I recently received this thank-you message, with these striking before/after photos:

“Hey guys, just wanted to say thank you to Jini and the team I took this pic today, the worse photo (right side) is me 5 months ago. I followed a lot of Jini’s expertise and applied what worked with my gut, I watched her YouTube videos and podcast over and over to keep me focused and motivated. Please pass on huge thank you to Jini I can’t thank her enough ❤️”

I then reached out to Will and asked him if he could share the details of what he did to make his healing a reality, as I knew it would be both instructive and encouraging for others. He graciously outlined the steps he took and provided his contact info if anyone wants to get in touch.

Thank you Will, for taking the time to outline all the different facets of your healing journey! Hopefully it will provide some encouragement or ideas for those of you facing similar challenges. You can direct message Will on his YouTube channel or Instagram if you have any questions.

Here is Will’s story:

Pre-history: Skinny ectomorph figure, never had any gut symptoms or severe health concerns except pneumonia at around age 5
2006 – 2015 western vegetarian diet turned vegan diet (minimally processed foods)

So the dread all began in late 2015, noticeable changes in my health, first symptom being loud belching noises in my gut, then followed by other symptoms; fatigue, bloating, frequent toilet visits, loose stools with occasional alternating constipation, nausea, extreme hair loss, tooth cavities (1 root canal, 2 on the verge of root canal) brittle hair and nails, tingling in arms and legs, bubbles in my urine, and eventually weight loss and rectal bleeding.

To cut a long story short it was many visits to many doctors; blood test, stool test, urine test. The only formal diagnosis I ever got was of a parasite found in my stool, blastocystis hominis, later to be told my symptoms match the criteria of IBS/IBD, and then in the next breath, that there is no known cure.

Till this day I don’t know what I had, but enough to know it stuck around for 4 years.

So in between then and now I was confused and wanting answers – maybe the blastocystis hominis is causing this, maybe some of my poor diet choices were to blame? I was even told by doctors I’m overthinking it, but as we all know, our body knows better.

So between 2016 – 2018 it was A LOT of trial and error and room for improvement (diet changes, lifestyle changes, homeopathy). Amongst my searches and changes, in mid 2017 I came across a video, which happened to be a talk by Jini! So after watching I began a vegan elemental diet (sunwarrior protein powder) and switched my probiotic brand to natren dairy-free. Things were going ok till day 5 when I had the worst unexpected constipation of my life, which I could imagine might feel like childbirth (not kidding). The fear of that potentially happening again was too much, I went off the shakes and back on solid foods. (Spoiler alert: elemental diet wins but read on…)

By 2018 my emotional health and spirit had deteriorated badly due to a poor quality of life, limited to manageable homemade dishes. Life had lost variety in my food and my lifestyle. Although I was just managing symptoms, nothing was really improving entirely. I was beyond desperate, willing to surrender and do whatever it was going to take to reclaim my health.

I had been following Jini’s YouTube channel and thought, this is do-or-die. I made the decision then and there to give the elemental diet and Jini’s supplement and lifestyle recommendations a serious go-hard-or-go-home mindset for as long as it takes. From around June 2018, I elementally drank my way right through till the end of 2018, then I started incorporating rice and black beans.

Now that I can say I’ve done it, in retrospect I didn’t really feel a difference till around December/January, everything wasn’t black and white, you don’t wake up one day healed, it’s very progressive. The challenge I found hardest was managing my expectations when a symptom would reappear – although it got me down emotionally, mentally I stayed committed, which I believe is what ultimately counted.

What I took in my Healing phase June 2018 – December 2018

Food
Sunwarrior Protein powders (Chocolate and vanilla)
– Side note: for me I noticed when I increased my probiotic dosage, whilst on the elemental shakes, I would tend to lean towards bad constipation. I did find the Sunwarrior Plus powders better for me than the plain ones, I guess this is the Listen to your gut message, which is different for us all. Lesson: awareness of details is critical in this step!!!
– drinking shakes slowly… a sensitive gut is reactive and I realized a slower consumption helped my body gradually adjust. Depending on my day and priorities, I would be drinking 1 shake for 30 minutes, or even up to 2 hours on occasion. I also realized my gut was most sensitive in the morning, even to water.
Ripe bananas (black spots)
Avocados
Udo’s Oil
Nature’s flavours organic tapioca maltodextrin
Dr Axe organic bone broth powder: Ok I believe this step was a turning point, as a vegan for ethical reasons, I found this part the final piece missing to healing. I couldn’t drink the powder without gagging so I put some gloves on and made capsules with the dr axe bone brother powder myself and swallowed with water (empty capsules and dr axe bone broth ordered from iHerb, originally dr axe sold pre-made bone broth capsules but was discontinued, other brands stock capsule bone broth however dr axe is the only organic bone broth powder I found).

Supplements
Natren dairy free (3 step probiotic system)
Imix Mucosaheal
Mini minerals of life
Bone Matrix
Source Naturals Methylcobalamin B12
Source Naturals L-Glutamine
Joy of the mountains Wild oregano oil
QuikPlus Iron

Lifestyle
I work from home which I understand is a massive privilege in times like this, but luckily I was able to build and sustain an income whilst I was sick, with support from my partner.
Sleeping at least 8 hrs a night
Rebounder for exercise (I limited cardio to light exercise due to low body mass, listen to what feels right to your body)

The majority of my free time was spent focusing on myself and healing, if friends family wanted to see me it would be my place, sounds demanding but genuine people will understand. Birthday parties out at restaurants, traveling, and functions were all off the cards. Also going off social media was important for me, I noticed myself feeling more depressed comparing my life watching friends have fun living life, while I was battling, and it was easier to be off social media and not look at it. Simplifying everything back to basics, living a simple lifestyle helped me commit and manage my time to myself.

Mostly importantly I can’t emphasize enough that if you are going to do this once and only once, please make it count, give it 1000%, the sooner you are healed, the sooner this experience might not need to define your future!

I also said to myself if i have to do this for 1 to 2 years I will. That expectation also helped manage the road ahead rather than expecting fast results. Please remember on your bad days to refer to videos, podcasts, testimonials that remind you things can get better. For me, I listened to Jini Patel’s videos and podcast. So if you are reading this right now, just remember I was once like you are now and things can turn around, don’t be hard on yourself, healing is a gradual process 🙂

NOTE: With regards to Will’s first attempt at an elemental diet, he told me he drank 8 glasses of water per day, but he did not add magnesium to the shakes to help loosen his bowel. Remember, you can add 150-1000 mg of magnesium citrate per day if constipation is an issue. Adding Vitamin C to the shakes also helps a lot with this – use as much as you can, up to bowel tolerance (when your bowel movements get loose, that’s your max dosage).

The other thing to know about constipation and probiotics, is to back off on the Bifido Factor and increase the Digesta-Lac if constipation is a tendency. Drop your Bifido Factor completely until constipation is resolved, then add just a pinch, and gradually increase. If you tend towards diarrhea, then do the reverse; increase Bifido Factor and decrease Digesta-Lac.

I am currently sourcing an excellent quality bone broth powder to bring into the Shoppe for those of you who don’t have the time or desire to make your own broth. I’ve also written before about the difficulty of healing while being strictly vegetarian or vegan. If you can eat fish, or eggs, or dairy (but no meat) you can do alright. But vegan diets, while good for cleansing or re-set, are not good to support long-term health or healing – even just for the Vitamin B12 issue alone.

Lastly, all the products Will mentions are available in our LTYG Shoppe if you can’t find them locally.