Juicing Cured My Gastroparesis
Juicing Cured My Gastroparesis
A lot of people ask me the same question “Why did you start juicing?” and I never thought so many would, because I figured they would just chalk it up to me wanting to be “trendy”.
This is not the case, though, and I find it pretty cool that people are so interested in my story. So, I am going to lay it all out there. Maybe it will help you find some peace in something you’re dealing with. Maybe it will give you hope for your health. Or maybe it will just be a little extra layer of info about me. Whatever it may be, here it is.
I Wasn’t Eating
You read that correctly. Let’s take it back to 2014. As each month passed, I stopped being able to eat more and more. I would always sit down to try, and sometimes I would force myself and then end up being really sick afterwards. It was not a good direction I was heading, nor was it a good lifestyle to be living. I could literally eat a piece of apple and be full for 2 days. That is not normal and that is not healthy.
I was running out of hope and ideas on why I was feeling this way. I tried everything, cutting out lactose, cutting out gluten, cutting out even certain fruits and vegetables. Nothing was working. Every trendy diet you can think of out there, I tried, and it failed me. Finally, I decided it was time to go to the doctor.
No One Knows
From October 2014 until May of 2015 I endured test after test, pill after pill and plenty of heartache. Doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me. By all standards, I was a perfectly healthy 22-23 year old with a tummy ache.
We did tests for colitis, Crohn’s, IBS, IBDS, cancer checks and many more. Finally, my mom and I sat on her bed one night scouring the internet for any possible answer, and that’s when it came to us. We clicked on the link for something called, Gastroparesis. Sounds scary, but more than that, it was confusing. The only thing we could find, at first, was that it was for diabetics. I am not diabetic.
With more digging, we found that you can get Idiopathic Gastroparesis. This simply means they don’t know why it happens or what caused it. AWESOME. Gastroparesis technically means “paralyzed stomach”, but it has everything to do with your stomach not emptying the food in an appropriate amount of time and not being able to digest and then all the repercussions that follow that. EVEN MORE AWESOME…
The next appointment I had with the doctor, I mentioned the possibility of Gastroparesis and they looked at me and said, ”It’s highly unlikely, but if you really want to do the test for it, we can order it for you”. I am glad I asked. I went in for the 4 hour test and after 2 hours, the nurse told me “Oh honey, you don’t even need to stay for the next 2 hours. It’s plain as day that you have this.”
The test is comprised of you eating a completely balanced meal. So, 1 egg white and two pieces of toast with jelly and some water. You then lay down and literally just lay there. A machine monitors the emptying of your stomach. After 2 hours, you are supposed to have emptied 50% or more of your food. After just 2 hours of me laying there, I had emptied 32%. Now, this might not seem like a big deal, but it would take a normal person 4 hours to empty their stomach and digest, it would take me anywhere from 6-9 hours, depending on the meal. That can be painful, trust me. Food sitting there for hours, stomach acid building, and so many more things happening.
The Next Steps
Ok, so we figured it out. Now what? How do you cure a disease that you don’t even know how or why it happens? You take a guess and try every pill under the sun!
My doctors gave me EVERY pill they knew of that MIGHT help. The reactions were detrimental. One gave me anxiety so bad I couldn’t handle myself. I’ve never had it, and I can tell you that I never want to again. The next cramped my body up so bad I couldn’t walk. The final pill changed my moods so drastically that I was a nightmare to be around. I didn’t even want to be around myself. I knew taking medicine my whole life was not something I was wanting to do my whole life, either.
That was it. Those were all of my options. BUT WAIT, there was one more. The doctors said I could get a pacemaker put into my stomach. 23 years old and you want to do major surgery on me that might not even work? No thank you. I don’t want to have to return every 10 or so years for major surgery.
“Where do I go from here? Am I just doomed to feel like this for the rest of my life? I can’t even hold a normal job, because I am so sick. How will I be self-sustainable?” These were the daunting thoughts that ran through my head most days. This is not a good life for someone so young and just starting out.
Family To The Rescue
After expressing all of my pain and struggle to my older brother, he mentioned I should try juicing. At the time, he lived in Austin, so I just thought he was being a “trendy, hippy Austinite”. So, I wrote it off for a while. He then sent me 2 recipes to try.
The first one I ever sold, The Beginner, was a version of the juice he told me to try. It changed my life. I was feeling so much better, because my body was getting these nutrients I needed, but not putting the stress on it to digest solid food. I was able to “eat” without eating, without feeling sick, without all of the pain. This was my first step to getting my life back.
I decided to commit to juicing every day for at least breakfast and I did it for about 6 months and then tried a 3-day cleanse. Everything in my body was changing, for the better. I was feeling healthier, stronger, happier, full but not sick. BUT, my stomach wasn’t quite there. When I wasn’t juicing, I was trying to eat normal food, but my body still wasn’t having it.
The Final Step
Juicing had helped me out tremendously, but I still had what felt like a baseball once I ate real food. My mom and I started searching again! We found acupuncture. Wow. Just wow. I drank a juice and headed off to my first appointment, nervous and very reluctant. This was my missing piece.
I went to Marr Physical Medicine in League City. Dr. Marr is a Chiropractor that studied acupuncture. He was kind, and listened to all my complaints and knew exactly where to put the needles to help me out. After that first appointment, I finally felt like my old self again. I went back for 6 more sessions and then I continue to go about every 4 months. When I explain it to people, I equate it to jumping your car’s battery.
My nerves weren’t firing to my stomach, but as soon as he put those needles in and a heat lamp over them, it was like my whole body got a fresh charge. It was the most incredible feeling. I walked out of that first appointment with a smile and then about an hour later, I felt hungry for the FIRST TIME IN A YEAR AND A HALF. I almost confused it with being sick again, because I had forgotten what that felt like.
Here Comes Real Peel
Fast forward to 2016 and, I have done it. I have “cured” myself back to about 85% and I couldn’t have done it without juice and acupuncture. Once I realized the magnitude of what I had done, I knew I HAD to use this knowledge to help others. My thought was “If juicing could almost cure my incurable condition, then what could it do for the person with indigestion? Or the person with chronic migraines? But more than that, I thought, with all of this knowledge of juicing and nutritional therapy, how can I help others with Gastroparesis?”
Enter Real Peel. I got certified as a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner and did research on what each fruits and vegetables did for your body and I created juices around those. For those with Gastroparesis & other digestive issues, I always suggest The Guardian. Even something as simple as low energy, there is The Sparkler.
The possibilities are endless with nutrition and if you ever thought that Real Peel was created just to be a part of a trend, then you are mistaken!
Then, I knew juice wasn’t the only way, so I wrote down all of the things I tried to help with my Gastroparesis and created programs to help others. Just in a faster way than I figured it out.
It is now 2023, and I have spent years feeling great! For an update, click here.
But aside from my own health, I have helped countless women and men suffering with Gastroparesis with my One-On-One services. Want to learn more about Gastroparesis and how I have helped myself and many others get their Gastroparesis under control?
Follow these few quick steps:
Have you downloaded our FREE 3-Day Gastroparesis Guide? If not, click here to download.
Then, click here to head to our Gastroparesis page. There is so much information on there to go over and learn.
If you are interested in Juicing for Gastroparesis, we have an Ebook containing recipes for Gastroparesis for all severity levels. You can find that ebook here.
I am here to help you heal, to enhance your health, and to make your quality of life so much better! I want you to THRIVE, not just barely survive.
But, that’s just me. That’s my story of how juicing (and some other protocols) healed my Gastroparesis.
That’s also my why. That’s why I get up every day and help clients, write blogs, put out as much information as I can. To continue to make juices and provide you with nutrition information.
I don’t want anyone else to feel how I felt. I want to change the way you feel.
Until next time,
Aubrey.
Keep it Fresh. Keep it Simple. Keep it Real.
How to Treat Gastroparesis
How Do You Treat Gastroparesis?
Now that we have gone over what Gastroparesis actually is, we have to talk about how to treat it.
There isn’t a lot out there on great methods for treating GP, but what there is a lot of out there is fear. Terms like “incurable”, “chronic”, “life-altering”, etc. While, technically, GP has been deemed a chronic and incurable condition, I can tell you that can’t be further from the truth.
Gastroparesis CAN be cured, and at the very least, it can be easily managed WITHOUT medication. That in itself is a win in my opinion.
So, what does the treatment plan look like?
The typical treatment path that is recommended is this:
Try a flurry of terribly written diets
Try an even bigger flurry of medications that don’t actually work
Suggest surgery like a pacemaker in your stomach, or a feeding tube
I have also talked with many GP sufferers that have mentioned their doctors put them on anti-psychotics, which basically is their way of saying we don’t believe anything is wrong with you, so you must be crazy.
I’m not a doctor, so I will say that making sure you keep a doctor in the loop about your condition is important. However, I have now gotten myself to the point that I don’t need a doctor anymore, because it’s not as severe. And to get myself to this point, I took a totally different path.
Treating Gastroparesis…. the right way
What if I told you that you could eat whatever you wanted when you wanted and on your terms of when your body will act up? Right now, you might say I am crazy, but I can promise you that it can be done.
The following are a few ways I have helped myself, and many clients:
Juicing. Especially in the beginning of your treatment, because your body is so devoid of the nutrients it’s needing. Juicing will help replenish those and then you can start working on the rest.
Acupuncture. Think of your stomach as a battery of your car. It needs the energy to run. So, when you do acupuncture, the needles are like the jumper cables being attached to the conductors. Put a little heat over the needles and it’s sending that “voltage” to your stomach muscles through your nerves. It’s life-changing
Walking. Wait, what? Yes, a simple morning 15 minute walk does WONDERS for your body. Boosts metabolism, wakes up the system, and if you do it before eating anything, you burn more fat!
Nerve Toning. In my Thrive with Gastroparesis nutrition program, I teach you 3 different techniques you can do to tone the nerve. Toning your nerve back to optimal function is what makes the difference.
Warm Lemon Water. I am sure by now all of my followers are like “geeze, lady, we get it. Drink warm lemon water.” That is how much I swear by it. First thing in the morning, drink a coffee cup size of warm water with a squeeze of lemon, however much you can handle. This gets your digestive system moving and creating the necessary acid.
More importantly, you have to be willing to do all of these things for longer than just a week. It didn’t take a week for you to get sick, so it won’t take a week for you to get better.
By week 3 of the Thrive with Gastroparesis program, my clients were starting to notice a real difference in their bodies and that is the coolest thing.
So, where do you go from here? Good news is that I have a completely FREE 3-day Gastroparesis Healing Guide. Just click here to get that straight to your email.
Finally, we are completely updating and revamping the Thrive with Gastroparesis 3 month Program. We are hoping for a Fall release, so if you would like to be on the waitlist, please send an email to info@realpeeljuice.com.
Until then, get started juicing, drinking your warm lemon water and going for walks. I guarantee you will start noticing a difference.
Keep it Fresh. Keep it Simple. Keep it Real.
Aubrey
What is Gastroparesis?
If you have been following me for a while, you would have heard me talk about Gastroparesis many times. I might have dropped a few bits about what it’s like and how to handle it, and I have even talked about my Thrive With Gastroparesis program, but I have never done a proper explanation of it.
Some of you might not care what it is, but I remember years ago being really sick and not being able to get any answers from doctors and then I found 1 small article about Gastroparesis and knew immediately that’s what I had. It gave me some relief and hope that I would be able to get an answer. How to treat it was another story, but I am hoping that this will help those who are currently struggling and stumble upon this, find relief.
What is Gastroparesis?
By definition, Gastroparesis is a stomach condition that affects the stomach muscles and prevents proper stomach emptying, according to the Mayo Clinic. There are two types, Diabetic and Idiopathic. For the sake of this blog, we are mostly talking about Idiopathic, although, a lot applies to both.
By my definition, it sucks. But truthfully, the nerves that are connected to the stomach muscles, don’t fire properly and so the stomach muscles don’t get the message to move food along. This then allows the food to sit in the stomach and go rancid and that’s when you see a lot of the symptoms pop up.
Symptoms typically include:
bloating
nausea
heartburn
feeling full very quickly
vomiting
abdominal pain
unbalanced blood sugar
lack of appetite
malnutrition due to lack of nutrient absorption
major weight gain or loss
and these don’t include all of the mental and emotional side effects
What Does Gastroparesis Look Like?
Unfortunately, GP is one of those hidden conditions. To most people, I look perfectly healthy. In its beginning stages, Gastroparesis doesn’t cause you to be in the hospital or anything like that. You can function, maybe not optimally, but you can. It feels like a constant, severe stomach ache. However, no one takes that seriously, so you just have to keep going.
Left untreated, it can lead to such severe malnutrition that you end up in the hospital on a feeding tube. Sadly, there have been a few who lost their lives because of it, but it doesn’t have to be that way. We shouldn’t have to let it get this far.
How Do You Diagnose Gastroparesis?
Usually before you get diagnosed with GP, you will have run the mill of different digestive tests. It looks something like this
Weird and not fitting to GP, elimination diet. This diet they give you would be helpful if you didn’t have GP, so yes, it does eliminate other possible conditions, but unfortunately, could make your GP symptoms worse.
Some type of reflux or IBS medication
Endoscopy and colonoscopy. They will usually do a biopsy to rule out many different conditions and cancer
Stool test. That one is always fun.
Nothing else has worked, so maybe some other random medication.
A good doctor continues to dig and eventually suggests the Gastric Emptying Test. This is the only way to diagnose GP.
The test involves you going in and they give you a meal that typically consists of eggs, toast, orange juice, and water. In the food is a minuscule amount of radioactive material that they can watch on a scan leave your stomach.
You just lay there and they watch for certain time intervals to indicate what percentage has left your stomach. There is a standard for how much you should have emptied at each time frame, being 1 hour, 2 hours and then 4 hours.
In mine and most people’s cases, if you haven’t emptied more than 40% after the second hour, they let you leave, because you didn’t pass the benchmark and it will be considered delayed. Sometimes, they will make you stay the full 4 hours, though.
You have the Diagnosis, now what?
So, now you have the diagnosis, how do you go about treating it?
Well, I have a lot of thoughts on how it is technically treated and how it should be treated, so we will save that for another blog.
In the meantime, you can grab our completely free 3-Day Healing Guide here.
I hope this is helpful for those of you who are in the searching for answers phase. One thing I want to make sure you remember, is to advocate for yourself. You know your own body better than anyone else, and it is okay to ask the doctor for different tests, even if they stop believing you. And if they won’t do it, find another one who will, until you get your answers.
Until next time,
Keep it Fresh. Keep it Simple. Keep it Real.
Love, Aubrey
What is an NTP?
What is a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner? What will I be doing?
A friend of mine going through this program with me did a great post about this and it inspired me to inform you guys on what I will be doing as an NTP and what you can expect from me once I am done! (PS. you can check out Lauren on Instagram @backtovibrancy)
First off, if you are new here, Hi, my name is Aubrey and currently I am going through schooling to become a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner. I also am the creator of Real Peel Juice & Nutrition. You can read more about my story, here.
Back to it…
The NTA program develops on a few important foundations, Nutrient-Dense Whole foods, Digestion, Hydration, Blood Sugar Regulation, Dietary Fats and Minerals. Our approach is focused on the individual. The idea of bio-individuality, meaning that each person is biologically unique, guides us away from one size fits all programs. Each person’s body functions differently, so I will dive deeper (explain this more later) to develop a unique diet and lifestyle plan to get their body functioning optimally, as it should be.
We train on 3 levels. The first is like any other schooling. We read, study, do homework assignments, etc. Then, we start on the Functional Evaluation and then end with the Lingual-Neuro Testing. These final two parts are extremely important for us. During these two, we palpate particular points on the body to test for how your body’s organs are working together and guide us on how to develop a plan personalized for you.
Once I finish the program in June, I will have the opportunity to become Board Certified in Holistic Nutrition through the National Association of Nutrition Professionals, which I will definitely take that opportunity. This will allow me to stay up to date on all things nutrition, so that I can always provide you with the most accurate information for your health journey.
What About After?
Alright, that’s all good and well, but what will I do with this new status?
My main focus will be on Digestive issues.
Most of you know that I suffer from Gastroparesis and am on my own healing journey, but there are SO MANY people out there that suffer and the doctors have no answers. Or the answers are just trying every medication on the shelf. So, I will be creating programs to help those suffering, start their own healing journey, and give them hope that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
Along with Gastroparesis programs, I will be creating programs for just about every kind of digestive issue you can think of. So, if you have reached out to me for help in the last few months, hang on with me for another few and I will be happy to help you.
The big question I get a lot, Will I be working on weight loss for people? It’s not going to be my main focus, but I will definitely be taking client for this. A lot of what we learn in our studies will contribute to weight loss, but just like I have said before, I do not have a magic pill or quick fix and I don’t plan to.
Mostly, my goal will be to help people heal, provide them with the knowledge to do it on their own and give them hope. Hope that they can overcome their illness, hope that knowing they aren’t dealing with it alone and hope to know that there are answers out there for you.
Anyhow, I (hope) this has helped shed a light on what I have been up to lately. Thank you to all of you who have been reaching out to me through private message and asking me how it’s been going, I appreciate your support.
Be ready for Summer 2019, because once I am done, I plan to come out of the gate ready to go!
Until then,
Keep it Fresh. Keep it Simple. Keep it Real.
Love, Aubrey
