One phone call changed my life. It was from a PhD at ALCAT. After two years of daily fevers, joint pain, difficulty walking, and countless doctors, I discovered that I had gut health issues that had caused an auto immune disease. I had, in my desperate attempt to get healthy, gone to a vegan diet for myself, but even eating healthy had been too little too late.

I was sick- probably forever- because I ate like an American. The doctor's news was grim, but he shared that if I was strict about food sensitivities, took proper nutritionist, got proper rest, and de-stressed, I had hope of remission.

Remission became my mission. I bawled my eyes out, pulled out everything from my cupboards, and threw away literally garbage bags full of processed, unhealthy foods. The unopened went to the food bank, the rest- to the garbage where it belonged.

My husband encouraged me, telling me that I was the only one who could get me healthy. It was time to stop running to doctors for answers, and dig deep inside to do the work to be well for my family. Within two weeks of eating the ALCAT diet, I was fever free and had dropped about 10 pounds of fluid from swelling. I could walk normally, and had almost no pain.

Now, our dinners are whole foods, raw foods, and lots and lots of whole fruit and vegetable smoothies. I refuse to allow my children to go down the path of disease like I did. Last night, our meal was two sautéed chicken breasts (split between 6 people), spinach and carrot sauté, quinoa, as well as steamed green beans. We eat organic as we can, and we are careful to keep toxins out of our foods and out of our home. We've come a long way, baby!