About seven years ago I was doing my morning workout when I passed out and ended up with a concussion and stitches to my face. What I didn't know is this was the beginning of a sick, hopeless journey for me. See I thought that working full time, going to school full time working out twice a day and surviving on caffeine, and only enough calories for a toddler while raising young children was healthy. I thought it meant I was dedicated and a hard worker. The years of chronic stress, not providing my body appropriate nourishment and the never ending busyness had caught up with me. After that point I experienced rapid weight gain, chronic fatigue, excruciating joint pain, migraines, numbness to my face and arms, terrible periods, brain fog, anxiety depression...the list goes on and on. I went from doing it all to feeling like I could only do the bare minimum. I saw doctor after doctor who told me I was definitely sick but they couldn't figure it out. They threw diagnoses around like PCOS, rheumatoid arthritis, auto immune conditions, hypothyroidism but lab test after lab test was in the "normal range". I felt hopeless I knew if I could just get that magic diagnosis or bad lab result they would help me and I could finally fix it.
Years went by with me feeling like garbage. I would get back in to working out hard to not lose a pound and feel so tired afterwards that I could barely keep my eyes open. I was finishing up my psychology degree when I decided I wanted to get certified as a Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner. To help find more natural solutions to help my clients with depression and anxiety, but I ended up learning so much more. I heard story after story of people like me who had debilitating health conditions that they felt weren't getting better with prescriptions. Which was the only thing their doctors offered to "fix"them. They felt unheard and given up on by their doctors, so they found a better way through functional nutrition. I decided at this time to do a hormone balancing eating plan and work on nourishing my body with food and supplements. After 30 days of this I was feeling a little better and then... I ended up pregnant with baby number three. After my son was born I knew I had to really figure out my health to be here and healthy for my kids. I went to a hormone specialist and got labs done. All those magical diagnoses I was looking for I got: Metabolic syndrome, adrenocortical insufficiency, fibromyalgia, vitamin d deficiency, iron deficiency, low thyroid function, low estrogen, testosterone, progesterone and DHEA. The list goes on...the doctor was surprised I was functioning as well as I was because my labs finally showed how sick I was. Then came the plan hormone replacement therapy, metformin, thyroid medication, and other supplements. I thought I would feel happy because now I knew what I was fighting and could come up with a plan. After a couple months of taking some of the prescribed medications I knew... all of these medications would only at best improve some of my symptoms they weren't going to fix the root cause of all these problems. I also knew that this was all this specialist was able to offer me.
It was time for me to nourish my body to give it the necessary tools to be able to function as it should. I had the education and all the tools but implementing it is a different story. Especially when you don't even have enough energy to do what's necessary every day. What my body needed was identifying the areas I was deficient in and not functioning optimally, healthy nourishing foods frequently, gentle exercise, and focusing on my mental health and stress. I'm still on my health journey and what took years to develop won't be fixed immediately, but I have to share the education and tools I have with others. I want to help all those people who feel unheard or like they are not taken seriously. All the people who are given medication after medication to mask the true problem. The people who don't even know where to start. Because the thought of doing anything extra is so exhausting or overwhelming you almost don't want to try, but you know you can't keep living sick and just going through the motions. I see you, I hear you, I am you. Don't give up! You can feel healthy, energetic, happy and vibrant again!
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