My Health Journey Part I

I’ve always considered myself to be a healthy person. I rarely get sick, and when I do, I get over it rather quickly. I grew up in a house where we ate fruits and vegetables with every meal, and never really thought I was an “unhealthy” eater despite how often I ate fast food. I mean my favorite snack was hot fries and diet coke, but it couldn’t THAT bad right?

A little over two months ago I cut all dairy, added sugars, processed food (additives and preservatives), legumes, starches, and grains from my diet. On the Paleo Diet I can eat fruit, vegetables, lean meats, seafood, nuts, seeds, and healthy fats. A fast food consuming, diet coke loving girl suddenly became a health nut. My hobbies shifted from crafting to cooking. My most frequented store use to be Hobby Lobby, and now it’s Whole Foods. I use to spend all my money on shoes, but now I mostly just buy groceries.

Why the change?

In 2009, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease called Hashimoto’s. Hashimoto’s disease is a condition in which your immune system attacks your thyroid, causing it to become underactive (hypothyroidism). Upon my diagnoses, I was prescribed a medication, which is basically a substitute for one of the three thyroid hormones that my body needs to function correctly. At that time, I did not understand, nor was it explained to me, how my autoimmune disease was connected to my thyroid problem, but they cannot be treated by the same medication. I thought that all I had to do for my body to be normal again was take a little pill every morning. So that’s what I did for four and a half years.

After I graduated from college, I started taking advantage of the extra time I had by going to bed early and getting a lot of sleep. A LOT OF SLEEP! I would sleep AT LEAST 8 hours a night, most of the time 9-10 hours. Even with all this sleep, there was never a moment in the day that I did not want to go to bed. I always needed a nap. For awhile I thought my body was just catching up on the last several years that I wasn’t getting adequate sleep, but after a year of lots of sleep and still feeling constant fatigue, I figured there had to be something else going on.

A little more back-story, at some point in the last 4 years, my thyroid enlarged again (which is why I originally went to the doctor) and even though they said my hormone levels were “normal,” they raised my medication dosage to bring down the inflammation. This never made sense to me. I couldn’t figure out how my hormone levels could be normal, but my thyroid could continue to struggle.

So I started doing some research. First, I looked up my disease and began to understand exactly what that meant for my body. I started connecting the dots between the autoimmune side of the disease and the hypothyroid side of the disease. Next, I started researching ways to treat my disease other than medication. The answer I found was eating a Paleo Diet. At first, I did NOT want to eat Paleo. I LOVE bread. Like a lot. Like more than anything else. How could I live without eating another Panera muffin? Or another slice of my mom’s incredible cheesecake?? I also really love cheese. But the more I read, the more convinced I was, that the Paleo diet was going to be the only solution for treating the autoimmune side of my disease.

I went all in. I bought 4 Paleo cookbooks at Barnes and Noble, made a meal plan and with a LONG grocery list in hand, I went to Whole Foods and bought enough food to feed an army. Seriously, I am so thankful my family has two refrigerators or I never would have been able to keep it all fresh.

The first week or two were overwhelming. I cooked every single night. My life consisted of sleeping, working, meal planning, grocery shopping, and cooking. Glamorous, I know.

Eventually I started getting the hang of it, and now I only cook a couple nights a week. I still go to the grocery store at least twice a week, sometimes more, but they are quick trips because I know where things are now (my first trip to Whole Foods took 2 hours). Most importantly, I began to FEEL better! I no longer feel like a need to take a nap every second of the day. I still need a lot of sleep, and getting up in the morning is the hardest part of the day, but no longer feeling constant fatigue is amazing.

My research also led me to look further into my hormone levels and the medication that I take. I discovered that my hormones were in fact NOT normal and the medication I was taking was not treating the one hormone that really matters when it comes to your thyroid. I recently went to a specialist, and was able to get a new prescription that should treat the hypothyroidism side of my disease. She also said that if I had not already been eating Paleo, she would be telling me to start. YAY! It was so encouraging to have affirmation that the research I was doing and the changes I was making were in the right direction.

I just want to encourage anyone who has ever been diagnosed with anything to do some research. See what information is out there, and don’t be afraid to ask questions. Listen to your body. You won’t regret it. The only thing I regret is waiting four and a half years to start doing research myself!

If you are interested in eating Paleo, I highly recommend purchasing Against All Grain by Danielle Walker. It is by far my favorite cookbook! You should also check her blog and her Facebook page!