My journey into trying to get to the root cause of my health issues instead of the “Pill for an Ill” approach began when I was in my early 40’s. I had stopped teaching, the economy was just coming out of a recession, our house sold after a long time on the market, my dog had just been diagnosed with diabetes and my oldest was going to college. As you can imagine, my hormones were all over the place, which is why I had been on hormone replacement for years. I was also constantly fighting with allergy type symptoms, whole body & joint pains, feeling like my brain wasn’t functioning very well. I would loose words, couldn’t remember things well and felt disengaged often. All of this made me feel even worse about myself and insecure. Not a great place to be.
One of the worst feelings was extreme exhaustion mid-day, and I mean exhausted. 2:00 or 3:00 would role around and I would feel tired from the inside out. Do you know what I mean? I had a hard time pulling myself off the couch once I sat to rest. Crazy tired! I was also experiencing a whole host of other symptoms. I was puffy top to bottom, from my eyes to my toes. Usually this was for the last part of my cycle, but could be other times as well. I clearly had digestive issues along with other detox issues going on.
Stubborn weight seemed to be a constant source of insecurity because I had usually tried to exercise, calorie count and limit fats - the gold standard we were taught. The beginning of my cycle I would lose the water weight and puffiness leading to feeling like I had a handle on things once again. This was always quickly replaced by pregnancy type hunger, sugar and chip cravings, binge eating and all the weight and bloat again. So frustrating!
I heard about a Women’s Health Seminar hosted by a local compounding pharmacy and decided to go; I’m sure it was a God thing. After the seminar, the speaker allowed us to make appointments for a quick consultation that would help us to examine our symptoms and choose some wholistic supplement support.
Looking back, I’m still amazed at the connections I missed during that appointment. I focused on what I wanted to hear and the quick fixes of supplements and more bio-identical hormone replacement tools. No wonder it took so long to really get a handle on my health and symptoms. One of the big things that came up was adrenal function. She suggested I take Premier Labs, B Nano & Adrenal complex. I took it, but never made the connection that stress was really a problem. I told you, my brain wasn’t really functioning at full capacity.
She also suggested a plant-based progesterone since many of my issues were related to low progesterone. I knew all my hormone levels were low, so that wasn’t a surprise. Some of the other big suggestions were Vit. C, Omega 3, Magnesium Glycinate, Vit. D3, and Premier Digest. These were the supplements which were all good and needed, but she also suggested I radically change my diet - get rid of gluten, sugar and dairy with gluten being the most important.
I’ve always been sort of an all or nothing kind of person; not a lot of middle. I’m working on it! You can imagine how this played out. I decided I would go all in on this elimination and see if it worked. She said 2 weeks so that was the time period I allowed for becoming a new me.
Starting with a lot of time on the internet, several new cookbooks, and a list I made of what to buy and avoid, I ventured to the grocery store. Now I told you I went all in, and their weren’t a lot of gluten free items out there back then, so my cart was packed with every type of sugar and dairy alternatives, gluten free flours, binders, etc that were suggested on any list. I wasn’t even a big bread eater at the time, except for the bread basket at dinner and flour tortillas, but I was set to make muffins, loaves of bread, and all types of baked goods. I know my husband thought I had lost my mind!
Needless to say, changing my eating was mostly about what I was making next and my weight, which was always the main priority of course. My weight didn’t change. I also wasn’t feeling that much better to be honest.
Fast forward 8 years. I had maintained my gluten-free lifestyle for the most part, but not much else. During that time, I had gone back on bio-identical hormones again and expected miracles, but wasn’t getting any. I had also had a partial hysterectomy and my aches and pains were worse; feeling more like a 70 year old instead of 50. Clearly, something had to give.
I don’t remember the first connection I made to “getting to the root cause” type solution, especially since I thought that was what I was doing with the alternative hormone therapy treatment and mostly gluten-free lifestyle. Something in my head made me ask, “Why am I just replacing my hormones? Why doesn’t my body make them? What is really going on? Can’t I heal my body instead and get it to make the hormones on it’s own?, and Why aren’t doctors asking this question as well?”.
I was finally asking the RIGHT questions!! Fast forward to the benefit of technology. I was learning bits and pieces from YouTube’s and bloggers talking about how the body was a whole system and the symptoms were just an indication that something was off, my bodies alert system. I really need to work on healing systems that affected my hormone production instead of just pumping in more hormones. I needed to focus on my liver, my gut, my adrenals, etc. before I can see any real results because otherwise I’m just wasting my time. Can’t make a car run better by giving it better oil if there is already an underlying issue of a bad filter or a leak in the pipes.
This connection shouldn’t have taken so long, but like I said, my brain was sluggish. I made small changes, read a ton and became obsessed with webinars about health and healing. Being a former teacher and psychology major, I loved sharing information with friends who complained about certain health issues they were experiencing. God gives us trials in our lives so we have a testimony for others and to lead us in certain directions. We’re just not always paying attention.
Because of this new passion, ok obsession, I stumbled across a career opportunity I hadn’t known existed, Health Coach. I wasn’t actually looking for a new career, but I knew I wanted to do more now that my boys were leaving the nest. Several people I followed mentioned their training so I started looking it up. Imagine my surprise when I realized the Health Coach program a friend recently finished was the same program I was researching and leaning towards. Serendipity!! I jumped and haven’t looked back. I signed up for IIN, the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, the world’s largest Health Coach program.
I always thought having knowledge was power. One thing I learned during this journey is I can have all the knowledge in the world, but without more guidance and support, knowledge just piles up and action and results never occur. I’m sure you have learned something and thought it would be life changing only to look back years later to realize you never put the knowledge into practice. The importance of a Health Coach is similar to that of a psychologist, counselor, personal trainer, personal tutor, life coach, etc. Coaches help you set goals and expectations, provide information that is relevant to you specifically, keep you accountable, encourage you through successes and failures, work on limiting beliefs and behaviors, pick you up when you fall (which we all do), alter the plan and help you to continue to heal and grow emotionally, physically and spiritually.
That is the real goal after all, isn’t it? We focus on our weight and how we feel so much, we lose sight of the fact that what we really want is whole person healing, to live a balanced and full life, not just a person focused on weight and our insecurities. So are you ready to begin your healing journey? Do you want to work with someone who gets it and can help you achieve your goals now rather than later. Fill out the application using the link below to see if we are a good fit. I can’t wait to see your life fulfilled!!
p.s. If you find you have a passion around health as well and would like to pursue a career in Health Coaching, use the link below for IIN and take advantage of my personal discount. You will LOVE the training as much as I did. Feel free to email me as well if you have questions. IIN is currently running a Cyber Monday special. From today through November 19, my community will have exclusive access to the following savings and bonuses:
Save $2,500 (that’s over 35%) on tuition paid in full or $1,800 (that’s over 25%) on monthly payment plans.
Plus, get bonus gifts, including videos from our Transform Health conference and a live group business coaching call with IIN CEO Lynda Cloud and Head of Brand Jim Curtis!
