I am a living example that the body was designed to heal.
Hey there! I’m so glad you’ve taken the time to read through my site. Whether you’re here because you are interested in forming a health alliance, or because you’re hoping to find some great recipes or information, I’d love to take a minute and tell you about my story.
In 2008, I had just moved back to Oklahoma and was living an unhealthy, standard American lifestyle, typical of a single woman in her late twenties. I ate fast food for breakfast, typically forgetting to eat most of the day and often having nothing but wine and popcorn for dinner.
When I became unexpectedly pregnant, I was forced to take a look at the ways my lifestyle impacted my growing child. I found I had extra time on my hands-- most of my friends were still going out till all hours of the night, and that wasn't on my agenda anymore. I went down quite a few rabbit holes of research on the impact that everyday products can have on a person's health and began changing up everything from the food I ate to the body products I used. I didn't have any major health issues at this time, and I enjoyed a healthy pregnancy. I even got into running long-distance post-partum, completing a full marathon and many halves. I became a certified yoga teacher as well as a personal trainer, and after deciding I no longer wanted to work in advertising I went back to school to earn my MS in Clinical Nutrition.
When my son was diagnosed with ADHD early on, I went down even deeper dives of research to figure out how I could help him to function more easily in a conventional school classroom.
My second pregnancy and birth in the middle of graduate school added another layer of stress to my life that at the time I thought was manageable, but it soon became apparent that I was not well.
I was consistently experiencing fatigue, insomnia, brain fog, and joint pain but chalked it all up to #momlife because my physician told me I was just tired and stressed -he wasn't entirely wrong, but that was also a bit obvious!!
I continued staying up late into the night to complete my school work, waking up early to teach yoga classes in order to make ends meet, and caring for two young children during the day while my husband was at work.
I began adding to my laundry list of symptoms- chronic headaches, bloating, inability to lose weight despite lots- AND LOTS- of exercise- all this in addition to fatigue, insomnia, brain fog, and joint pain.
I switched physicians, and my new doctor suggested I had food sensitivities, so I eliminated gluten from my diet and felt some mild relief from joint pain and bloating and my chronic headaches disappeared.
During my time in graduate school, I was learning more and more about what these symptoms might mean,
but my new physician still wouldn't test my thyroid function and told me I just needed to sleep more -she wasn't wrong, but also not completely right! I was so tired I would fall asleep on short car rides, I still couldn't lose weight, and I felt like I was missing out on quality time with my children and husband.
After graduation, I was lucky enough to begin working for a functional medicine physician, and he agreed to test and evaluate my thyroid- and was adamant that we include thyroid antibodies.
Sure enough, my thyroid hormones indicated subclinical hypothyroidism and my TPO antibodies were entirely too high, meaning I now had a Hashimoto's diagnosis.
Although it was a relief to know this actually wasn't all in my head, I had to figure out where to start on unfurling the tangled list of potential causes for my autoimmunity. I started with the gut and discovered through stool analysis that I had a parasite called Blastocystis hominus- a very common factor in developing Hashimoto's. I successfully eradicated parasites and my digestion improved almost immediately. Over the next 5 years, I began tackling many aspects of my health.
I discovered several chronic nutrient deficiencies and began supplementing to improve them, and I took a much more emphatic approach to manage my stress and sleep quality.
Addressing sleep and stress was KEY in healing my body.
I stopped working late into the night and began getting daily exposure to the morning light. I stopped over-exercising with crazy amounts of cardio in an attempt to lose weight and began strength training with heavy weights instead. I disconnected from social media outlets that I knew triggered a stress response. I learned breathing exercises that could calm my heart rate in the middle of an adrenaline rush. I continued retesting my nutrient levels and changing my supplement regimen as needed.
Almost 7 years later, I don't need to nap in the middle of the day in order to stay up until 9 pm. I can attend my kids' multiple weekly sporting events and cheer excitedly from the sidelines. I'm able to walk my dog 3 miles a day and still strength train 5 days a week, but I prioritize rest days as well. I rarely get a headache, my joint pain is gone, my brain fog has almost entirely disappeared, and I rarely have reactions to food (although I'm still 100% gluten-free, and likely always will be).
