My Second Hashimotos Remission Journey

If you’ve followed my journey on Instagram, then you know that I was diagnosed with Hashimotos in 2007. But if you don’t know my story, here are a few more details.

Before my diagnosis, I was healthy. I was an athlete. I was a normal 25 year until I wasn’t. It felt like it changed overnight. Maybe it did. Maybe I just ignored all the symptoms because I lost the most important person in my life at the same time. I’ll save that story for another day. But maybe you can relate and see yourself in my story. Maybe your body showed signs that you didn’t want to see or hear. Maybe it didn’t. But that was 2007. I didn’t do much of anything for YEARS because I was mad. I was frustrated that I needed to change. So, I did what any normal person would do and throw a massive pity party…. for SEVEN YEAR.

2014

You read that correctly. I had a pity party for SEVEN years. I did nothing other than throw a temper tantrum. But then something changed.

In 2014, I met someone. We got engaged. And I started thinking about my life. My future. Not only about what I wanted life to look like, but how I wanted to FEEL! I didn’t want to go through life feeling the way that I did. So I did SOMETHING. ONE THING. I started small. And that small action lead to a snowball.

2014-2017

Seven years later I was SERIOUS about wanting a change. I wanted to feel better. I wanted to do it the right way. I wanted to learn and be educated vs feeling like a victim in all of this. I started with my primary doctor. They told me to workout more and eat less. I then went to an endocrinologist. They told me to take medication the rest of my life. I wasn’t satisfied with that answer either. So what DID I do? I went to a naturopath where I finally got the education and empowerment that lead to great things. Not overnight and not in an overhwhelming way. But for the next year, I learned how a naturopath approaches an autoimmune. I learned how to listen to what my body was saying. I learned how to take those symptoms and translate that into the changes that my body needed. It wasn’t clear cut at first. But the more time I spent on it, the easier it got.

I focused first on healing my gut. I then focused on nutrition. Those 2 things ALONE made a huge shift in things. I started losing the 120 lbs I had gained. My hair started growing back. My energy started rising. My symptoms started reversing. I made a few more changes. I stopped doing workouts (CrossFit, Cardio, Orange Theory) that were tanking my adrenals and started doing other specific training that was fueling my body, instead of keeping it in fatigue. After that, I continued to refine the supplements I was taking and the self care I was doing. Instead of beating myself up to do more, I was slowing down and doing LESS, but feeling like my 22 year old self again.

2017-2021

Jan 2017 was the first time I heard the term ‘holistic remission’. It was a term that I didn’t understand, but I asked for how that was interpreted. Their response was ‘no symptoms, no medication, and numbers all in optimal range’. That was me. I was in holistic remission. In my late 30s. When I was always told that I would always feel like garbage and NEVER have a baby, I finally was feeling ‘human’ again.

Feeling good again gave me the confidence to pursue an option that doctors told me would never happen: motherhood. I had done fertility treatments in the past with no (obvious) success. But I was curious what the outcome would be now that my hormones were balanced, my body wasn’t fighting itself and inflammed. So in October of 2018 we started trying. In April of 2019, we were finally pregnant. In December of 2019, I welcomed our first daughter. A healthy, spicy little nugget who keeps me on my toes and worth the years that I prayed for her.

I gained 70 (unhealthy) lbs in that pregnancy and in January of 2020, I started my post partum weight loss journey. What plan did I follow? The exact same plan that helped me achieve remission in the first place. I focused on healthy nutrition, I focused on self care and sleeping with a newborn (I should also note that I became a single parent in March 2020), and things happened exactly the same way as my original remission plan. By October 2020, I was back to my optimal weight. I was healthy. I felt great. And that’s when I decided that I wanted to talk to my doctors about trying to have another baby. Alone.

2021-2023

From 2021 to March of 2023 I had MANY unsuccessful attempts to have another child. I had 2 late term miscarriages and many unsuccessful attempts to even get pregnant. In March of 2023, I stopped my journey to have another baby and went back to focusing on my health and wellness.

Here’s the plot twist.

March to June 2023

My old plan wasn’t working. No matter what I was eating, I was still gaining weight. I was having extreme fatigue. I had stabbing pains and heartburn. Something was off. I did a full panel blood test. All my results were in optimal ranges. I even took several pregnancy tests. Nothing. It was like I was right back at square one. And I was. But here’s how I found out what was going on.

On June 27th, I had a dentist appointment. In my early teenage years, I had several large fillings and I had chipped one of them in early 2023. Since it wasn’t an emergency, my dentist put me on their schedule and the soonest I could get in (with my travel schedule) was June. When I went…. THAT is when we found the problem. The tooth I thought I had chipped? I had actually broken it. And the 2 around it. And the one above it. I had broken them, exposed the roots, and had a MASSIVE infection in my mouth. They got me in for emergency dental procedures and in 48 hours, that infection was GONE and I realized that it was probably part of the problem. So I recovered from those surgeries, waited to be off antibiotics, and started BACK on the remission plan that has tried and true worked for me.

July 2023

On July 3rd, I started day one of my remission plan and started documenting it all HERE. I wanted to show people that I could be recovering from surgery, during a holiday week, summer fun, and so much more….and I could still make my health a priority. Again, I started with gut health. Coming off of antibiotics, I KNEW that I needed to re-establish my gut and I started with this gut and digestive stack that I absolutely love.

Then I reset my nutrition plan. I set my macros with slightly higher than normal fats to optimize my metabolism and help reduce the inflammation. I made it a priority to use my infrared sauna bag EVERY DAY to recover, and I took one day at a time. I didn’t rush to lose the weight over night. I journaled my progress. I kept track of my hormones. I was incredibly gentle with my daily life to heal my adrenals. I just had fun with the process. I removed the foods that I knew were inflammatory for me. I took a food sensitivity test to make sure nothing new popped up. And again, I had fun with the process.

I’m writing this on July 29th, which means I’m on day 26 of walking a new remission path. These photos were taken on July 24th. 3 weeks of progress. I lost a little over 15 lbs of inflammation. I reversed 80% of my symptoms, and I’m not taking it day by day to see what other tweaks I need to make.

I have always loved the holistic approach I take with hashimotos to focus on nutrition, filling in vital nutrients and vitamins, healing your gut, and small lifestyle changes. I love it because it’s being empowered to take control of your life. To truly create a lifestyle that you can live with. It’s having fun with food. It’s realizing you can eat dessert every day that heals your body. It’s realizing that there’s life AFTER (and with) Hashimotos. It’s not the death sentence I thought it was and thankful that you’re here to allow me to share my story and inspire you along the way.

I have different options and resources to help you in your journey. I never teach or ask people to do things that I wouldn’t do myself. If you’re ever curious the first steps to take in your journey, never hesitate to CONTACT MEand I can share how I educate and empower others in their Hashimotos Remission Journey.