After suffering for 10 years from chronic health issues, Aime decided she had enough. She found a way to heal and today she inspires others to do the same. Her story will motivate you to lead a non-toxic, healthy life! Aime is the founder of The Healthy Apple.
By: Amie Valpone
When something painful happens that’s big enough to make you question your entire life, all the wounds that are trapped in your body, come out to be healed.
After suffering for ten years from chronic health issues, I learned that somewhere within the healing and recovery is a way to fill our lives with new meaning. I quit my corporate job seven years ago and followed my heart to inspire thousands of people with my journey to wellness.
Today, I am the founder of The Healthy Apple and author of the best-selling cookbook, Eating Clean: The 21-Day Plan to Detox, Fight Inflammation, and Reset Your Body.
Chronic Pain Shut Down
Ten years ago I found myself in a corporate job out of college when my body started to shut down. You name it; I had it. You name the doctor, I saw them. Over 500 physicians, Mayo Clinic, two bone marrow biopsies, muscle biopsies, Lyme disease, PCOS, Candida, Leaky Gut, C-diff Colitis, Hypothyroidism, Epstein Bar….the list goes on and on and on.
I received no help from my slew of doctors.
Leaky gut and candida? They literally laughed at me. I might as well have told them I had fairies living in my large intestine.
Eventually, I became so sick that life as I knew it stopped. I couldn’t work and had to go on disability. My social life went out the window. Even worse, my friends, co-workers and the other people in my life who I thought supported me started to think I was crazy. Surely if a doctor couldn’t pinpoint what was wrong, there must not be anything amiss, right? As far as anyone could tell, it was all in my head.
I was put on painkillers, steroids, and water pills at the age of 22 and was told that was all doctors could do for me. I felt lost; I felt confused and most of all I felt like no one was on my team.
I had to figure out how to be a team of one and heal my life.
As I started to research how to heal, I landed on disability from my job and was given 24 hours to live with C-diff colitis. I lay there looking at the bag of morphine dripping into my arm with a terrible dagger pain in my colon, and I promised myself that if I survived, I’d dedicate the rest of my life to inspiring others who were struggling with their health never to give up and to stay positive.
And so I did just that.
The Healthy Apple
I survived, quit my job, launched TheHealthyApple.com and started to detox my body with Functional and Integrative Medicine, to get to the cause of what was going on inside of my body, instead of just using pharma drugs to cover up my symptoms!
I most certainly was suffering toxic effects on a grand scale—mainly from heavy metals such as mercury, lead, and cadmium. My levels were off the charts, and it was contributing to my hypothyroidism, leaky gut, candida, polycystic ovarian syndrome, Lyme disease, and severely suppressed immune system. On top of that my methylation was a mess, so I wasn’t detoxing any of these toxins out of my body.
It turns out that thousands of people are living just like I did, suffering as a result of toxins, autoimmune disease, and unexplained symptoms. I am guessing you may be one of them, or you know someone who is.
Unfortunately, few people have access to information that explains how they can get off the medical hamster wheel and truly help themselves.
When I started to feel better, it occurred to me that I could help. I’m not a doctor and I’m not a scientist, but I experienced firsthand the effects of toxicity and the resulting helplessness and hopelessness. No one told me what toxins were, why I should care, or how to reduce my exposure to them. No one told me the items we see on store shelves are not as safe as we think.
The truth is, you could eat and drink and be exposed to the same things I was and not experience what I did. For you, it could be something else in your food or environment that is causing your symptoms. But no matter what your personal struggle looks like, I’m telling you, you can feel so unbelievably better when you start making changes today.
And as I mention in my book:
Detox is a way of life.
You can’t detox over a single weekend; there is no shortcut. If you care about your health, detox needs to be an ongoing process that becomes a way of life. Instead of approaching it in fits and bursts, it’s better to develop a thorough understanding of the harmful environment we live in, and then bring that awareness to everyday life, gradually eliminating toxins from the body.
Every. Single. Day.
There’s more to healthcare than Western medicine.
Western medicine (also known as conventional or allopathic medicine) has its place, no question. It saves lives every day. But where it excels in emergencies, it falls short on day-to-day lifestyle guidance.
Why? Your physician does not go home with you. (If he does, can I have his number, please?) No one knows what you experience but you.
Most doctors are highly skilled in one area but don’t have the time or expertise to know what lifestyle changes you need.
I highly recommend you do your homework on different kinds of integrative and functional medicine doctors.
Check out my website, www.TheHealthyApple.com for more information on integrative and functional medicine. These are MDs who treat the body as a whole, looking not just at the physical self, but the mental and emotional self, too.
I didn’t stop searching until I found an integrative medical team that could help me get my life back, and they did. So even if you are struggling, don’t give up! There are options beyond Western medicine.
One more crucial thing to keep in mind: you’re the expert on your body. Explore what methods and practices make you feel best, and share these notes with your doctor at each visit. You might just pass along something useful to someone else, and it will go a long way in enabling your doctor to combine his wisdom with yours.
You and your doctor are a team. It’s time to start playing your part.
Feed your body, not just your belly.
Hunger and appetite together drive you to do one very important thing: eat. When you feel that pang of hunger, you know what you need to do. But eating is about more than just quieting your appetite. You do not subsist on calories alone; you need a spectrum of nutrients and vitamins to feed your body on a cellular level.
Foods have so much more to them than calories, and yet many people think the caloric intake is the bottom line. Au contraire, my friend! The number of calories a portion of food has is merely information, and as with any other kind of information, less isn’t necessarily better, just as more isn’t necessarily bad.
A 100-calorie snack pack is in no way equal to 100 calories of an avocado. Counting calories is the last thing you should worry about when you’re trying to eat clean. A handful of nuts may be calorically dense, but there’s a lot of goodness packed in there you can’t get somewhere else.
Choose foods based on how they nourish every cell in your body, rather than by how many calories you believe they will glue to your waistline. When you’re eating clean, believe it or not, those calories don’t add up to love handles and saddlebags.
It amazes me that my unraveling back to vitality was the catalyst for something so much bigger than me. There was a purpose to my health crisis. I’ve been on this path for over a decade, and I’m right by your side. My book and website are written for you because I know there are thousands of you out there who are suffering as well and looking for inspiration. I hope you find inspiration in each of my recipes and tips to help you navigate your way through a non-toxic, healthy, fulfilled, and happy life.
Xo,
Amie
Amie Valpone, HHC, AADP is the founder of TheHealthyApple.com; and best-selling author of Eating Clean: The 21-Day Plan to Detox, Fight Inflammation, and Reset Your Body. She is a Manhattan Celebrity Chef, Nutrition Expert, Wellness Consultant and Motivational Speaker specializing in simple gluten-free, soy-free, and dairy-free ‘Clean Eating’ recipes.
Amie recently healed herself from a decade of chronic pain including Lyme Disease, Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, Hypothyroidism, Adrenal Fatigue, Leaky Gut, Heavy Metals and much more.
Amie lives in Manhattan, NYC where she cooks for a variety of clients including celebrities and people with busy lifestyles who enjoy healthy, organic, whole foods. Amie’s work appears on Martha Stewart, Fox News, NBC, ABC, WebMD, The Huffington Post, The Food Network, Glamour Magazine, Clean Eating Magazine, SHAPE Magazine, Prevention Magazine, PBS and many others.
Connect with Amie: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Google+ | Pinterest