Hey chicks!
We are so excited to have Ashley Gibson from Dancing Through Life as our guest blogger today! This chick has been with us for awhile in our FIT CHICKS Toronto Bootcamp with Chick Sergeant Laura and we’ve come to know a lot about this fierce chick. Ashley was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease and has been leading a gluten-free vegan lifestyle to support her health. We grabbed Ashley to understand more about her journey and how she handles living a healthy life. We know it can be hard to make a dietary change, so we hope she can give you some inspiration! We know she inspires us!
Living a Gluten-Free, Vegan Life with Ashley Gibson
You’ve decided against medication in order to support your Crohn’s with a gluten-free and vegan lifestyle. What made you decide to focus on healing yourself through food?
It’s so funny because healing myself in a holistic way always made the most sense to me.
Before being diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease, I knew nothing about it, so I had to do some research into what my treatment options were. My gastro said that we would first try a combination of some medications and if that didn’t work we would look at a more experimental/hardcore medication and if my symptoms still prevailed, we would look at surgery.
I really liked my intestines on the inside, so I started to seek out other options. When I asked my gastroenterologist about diet, he said that it seemed like I ate fairly well, and that a healthy well-balanced diet would serve me fine. Many things that I read seemed to agree, but it just didn’t make sense to me!! In the process I found great blogs like Meghan Telpner’s and started seeing an incredible naturopath (Christine Matheson here in Toronto). With the guidance of my naturopath, I realized that the traditional way was not my only solution and that was the beginning of my journey to health!
Within 2 weeks of cutting out gluten and dairy from my diet, I was no longer in pain and that was enough for me to continue moving forward. I kept taking my medication for awhile and still take it from time to time if things feel funky, but I am otherwise thriving in my gluten-free vegan lifestyle, living 98% of the time symptom-free. If I do experience symptoms, I can often attribute it to something weird that I ate (I had a flare-up once as a result of some brown rice protein powder that should have been safe and in December I ended up in a lot of pain after mistakingly putting pomegranate seeds in my salad) or stress. For me it’s about feeling good or feeling bad; eating this way certainly helps me feeling good so I keep doing it!
When you embarked on a healthier lifestyle, what was the reaction of your friends and family? Were they supportive?
My family and friends were incredibly supportive – they just wanted me to be healthy! Not many people in my life had direct experience with someone who had IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease), so they didn’t really know what my treatment options were. Many recognized that I wasn’t going the “conventional” route, but as soon as they saw that I was feeling better, they didn’t really care!
My partner at the time was really understanding of my choices. He had already watched me change my diet in order to lose weight and after seeing me get really sick in 2007 (with what we think was my first Crohn’s flare-up or possibly the cause of my Crohn’s), he never wanted to see me feel that way again and was willing to follow me in my gluten-free vegan lifestyle in order to do that.
What do you tell someone who doesn’t understand your vegan, gluten-free diet? Or even disagrees with your choice?
I definitely try to educate people about why I eat the way I do. I recognize that the way I eat isn’t the right choice for everyone, but it is for me. I find that most people are pretty understanding when I explain that it’s for health. I’ve definitely encountered people who disagree with my choice (even my gastroenterologist feels that my diet is too restrictive). In those cases, I agree to disagree because I feel great and that’s what matters!
What is your favorite “fooled ya!” treat? You know, that thing you make that no one believe is vegan and gluten-free?
I love making gluten-free vegan desserts. I was at a girl’s night last night and apparently my friend’s husband was still raving over the raw vegan brownies I brought to an event in March!! Desserts don’t need gluten, dairy or eggs to be delicious and I love helping people realize that.
Do you ever feel limited by your dietary lifestyle?
There is so much amazing food out there that is gluten-free and vegan that there really isn’t a need for me to feel limited. People often ask me the question, “So what do you eat?!” to which I respond that I eat a lot of fruit and vegetables, vegan proteins (like nuts, seeds, beans, lentils and temph), gluten-free grains and healthy fats. With all the cookbooks, blogs, great restaurants and resources out there, the possibilites are truly endless.
There are definitely times when I’m at an event or a restaurant I haven’t chosen and feel a bit annoyed by the fact that I have to order a boring salad. That being said, I would never want to go back to being as sick as I was so I get over my frustration pretty quickly. I feel so blessed to be as happy as I am now, that a boring salad is worth it once in awhile!
♥ Ashley
http://mainteancewithashley.blogspot.com
http://twitter.com/ashleydtl
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Thanks so much, Ashley, for sharing your experience with us!
Want to try a gluten-free vegan recipe? Check out our gluten-free oats! To make them vegan, just substitue flax seed. 1 tbsp ground flax seed + 3 tbsp water = 1 egg. Chia seeds work great, too! Just let it sit for a couple of minutes so it can thicken.
What’s your favorite gluten-free or vegan recipe?
