After 16 years of almost daily suffering with Ulcerative Colitis, I started working with Robyn 4 months ago and I immediately felt better.
The first thing I noticed was that I started to have very regular (1-2 per day, properly formed) and pain-free bowel movements, which was something totally new to me – in the past (even during “OK” periods) I always had problems in the toilet (bleeding, up to 9 loose bowel movements per day, severe cramping).
In a few days I started feeling better overall and I also started to feel less bloated from the Cortisone I had been taking. I also lost weight in these 4 months and this time in a very healthy way. Eating well and in good quantities, not micro-quantities, which was usually what I had to do after cortisone.
I now have an encouraging sense of well-being, I have more energy, the bloating coming from the water-retention generated by the cortisone is gone, and I have no problem in the toilet.
Of course I’m not going to deny it was (and still is!) a big change in lifestyle and habits: my breakfast now consists of a banana smoothie with coconut milk (allowed, as it is not real milk!) with some seaweed supplements (Chlorella and Spirulina). In the past I had some coffee with milk and some bread with jam – quite a change!
As I said it’s not always easy to stick to the diet, there are practical problems, especially when travelling and not being at home, but Robyn is very helpful also in providing real-life tricks.
Once you feel very bad for many years, and all of a sudden you do feel significantly better, you do not want to go back. I can’t even explain myself why I did suffer for 16 years just because nobody recognized the impact food can have on your health…
I know I’m only at the beginning of my journey – but if these positive results are also only the start, then I am very optimistic for the future. For the first time.
Update:
It has now been 3 years since we started working together. Before this Fernando was having a flare that required high dose steroids about every 12-18 months, plus daily symptoms and many smaller flares in between the serious ones. He was told he was at the end of what could be achieved with drugs and offered a medical trial and told he would probably need to have a large part of his bowel surgically removed. In 3 years, he has had only one small flare in the first 12 months, triggered by gluten and stress, which was managed with nutritional intervention only, although overseen via his gastroenterologist. He is symptom and pain free, and just sends me an email once per year to say hello and let me know all is well.
— Fernando, 36
