Sometimes we are dealt cards in life that are not ideal, but it’s not what happens to you, it’s what you do, or create with what happens to you.

Sammi Lucas

At 10 years old, Sammi was diagnosed with a disease called Ulcerative Colitis, an autoimmune condition that affects the gut.

So it’s nothing short of remarkable that since then, she’s become a Nutritionist and Holistic Health Coach, Gut Health & Autoimmune Master, Raw Food Chef, Recipe Creator, Writer, Speaker and more recently, an Actress.

In this interview we cover:

• Sammi’s healing journey — going from near death to massive health and healing
• The mindsets required to recover and thrive
• A new approach to looking at food allergies and “cutting things out” of your diet
• Some hidden truths about gluten
• Life changing book recommendations

And more!

If you’re ready for change, want inspiration, practical advice, or learn how to love yourself for who you are, this interview is for you.

What did life look like for you when you were diagnosed at 10 years old?

When I was diagnosed I was shocked, but at the same time, I didn’t understand the seriousness, that I would just be sick all the time. I thought I’d be really sick for a week, then I’d be fine and back to school. I didn’t know what chronic meant yet.

It wasn’t until I was sixteen I fully understood the concept of an autoimmune disease. Until that point, I pretended like it didn’t exist.

It was at sixteen I wanted to start to take responsibility for my life. I was ready. It’s not something that someone else could tell me, it’s something I had to figure out for myself.

What was the catalyst for wanting to take responsibility? Was it at the time your condition escalated?

Yes, exactly. During my teenage years, I spent a lot of time in hospital. 2010 was my worst year. At that time I was put in isolation because I was at high risk of infection. I was really unhappy and felt isolated. But I needed it, It was good for me.

Why was isolation good for you?

Because there was a part of me that was really angry about what was happening to me. I thought “why do bad things happen to good people?” I was an expert at playing the victim card, and happily playing that victim role. Of course, at the time I didn’t know this — it was all subconscious.

Going into that isolation forced me to strip all of that away and stop playing this victim. I went into isolation for a really big shift. It forced me to reflect and start to question my beliefs.

Asking myself “what if this is all me, no one else? And, “what would happen if I took 100% responsibility?”

Sometimes we are dealt cards in life that are not ideal, but it’s not what happens to you, it’s what you do, or create with what happens to you.

Inevitably, everyone gets lessons in life, but sometimes it happens way later. I feel lucky that I got it so early in life because it’s a chance for awakening — I believe I needed to go through that at really young in order to be successful.

I know you’ve been on an empowered healing journey for seven years now, but you had to take medication for a long time, is that something you still have to take?

It has been 7 years since that decision to shift my journey, and how it has taught me and changed me is nothing short of remarkable.

As for medication, when I first started getting sick at ten, they put me on cortisone — a very common anti-inflammatory — which is okay in the short term, but in my experience doesn’t do you any good in the long-term. I started to experience arthritic joints, facial swelling, and weight gain. It was pretty full on because it changes you on a physical level. I remember going to school and feeling so embarrassed about having huge cheeks. It’s not something that is easy to explain to other kids. It usually ends in a lot of confusion.

I’ve had a lot of medications, I feel like I’ve had it all! A lot of anti-inflammatory drugs and immunosuppressants, but the biggest drug was given to me in 2010, the year I was really sick. I ended up going on an infusion drug, which meant I had to be in the hospital every eight weeks. For me, that was an intense drug with intense side effects, but the way I responded to that drug was absolutely incredible. It absolutely saved my life and I am really grateful to science and the medical profession because it brought me back from the dead.

Wow, I can relate to this on so many levels. Your symptoms for one, but also having a love-hate relationship with drugs, because they’ve both helped and harmed me. It’s wonderful you have that appreciation.

Absolutely, though this drug was not a long-term solution, it bought me time. Time to reflect, to research and look for other options. Even though they told me I needed to be on this drug forever, that didn’t gel with me.

Now I’m completely drug-free [seven years later].

You say you were near death. Could you explain what you were going through?

I did come rather close to death, and I know that sounds dramatic, but it was bad. At 16 I was weighing in at 41 kilos and I couldn’t eat, but desperately wanted to. Everyone who saw me thought I had an eating disorder, but trust me, all I wanted to do was eat. But my body was so inflamed it would reject it. I was getting skinnier and skinnier and my hair was falling out. I lost about 70% of my hair, but it’s all back now.

That’s why they put me on that drug, it was to bring me back, they needed to get me eating again.

You were told you would have to be on drugs for life and live with this condition forever, how did you reject that idea, and decide to take control?

First, you need to understand the autoimmune mechanism. Right now there are 180 different autoimmune diseases, but the only thing that differentiates these is the part of the body they attack. The underlying mechanism is the same.

So for me, it was about understanding:

• How does this autoimmune mechanism work?
• What is happening when that gets activated?
• What are the things I have control over that feed that autoimmune mechanism?

There is always something we have control over. Even when I was told it was genetic, that I had to live with it forever, and that I had no control. I didn’t believe any of those things because it didn’t make sense to me.

I ask this because it was true for me — did you have an underlying ‘denial’ that this couldn’t be true, “I can’t accept this, this will not be my life”?

Absolutely, I kept telling myself this will not be my future. I am not going to have them make that decision for me.

Amen sister!

I always had a vision that my life was going to be different. It was going to be better. I had such a strong determination that my twenties were going to be something different, “I don’t care that I lost all my teenage years because I’m going to make up for it in my twenties”, which is what I’m doing today. It was a manifestation.

I did a lot of hard work on myself. I used to say, no obstacle is too big, no change too hard. I didn’t care what I had to cut out.

This is a really important point because a lot of people reading this have gut conditions and allergies. Some extreme, some less so. But I remember sharing with you my struggle of cutting so many things out of my diet. Then you made this beautiful distinction, could you share that with us?

Of course! Yeah, I really love this!

I always say, “I gave up the symptoms, not the food”.

Because when you say to yourself “I don’t eat gluten now, but trust me nothing is missing in my life’, you start to learn how to make gluten-free sourdough or other replacements and are grateful for what you can have.

Focus on what you can eat, not what you can’t.

Part of being healthy is changing the way you think — the way you view the world, and view everything! I remember when I was told, as soon as you add in all the good stuff, and you’re completely focusing on what you can eat, and completely immersing yourself in that, there’s no room for the bad. Only then will you find yourself forgetting about all that other food.

You talk about giving up gluten as an example. I no longer eat it either, but for those who still eat it, or are struggling to take that next step, could you explain why that was important for you?

Gluten was such a blanket of inflammation in my body. Then I learned how gluten, across the board, is not biologically appropriate for anyone.

Some people say “I can eat gluten. I don’t have any gastrointestinal symptoms”, but it’s a lot deeper than that.

 

I know exactly what you mean, if I eat a little bit, I don’t have gastrointestinal symptoms anymore, but my skin will hate me for it, then I’ll start to get anxiety and brain fog.

Exactly! It’s not always about the gastrointestinal symptoms, it’s also what’s going on at a blood level. Sometimes you don’t have symptoms at all.

For example, you can be eating gluten, not have any sensitivities, not be a celiac, and not have gastrointestinal symptoms, but still, be building up antibodies in the blood.

Research on this shows that over a seven-year period, a build-up of antibodies is attributable to the development of autoimmune diseases.

To learn more about this you can read a book called The Autoimmune Fix by a (doctor) friend of mine.

In that, you’ll learn about protocols and the autoimmune mechanism. When you understand that mechanism you start to see how it links to our modern way of life. How we’ve created this modern epidemic with how we live, what we put in our mouths, the thoughts we think and our stressors.

Understanding this mechanism helps us take more responsibility and gives us the path to change it.

What type of food do you eat? I know you get the importance of intuitive eating, but be specific here. What diet have you committed to?

Firstly, I want to clarify what a ‘diet’ is. The word diet, when you look it up in the dictionary is defined as ‘what a species eats for its existence’ — its entire life — not six weeks, not two years, life. I don’t like to use that word because of its modern connotations, but if you use it how it’s meant, that’s what I’m about.

I don’t eat gluten. I think for anyone with an autoimmune condition it needs to be the first to go — 100%! Some people think you can allow a little bit of gluten if they’re not a celiac, or have gluten sensitivities, but even a little bit can feed those antibodies. It’s happening at a cellular level. You’re not even aware of it until you get the blood tests to show you what’s actually happening.

There are self-proclaimed health experts out there who say gluten is okay, grains are okay, as long as they’re sprouted. What are your thoughts on that?

I understand that stance and where they’re coming from. My concern is that the gluten protein has changed. It’s completely different today than it was in say 1660. If you were in a little village in England in 1600’s and had a beautiful bread loaf, the way your body would respond to that is completely different to now. Even if it’s organic, or fermented because on a genetic level it’s different.

Having said that, I’m open to being proven wrong. I’m still learning and constantly evolving.

Plus, [when it comes to food choices] I don’t believe in ‘one-size-fits-all’. I think there are foundational principles that every human can follow, but it’s up to every individual to personalise their way of eating.

 

I COMPLETELY agree. What are the foundational principles that guide your food choices?

1. Don’t eat ‘man-made’ foods. Eat food that your grandparents would have recognised as food.

2. Focus on plants.

3. Eat high-quality meats (if you choose that). I’m not one to judge.

4. If you’re going to have grains, only have a small amount of gluten-free grains (e.g., rice or quinoa).

I like to keep things simple. Even though we do live in a complicated world. I use the term “simply complicated” because anything that is complicated can be simplified.

I believe everyone has defining moments in life, and they all start with decisions, big or small. Some are conscious commitments, others become clear in retrospect. What’s one of your defining moments?

I remember the moment where I fully committed, I was in my hospital bed in 2013 frustrated and determined this was the last time I’d relapse. I said, “I’m done with this, enough is ENOUGH, I’m never going to relapse again!” Metaphorically I put my foot down and ended it energetically, it was powerful.

The following year I was living in Byron bay working at a health retreat and working with food. I had all these chefs around me saying I should do GAPS, and at that point, that was the second time I’d heard about it. Soon after I committed to the GAPS diet [by Natasha Campbell-McBride].

How did you cope with that change?

Sometimes you hit a point when you’re that ready — you’re fully committed, and all of a sudden you don’t even care about social situations, being the odd one out, or care about junk food.

I was there. Every part of me was there. “I’m here, I’m showing up, I don’t care about all the things I’m ‘missing out on’”. I was just so ready to evolve. Ready to grow and heal.

I want to know what you think about diagnoses. My skin condition radially changed within a short period after taking medication, and so did my diagnoses, so I never took them seriously. But some people hold onto theirs, it becomes part of their identity, and others find it a source of relief. What are your thoughts on diagnoses, and what did you learn from yours?

When you have a diagnosis there is a very fine line between it helping you or harming you. A diagnosis allows you to recognise what part of the body is being affected so it gives you a focus, but you want to be careful not to make that label your identity.

Ten years after my diagnosis I had to ask myself, “who am I without this illness?”

Because I was labeled so young, I didn’t know who I was. “Who am I without Ulcerative Colitis?” It’s a journey I had to discover, I had to reinvent myself on a mass level.

Are there any mistakes you made along the way? What were your greatest lessons?

Learning how huge the gut is! It is the most underrated organ in the body. When I learned about the complexities of the gut, how we have these little microbes that live inside us that need to be nourished. And how that also related to skin health.

When I started to focus on healing the gut, it was a side benefit that my skin improved. People would say, “wow, you’re glowing!”

In hindsight, if my family had known what I know now, they would have immediately put me on the GAPS diet and we would have worked to heal my gut lining. I know many people who have been able to avoid the ‘dark place’ and the hard [prescribed] drugs. They hit the nail on the head and make massive transformations really quickly. But of course, I wouldn’t be who I am today without the journey.

I know you love learning. If you had to pick one book, what book has changed your life?

Primal Body Primal Mind By Dr. Nora Gedgaudas

This book gave me insight into the history of civilization and what tribes ate, the science of anatomy and how we have evolved. She talks specifically about what is biologically appropriate for our DNA. It answers the question of “how can we live in this modern world and nourish our ancient DNA?”

AND, because I can’t pick one…

The Power Of Your Subconscious Mind By Joseph Murphy.

A lot of my healing was due to shifting my beliefs and transforming my mind, and this book helps you do that.

If there was one piece of advice you’d give to help someone love the skin they’re in, what would it be?

That’s a good one. For a while, I struggled with that.

If you are struggling right now to love yourself for who you are, know that that’s okay.

We are so hard on ourselves for having negative emotions, but we are not meant to be happy every day. We are meant to experience a wide array of emotions. Some days we are going to be down and some days we’re going to be high and filled with joy. That’s all beautiful.

The beautiful thing about humans is we are in a constant state of flux, we’re always changing. With women especially, we are cyclical. We are four women in one month and that’s beautiful.

It’s so important to honour that. Rather than constantly working and fighting against our changing. The moment we stop judging ourselves and start accepting ourselves is the moment we make progress.

Get present with it [the struggle] and know in your heart that if you’re willing to go on the journey, that’s the first step. Anything can change if you want it to.

 

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How to connect with Sammi

Website: www.superfoodsam.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/superfoodsam/

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What did you love about this interview? What resonated with you, and what else would you like to know? Let us know in the comments below.

xx Jess