Some of you may know my holistic wellness journey began after I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism, an under active thyroid, and Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, an auto-immune disease.
I had visited an endocrinologist after months of dreadful fatigue, brain fog, gut issues, and lethargy.
I was sleeping up to 12 hours a day, usually exhausted by 10 am after a full night’s rest. I could fall asleep almost anywhere.
My thyroid was enlarged and inflamed. The bloodwork showed it was under attack from my immune system. The ultrasound discovered 2 thyroid nodules.
My diet had always been atrocious and my lifestyle had always been poor, but suddenly, I felt it. And dreadfully so.
The Medication
The treatment plan for my diagnosis was quite simple: Replace the thyroid hormones.
How? Synthetic thyroid hormones.
I was told once I began this medication I could never go back. I would be taking it for the rest of my life. Which sounded awful, but I couldn’t go on with this fatigue.
So I began a relatively small dosage of Levothyroxine, a synthetic thyroid hormone that is commonly used to treat hypothyroidism, an enlarged thyroid, and/or thyroid nodules.
I had never heard of healing yourself naturally. I had never heard of a holistic lifestyle.
I had never heard of a diet & lifestyle change even impacting your body & mind (outside of weight loss).
Until I stumbled across a story online about a young woman in her early 20s who holistically healed PCOS with her diet and lifestyle.
Of course, to me, it sounded like hippie pseudoscience. But I was so intrigued I began learning about her story.
This was my first inclination to begin attempting to heal myself holistically. She made it seem possible.
Plus there didn’t seem to be any downfalls. I mean the worst that could happen is it doesn’t heal my thyroid, but maybe my skin looks clearer, I look leaner, and perhaps live a little longer?
My Motivation
After my brief introduction to a holistic lifestyle, somewhere on the crazy internet I stumbled upon a Instagram post that read something like this:
How many middle-aged individuals do you know that take just one medication? How many people do you know that started off on one pill for blood pressure or cholesterol, but now relies on several pills a day? Then ask yourself “why?”
Every adult I know relies on at least 3 forms of medication. At Least.
But it never starts that way. It starts with one right? One small, harmless, innocent pill, right? Sure.
But it always, and I mean always, escalates to more. Before you know it, you’re sorting dozens of pills in those little weekly pill plastic organizers.
Why does it always escalate to this over time?
Treating a health problem with medication is often just a simple band-aid over the problem.
Medical school doesn’t teach doctors to address the root of the problem. It teaches doctors to treat the problem.
Catherine Shanahan, MD; Deep Nutrition
In most cases, medication will not treat the root issue. It is an attempt to patch it over and forget about it.
So as with thyroid hormone replacements, you are just minimizing the symptoms of hypothyroidism.
This medication wouldn’t solve the root problem(s). This medication wouldn’t compensate for a poor nutrition-deficient, poor lifestyle.
I hated the idea of relying upon medications for the rest of my life all because I was too lazy and stubborn to change what really mattered: my lifestyle.
So I began researching as much as possible.
What was the root cause of Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis? What was causing such dreadful fatigue & brain fog?
I found some life-changing facts that when applied, completely changed my health & the way I view & live life!
The First Changes
After a bit of research, I made a discovery. Leaky gut syndrome.
Leaky gut syndrome is a little too much to explain over here, but I’ve written another post you can explore:
Read: What is Leaky Gut? Is it Dangerous? + How to Heal
Essentially, Leaky Gut is often the root cause of many, many health issues (thyroid issues, auto-immune disorders, continue…)
Upon further research, I discovered gluten was a common food intolerance for many with auto-immune/thyroid disorders.
This was the first ingredient I decided to completely remove from my diet.
I felt much better. This was just the first change I made in addition to a variety of others.
To read about every other dietary change I gradually made.
At this point, I was still struggling to cut out gluten-free processed foods. My diet was still full of refined sugars, dairy, and simple carbs.
After a little more investigation into leaky gut, I decided I would eliminate dairy from my diet as well. Just to see if it helped.
And it did. Tremendously.
While eliminating both dairy and gluten seems extreme to some, I think was a blessing for me, as weird as that sounds.
I genuinely didn’t know how a healthy human being was supposed to feel. I had never eaten even remotely healthy before. Not even a single meal.
I thought you were supposed to feel tired and sick after meals. I didn’t know what a healthy digestive system even meant. It’s a shame we’re so used to health problems & sluggishness. The average human doesn’t even know what they’re supposed to feel like.
Not truly.
Eliminating these two ingredients forced me to change my diet. Most processed foods contain one or the other.
Read: How I Healed Hypothyroidism with My Diet
Again, some see it as extreme restriction, I see it as a blessing. It was challenging, for sure. I had LIVED on processed foods my whole life. But little by little, it got easier.
Today
So, eventually I got here. My diet consists primarily of fruit, veggies, nuts, seeds, eggs, meat, and seafood. Grains don’t treat my gut nicely. I stay away from vegetable oils at all costs.
(Is it weird to say you are in love with the way you eat? Because I kind of am…)
In terms of lifestyle, I’ve completely abandoned synthetic fragrance.
Candles, body wash, body lotions, air mists have all been gone (which, I admit, sucks, but they’re is so toxic it’s not even worth it).
Artificial fragrance is gaining the title “the new secondhand smoke.”
My fitness routine is something that changes. I’ve found my body doesn’t do extremely well with high intensity training.
I find that pilates, resistance training, walking, and yoga give me the best results. Remember everyone is different..
Related: HIIT vs LISS? Which is Best for Fat Loss?
Of course, this isn’t everything I’ve changed within the last 5 years. I simply wanted to quickly discuss my original motivation for my holistic healing journey.
To discover more on healing your thyroid holistically, click here.
I truly love the way I feel and feel so grateful for the resources that have helped me get here.
invest in healing,
madelienejeanne
