Growing up, I was a very thin, petite girl. I ate tons of junk and never had to worry about my size. I had no health background and at the age of 17 I was diagnosed with hypothyroid. I had been diagnosed with a number of digestive issues during my pregnancies like IBS and I was prescribed over the counter medications which only made me feel worse. I was then diagnosed with PCOS which left me with cysts , painful periods, and insulin resistance. I felt tired and bloated, and I was always in pain. After my second baby was born, the scale tipped at 195, and that is incredibly heavy for my height  5’2. I remember going to a store, and they didn't even carry a pair of jeans in my size. It finally hit me that it was time for a change. After having my first I suffered with gallstones and had to do an emergency surgery to remove my gallbladder. I was never told after that I would have to accustomed my diet to a low fat diet following other precautions no surgeon or doctor was able to educate me on.

 

I started out with crash diets-- Shakeology, Atkin’s, the Soup Diet. I even tried Dr. Oz’s supplements. These were all quick fixes, but they were impossible to stick to, and the scale went right back up. I also felt sluggish, fatigued, and hungry! I was so discouraged from failing until I realized that “diet” wasn’t the answer, but a change in my overall habits would be the key.

 

I started researching what it means to have a healthy lifestyle, particularly what can aggravate my hypothyroidism, a metabolic disorder. I discovered that processed ingredients needed to be eliminated from my diet immediately following a dairy free gluten free lifestyle. Once I did that, I lost ten pounds. Every time I walked into a market and picked up a box, I would Google the ingredients I didn’t recognize. I also took on the challenge of taking my favorite recipes and substituting the unhealthy ingredients I love my food what can I say . I would get to eat my chocolate cake, but with almond flour subbed for the traditional wheat flour. No diets allow chocolate cake! That’s the beauty of a lifestyle change. A slight alteration can make the biggest difference. I also made sure to commit to one exercise class per day. Improving my health and losing weight was one of my top priorities, and every day took effort and dedication but my overall health needed it. I learned how to balance my healthy lifestyle and still be able to attend gatherings and holidays and be confident and ok with the food choices I made . I would think to myself I am in control , I can learn to balance and still take care of myself by having more good days than bad days with my diet. 

 

I truly believe that eating right, staying properly hydrated, and exercising regularly will lead to a better quality of life aside from what was the most important with was  dealing with my emotional and mental health. I motivated myself to get to therapy when needed.  After losing the weight I was determined to going back to school and learning. I enrolled at Integrative of Nutrition , the next year became a personal trainer, and the year later at Natural Gourmet Institute where I learned more about nutrition , body and healing.

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In 2018 I had been feeling chronic symptoms creep back after my miscarriage. Prior to getting pregnant I dealt with Epstein Barr Virus. Whatever I had I made the commitment in educating myself  and constantly reading books for weeks on the subject. After my miscarriage It had not only effected me physically but emotionally and mentally. My hormones were acting up my thyroid levels weren't well and then I realized I still needed to learn more about hypothyroid . It came to my realization that I was dealing with Autoimmune Disease this whole time and that Synthroid had completely stopped working for me . It had also came to my attention that all of the 30 Endocrinologists that I met haven't been testing for full thyroid panels and made me feel like my symptoms were normal.

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I had my whole life where doctor after doctor would dismiss my gut issues with nothing to find no biopsy or endoscopy would tell until I bumped into Dr. Ben Lynch's book Dirty Genes. I learned more about genetics and how we can express our genes with diet and enviromental stressors. I learned I had MTHFR and that my own childrens symptoms matched with what I was learning at the time. I wasn't going to give up and thats when I decided I needed to take the Functional Medicine route where I met my new  doctor who started treating me as a whole person and didn't ignore my symptoms . We started a more natural medication to my hypothyroid and 7 months later I felt so much better . My symptoms went from over 30 of them to 2 . To name a few : bloated all the time, sweating, heart palps, low iron, inflammation, brain fog, memory loss, gaining weight easily and always pre-diabetic. He ran further testing alongside my Naturepath and found that I was suffering from adrenal fatigue, mold toxicity and candida. Was this it ? Had these toxins and imbalances be the answer to all my symptoms ? I am still learning the connection but won't stop at education and now have become a Licensed Health Practitioner in order to run labs on clients to get down to the root of their symptoms . I was tired of being masked with medications and can't watch others go through what I have been through. Life is short , our symptoms don't need to be dismissed and you need to keep going until you find a doctor who will listen and get to the root of the symptoms.

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My belief is that weight loss cant happen when you are dealing with chronic health issues. The only way to lose weight and maintain it is  making sure your body is in balance and that there is nothing blocking your bodies pathways in order to detox, metabolize and heal. Looking back 8 years ago I would have told my old self to stop trying different diets and wasting money. To work on my inner self , eat natures food and everything will follow .My huge motivation was to become a Doctor or Dietitian after all that has happened to me but then again I think to myself western medicine had failed me. Knowledge is power and that my love for continuing education still grows for orthomolecular medicine, Ayurvedic medicine, Functional medicine, Chinese medicine and herbalism ,Naturopathy , Bioregulatory medicine and eastern philosophy. 

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My next mission is to work on writing a book and learning more about Kinesiology, Blood Chemistry and Muscle Testing . Today I work pretty closely with all of my doctors and chiropractor and at the age of 30 and I feel reborn!

 

 

I am now set on helping others feel as good as I do now mentally, physically and emotionally.

 

All the best,

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Eve

Eve