellent. Yeah. So there we go. We got some good points here if people is right on the borderline with their oats or wanting to try oats do it. But keep up your green juices or add another green juice maybe throughout the day. Excellent. Okay so you’ve made progress with the oats which is providing a wonderful bacterial growth platform, and then what happened after that?
Kerry Anne: So of course, then that was the first visit to the rheumatologist, I saw the ARMP the first time I went. And she just took a coffee and said, mmm interesting I’ll scan into your record for you and that was pretty much the level of interest. She made a comment of, well I guess you know it did start with a bowel insult for you so that might be why this may work for you but probably wouldn’t work for other people with rheumatoid arthritis. And I remember your response on the forum, and will say polite that you basically said that doesn’t surprise me, carry on I was like, Okay. And then I met with my rheumatologist a little bit after that, and she was okay. I mean she was just very hesitant about doing things quickly. So I kind of worked with her, and I kind of made sure that the group on the forum is amazing. I particularly love Andy because he’s from England, and I’m from England, and I love his posts and he’s always like keep going, and I just think that’s awesome. It’s just very supportive which I like, but when we start going down with methotrexate. So I went from 20, and then four weeks later down to 17.5. And couple weeks later, four weeks later, 15, 12.5, 10, 7.5, 5. Sat around 2.5, so at the moment and between 2.5 and 5. I’m actually due to go back from 5 to 2.5 in a couple of weeks, and it feels incredible because methotrexate gives me really really bad canker sores. And they are as debilitating to me as anything, because I can’t eat, you may get the impression I like to chat, I can’t talk, it hurts too much. I don’t know whether I’ve ever had them, but they are the most horrific thing. And coming down off my Methotrexate, and all the good stuff (inaudible), pretty much kicks my canker sores at bay. Which is life changing for me.
Clint: Wonderful.
Kerry Anne: Which is just another thing that I just didn’t realize the program would do, because I had them before I went on the methotrexate. The methotrexate just put them like on steroids basically made them you know ten times worse. So I’m not getting them as bad and then losing them altogether because of what I’m eating, it is pretty incredible.
Clint: Yeah, wow okay. And in all the years I’ve never heard a benefit of that one so thank you, that’s great. Awesome. Okay so you’ve done tremendously well with your methotrexate reduction. Obviously your rheumatologist is happy with your blood results, and happy with your joints and sort of overseeing that process so this is fabulous stuff. Now tell us, I’d like to know a couple of things. I’d like to know whether or not there were any other things that were interesting for our audience with regards to your oat introduction or exercise or supplements. Was there any sort of insights here that that people should know about that you do? That you think that would be important for them to be aware of? If they’re not getting as good results.
Kerry Anne: So my primary care physician was wonderful, she was super supportive. My cardiologist is brilliant he’s vegan himself, so I got a lot of support from. You see I have so many different specialties obviously we deal with this disease. But they wanted to make sure I got enough of what I was eating. So originally I didn’t realize the reason I went into the hospital very first, was numbness and it’s paralysis kind of symptoms. It turns out I had a B12 deficiency. So with this diet, I had to be really careful, because I already have a deficiency. So I take supplements and a monthly injection which my primary care physician monitors. I find that adding turmeric was extremely helpful from a anti-inflammatory perspective. And then I take a prebiotic soluble fiber, which really helps with absorption and he helps me with my nutrients and he helps bathe my bowel issues, and I do really well with that. And I take a very natural based multivitamin, which is once again to match I get my vitamin D which we can suffer. Living in Florida you would think I just need to stand outside the porch but I do suffer with that. And then my primary care physician is extremely supportive and they just monitor my lapse and make sure I’m getting everything that I need. But the more and more I am on the program, the more and more I think I’m wondering whether I can reduce some of that. And we talked about this on the forum that I’m quite interested in starting the Plaquenil reduction, my rheumatologist would like me to be off the methotrexate first. But if you don’t come off them, how do know if you need them? I know that’s the philosophy you use a lot.
Clint: Yeah that’s right. Well first of all I tend to agree with the rheumatologist, and I think that everyone would like to keep it simple and just hop off one drug completely before starting the next. I wouldn’t see any value in reducing both simultaneously. I think your body would prefer to be just dealing with one sort of medical intervention at a time too. And I got this reinforced when I was speaking with Dr. Goldberg from The Goldberg clinic who was part of our support forum monthly call recently, and also on a podcast. He said that, having one pharmaceutical drug in the body is one thing, but when you add another it’s not just like a plus b it’s like a times B as to the chemical negative impacts on the body. Now obviously we don’t have like the scientific data behind that, but that’s just his observation with working with people. So I would, in your situation I’d like to be off methotrexate then work on the next drug in a one by one order. And then what was the other part of your. Yeah. The other part of your comment was with regards to what? let me think.
Kerry Anne: How much of the vitamin and mineral now I’m going to get in the foods. Whether that multi vitamin wouldn’t come off.
Clint: Well Dr. McDougal talks more about this than I do. I don’t have a multivitamin as part of my recommendations for our program. So our program only has a very small number of supplements recommended, multivitamins not one. Because just baby spinach contains like 96% of all the vitamins and minerals that the body needs. Now not all of them are in the amounts that we need daily but, combining that with other very very nutrient dense foods like the baseline part of our program. And you’re not lacking anything. And that’s a podcast I did with Robyn Chuter who’s a naturopath who ran our program through food works, which is a dietary guidelines analytical software. And it showed that as long as you eat sufficient amounts of the food which I put together how much I eat during the baseline, I was meeting in a couple of instances and dramatically exceeding in most instances daily requirements. So yes look, Dr. McDougald believes that there is a lot of supplements like the multivitamins, multi minerals, do more harm than good. So I don’t think that’s something that with time you will need or want to keep taking but look I don’t I’m not necessarily in the camp of doing harm. So if it’s there I would just leave it in the mix at the moment, and fight the bigger battles and then later on you can stop taking it and you won’t even notice the difference. Cool alright, excellent. So tell us, how have your changes and your mission influence people around you?
Kerry Anne: So I’m very lucky to have a very supportive network of friends, and family, and my mum actually had been really sick a couple of years ago. She was in the critical care unit, she had lots of issues with a heart and circulate system. And she was very very sick, and she had 95% occlusion of her left coronary artery. So we were very very lucky to get her in the hospital, and get her (inaudible). And so of course I just started the program about a month, and I said to her, you know I’ve done some research on the internet and Lisa Daya of mine with no diets a lifestyle of mine, would really really see you. And she just went yeah I’m not doing that. So I got my dad on board to, and I said Dad you have to help me. So our cardiologist is the same the plant-based diet, so of course it was wonderful because he said I really think she’s onto something. So Mum start the program 4 weeks after me, we struggled with ber pressures of like to 210 / 110. She’s now down to like 130 / 80, she’s off one of the blood pressure meds. Her EKG is amazing, she’s off her anticoagulants, and she sees her cardiologist regularly and she is (inaudible) the child the post cardiac care and how to look after yourself. She lost like 30 pounds in weight, she looks amazing, she goes out on her bike, and she rides the bike. And she actually has sarcoidosis as well, which is another autoimmune disease which is now in remission. So I don’t even know what to say about the program but it’s amazing.
Clint: Well it’s nutrition isn’t? It’s applying what we know about nutrition, and just doubling down on it. And say well let’s go for the absolute most nutritious foods that are most alkalizing for the body, and most kind of healing, and put them all together and just let them do their work. So that’s so exciting about your mum.
Kerry Anne: And she’s not allowed to eat anything from a packet, just cooked fresh. She came over last night, and I made my new special because actually you know from being now chef at all I had been becoming quite the Paddison chef. And last night we had lentils with a homemade vegetable stock, with potatoes, and carrots, and peas, and mushrooms, and it was just delicious. And then I lay it all up with lots of spices, and turmeric, and it was really good with sliced super tight on the top.
Clint: Very hearty, I love it, awesome. And what about other members of your family?
Kerry Anne: This is a pretty funny story, so my husband has osteoarthritis. So he used to work as a leather courier and did a lot of work with leather with his shoulders in his previous job at home in England. And he still does that now, and he was getting a lot of trouble from his right shoulder. So we went on the program, and every six months he goes and gets a steroid shot on his shoulder so he can do his daily work. And one day, you know I probably need to go to the orthopedic surgeon. And he goes and he realizes he hasn’t been there in months. So I said to him, I haven’t seen you it will be best do an X-ray. So he did an X-ray, and the surgeon said, what you’ve been doing? Are you taking my medication? Then Shawn goes, no. And he says, I don’t understand it, the X-ray looks better in the disease process than it did the last time you were here 11 months ago. He says, the wife makes me all this plant-based food you know me. And he said I’ve heard about this from this orthpeadic surgeon has heard about joint regeneration, from eating all the right stuff and actually saw it on an X-ray of my husband’s shoulder which I just think is mind blowing.
Clint: Yeah that is absolutely awesome. I’ve only heard of this one other time from a client. And yeah that’s that’s absolutely that’s absolutely awesome. When you see a scan that shows improvement it’s pretty mind-blowing isn’t it?
Kerry Anne: Yeah it really is. So he is a combat as well, so he tries to sneak my juices in the morning. (inaudible).
Clint: Awesome. It just sprung to mind who the other guest was on our show was Sean who did two episodes, and Sean’s an Australian. If people want to go back and listen to this Sean’s episode was about a year or so ago, and yes his rheumatologist looked at his x-rays, and same thing just this silence. And he put them up, and he turned them over, and flipped them around, and just could not understand how this could have happened. But he has had regeneration as well. So yes it’s tremendous. Awesome. All right. Well and finally what about at your work?
Kerry Anne: So work, I’m a nurse by trade and so I work with a lot of nurses who pretty much have got on the train a plant-based living. I have something to tell you.
Clint: I can’t stop smiling I tell you what, it’s just so you’re doing so much great stuff.
Kerry Anne: We’ll you’re going to love this one. So a really good friend of mine is the manager of the director of the food and nutrition in the hospital. And I keep in her year and show want I’m eating for the last four weeks. We have had meat free Monday’s, and she’s been cooking me three stations. And today’s a Monday, today was quinoa bowls that she made a cashew sauce.
Clint: That’s what we had for dinner last night.
Kerry Anne: It was incredible, and a couple of weeks ago she did cauliflower steaks on top of mashed sweet potato, topped with pumpkin seeds. And I was like, Clint would be very impressed with you. So and everyone’s standing up so the station gets that in the middle of the cafeteria and there’s like a line all the way around. And then all my friends or people I work with a texting me pictures, look what I’m eating because I’m like. As you can see from my (inaudible), you can see it herbivore.
Clint: Beautiful.
Kerry Anne: I carry my plant-base very seriously. But a lot of them, I got my colleagues I’m very close to, they pretty much of all got on the boat with it, and they’re eating so much more healthy. And we switch recipes, and I cook my brownies for them which I made of date. I brought some for you to try. (inaudible) Sunflower kernels with dates and just you know tons of flavor in and oat flower. But yeah I’m being creative, because I had to find, I’m a sweet tooth. And so, it was very hard for me initially because a huge amount of my diet had sugar in it. And even the savory stuff you had sugar in it. So it was pretty cool the first 4 weeks, I’m an Englishwoman who drank eight cups of tea a day with caffeine. I went to no caffeine, no sugar, you know I’m have been just a little grumpy so just to warn people in those first couple of weeks is worth it. But it was I mean it was hardcore, I’m not going to sit here and say it wasn’t, but I hope that people can see that bigger picture watch that day 10 video. Because when she hit 3, 4 weeks.
Clint: Yeah, you’re away.
Kerry Anne: (inaudible) you’ve got the willpower to get through it, and know the greater good is what you’re doing.
Clint: That’s right, because when the gut bacteria change so that they’re not battling you internally they’re on board. And then your results start to come through and then you’ve got this external reinforcement no internal resistance. Some slight adjustment to your taste buds, and you can start to see hang on a second I’m getting the hang of this it becomes habitual. Yeah you realize that the transition period is behind you, and it’s like well why can’t I just keep doing this for a bit longer? Definitely the hard part I describe the transition onto it as when we’re going one way down a road, but then we realize we actually need to be going the opposite direction on the road and we have to cross over the median strip. So we’re boom… concrete thing in the center and the we cross over the landscaping.
Kerry Anne: I think I hit a post on the way over as well.
Clint: And then we get on the other side, and then we’re going to accelerate again, and get me up to full speed. And that whole process can take weeks, sometimes a month or two. It’s very rocky, very bumpy, and we get all sorts of challenges come up through that time. Once we’re on the highway.
Kerry Anne: An analogy for you when you’re going on that fast road, you’re still going to hit some bends right? And so what I did when I hit my bends, is I go straight back to base foods. So if I have a rough day, 2 days of base foods, lots of sweet potato. I reset myself, and then I can start again because I think you’re gonna know your body enough when to reset. I remember trying almond’s 3 times over the last year, and every single time my body goes, this is not for you stop. So I have to reset, and start again. So there’s going to be stuff that does not agree with you (inaudible) different, and I see on the forum what one person can eat and other can’t. And we just gotta just take your time, see it, reset and go. But the big Achilles heel for me is eating out, because I didn’t realize how they prepare it, what they do, and they can tell that’s not cooked in oil, they can tell me that it’s plant-based and it’s fresh. And I can tell you within two mouthfuls, I’m like well first of all it’s got oil, second of all it’s not fresh. So you have to be really careful when you eat out because we are out a lot before, and that has been a big change for us. So now we do tale out, and so the family can still like a little treat if they want them, and then I can cook my own, and we can still eat as a family we just have to find those different ways. But eating out was a challenge initially. It’s better now because I know what I’m doing. And you feel terrible asking, Oh could you do this and could you do this. They’re gonna think I’m a real pain. But now I got more confident with it, I just give them the worst case scenario, this is gonna happen if I get it.
Clint: Yeah absolutely. So you know that eating out thing. It’s a challenge there’s no doubt about it and you end up finding a local restaurant that understands and gets you. And then you can order a specific food from the menu, from that specific restaurant, and you’ve got that one ticked. But if you’ve got three local scenarios like that you’re doing well, 1 is probably not pair going, eating out once with a specific menu item from one restaurant. 2 is going really well, and 3 you know you’re you’re a well above average. So but when we eat out knowing that we got a place we can go to every other week or something that’s plenty for our family. Take your kids to a restaurant as well, is not the greatest experience so you know.
Kerry Anne: (inaudible) you can go on a Royal Caribbean cruise. And they gave it to the (inaudible) and they cooked everything of bet it was (inaudible). That’s a big shout out for them, they did an amazing job with the program and I would go back tomorrow because I know I can go and I can eat.
Clint: And I hear that all the time, and not just Royal Caribbean the only one that you’re gonna struggle with is Disney cruises. Disney cruises are not friendly for what we need in terms of dietary requirements. They are fantastic for many other things but recent feedback has been that it was very challenging to eat anything remotely healthy from one of my clients on a recent trip.
Kerry Anne: (inaudible) the Macy’s overrated then so we’re gonna stick with Royal Caribbean.
Clint: Look you know Disney’s cruise offers a lot of other things but if you’re concerned with your foods then there are other ships that are probably going to cater better. Well Kerry Anne thank you so much for sharing all of this fabulous news. It feels good to be doing good, and that’s what you’re doing. Not just doing good with your body but you’re doing good in the world, doing good helping your family, doing good influencing your colleagues, and doing good by sharing your story here. And hopefully those people have gotten a lot out of this, and are motivated whether it be just to stay on track or whether it be to implement some of the things you’ve told them maybe. It’s like forgotten knowledge, I’d better get back in to my green juices or a way of adjusting some of the aspects of what they’re doing. Maybe people are motivated to try oats and offset a little bit of an acid bump with some alkalizing juice or extra greens or something. So very valuable, and I just want to say thanks again for being with me today.
Kerry Anne: But let me take this opportunity so now I speak for everyone in the forum. Thank you for what you went through to help us. And thank you for answering every single message I’ve ever posted on this forum. I’ve never felt alone in this journey once, not with the fabulous people that are on this forum and yourself. And so, this is our opportunity to say thank you. I’m on the forum, if anyone wants to reach out, if you want the brand-new recipe. Just reach out, it’s all good.
Clint: Awesome. Yes. That’s great. Well I’m sure people will do that. I can definitely give it two thumbs up. So thank you Kerry Anne.
Kerry Anne: Alright, thanks Clint.