Hi Sunny D!
It took me 6 months to really get ahead of this disease through diet and feel like I was more in control. But I did feel some benefits right away in the first week, especially where my gut was concerned. The bloating, cramping and colitis symptoms were the first see major improvement. So I was super motivated to keep going. I know its a lot harder to stick with it when you don't see any benefits right away.
My suggestion for one last push is to try a short green juice, smoothie, and soup reboot. This means focusing on fresh fruits and veggies juiced, blended, and then simple bone broth soups and soups like my cooling cucumber gazpacho. Maybe try this for a few days over a weekend and see if you notice any added benefit? Focus on drinking lots of water in between "meals" to try and flush out your system, and lemon water with a pinch of pink Himalayan sea salt. The lemon juice is actually alkalizing to the body and the salt is full of minerals, (this lemon drink can be very helpful for re-hydration and detox headaches for those eating a keto diet too). This reboot is a chance to flood your body with nutrients that are "predigested" by juicing/blending for easy digestion. I always feel tons better when I "reboot" like this. I have my favorite starch-free juice, smoothie and soup recipes in my cookbook, and also have a few on my websites. I HIGHLY recommend watching the "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" the first documentary (can be found free online, link below, or a few bucks on amazon) for major inspiration, then you can also find lots of juicy/smoothie recipes from Rebooting with Joe (same guy who made the documentary) online,
http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com/I want to stress the reboot as a good thing, and not a thing where you feel like you are punishing yourself. More of a "let's nourish my body as much as I possibly can", relax, and dedicate a few days to detox of soaking in hot epsom salt baths, reading good books, and drinking a bounty of fresh greens, veggies, and low starch fruits. The last thing we want a reboot to do is stress you out, so if it feels to daunting just add in one full starch free meal each day, preferably a lunch. Then focus on liquids for dinner and breakfast.
My longest reboot juice fast was 14 days, and oh my I felt AMAZING!! but now I can get a great benefit after just 24 hours to 3 days of juices/smoothies. Check out this blog for an AS reboot too, we were "rebooting" at the same time a few years ago:
http://farmerkskitchen.com/ks-reboot/I do think this diet takes time because we are starving out a whole ecosystem of "bad" gut bacteria and trying to encourage the good guys to come back and flourish. When we get to a point of systemic inflammation in our bodies from AS I believe it takes at least a few months (or longer) to really help our body and cells rebuild as we wipe out the inflammation, and in a sense retrain our bodies and gut bacteria on using these new foods as fuel. The "bad" bacteria and yeasts like candida get awfully angry when they are starved out, but after a few months I was at a whole new place where I CRAVED nutrient dense foods and the site of refined processed pastries and sugars no longer tempted me in the slightest. And it also takes time for out guts to heal, for the "leaky gut" walls to heal back up so they no longer let the bacteria and food particles leak through causing the inflammatory response in our body's. This is how my non-science brain understands it at least!
Also I would try cutting out the carrots, too starchy for me to include in my everyday diet, I only eat sparingly.
Let us know if you start feeling any better, okay? I admire you for giving this diet a good try. I would love to see you get some relief soon!!
