Eileen, Author at Phoenix Helix

Andrew’s Paleo AIP Reintroduction Experience

Are you curious (or confused) about the AIP food reintroduction process? I created this interview series so you could hear about other people’s experiences. Andrew Smyth has psoriatic arthritis. In this interview, he shares which foods he was able to reintroduce successfully, which reintroductions “failed”, how he discerned the difference, and what he learned along the way. The Paleo Autoimmune Protocol (AIP) has 2 phases: elimination and reintroduction. It’s this second phase where we learn how to expand and personalize the diet for our unique bodies.

Paleo AIP Recipe Roundtable #288

This week’s Paleo AIP Recipe Roundtable is now live! The featured recipes from last week are: Pumpkin Spice Banana Bread, 50 One-Pan Paleo AIP Recipes, Taro Root Fritters, and Roasted Fennel. Happy cooking, everyone!

Paleo AIP Recipe Roundtable #287

This week’s Paleo AIP Recipe Roundtable is now live! The featured recipes from last week are: AIP Soups and Stews Recipe Roundup, Chicken Schnitzel, AIP Pot Noodle, and Pomegranate Pots de Crème. Happy cooking, everyone!

50 One-Pan Paleo AIP Recipes

For me, the worst part of cooking is having to clean up the kitchen afterwards. I don’t like to do dishes, especially when there are lots of pans. That’s why I love one-pot and one-pan meals, so I’ve gathered together 50 of them! All of these can be made on the stovetop or in the oven. No special equipment needed. Here’s to simplifying our lives in the kitchen, and in life overall.

Paleo AIP Recipe Roundtable #286

This week’s Paleo AIP Recipe Roundtable is now live! The featured recipes from last week are: Pumpkin Pie Pudding, Japchae Korean Noodle Stir-Fry, Fried White Fish with Lime and Garlic, and Avocado and Mackerel Boats. Happy cooking, everyone!

Episode 131: Blood Sugar & Autoimmunity with Dr. Jeff Horacek

Blood sugar is one of the building blocks of life. It gives our cells the energy they need to do their jobs. Yet when our blood sugar gets too high, drops too low, or swings wildly between these extremes, it negatively impacts our health on multiple levels, including autoimmune health. In this podcast, we’ll be taking a deep dive into this topic. What factors influence blood sugar levels? How can we tell if ours is out of balance? What are the common symptoms? What tests are helpful? And what diet and lifestyle choices harm vs. help? My guest is Dr. Jeff Horacek, a functional medicine physician with over 20 years of experience. Blood sugar is one of his medical specialties.

Paleo AIP Recipe Roundtable #285

This week’s Paleo AIP Recipe Roundtable is now live! The featured recipes from last week are: Black Forest Cake Cookies, Seafood Bisque, Orange Peel Beef and Broccoli, and Teriyaki Chicken Stir-Fry. Happy cooking, everyone!

Paleo AIP Recipe Roundtable #284

This week’s Paleo AIP Recipe Roundtable is now live! The featured recipes from last week are: Coconut Ladoos (Coconut Snowballs), Turmeric Chicken “Noodles, Sheet Pan Garlic Yuca Fries and Meatballs, and Turkey, Apple, and Onion Hash. Happy cooking, everyone!

Episode 130: Long-Term Healing Diets

This episode marks the 5-year anniversary of this podcast! When I was thinking about how I wanted to celebrate, I decided to invite 2 friends onto the show who have been following a healing diet for 5 years or more. But that doesn’t mean our diet today looks the same as it did on day 1 of this journey. We’ve personalized it over the years, learning what does and doesn’t work for our unique bodies. We’ve had setbacks and recoveries, and we’ve learned to navigate our bodies’ changing needs.

Paleo AIP Recipe Roundtable #283

This week’s Paleo AIP Recipe Roundtable is now live! The featured recipes from last week are: Gyoza Japanese Potstickers, One Pan Chicken Cacciatore, Thai Green Curry Shrimp, and Baked Pesto Salmon with Butternut “Rice”. Happy cooking, everyone!

Paleo AIP Recipe Roundtable #282

This week’s Paleo AIP Recipe Roundtable is now live! The featured recipes from last week are: Figgy Swirl Cookies, Blueberry Grilled Chicken, Pork Chop and Vegetable Sheet Pan Dinner, and Lamb and Rutabaga “Lasagna”. Happy cooking, everyone!

Episode 129: Resilience with Dr. Cynthia Li

Our topic today is Resilience, that ability to bounce back from life’s hardships. With autoimmune disease, we get lots of practice. Sometimes we feel strong and capable of overcoming suffering. Other times we feel beaten down and frightened by our body’s unpredictability. The good news is that resilience isn’t something you either have or you don’t. Resilience is a trait we can nurture. My guest is Dr. Cynthia Li, a functional medicine physician who has autoimmune disease herself. The intensity of her own health challenges ended up being a masterclass in resilience, and also changed the way she practiced medicine.

Paleo AIP Recipe Roundtable #281

This week’s Paleo AIP Recipe Roundtable is now live! The featured recipes from last week are: Roasted Vegetables with Sausage, Frugal Faux-ca-mole, Thai Curry Meatballs with Cauliflower “Rice”, and Orange Chicken Meal Prep. Happy cooking, everyone!

Paleo AIP Recipe Roundtable #280

This week’s Paleo AIP Recipe Roundtable is now live! The featured recipes from last week are: “Chocolate” Chip Cookie Dough, Chicken and Herb Dumplings Hot Dish, Turkey Maple Breakfast Sausages, and Golden Cream of (faux) Wheat. Happy cooking, everyone!

Episode 128: Best Of – Mind-Body Nutrition with Marc David

This is one of my favorite podcast episodes! How does mindset impact nutrition and food tolerance? At its most basic level, food is sustenance. It fuels us for life. But food is more than just a source of energy. Emotions surround the experience of eating as well. Food can comfort and bring joy, yet it can also inspire feelings of guilt. People also connect with each other over food, building memories, traditions, and even identities. And when you’re following a healing diet, there’s gratitude for food being medicine, often combined with feelings of deprivation, rebellion and grief. It’s complex! Here’s the fascinating part you might not realize: Not only does food inspire emotion, but emotions impact our ability to digest our food, including how well we tolerate foods. That’s the subject of our podcast today.

Paleo AIP Recipe Roundtable #279

This week’s Paleo AIP Recipe Roundtable is now live! The featured recipes from last week are: Garlic Herb Crackers, Superfood Savoury “Oatmeal”, Cheater’s Broccoli “Cream” Soup, and Roasted Butternut Pumpkin Soup with Scallops. Happy cooking, everyone!

Low-Power Mode: Self-Care During Challenging Times

iPhones automatically shift into low-power mode when their batteries get low. The goal is to conserve energy. There are times in life when our body and soul ask us to do the same. It’s about letting nonessential responsibilities go, and focusing our limited energy on what’s most important. In this blog post I share my recent experience doing this, and give you tips to do the same.

Paleo AIP Recipe Roundtable #278

This week’s Paleo AIP Recipe Roundtable is now live! The featured recipes from last week are: Meyer Lemon “Ice Cream”, Orange Beef, Smoked Apricot AIP Barbecue Sauce, and Grilled Peaches with Basil Aioli. Happy cooking, everyone!

Episode 127: Best Of – Social Lives on the Paleo Autoimmune Protocol

This is one of the most popular podcasts – for good reason! In cultures around the world, we gather together over food: we have dinner dates, drinks with friends, favorite festivals, and big family meals at our grandparents’ house. What happens when we can’t eat that food any more? Some people make the mistake of giving up their social life altogether because they simply don’t know how to manage it. In this podcast, 3 experienced AIP-ers share their experience and advice for having a full and fun social life while still staying true to your healing diet. It can be done!

Paleo AIP Recipe Roundtable #277

This week’s Paleo AIP Recipe Roundtable is now live! The featured recipes from last week are: Zucchini “Ravioli”, Olive Salad, Wild Salmon Prosciutto Cups, and Clam Chowder. Happy cooking, everyone!

Paleo AIP Recipe Roundtable #276

This week’s Paleo AIP Recipe Roundtable is now live! The featured recipes from last week are: Berry Green Avocado Smoothie, Faux-Matoes, Coconut Herbed Cauliflower Rice Salad, and Golden Raisin Coleslaw. Happy cooking, everyone!

Hashimoto's AIP Medical Study | Phoenix Helix

Episode 126: Hashimoto’s AIP Medical Study

I have some exciting research to share! It’s the first medical study looking at the paleo autoimmune protocol as an intervention for Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. The results were impressive! In this episode, Dr. Rob Abbott and Angie Alt (the research team) give us all the details.

Paleo AIP Recipe Roundtable #275

This week’s Paleo AIP Recipe Roundtable is now live! The featured recipes from last week are: Coconut Yogurt, Grilled Meat Skewer with Basil Marinade, Garlic-Bacon Cabbage, and Pork Spare Ribs with Peach Cherry BBQ Sauce. Happy cooking, everyone!

5 Tips for Healthier Smoothies

Most people choose smoothies because they think they’re a healthy alternative to fast food. The problem is that liquid “meals” like these can hit our bloodstream as sugar blasts, which isn’t healthy for anyone but especially people with autoimmune disease. So, what do we do? Here are 5 tips for making your smoothies as healthy as they can be (while also being delicious). And I also share my personal favorite smoothie recipe

Paleo AIP Recipe Roundtable #274

This week’s Paleo AIP Recipe Roundtable is now live! The featured recipes from last week are: Blueberry Muffin Bites, Umami Salt, Banh Mi Bowls, and Hamburger Steak. Happy cooking, everyone!

Episode 125: The Pursuit of Perfect Health with Dr. Terry Wahls

Most of you know Dr. Terry Wahls’ story. She is a physician who developed multiple sclerosis, and in spite of the best that conventional medicine had to offer, she ended up confined to a tilt-recline wheelchair. She started to research nutrition and lifestyle interventions, eventually creating The Wahls Protocol. She’s no longer in a wheelchair, and is now able to ride a bicycle to and from work. That said, she’s not cured, even though she’s often presented that way in the media. In this podcast we tackle the difficult conversation of what it means to heal, how not to compare your results to someone else’s, the difference between progress vs. perfection, and the role acceptance plays in this journey.