About

Welcome to my site. As you probably know my name is Leanne. I have lived my entire life in the south eastern part of the United States. I was raised on the white sandy beaches of the Florida panhandle. I am a southern girl through and through and the gulf coast is my sanctuary. Right now, I live with my husband, two children, a dog and a cat in the north Atlanta suburbs. I have accomplished many things in my life. After graduating from Mississippi State University I married. I began my career as a correspondent for outTVatlanta. I taught yoga for ten years and I developed a video for children’s yoga called A Child’s Way to Yoga . Right now, I work from home volunteering in numerous ways and being the number one person for my children and husband. That is why, when several years ago I began having trouble with my health it became not only a struggle for me but for my family. I have tried to maintain a healthy lifestyle for a number of years. I began to cook and ferment my own food and got away from processed food years ago. Now, I grow an organic garden and for years I was a strict vegetarian. However, that all came to a screaming halt when I was diagnosed with Interstitial Lung disease by my Rheumatologist in late August 2015. They believed this lung inflammation was a result of my autoimmune disease. I had been fighting an autoimmune condition for many years, but this brought the intensity of the disease to a whole new level. They prescribed Imuran, a low dose chemo pill, to treat the lung disease and the autoimmune disease in general.

After that diagnosis, my Aunt sent me Dr. Amy Myers book, The Autoimmune solution. One of the four pillars of Dr. Myer’s protocol is diet. At that time, I had been vegetarian for 7 years and gluten free for 3 years. Immediately I thought that I would work towards starting the protocol in February after my cousin’s wedding in New York. When I went to see a Pulmonologist in early September, he said that I would be taking the chemo medication the rest of my life. This declaration made me decide that I needed to start the protocol as soon as possible. I started slowly working in meat by way of chicken broth and slowly cutting out foods. First to go was legumes/beans and gluten free grains. I could start to tell a difference right away. I was waiting to cut out nuts and seeds until I had some meat in my diet. I started the process of weening down off coffee. By September, I was ready to start the Myer’s Way. This is a commitment of 30 days on a strict diet and then you could add some things back into your diet in a slow process. My goal was that if I started September 21st, then I would be able to enjoy a glass of wine by my husband’s birthday on October 22nd. Two days after I started the Myer’s Way, I went to my Rheumatologist with bad side effects from Imuran. He gave me a three-week medication holiday. This break was the key to me healing with the protocol alone! Three months later I would get a clear lung CT, something the doctors had not thought possible.

Next, I started reading The Autoimmune Protocol by Sarah Ballantyne. This book allowed me to expand on my diet in important ways. I started to eat three square meals a day rather than grazing with several small meals a day. When you have autoimmune disease, your body needs to make certain hormones that signal when you’re hungry and full. Plus, I needed all the nutrient dense food that I could get, as I continued to lose more weight than I wanted. My biggest change was breakfast. When I stopped making smoothies for breakfast and started to have my most nutritious full meal to start the day, I started to feel way more energy. With The Paleo Protocol, I learned the importance of having offal and fish several times a week. I also decided to exclude seed based spices, such as cumin and nutmeg. These have the same inflammatory property that as seeds and nuts.

The third book that I read that added important diet and life changes for me was The Wahl’s Protocol by Dr. Terry Wahls. Dr. Wahls emphasizes having 9 cups of different vegetables and fruit in a rainbow of colors. I always have a rainbow of colorful produce with each meat at every meal. I shoot for at least two cups per plate. As a petite female, it is hard to eat more than this most of the time.

All these books also teach us how to remove toxins from our lives. I had already been using many natural products, but cut out a couple toxic cleaner that had slipped in to our home. I found recipes for homemade cleaner from Dr.Oz. I also like the free and clear line from Seventh Generation. We tossed our Teflon pans and found environmentally safe cookware. We bought glass Tupperware. We got filters for our air and shower. We already had one on our drinking water and ice. I try to buy as many organic fruits and vegetables that I can find and afford. Finally, I eat only grass fed, pasture raised or wild caught animals and fish if possible.

I and all people, also need to get lots of sleep and reset our circadian rhythms. I believe quitting coffee is the first step. I started supplements such as melatonin, Calm magnesium and 5-HTP as suggested by Dr. Myer’s. For many years we had confined our TV to the basement and hadn’t had cable. I had long realized that watching TV at night will impact your sleep. I also instinctually kept lights dim after dark. After reading how important those things are for circadian rhythms, I make sure all lights are dimmed the last couple hours before I plan to sleep. During the day it is important to be in the sun or spend a little time outside. Gardening is a great way to work that in and to also grow your own organic produce. I meditate 10 minutes a day in the sun, in front of a sunny window or in front of a SAD light. I set a timer for 10 minutes then try to clear my mind or practice pranayama. I try to get a little exercise each day! I carve out a short time before for my shower every day to keep my strength up. I do standing Pilates, reformer Pilates or some days a short duration of step and squats for cardio. I only do up to 30 minutes total exercise 5 times a week. After years of training and exercise like an athlete, I discovered in these books that too much exercise is counterproductive for autoimmune. I believe in only doing enough to keep me strong enough for life.

Knowledge is power! I keep searching for more information on how to heal naturally. I keep experimenting with foods and keep a journal to keep track of my progress. Recently I started learning about genetics and how supplements and diet can help with your physical symptoms of genetic mutations. I had my genes tested and started researching my genes. I am still in the R& D phase of this endeavor, but I’ll let you know how it goes.

Leanne

UPDATE:

It been nearly five years since I wrote this “about me” page and my life has changed in many wonderful ways.
I am still doing the Autoimmune Paleo diet. The only things that I have been able to add back successfully are chocolate, wine and small amounts of honey, maple syrup or agave. I feel like a new person. My lungs are still clear. My hypo pigmentation is nearly gone. I rarely have issues with Ménière’s Disease. After a decade of being under weight and trying everything to gain, I was able to gain 20 pounds. My face is clear with fewer rashes. My energy is back to the level that I hadn’t had in twenty years. My pain levels are much lower. I don’t have that constant fibro-type ache that I experienced daily before. I have been able to get back to life! It’s wonderful! All of this from reducing the inflammation in my gut.
I am more physically fit than I have ever been, which is saying a lot at 46. I went from exercising at home to doing Red Cord Pilates. Red Cord is done one on one with a physical therapist. After getting my strength back, I started taking classes at Pure Barre and began teaching Pilates again. It was liberating to work again, although I only taught one class a week. With Pure Barre, I was thrilled to find a challenging class with no impact or strain in my joints. I continued to take Pure Barre for three years and then I became an instructor. It’s nearly been a year now that I’ve been teaching and taking Pure Barre. I suffer from hyper mobility. Pure Barre has given me the strength to stabilize my joint. This is has allowed me to add a yoga practice back into my life. Life is good!
I have been developing recipes over these five years and sharing them here on my blog. I never feel like I go without from the limitations in my diet. A lot of people who have no dietary restrictions use my recipes and say they are the best. AIP isn’t something that makes you go without and crave the things that hurt you. Once I started feeling better, I didn’t want to go back to my old diet.
I only take melatonin to sleep now and sleep solid on most nights. I still get from 9-12 hours of sleep at night. Sleeping more is something that those of us with autoimmune need. It’s worth the time to feel normal again!

UPDATE: My Gastroparesis journey: I have had stomach problems since I was a child, but my first stomach attack was about 10 years ago. My stomach attacks are episodes of intense pain in the epigastric area. At first I thought it was from taking pain medication without enough food. About three years ago, my stomach attacks became more frequent and intense. I went to my GI doctor for answers. Tests were done and no problems were found. Another two years went by and I occasionally would vomit with my episodes. My GI doctor referred me to Motility Specialist, who quickly ran a Gastric Emptying Test and diagnosed me with Gastroparesis. Gastroparesis is something that people with Sjogren’s develop. Gastroparesis is a condition where your stomach doesn’t digest properly. I have had issues with food sensitivity my whole adult life, which would be explained by this. Although they put me in amitriptyline for GP, the main thing that is done for Gastroparesis is lifestyle and diet changes. Thank goodness this is something I can do well. A big thing is to eat slowly, chew well and never eat under stress. I had to cut my portions down to 1 and half cups a food per serving. Another change was to keep my fat under 40 grams a day and fiber less than 14. Alcohol was absolutely off the table again. I started using far less oil to cook with and I cut my meat consumption to 2-3oz max at a time. I have been able to easily convert most of my recipes to being Gastroparesis friendly. The only things that won’t work so far is my beef jerky, liver and onions and fried steak with coconut gravy. I am doing much better. Since my diagnosis I have only had one stomach attack, although I have had a lot of nauseated days. My Sjogren’s is still under control and my inflammatory markers are down.

UPDATE on my GASTROPARESIS JOURNEY 1/14/22

It has been a year since I have started my Gastroparesis Journey. December 2020 was a rough month for me. I had daily stomach pain, nausea and vomiting. As I said in my previous GP update, I had started with dietary changes. Towards the end of January 2021, I was stable enough that my doctor let me ween off Prilosec.

They has started me on it two years prior when they first started to investigate my stomach problems. Prilosec and other PPI medications actually make your gastroparesis worse. I only worsened on it. The tricky thing with acid reducers and GP is that at first it feels like it is helping. When our stomachs can’t digest, the stomach becomes over full. Things then start to bubble up out of the stomach. What we feel is the acid. The acid reducers take that sensation away and we feel like its helping. In reality, we need acid to digest. I suspect many GP suffers have low acid or Hypochlorhydria like I do. By making our acid weaker, our digestion slows even more. Then the GP gets worse.

Weening off PPI’s is difficult. It must be done under guidance of a doctor. At first my doctor had me go down to one pill instead of two a day for a week. The next week I went down to one every other day. The third week I went completely off. During this process I felt nauseated and a lot of extra acid in my stomach. I ate a low acid diet and tried to treat my acid by drinking baking soda in water or by sucking on a rock of pink Himalayan salt. Only when those didn’t work, did I take gavescon. I was afraid that gavescon would disrupt my motility like any other acid reducer, but I didn’t want acid damage. During that time I also took Iberogast and aloe juice daily. The after effects of weening of the PPI last about two miserable months.

During that second month I started to see an acupuncturist. When she found this sweet spot on my back, I slowly started feeling better.

Up until April, I had been loosing 10 pounds a month. In April my weight loss stopped. I was still counting fiber and fat, but I started easing off the low acid diet. I wanted to add calories to my diet without adding fat or fiber, so I developed a sorbet recipe where I would strain the pulp out thus removing the fiber. This was something that I could easily digest and it became something I would look forward to at the end of the day. After being fine with the sorbet a little while, I decided to add some cookies to help me add weight back. Cookies had long been my favorite sweet. I developed cookie recipes that used pumpkin puree to take place for half of the oil, making them lower fat.

In May I was fully vaccinated for covid, so I told my boss that I could start back teaching Pure Barre one class a week. I wanted to see if my body could handle the little bit of extra stress that would bring. I knew if I had only a liquid breakfast that I should be fine bending forward without feeling my food trying to come up. I had maintained my Pure Barre practice at home and added more yoga in hopes the it would improve my gastroparesis. Getting back to work was huge for my state of mind and the joy community of Pure Barre brings.

By June I was certain that I could handle more amounts of fiber and plant fats, so I stopped counting my fats and fibers. I still had to keep my fats relatively low, but I was slowly able to add back a wider variety of fruits and veggies. I was still keeping my meals down to no more than 1 & 1/2 cups at dinner, about a cup at lunch and I would always have a liquid breakfast. I was down to having about 3 stomach attacks a month and about same amount of nauseated days.

Early June brought a tragic change that impacted my GP in an unexpected way. I had been under extreme stress helping my Dad who had dementia. Many of my sick days were ones when I was dealing with the stress from Dad’s condition. My Dad tragically passed away in early June. The sadness and grief were extreme, but it didn’t make my GP worse like the stress had. The last day that I threw up was the Monday before Dad died. As much as I miss my Dad, I know now that the stress from his condition aggravating my GP. Many others from GP have also said that stress is a major trigger for their GP.

The next giant step forward came when my acupuncturist went traveling abroad and her son came in to treat her patients. He advised me to start using e-stem daily on an digestion acupuncture point on the outside of my shins. He also had me buy a massage gun and showed mw how to massage my ileocecal valve that connects the small and large intestines, which he believed was getting stuck closed. More importantly, he had me start taking Zypan digestive enzymes and Cholecal bile salts. Zypan is an enzyme with betaine hydrochloride, which actually gives you the acid you need to digest. I had my gallbladder out in 2008, so he said that I needed the bile salts to digest any time that I ate anything with fat. When I first started taking them, the bile salts were too strong. Instead of taking the 2 prescribed, I take 1/4 of one pill or less. Pretty quickly I noticed a big change in my digestion. I experimemted a little while with how many enzymes to take and with incorporating my previous enzyme, Essential Enzymes by Source Natural. I found that if I only take Zypan, I get gas. If I don’t take Zypan my food just doesnt digest. The big test came when my amazon order was lost and I didnt have any Zypan. By the next day, I knew I was in trouble when I could feel that my stomach was full and not digesting. I went to the local health food store. They didn’t have Zypan, but they had pure betaine hydrochloride. I used it as soon as I walked out of the store. Within the hour, I started feeling better. I used that with my Essentail Enzymes until my Zypan arrived. It wasn’t as good, but it definitely worked. I have found take taking one Zypan and one Essential Enzyme 15-30 minutes before a meal is the best combo for me. The rare occasions that I feel indigestion, I will take a betaine hydrochloride and it will usually help quickly.

Since July, I have slowly been getting better and better. I have added back all fruit and cooked vegetables. The only fruit I somewhat struggle with are apples and yet you see apples listed as the gastroparesis fruit to try first. Many of the mainstream medical food lists for gastroparesis are foods that would make me sick. My doctor agrees with my theory that eating AIP allows me to eat a wider variety of nutrient dense food. If you haveht tried am elimination diet, I highly recommend doing so. If you have autoimmune, definitely do AIP. I was slowly able to increase my meal portion sizes. For dinner I am up to about 2 cups, which is a normal portion. Lunch I am up to about a cup and a half. Breakfast is still liquid for me. This allows me to exercise in the late morning or early afternoon. I am doing Pure Barre three times a week and yoga four times a week. By November I had gained five pounds back. I started lessening the sweets that I added to gain weight and ate more fruit and veggies instead. Since I feel stable with my weight gain, I am more interested in nutrients than calories. Let me note that my sweets were all unprocessed sugars and low amounts of those, as you can see on my cookie recipes. I still believe sugar to be a leading aggressor of autoimmune disease.

I have come a long way with my Sjogren’s and gastroparesis. January 2022 is almost over and I have not had one stomach attack or nauseous day this month. Actually, its more fun to say this year! At my last few rheumatology appointments all my inflammatory markers are normal. I hope my story will help others. I have a desire to get a nutritional degree so that I can coach others on ways to heal with diet and lifestyle changes. Most of all, I am so thankful that I have found my way on this journey. I have my life back, again.

UPDATE: 2023 now and already April. I have been doing great with all my conditions.

I have slowly been able to increase my portion sizes. My few sick days are less intense than ever before. I have up to two days a month where I experience pain when I lay down to sleep on my side, which is how I like to sleep. Sometimes the fix is as easy as laying on my back for a bit. Other times the pain is a little worse so I try a digestive enzyme. Most times that works, otherwise I take a couple Gavescon and that always works. Gavescon isn’t a typical antacid, which I don’t like to take because I need my stomach acid to digest. Gavescon is made from seaweed and it acts like a blanket to push the food back down. Some months I don’t have any painful stomach attacks. Other months I get one to two days with my cycle.

I noticed a big improvement after I finally stopped taking Phenegran. I had been taking it so long for nausea and I was afraid to stop. When I stopped, I noticed a couple evenings of nausea as a withdrawal. Then I get a lot better. Another thing that helped has to do with my hyper-mobility syndrome. Maybe this can help others with Ehlers-Danlos and hyper-mobility. I would always flare my ribs to sit up or stand straight, which made me compress my back around T6-T9 vertebrae. I started consciously pulling the bottom of my rib cage down towards my hips to keep my back in alignment. Thank you, Pure Barre, for having the abdominal control to do this. This alignment has helped a lot with my back pain as well as my Gastroparesis.

I have felt well enough to try reintroducing some foods. I have been AIP over 7 years now with only a handful of successful reintroductions. I feel like this is probably due to my Gastroparesis, which is very poor digestion. I started with almonds. It’s very early on, but so far so good. I had a little pure almond milk Saturday. I felt a little acidic stomach. My friend suggested trying soaked almonds without the peels instead. Now tomorrow, Wednesday, I will try them. Hopefully I can add a few new foods into my diet. If not, I am incredibly satisfied with my diet. I am extremely grateful to feel good and be able to eat and enjoy food again.

Update:

Big win for reintroductions: seeds! So far I have successfully added back sunflower, mustard, nutmeg, poppie seeds, sesame and allspice. Today I am starting on chia. This is a very exciting time for me!