Welcome to the Phoenix Helix podcast dedicated to maximizing autoimmune health through the paleo

diet and lifestyle. While there is no cure for autoimmune disease, the choices we make every day

can have a powerful impact on how we feel. I'm Eileen Laird, your host from PhoenixHelix.com, and I reduced my

rheumatoid arthritis pain by 95%, which took me from a life of excruciating

pain and disability back to a full and beautiful life. A short disclaimer, I'm neither a doctor

nor a nutritionist and the opinions expressed here are personal. Always consult with your

health care team before making medical decisions. Now let's get on to the show.

Welcome to episode 130. Today is actually the five-year anniversary of this podcast, which is pretty huge. And when I was thinking about how I wanted to celebrate, I decided to invite two friends onto the show who, like me, have been following a healing diet for five years or more.

So our topic today is what a long-term healing diet and lifestyle looks like.

So for many of us, when we first try food as medicine, we do a 30-day challenge or we set

a six-month goal with the hope that we will heal completely and be able to return

to the way we ate before. Then time passes. We notice improvements in our health, which is awesome.

But when we try to go back to our old diet, our health problems return, and that's when it

starts to sink in, that this isn't a temporary change. It's a permanent one.

But the good news is it's a permanent one that can make us feel good long term. Now, not everyone

goes through this. Some people know right away that it's a long-term lifestyle change. And I myself

have been following a healing diet and lifestyle for seven years now. My guests are both long-timers as well,

but I do want to be clear that that doesn't mean our diet today looks the same as it did on day one.

We've personalized it over the years. We've learned what does and doesn't work for our unique bodies.

We've had setbacks and recoveries, and we've learned how to navigate our

body's changing needs. So those are the experiences we're looking forward to sharing with you today.

So let me introduce my guests. Kate Jay is the blogger behind Healing Family Eats. She first turned

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