Marie-Noelle Marquis (00:07):
Welcome to the AIP Summit Podcast, your go-to resource for taking control of your autoimmune health, presented by AIP Certified Coaches. Hi, I'm Marie-Noelle Marquis.
Jaime Hartman (00:17):
And I'm Jaime Hartman. And we're here to equip you with the tools knowledge and support you need to effectively use the autoimmune protocol.
Marie-Noelle Marquis (00:25):
Today we're looking beyond the plate and learning how to integrate lifestyle choices with AIP. In this episode, we're bringing you the audio from a session presented at the six annual AIP summit, which was held live in January, 2025. The speaker is Melanie Snyder, who is an AIP Certified Coach and a certified integrative health coach and also lives with autoimmune disease herself.
Jaime Hartman (00:56):
So you'll be hearing some of Melanie's personal journey as she discusses the importance of addressing sleep, stress management, movement and connection. She emphasizes the need for a flexible, compassionate, and curious mindset. So we love that you'll hear her highlight the importance of tuning into your own body to understand its needs, and she'll provide you with some practical tips to put this all together into your own customized wellness plan.
Marie-Noelle Marquis (01:25):
If you want the full experience of Melanie's presentation, including her slides and the Q&A that followed it, you can find it in our archive, which all members of the AIP Summit Community have unlimited access to.
Jaime Hartman (01:35):
That's right. Thanks for mentioning that. Our archives, by the way now contain accounted over 200 hours of recorded material on a wide range of topics relating to autoimmune wellness. And our members, the members of the AIP Summit Community can watch any of it anytime they want. So I'll be sure to put a link in the show notes for our podcast listeners to learn more about why they might want to become a member and what other benefits members get. I also want to let everybody know that we'll be having a free encore rebroadcast of the Sixth Annual AIP Summit on March 20th through the 24th, and there's no membership or registration required for that. Just go to our website for the agenda.
Marie-Noelle Marquis (02:15):
Awesome. Now let's listen to Melanie.
Melanie Snyder (02:23):
Alright, well welcome. Thank you so much, Jaime for having me. I'm really excited to be a part of the sixth Annual Summit this year. And just a little bit about myself, I'm Melanie Snyder again and I live in the West Palm Beach, Florida area, the southeast coast of Florida, and I am a health educator by trade. So I've spent over 20 years or so working with folks on a wide range of health topics and various types of settings, but it was really after my own personal journey, struggling with chronic inflammation and then infertility and then being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. I have celiac disease that I decided to further my training and become a certified integrative health coach and then later an AIP Certified Coach as well. So like many people with autoimmune disease, I too struggled with chronic inflammation, a large portion of my life, even looking back to when I was young.
(03:18):
But it really wasn't until we were having trouble getting pregnant that I found out that I had celiac disease. And that was early 2012, so almost 13 years ago now. And then during that time, even after adopting a gluten-free diet after that's the primary treatment for celiac's disease, a lot of my symptoms were still lingering. And so I became really passionate about learning all I could about inflammation and gut health and autoimmune disease. I started going to acupuncture on a weekly basis and it was my acupuncturist that turned me on to the idea of paleo. And then we later came across the autoimmune protocol. So I started AIP back in 2014, and it's really not an exaggeration to say that it was life changing for me. I didn't realize how bad I felt until I finally felt well again, and I became really passionate about helping other people along similar journeys.
(04:18):
I created Melanie Snyder Wellness to do just that. I really helped people cut through the overwhelm. There's so much information out there and knowing where to start. I was also kind navigating this new gluten-free lifestyle and the navigating AIP all while I was in a very stressful time in my life struggling with infertility and also I was traveling a ton for work, which brings about its own level of challenges and unique circumstances. So I really help people create, meet them where they are, create this customized toolbox for them, this customized plan, and help them see how the wellness journey can be not only attainable but sustainable. So I'm so excited to be here today. You're in the right place if you're wanting to hear about AIP Beyond the Plate integrating Lifestyle Choices. So whether you're joining me live or we're listened to this at another time, I also wanted to be sure to note that I created a free guide that goes along with this session that you can print out.
(05:20):
It's just on my website at melaniesnyder.com/beyondtheplate. And I'll include that address at the end of the presentation as well. But I've created this guide, it will cover the content of our session and some additional bonus tools as well. So let's jump in. We've got a lot to cover. So before we jump into the session, I've been asked to cover this disclaimer and that's that content presented in this session is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. So always seek the advice of your physician or another qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Okay, so let's jump in. So in this session, even though we're talking about beyond the plate, I wanted to make sure that it's clear that diet and nutrition obviously plays a big role in the autoimmune protocol.
(06:17):
So there are five main pillars or areas including diet and nutrition and then other lifestyle pillars as well, which is what we're going to be focusing on. So while we're not focusing on the diet and nutrition piece, there's a lot of sessions this summit that are, and it is a core piece of the autoimmune protocol. So I know Jaime's also doing a session for beginners on getting started. There are several other sessions on meal planning and cooking, and if you're just wanting more information specifically about the diet and nutrition piece, you can also go to autoimmune wellness.com and there's a definitive guide for AIP that walks you through all of that. But today we're going to be focusing on the lifestyle pillars, and those are sleep, stress management, movement, and then connection. Not only connection to other people, our pets, but also to nature.
(07:10):
So we could really spend a whole dedicated session on each one of these pillars independently. In fact, Jaime does throughout the year, throughout the year, Jaime offers some topics, specific webinars and sessions through the auto or through the AIP Summit and address a lot of these independently. There's a lot of information that we could delve into scientific information and how to troubleshoot and tips and strategies. But for the purposes of today, I want to hit the highlights of each of the pillars, the role that they play, cover some tips to kind of get some ideas going, and then we're going to transition into figuring out, well, what do I do with this information and how do I know where to start and how can I begin to integrate these into my life? Or perhaps I'm already navigating the autoimmune protocol and I've been focusing pretty heavily on the diet and nutrition piece and I'd like to kind of dial in some of the lifestyle.
(08:06):
So we're going to be covering all of that today. So the first one we're going to talk about is the sleep pillar and the role of sleep is tremendous. And really when we are getting quality restorative sleep is when our body is doing a lot of healing. It's repairing itself, which is really important as we're navigating through the protocol is often folks that are starting AIP or maybe drawn to AIP are struggling with inflammatory symptoms or wanting to heal their gut calm and regulate their immune system. So sleep is really paramount. So a lot is happening even though we're restfully sleeping, hopefully a lot is going on in our body. It's repairing itself, healing, balancing hormones, addressing blood sugar. Our brain is actually pretty active consolidating. There's a lot that's happening while we're sleeping. But when we're focusing on getting quality restorative sleep, that's really going to give us the benefit of improving our energy, improving our mood, and it just touches on so many elements of our overall health.
(09:14):
So there's a lot that can interfere with our sleep and just some of the highlights of that alcohol. So alcohol consuming alcohol can also interrupt our sleep, even though sometimes we feel like it may help us fall asleep quickly, it can also disrupt the quality of our sleep. We may wake up more often, not sleep as soundly and also caffeine. So while caffeine folks may be consuming caffeine while on the protocol, if we find that our sleep is disrupted, that can be an area to explore. So maybe how much caffeine I'm consuming or how late in the day I'm consuming caffeine. So it's typically recommended to avoid caffeine after 11 or 12:00 PM as not to interfere with our sleep. So there's a few other elements there, but stress and movement, there's lots that affect and we'll see as we get deeper into the pillars, how they work together.
(10:08):
So here's just some quick tips, although there are many and they're going to be unique to each one of us of what's going to work. But if I'm wanting to dial in my sleep, one of the things we can focus on is exploring this calming bedtime routine. And that can look different for each one of us, but it's really going to signal to our body that it's time to wind down, it's time for bed, and it's recommended to do this at a similar time each evening when possible. I'm a mother, I have an 8-year-old at home, so we do our best to stay on a schedule and things happen, children are sick, life happens, but ideally we could start around the same time. So this could look like a hot shower, hot bath to kind of kickstart the process. And then we can work in and kind of trial and error some other things to see what worked for us, like red light therapy, which I love to do some journaling.
(11:01):
We could read a book. So there's many different things that we can do to help our body kind of wind down. It's recommended to stay off screens 30 minutes or ideally a couple of hours before bedtime to allow our brain and body to calm down and prep for sleep. And then really working to create the sort of sleep sanctuary. So one that's cold. So bringing our temperature down to 68 70 or whatever's tolerable, making sure that it's dark with some blackout curtains or using an I mess to block everything out because even light from our alarm clock or I have an air filter going in my room that has blue lights on it when it's on. So using an eye mask will kind of block all of that out as well. And then especially if we live in an area, maybe in a busy city or there's a lot of distractions happening outside or even within our house, using a white noise machine can be helpful as well.
(11:57):
So really just creating the soothing, calming environment to set the stage for sleeping. And then I love a sleep mask or an eye mask. I've been using one every night for about 10 years now. And now my daughter uses one as well. So I love a sleep mask and I love a weighted blanket. I've tried numerous. And the one that I really like is the bear be weighted blanket bear like the animal. I live in south Florida, like I said, and it's hot a lot. And this weighted blanket is sort of heavy material that's linked but breathable. And so I love that. It just feels good getting into bed. It's on my bed every night and that helps calm me as well. There's a whole other slew of benefits of weighted blankets that are great. So how much sleep do we need? Ideally seven to nine hours.
(12:45):
However, some people may find that especially early in their healing journey that their body may need a little bit more sleep. And then as they're navigating through the autoimmune protocol, a lot of their healing is happening and symptoms may be improving or resolving. They may find that they need a little less sleep, so maybe more like 10 hours at the beginning, maybe more like eight as they're moving forward. So kind of playing around and see what is calming and soothing for us. So the next one is stress management. So the role that stress plays in our life is tremendous and it can look a lot of different ways. There's different kinds of stress, like more acute stress is something that's occurring in sort of a short term. It may not linger very long, but chronic stress is the stress that lingers for longer periods of time, and that can really wreak havoc on our health.
(13:43):
So the chronic stress is what can really disrupt our sleep, affect our digestion, and so many different elements of our overall health, including cardiovascular health and other things. So when we are navigating, especially the early parts of the autoimmune protocol, getting into elimination, and then as we're looking to reintroduce foods, stress management can be an area to explore for us because it's typically recommended to start reintroduction in a period of time where our body, we feel like we have our symptoms have resolved enough where if we're starting to consume new foods, we'll be able to notice the signs and the changes and the differences or the messages that our body is giving us about that food. But if we are working through a lot of chronic stress that can wreak havoc on our digestion, then it can become confusing. So are the symptoms that I'm experiencing because of stress or is it because of what I'm newly introducing?
(14:45):
So this could be an area even as we're preparing to start the elimination to focus on. So managing stress overall, there's so many different benefits of course, but it's going to improve our overall focus and our mood. It's going to reduce inflammation and really just help our body overall recover and heal. So what is stress free for me or what looks like stress management for me may not work for someone else. So it's important to find something that works for us. And so here's just a couple of ideas to spark the curiosity, but journaling can be great even if it's only for a few minutes. So whether that's gratitude, journaling prompts or writing about something I'm struggling with in my life, or even just to get the to-do list, kind of that brain dump, just to get everything out of my head and onto paper into a journal so that I can sleep and not have my mind racing all night can be really beneficial.
(15:44):
Anytime we can get outside, take a walk. I know when I was a new mom, someone gave me this as a new mom tip. If I'm having a hard day or my baby or toddler's having a hard day get outside. So whether that's going for a walk, taking a blanket out to the backyard, just being outside or going for a walk can really help change our mood and calm our stress. And then exploring with other things like guided meditation and deep breathing. So for people who've never tried meditation before, they may not know where to start. And sometimes using an app like Calm App or Headspace or something like that can be great to try it out and to kind of practice these skills. So in our family, like the Calm app, they have content for kids as well. And so my daughter loves it, but there's mindfulness guided mindfulness, guided meditation, nature walks, there's all kinds of sleep stories.
(16:42):
So there's a lot in the app and they have a free trial, so folks could try it out, see how it works for them without a major commitment. And then I also like to recommend square breathing or box breathing for people who are wanting to start the practice of this deep breathing. And there's many different kinds of deep breathing, but I find that square breathing is easy to remember how to do it. So if you haven't tried that before, it's just kind of visualizing the four sides to a square. And then imagine or actually doing it, breathing in for four seconds, holding our breath for four seconds, breathing out kind of forcefully, exhaling the air so we can feel it on our lips. And then hold for four seconds. So four sides to a square, four seconds on each side, inhale, hold, exhale, hold. And we can do that anytime, anywhere.
(17:34):
Sitting in traffic. We're at home even before we start dinner to do some deep breathing before we're eating can set up that rest and digest. So that's just a nice tool. Of course, disconnecting from devices, social media can reduce stress. Taking a detox from devices and then therapy can be great. There's all different kinds of therapy and depending on what we're going through, this can be really beneficial as well. And then if we have no idea where to start, think about what sparks joy for us, what are we curious about? What do we want to learn? What do we want to explore, start doing? So I put a learn to paint and have a picture there, what my 8-year-old and I have been doing the last couple of months. So we follow Amy Nelson on Instagram or me, Andrea, andrea.nelson.art. She walks through quick tutorials and so we have our art journal and we sit there.
(18:29):
It's stress free for me, stress free for her, and we're talking and having fun and bonding and that's been great. So that's what we've been using as our stress management tool as of late. So sometimes it's just a trial and error to see what's going to work for us and during different, different times and managing different kinds of stress of course, as that's going to vary. The next one is movement. So again, the benefits are vast and movement, getting our body movement can look a lot of different ways. It can look like walking, hiking, dancing, swimming, yoga, pilates, kickboxing. And we also may find that especially if we're struggling with inflammatory symptoms or we have an autoimmune disease, that more high intensity movement or workouts may take us longer to recover from, may even flare us up. And that may not be forever. It may just be during that time where we're experiencing a flare or we have more inflammation going on, we may find that our body tolerates different types of movement the further we're getting into our healing journey.
(19:39):
But the role that movement plays is of course, it's getting our circulation going. There's a lot of cardiovascular benefits, gets our lymphatic system moving, helping with detox. It's going to work to reduce stress, support our joints, build muscle, which is increasingly important as we age with balance and muscle mass, but it's also going to boost our energy and really impact our sleep in a positive way. So anytime we can get our body moving, there's just going to be endless amounts of benefits for that. So if we are looking to start a new kind of consistent movement plan or exercise program and we really don't know where to start again, think of something that would be fun. So if we start off by having a goal of getting to the gym X amount of days, and that doesn't sound fun and exciting to us, it's going to be really hard to motivate ourselves to do that, but maybe we want to try pickleball.
(20:35):
Pickleball is all the rage down here in south Florida from the old to the young. A lot of people are doing pickleball. So then I might look forward to going to play pickleball with my friends, go to a dance class, go on a hike, try something new. So find something, especially initially that sounds fun and attainable, but I like to go on a walk and talk with my friends. So I'm a mom and there's other moms in my neighborhood, so we'll get our kids off to bed and then we'll meet in the neighborhood, walk around, talk, catch up, laugh, and get our steps in. So finding something that works for us, especially if it's enlisting, if it's helpful to kind of enlist other people's help as well. And then especially this time of year kind of coming into the new year, a lot of fitness locations, apps are offering free trials.
(21:24):
Try us out for seven days, whether it's a yoga app, Pilates strength training program online. So we can try it out without a major commitment to see if we like yoga, see how Pilates works for our body. So I would encourage you to try out some things. I personally use the Lindy Well app. I've been using that for, gosh, maybe six years now since my daughter was young. That's what I would do when she was napping to get some strength training, pelvic floor strength. So that was great for me. And then sometimes it's a case of getting creative with whatever our barriers might be. Again, I live in south Florida. I don't have a membership to a gym. That's not something that really motivates me. I like to be outdoors, but it's often in the nineties, really hot or very rainy. So I invested this summer in a walking pad and that was really helpful for me.
(22:17):
So if it's raining or it's too hot or my husband's traveling, I can get my daughter to bed and hop on the walking pad and still get my body moving. It's great for people that work from home or work remotely. They can set it up as a desk, take our meetings that way. So sometimes it's just kind of being creative, looking for pockets that we can squeeze it in. So again, trial and error to see what's going to work best for you. The next one is connection. And this is of course connection to other people or even our pets and animals and to nature. So there's going to be a lot of benefits to connecting with people and animals and in nature some crossover. But this connection is a natural drive that we have as humans. And there's so many more physical and mental health benefits from connecting with others.
(23:09):
So when we're even giving someone a hug, it's kind of releasing that feelgood hormone, the oxytocin, but connection to others. Also, it can increase our self-esteem, our self-confidence, bring on more happiness, reduce anxiety and depression. And when we are in that state of mind that can really help us achieve our health and wellness goals and really motivate us, motivate us to take steps to care for ourselves. But overall it helps reduce inflammation. Stress improves our mood, energy and overall helps us sleep better as well. So depending on how we're looking at this pillar, we may look at different relationships in our life, our partners, our spouses and coworkers, our family members, our friends, our neighbors, and thinking about ways that we can connect or if there is an element that we feel like is perhaps missing. So it could look like date nights with our partners and spouses.
(24:08):
It could look like scheduling a girls' trip. That's what my friends and I do. We try at least once a year because we're all coming and going and moving through life, and we live all across the state. So we try to schedule a girls' weekend to connect and laugh, and that really nourishes our friendship that we've been friends for over 35 years. And it's not something that could happen every day, but we try to reserve that time so it doesn't have to be as grand as that. It could also look like writing letters, sending cards. So if we don't have them in person for a physical connection, still building that relationship and having that support system is also very beneficial. Spending some quality time with our loved ones, friends, neighbors, and that can look like a lot of different ways. And then when thinking about nature, specifically, getting ourselves out in nature and what they kind of call this nature bath where we're just sort of engulfed in engulfing all of our senses and being outside.
(25:05):
So whether we're at the beach, we're out in nature, we're out at a park, just kind of taking in all of the sites, the sounds, how it feels, the smells really works to reduce inflammation, reduce stress and anxiety and depression. And if we're walking barefoot out in nature, that's an even bigger bonus. Connecting to the earth and grounding to the earth has a whole other long list of benefits. So I live in south Florida about 20 minutes or so from the coast. So I'm fortunate to have access to the beach. And so that's a large part of my conversation with people, especially when they live around here that may be struggling with health concerns, chronic inflammation, I highly recommend anytime that they have a spare, 30 minutes, an hour, get to the beach, and it doesn't have to be the beach, but since we have that benefit around here, I recommend take a friend, take your family, go to the beach, and you're going to check off so many boxes of being supportive to our health.
(26:04):
So if we're walking on the beach or outside barefoot, reducing inflammation, reducing stress, we've got the sun beating down, giving us some vitamin D to boost our immune system. We're just kind of in this nature bath of the sights and the sounds and the smells and the birds at the beach, the waves crashing, getting some movement in. So taking a walk on the beach looking for shells. We have a seaglass competition every time we're at the beach with my daughter who can find the most seaglass. So we can check off a lot of boxes in a very short period of time. And so I love the idea of getting out in nature is just such a natural drive. So that's a great area to focus on as well. Okay, so just a quick highlight of the pillars. There's so much more we could say and dive into deeper.
(26:51):
So I encourage you to participate in the AIP Summit sessions throughout the years. We'll likely be covering a lot of those, but now people may wonder, we'll, that feels a little overwhelming. Do I have to revamp everything? And the answer is no. We don't have to revamp, do a whole overhaul on our life to seek the benefits. When we are cultivating this wellness mindset, I call it, it can really set the stage for success as we're navigating this wellness journey kind of navigating through AIP and it can help set realistic expectations and really set the stage for success. So one, if we have a mindset that's rooted in flexibility, compassion, and curiosity, that's really going to help us have sort of this realistic expectations of what's going to happen. I can't promise a lot of things that exactly what's going to happen along each one of our wellness journeys, except that change is inevitable.
(27:51):
Our bodies are going to be ever changing whether we're currently flared up now and experiencing inflammatory symptoms working through AIP, hopefully a lot of those will resolved and we'll get to a place where we'll feel better. So how I'm caring for myself now might look a little different in a couple of months or six months from now. Our bodies are constantly aging and changing. So what my body needs now is different from 10 years ago and will be different again in 10 years. So there's a lot of life is also ever changing. So we may find that things are moving along pretty smoothly and then life kind of throws us a curve ball. So if we go in with a flexible mindset, then we know we're going to be able to ebb and flow with the changes instead of walking in with a very rigid or specific plan.
(28:38):
And if that goes awry, then we feel like, oh, I must not be able to hack this or not be able to do this. And the truth is life is always going to be changing. And so we're going to talk more about how we can take what we're learning through AIP and apply that, but having a lot of self-compassion, a lot of grace for ourself as our bodies are changing and life is changing. And if we can give ourself grace during those challenging and difficult times, and that's going to go a long way. And then just really remaining curious because we are moving through this protocol in an attempt to really learn about ourselves, to learn about what's working for us, what's not working for us now with the understanding that that may look different and hopefully it will look different because how I'm nourishing and managing addressing my health now, perhaps if I'm all flared up or experiencing a lot of inflammation will be different later down the road when I have more of my strength back.
(29:40):
So I'm remain curious and keeping in mind that there's no one size fits all approach. So even through the autoimmune protocol, we have the pillars and the areas of the protocol. And each one of us though is going to implement it and maybe a different way, one that works for us, which I love that. And we can see the autoimmune protocol as a template that we have the ability to customize based on our current needs, our bio individuality, the current season of my life, maybe the current challenges or obstacles that I'm facing or the opportunities that I have, availability to resources. So how I might navigate through it might look a little different from somebody else. And that's okay. We may look on social media and see someone implementing autoimmune protocol in one way and think, well, gosh, I don't know how I would do that.
(30:33):
How do they have the time to do all of that? We don't have to mirror how they're doing it. We're going to find what works for us. So we'll talk more about that. And perfection is not the goal. I hope that's a huge sense of relief. The goal is not to be perfect. We don't have to navigate it a specific way. We're going to give ourselves some grace as we're navigating through it. So if that is an area that we struggle with, if we find that we're more have a perfectionistic type of personality that may be worth exploring because when we're navigating through AIP, that's certainly not a requirement to feel like we're getting success through or having success with autoimmune protocol. I highly encourage people to think about starting where they are and giving ourselves permission to change course as needed, whether that's with reintroductions, navigating the lifestyle pillars, seeking help and support.
(31:26):
We have lots of options. And sometimes, especially if we have a rigid approach and a rigid plan, we may feel like if we're not able to implement that, that we're seeing that as a failure. Oh gosh, now we've got to go back to ground zero and start over. And what if we looked at the setbacks as more as opportunities to learn more about myself, what my body likes, what's not working, looking at a week, if that was particularly challenging, what about it was challenging? What can I change, say no to? What could I use some support with? So even if we're experiencing what we might consider a setback or a challenge, how can we learn from that to move forward to help ease it? So this mindset is one that can be a challenge for some folks and it takes some practice. But I hope if we kind of go into the autoimmune protocol with a mindset of flexibility and compassion and knowing things are going to change and that's okay, we can change course in a way that our goal is to customize it to meet my needs and my current lifestyle and season of life that I'm in, that that'll give us a lot of flexibility.
(32:40):
So let's transition into checking in and seeing how we're doing with some of these lifestyle pillars. Because people may be wondering, well, where do I start? Whether I'm prepping to start the autoimmune protocol, or maybe I've already been navigating some of the steps and I really wanted to kind of dial in the lifestyle pillars. Let's do a quick check-in. So if you're here live, you can take out a piece of paper or maybe the note section of your phone. You can take a screenshot of this. As I mentioned, I created a free guide you can download. This also has a page for this that you may want to spend some more isolated time reflecting on this than we'll have time to do in this session. But we're going to do a quick check-in. So thinking about each of the lifestyle pillars on a scale of one to five, where one is I'm struggling, five is I really feel like this is thriving, and three is kind of in the middle there.
(33:36):
And I'd like for you to not overthink it, just see what comes to mind for each one of the pillars. So for sleep, how would I rate on a scale of one to five, how this pillar is really supporting the strength of the pillar, supporting my overall goal. So am I getting quality, restorative, sleep, regularly able to sleep seven to nine hours? How do I feel when I wake up and go ahead and give that a rate and then move on to stress management. So not only thinking about what may be weighing or the stressors that I'm dealing with, but how am I managing it? Am I getting support or could I benefit from getting some support? How do I feel like that pillar is for me? And then movement, do I feel like I am regularly getting my body moving and am I enjoying it?
(34:24):
Is it consistent? How's my body feel? So on a scale of one to five, and then finally connection. So looking at our relationships with our family, our spouse, partners, children connected to our community, how often are we getting out in nature and spending time outdoors? So again, we don't have to overthink this, but on a scale of one to five, give us an idea of the current state of affairs, of each of the lifestyles. So hold on to that. So the next one that we're going to get some practice with as well is this idea of tuning in. So when we're trying to figure out, okay, where do I start with the pillars? Which one can I lean on? Which one would even give me the most bang for my buck? One of the things that we can do is practice this idea of tuning into our body.
(35:13):
And this really is a foundational practice to health our overall health and wellbeing. So it really kind of helps us understand the signs and the symptoms that our body is giving us on a regular basis. And so it can be something that we do when we first wake up in the morning. We can also do check-ins throughout the day, but our body is really constantly giving us messages about what's going on, how things are running, whether it's headaches and migraines or the quality of our sleep, or if my joints are achy or puffy and swollen, just how my digestion is. Am I getting, having regular bowel movements in my bloated and gassy? So our body's constantly giving us messages and sometimes they're a little more subtle and sometimes they're like sirens going off, really trying to get our attention and a lot in between. So sometimes, especially if they're more subtle when we are in this go, go ghost stage and may be easy to one overlook the signs or maybe to work to mask them with some ibuprofen or Advil or some coffee or caffeine to get us going when we're really fatigued.
(36:25):
So let's get some practice doing this. And if this is not something that you've done before, here's a couple of prompts that we can use to really kickstart this process. So again, you can screenshot this to allow yourself a little more time at another time. And also this page is in the free guide that I made, so you can revisit that. So as I mentioned, when we're go, go, go, go, go, it's really hard to tune into our body and really listen to the messages that it's giving us. So this is a picture of someone that's really taking an intentional moment to be still and tune in. And if we can do that, great. Sometimes it's just a case of checking in when we wake up, open our eyes. So you can practice with me today if you're comfortable closing your eyes. But we're going to be still take a deep breath and tune into these types of questions and asking ourselves, how do I feel right now?
(37:21):
So we can explore things like my mood and my irritable, how's my energy level? How's my digestion? Thinking about how my digestion feels? Am I hungry? And then the next question we can ask is, well, what messages has my body been sending me not only today, but maybe as of late in recent days or in the last week? What kind of signs and symptoms has my body been giving me? And you can write those down now or at a later time and then asking ourselves, okay, well what is it that I feel like my body might need right now? And the answers that come up are going to likely vary very even throughout the day or on any given day. But finding a practice like this and really practicing this skill on a regular basis is going to really help connect us to our body.
(38:15):
So when I was going to acupuncture weekly, that's when that skill for me really came to life. So I was going weekly and every time I came, she would ask me, okay, how do you feel today? And I would report any signs and symptoms that my body was giving me and how have you felt since I saw you last? So since the previous week, sometimes she me homework of to start this and see how it feels or alter this or stop doing this and see how you feel. So I was watching for patterns and as I was beginning something new, how did that make me feel over the next few days if I was stopping something? How did that make me feel? How has my body changed since the last week? I knew I was going to have to give her a report when I came in that next week.
(38:56):
And that process really became foundational for me. I really started tuning in, paying attention, noticing signs and symptoms and themes. So this is a practice that can also cue us into what lifestyle pillar to lean on based on what our body needs. So again, screenshot this. You can find this and a bonus section about tuning in your free guide. So where do I begin? This is a question many people have. We've had an opportunity quickly here, you can take more time to yourself, but we've rated each pillar on if we're thriving or struggling in that area and we got some practice tuning in. So after we've gone through that practice for ourselves, here are a couple of other prompts to give us an idea of where we might start. Because again, there's not one way that's going to work for everybody. We are customizing this to meet our needs.
(39:51):
So it could be that we start with the pillar that we rated the lowest. So if we rated sleep the lowest, that may be a great place to start, even as we're preparing to start the elimination phase of AIP. If we're dialing in our sleep, that's going to give us more energy, we're going to be in a better mood, and then we're much more likely to consider and feel like we have the energy to even focus on some of the other pillars like movement. It also might be that we just focus on what feels the most doable, what's realistic for me today, given what I have going on today or given what I have going on this week, what feels realistic and doable right now? And then also maybe even considering how one pillar is affecting another. So whether it's stress and I'm really struggling with my level of stress right now and that's also impacting my diet and nutrition or my ability to sleep, then maybe that's an area that I would spend some focused attention on.
(40:48):
And it's not like there's a specific amount of time that we do that. We do what makes the most sense for us and our body. So tuning into our body signals is also going to give us some messages. How's my mood? If my mood is off thinking about, okay, how did I sleep? Can I get my body moving to help my mood? So how am I feeling? How can I respond to that need? And even taking small steps, not looking at this whole overhaul, but even taking small steps are going to give us some quick wins, give us confidence that we can accomplish these goals and it's going to get the momentum going again, one step at a time here. And then it may also just be leaning on our strengths. So if we are already engaged in a regular movement routine, then maybe that's where we start and we use our movement as our stress management tool and to help us sleep better.
(41:42):
So sometimes when hearing all of this, sometimes people are like, I just don't know where to begin. The beautiful part is that we can start in a place that feels good to us and sometimes we just need some stillness and some space to explore that for ourself. What feels good when we entertain that idea? How does that feel for us? And start there. So depending on where we're at, are we ready to take action? So some people may be coming to the summit here to learn more about AIP, and they're sort of in the preparation stage, and that's great too. So we can still take action even if we're prepping because these lifestyle pillars are a great tool for our health overall in general. But like I said, we can start with working on managing stress or kind of dialing in our sleep as we're preparing for the protocol because that's all going to be beneficial.
(42:43):
So when we're ready to get started, small realistic action. Can you take just this week that would really work to strengthen a pillar and write that down. So screenshot this so you can think about it. We don't have to overthink it. It doesn't have to be anything major. It could be I'm going to commit this week to taking a 10 minute walk after dinner and I'm going to see how that goes. And then when the end of the week, and I've been able to implement that. Let's see what I can do for next week. So small steps are still going to move us forward. So when you're ready, write down what small action you're willing to take to strengthen One of the pillars, and again, this is in the free guide. So as we're navigating through and exploring the different lifestyle pillars, really what we're doing is working to build this customized wellness toolbox for ourself.
(43:37):
We're exploring what works, what addresses our stress, what feels good to our body with moving, what helps me sleep better, how connection to others makes me feel. And we're taking note of that. We're going to be really curious to learn how it's affecting our body. We're also going to learn what doesn't work. Yeah, I thought maybe this type of exercise would be fun or work for me, and I'm learning it doesn't, at least not right now. So in the free guide, I've also included a handout that has two columns. This is helping me thrive, and this could use some adjustment to help us kind of start to build a toolbox of what was working for us and what doesn't. Keeping in mind that even if we pop it on the needs some adjustments side, doesn't mean that it won't work for us again, maybe just right now it's not working.
(44:23):
So this is a process that's going to be ever changing. But we can do this in a journal, start a wellness journal. We can pop out the notes section of our phone. So start to keep notice. Take notice of patterns, themes as we're trialing and erroring doing a little trial and error to see what works for us. Take note of that because then we can just pick and pull and grab and choose, and we know that this has worked for us in the past. Let's try it out again now. So again, this is going to evolve and change because of course we are evolving and changing over time. Finally, as we're wrapping up this session, I'd like to just kind of quickly explore the idea of habit stacking. So sometimes people still may be looking at their life and go like, how am I going to fit anything into my already crazy busy schedule?
(45:12):
There's the idea of habit stacking, and there's a whole book about it, atomic habits if you're interested. But it's the idea of really taking an inventory of what we're already doing consistently in our life and what could we add to it. So it could even be things like, okay, I walk my dog after work every day for 30 minutes. So is there something like another goal that I have that I'd like to become a habit? What could I add to that 30 minute walk? Maybe it's I want to learn a new skill, or I'm working on some mindset work. So listening to a podcast while I'm walking. So being creative sometimes of where we can add and stack some habits and choices that work together. So the idea is not to see, okay, what else can I cri into my already busy schedule? But what am I already doing?
(46:01):
I have a 30 minute train commute to work. What can I incorporate that I'm walking? Maybe I can use that time to call loved ones and friends. So thinking about what I'm currently doing, what I want to accomplish, and how they might seamlessly work together. So really as we're wrapping up the session, it's sort of a quick overview of the lifestyle pillars. What I hope that you're taking away from the message is there's not one way that we have to do this that's going to work for everybody. The key is really finding what's going to work for us based on our own bioindividuality, our unique needs, the current season of life we're in, and many obstacles or challenges we're facing and opportunities so that we can trial and error, see what's going to work for us. We may also find if we're kind of DIYing this to ourselves, that some help and support would be beneficial, and it could be working with a autoimmune protocol Certified Coach.
(47:02):
You can find 'em in the directory. You'll have a chance to meet a lot of them through the summit this week. And there's also a whole supportive AIP Summit Community, as Jaime mentioned, of people that are going through a similar journey. So support is also very beneficial. And then of course, don't forget your free guide to download that at melaniesteiner.com/beyondtheplate. It's going to cover the content we covered today, as well as some bonus tools that I included, like a gratitude journal, a sleep tracker movement tracker, a weekly reflection. So a few other things that can really help us support us through dialing in some of our lifestyle pillars. So last party words is keeping in mind that the wellness journey, it's not linear. We don't kind of start off with at point A and just seamlessly get to point point B, and then we're all good.
(47:55):
There's going to be ebbs and flows and twists and turns as our body is healing and as light, we're evolving in life. And so kind of going through this process with the wellness mindset of being flexible and curious is going to help set us up for success. So I'd love to hear from you. Hopefully we have some time for questions as well. But as you're going through and navigating these lifestyle pillars, tag me @melaniesnyder on Instagram. You can join our community at melaniesnyder.com. But we've reached the time here. I'm going to turn it over to Jaime, but thank you so much for having me, and I'm excited to be a part of the day today.
Marie-Noelle Marquis (48:36):
We hope that Melanie's presentation has again made it clear that AIP is not just a diet, but it is a protocol with multiple branches, and there are multiple ways to approach it. And through this podcast, AIP Certified Coaches bring you resources so that you don't have to do AIP alone.
Jaime Hartman (48:52):
If you liked what you heard today, we hope you'll check out the spring on core rebroadcast of the entire sixth annual AIP summit starting on March 20th, or if you're listening to this episode later in the year that you'll tune in for our next seasonal encore, or consider becoming a member of the AIP Summit Community. In the meantime, we'll be back with another podcast episode in two weeks. So make sure you subscribe to the AIP Summit Podcast in your favorite podcast player if you haven't already.
Marie-Noelle Marquis (49:20):
And if you'd like to leave us a rating and review, it will help others find this podcast where we're committed to helping you use the power of the autoimmune protocol to elevate your wellness journey to new heights.
Jaime Hartman (49:37):
The AIP Summit Podcast is a Gutsy By Nature production. Content presented is for informational purposes only, and is not intended to be a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
