I always find these brief annual reviews really useful, and it’s fascinating to look back on previous years! So, here’s a bit about what happened in Purehealth world in 2014.
Last year was as busy as ever. I wrote a total of 181 blog posts for you (104 on Purehealth and 77 on TrulyGlutenFree) and almost 95,000 unique visitors read them, with a total of almost 136,000 views, which is rather gratifying 🙂 Seems I am not just typing away here for no reason, thank goodness!
It was the first full year doing no 1-1 consultations at all but that didn’t seem to matter as the clinic was just as busy as ever with tests, ebook creation, research, reports etc continuing. I have yattered on the Purehealth and TGF Facebook groups almost daily (currently 400 people on there all ready to chat with you if you need support), pinned loads of recipes onto the Pinterest boards for you (now a total of 590 recipes and 240 followers) and of course chatted zillions by email and via blog comments; I must do at least 50-60 emails a day!
The number of followers has continued to rise and I now have well over 3,000 of you following me in some way or another. That doesn’t sound a lot to many ‘successful’ bloggers, but these are quality followers; I’m not into building a quantity list!
Much of the first six months of the year was taken up with summarising the Gluten ESummit and the series of articles I wrote for that which, I hope, people will see, was ground-breaking stuff. (By the way, did you know you can get a free PDF with all the articles on the TGF blog?)
After that, I updated my own Gluten Plan, fully revising the previous Barrier Plan for gut healing. In essence, it became more all-things-to-all-people, and not just for gluten-sensitives as it turned out – many of the sections are applicable to chronic health conditions per se, as they all have common factors more or less, and I now need to pull out the various sections into a kind of Chronic Health Plan or something. It’s all there and written; I just haven’t had a chance yet, which is a shame because people who need it think they are not gluten sensitive and so don’t get it. They probably are and don’t know it actually but that’s a whole other story, but also it applies whether gluten-sensitive or not as many people have autoimmune, leaky gut and malabsorption issues, which are all covered in that plan too. More work to do this year, then, to make it more accessible for you… 
Anyway, the new Gluten Plan finally launched in September and I then had to update all the related plans and factsheets. I was then very pleased to get onto other subjects, I can tell you! I did new or updated factsheets and pages for you on Acid Reflux/GERD, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Migraine, Thyroid Problems, Stress, Anxiety & Depression, including Pyrrole Disorders and Tinnitus. I also added several new Test FAQ pages onto the shop (www.purehealthshop.co.uk) and revised many of the test pages themselves.
Finally, I re-worked the Purehealth 4 Step Weight Loss Programme as people had been asking me for that a lot. It works, trust me.
My Own Health Year
In fact, that brings me onto my own health journey. I am now actually a size 8 myself (see, it works!) and am really well most of the time now with my migraines etc all under control a lot more than they were. This is no doubt because of the very restricted diet I am now following. I went what is termed AIP (AutoImmune Protocol) in the Summer, consuming pretty much fruit, veg, meat and fish only to give my body a chance to calm any autoimmune and inflammatory processes down. The Low GL diet from above, but with bells on.
If I stick to that diet, I am really well with loads of energy and very few symptoms. If I deviate from it, though, I get poorly again which is SO frustrating and I am not the most patient of people as P will tell you!
A Different Approach To Healing
So, from about October onward, I started to try and find different healing methods to get rid of the food sensitivities once and for all. You will have seen this ‘journey’ reflected in the blog posts as I started the Healing Series to document what I was finding out and doing, as much for me to follow as you, although, judging from the comments I receive, many of you are really enjoying it and using the knowledge yourself so that’s fab. You can read all of the Healing Series posts here by the way: start from the oldest post and work up. Please do: though I say it myself, they are fascinating! I have a lot yet to learn and this will evolve considerably, I have no doubt.
In essence, the idea is to help people like me who are over-sensitive to meds, supplements, food etc – all the stuff other people use very successfully to heal themselves. As it has turned out, the ‘journey’ (I sound like X-Factor!) has gone in a completely different direction to what I was expecting with the realisation of very real physical symptoms being caused or at least exacerbated by emotional states of mind, often subconscious that you are not even aware of. Ooer, I didn’t see that coming!
Anyway, do read the Healing Series if this interests you. I am shortly doing the next post for you with some really practical stuff for you to do in this area. My biggest advice here is: even if you are absolutely convinced your health issue is entirely physical (and you couldn’t have been more convinced of this than me…), open your mind to the possibility it might have an emotional component you need to work on before you can get well.
2015: The Aim
To summarise: my short and sweet stated aim for this year is simply to get well, although I doubt this will be simple at all! I plan to continue the exploration of non-ingested healing methods, emotional illness, neuroplasticity, brain-training techniques and the like – and to get rid of these food sensitivities once and for all! And share what I find with you all, of course, so you can hopefully benefit too.
Are you with me….? What have you got planned? Have you thought about it? Should you? There is an old proverb that says something like: if we stay on the same path we have been walking, we will only ever get to the same place we are going, or something like that. You get my meaning. Is it time to re-think your path? Dare you join me and start thinking about a different type of path to healing and getting rid of your chronic health issues? I quite like the idea of a new path where I don’t know where I’m going: what fun!
Off we go into the new year. Ooh, all the possibilities…
Brilliant review Mikki, I’m fascinated by the idea that stuff in your head could have some real impact on health, sensitivities etc. Rather gives some meaning to the phrase, “it’s all in your mind” but not quite. I wonder… you’ve got me thinking here. There is a lot of ‘stuff’ which I am slowly dealing with but lots that I’m not. It’s hard work! I will go and read your healing series and see what it’s all about. Keep up the good work though. A great year!
Thanks Ruth. Wtach out for the one coming out later today hopefully. It is HUGE and gives some real practical stuff to start doing – and I talk specifically about skin and eczema and what emotions might be at play there!