Are You A Night Owl? (insomnia, sleep apnea, thyroid, adrenals & gut health!)
Would you consider yourself a night owl?
One of those people who does their best work at night, you get a “second wind”, maybe feel “wired but tired”, or have trouble falling asleep before midnight.
I’m definitely not, never have been.
But many of my clients come to me proclaiming that they are “naturally” night owls, and often times they have been for most of their lives…that is until we start working together and find what’s really been keeping them up at night.
I don’t believe anyone is a true night owl.
We’re not meant to be night owls- it’s in our very DNA. People are diurnal (aka day dwelling creatures) unlike our beloved pet cats and many other nocturnal (night dwelling) creatures.
The first ever research about human primal sleep patterns was released this year and guess what it showed – we are meant to fall asleep within about 2 hours after sunset and naturally wake up about 20 minutes prior to sunrise.
Yet a lot of us struggle to get to sleep before midnight, dread the alarm clock going off before 7am and have to drag ourselves out of bed.
There are a lot of things that disrupt our sleep patterns these days. Some of the most commonly known ones are; artificial light exposure, lack of exposure to sunlight during the day, too much sugar and alcohol in our diet and city noise.
But there’s one thing (actually three) that secretly disrupt your sleep.
You can’t see, hear or even feel these things most of the time. They lay in the darkness and wait for the sun to go down before they start screwing with your sleep.
I’m talking about parasites, bacteria and yeast overgrowth in your gut.
These gut invaders are nocturnal organisms, so when you’re ready for bed they are just getting the party started.
In this week’s video and blog I talk more about how these gut invaders disrupt your sleep, why being a night owl isn’t normal and how it all sets you up for thyroid and hormone imbalances, sleep apnea, insomnia and more!
Let’s set the scene for how sleep basically works in the body…
Cortisol along with melatonin are the two primary hormones that regulate your sleep and wake cycles.
Cortisol is what gives you energy to get up in the morning. It should be at its highest level right around the time you wake up and then it slowly tapers off throughout the day until darkness when it reaches its lowest point just after sunset, allowing you to fall asleep.
Then enters melatonin which rises after sunset as it starts to get dark, to keep you sleeping soundly. As the sun rises, it becomes brighter outside and melatonin lowers so you can wake up with cortisol again.
Unfortunately gut invaders mess with this beautiful dance between cortisol and melatonin.
Cortisol is also our stress hormone and gut invaders cause a LOT of internal stress. With their nocturnal nature, they get active when darkness falls causing a lot of internal chaos and distress. This internal stress then spikes your cortisol levels at night and disrupts your sleep pattern.
This spike in cortisol at night from gut invaders is the “second wind” or “wired but tired” feeling you might be familiar with- it’s artificial energy.
Melatonin is mainly produced in the gut, about 80% of it to be exact. When gut invaders are present they can cause two things to happen…
One- Melatonin is also a natural antioxidant, 200% more powerful than vitamin C. The body recognizes gut invaders as an “infection” causing the body to pump out more melatonin to fight the infection, thus disrupting your normal melatonin patterns and sleep.
Two- The chaos that gut invaders ensue suppresses melatonin production over time as they damage the intestinal lining where melatonin is made, making it hard for you to go and stay asleep.
When gut invaders are present, the adrenals also start to go into overdrive, pumping out cortisol trying to keep up with the internal stress and working to adapt to irregular sleep patterns.
Once cortisol and melatonin are out of balance it’s like a domino effect.
The thyroid is usually the next to go down since it’s so closely regulated by the adrenals, and all hell breaks loose.
One of the number one symptoms of Hypothyroidism is insomnia. If you have insomnia then, is it really insomnia? Or do you just need to check your thyroid and adrenal function, and for gut invaders that are triggering them to be out of balance?
People with sleep apnea (a disorder that affects sleep quality because of blocked breathing pathways) also suffer from daytime fatigue, apathy and feeling lethargic which are also symptoms of Hypothyroidism, dysfunctional cortisol and melatonin rhythms.
Hypothyroidism may contribute to sleep apnea by enlarging the tongue, a condition called macroglossia. But what’s contributing to the Hypothyroidism in the first place, intensifying it and causing macroglossia? Yep, those darn gut invaders.
I work backwards to solve things like insomnia, sleep apnea, and general poor sleep quality to find the underlying hormone imbalances in the thyroid and adrenals, and ultimately I always find a gut invader as being one of the biggest underlying contributors to all of this chaos.
Start to reconsider your night owl-ness, insomnia, sleep apnea and thyroid imbalances. Are they really that plain and simple, or are there underlying healing opportunities like gut invaders yet to be discovered?
Join me next Tuesday (9/13 – note date changed from 9/8) with Master Life Coach and Hashimoto’s Thriver, Molly Hamill, for our FREE webinar Your Gut: the Secret to Healing Your Adrenal and Thyroid Issues
We’ll be talking more about how gut invaders impact your hormones, sleep and overall health, how to go about testing for them and getting rid of them!
Are Gut Bugs Manipulating You?
Do you remember the scene from Alien (1979) when the alien emerges from John Hurt’s stomach?
Isn’t weird to think that something could be living in your gut that is controlling the way you think, how you eat and what diseases you possibly get?
It might not be an alien but there are plenty of other gut invaders that could be manipulating you.
People (you included) are walking around every day with no idea that their gut is likely hosting one of the 3 main types of gut invaders…
- Parasites
- Bad Bacteria
- Opportunistic Yeast/Fungus
It is normal to have small amounts of these gut invaders in your colon but when they become an overgrowth, that’s when they become a problem.
For example, it is estimated that 50% of the world’s population has an overgrowth of H. Pylori, yet 80% don’t display any of the typical symptoms.
Some studies show that more than 50% of healthy women and men host colonies of Candida Albicans yeast, with 60% of those who suffer from it being women, 20% are men, and 20% are boys and girls.
The crazy part is that these gut invaders play a huge role in the daily choices that we make.
They can literally dictate the food we choose to eat, our mood, the balance of our hormones and our susceptibility to autoimmune disorders.
To learn more about how gut invaders specifically impact your thyroid and adrenals join me next Thursday (9/8) with Master Life Coach and Hashimoto’s Thriver, Molly Hamill, for our free webinar Your Gut: the Secret to Healing Your Adrenal and Thyroid Issues – REGISTER HERE
But for now, let’s talk about how these buggers are altering the way you think and do things…
In this week’s video and blog I talk more about how gut invaders impact your thoughts, mood, weight and health.
With my one-on-one and group coaching clients we are always talking about gut health. It is the cornerstone of your overall health. If something’s a brewing in there, it’s no bueno!
Your gut is where 80% of your immune system is housed.
It’s where you produce 90% of serotonin, your happy hormone, and dopamine, your well being hormone, along with 30 other different types of neurotransmitters that balance your mood.
Your gut is what keeps toxins out of your bloodstream, where nutrients from food are absorbed and it even has it’s own nervous system network – hence why it’s called the second brain.
The health of your gut is a big deal.
When gut invaders such as parasites, bacteria and/or yeast move in they suppress your immune system making your more susceptible to colds, flus, viruses and other diseases.
Here’s what else these gut invaders do…
Cause Cravings – Foods that contain gluten, dairy, sugar, soy and alcohol are like crack for gut invaders. Gut invaders can interfere with appetite by either directly mimicking satiety and hunger hormones or by indirectly inducing an autoimmune response. If you find yourself craving these foods often or a lot, this could be a sign that you’ve got something taking over your gut.
Mess With Mood – Certain gut invaders such as Clostridium difficile (C. Diff) have been linked to depression, mostly because it inhibits the production of your happy hormone serotonin. Gut invaders also produce their own neurotransmitters (aka mood hormones). Some neurotransmitters are calming and others are energizing. If you have gut invaders contributing more energizing neurotransmitters it can cause anxiety and the more calming ones would contribute to depression.
Weight Woes – Gut invaders create internal stress as they throw off their own waste and byproducts (bug poo) that are toxic for the body. They also mess with your sleep cycles. This combo of chaos disrupts your cortisol, stress hormone, and cortisol dysregulation is linked to weight gain particularly around the midsection.
Janky Joints – Some parasites such as Blastocystis Hominis (Blasto) and E. Histolytica (E. Histo) like to get up in the synovial joint fluid creating all kinds of inflammation and joint pain. Joint pain is not necessarily a sign of getting old, it’s highly likely you could have one of these buggers, especially since Blasto and H. Pylori like to hangout together and H. Pylori is so prevalent.
Autoimmune Triggers – They say you have to have 3 things in place for an autoimmune disorder to present itself; the gene, leaky gut and some kind of environmental trigger. Guess what!? Gut invaders such as H. Pylori, Borrelia, Blastocystis Hominis and E. Histolytica are some of the most common triggers for autoimmune along with gluten. If you have an autoimmune disorder you can manage your symptoms better by getting rid of these gut invaders, or if you’re predisposed to one based on family history, you can try to prevent it by cleaning out your gut!
If you find that you just don’t feel like yourself, can’t control your cravings or get rid of pesky joint pain it might be time to look internally to see what could be going on in your gut!
Join me next Thursday (9/8) with Master Life Coach and Hashimoto’s Thriver, Molly Hamill, for our free webinar Your Gut: the Secret to Healing Your Adrenal and Thyroid Issues
We’ll be talking more about how gut invaders impact your hormones, mood and overall health, how to go about testing for them and getting rid of them!
A Recovering Cortisol Junky… (+ LAST DAY ADRENAL TEST DISCOUNT!)
I was never addicted to caffeine, drugs or other substances, but I was addicted to cortisol and abusing my body.
(Side note- before I jump into my story of cortisol recovery, I want to quickly remind you that my special Cortisol & Hormone (Adrenal) Test offer ends today! Check out the details and purchase here.)
Back to my story…
I used to feed off the rush that I would get from working under pressure. It was almost as if I would intentionally wait until the last minute to do things or I would take on extra projects and responsibilities just so I could work under pressure and get naturally high from it – it was a happy, anxious feeling.
I remember buzzing around like a crazy worker bee, fueled by being overly productive all the time and damn proud of it! I viewed being productive as one of my best qualities.
I worked long hours during the week, I exercised for long hours almost every day and I stayed up burning the midnight oil on the weekends.I fed my body processed low-calorie food to keep my weight down, alcohol to let loose, and starved it from having any downtime.
I eventually started to crash and burn – it all started to catch up with me.
I was what I now call a “cortisol junky”, living off cortisol all the time and feeling turbo-charged as a result of it.
Cortisol is our fight or flight hormone that is released when we’re stressed. It is supposed to give us the energy we need to run from whatever danger is stressing us out – a lion, a car accident, a natural disaster.
Our body doesn’t know the difference between those life-threatening circumstances and the artificial stress that we create in our lives with work, devices and expectations that we place on ourselves.
The adrenaline can be addicting. We feed off of that stress response, feeling amped up from the cortisol rush and keep pushing through whatever the pain might be.
When I was about to turn 30, but felt like I was 40, I knew something had to change.
In this week’s video and blog I talk more about being a cortisol junky, the cortisol high and what a day in the life of a recovered cortisol junky looks like now…
The constant stress put me in a state of cortisol or adrenal dysfunction, and it was taking a toll on my health. I didn’t know it at the time because my adrenals were in overdrive, pumping out cortisol, making me feel like the energizer bunny.
I look back at how I was moving through life and I can’t believe what my body was tolerating. It was screaming at me to slow down. I was anxious all the time, had dizzy spells, constantly felt like my heart was pounding out of my chest and I was always running out of time.
I eventually reached my rock bottom and got the reality check I needed the first time I ran an adrenal test on myself. My cortisol was off the charts, and my estrogen and progesterone were super low as a result.
I decided I wasn’t going to tolerate living this way anymore. Three years later, my days look and feel much different.
Here’s a snapshot of what a day in the life of a recovered cortisol junky looks like…
Then – 5:40am drag self out of bed, immediately have coffee, check emails, feel stressed and anxious about number of emails and things to do
Now – 5:40am wake up without an alarm, feel rested and peaceful, mosey around the house
Then – 6:45am do a crazy intense workout and feel wired but tired after
Now – 6:45am do a workout that is energizing, but not exhausting, with some stretching
Then – 8:45am rush to get ready, check emails every minute, moving a mile a minute to get things done and get to work, spill things and forget stuff
Now – 8:45am get ready, meditate and set mindful positive intentions for the day
Then – 12:00pm scarf down food while working before next meeting that I crammed in, fighting to keep my eyes open and energy up
Now – 12:30pm eat a relaxing lunch while sitting outside
Then – 4:00pm hit an afternoon slump, need coffee to stay focused on work and awake
Now – 4:00pm meeting with clients and working on projects at full steam
Then – 7:00pm check emails until bedtime, watch TV, Facebook, mind racing about the next day
Now– 7:00pm walk the dog, meditate for 30 minutes, check Facebook for 5 minutes
Recovering from cortisol dysregulation means learning to let the little things go.
I had the power to change things. I didn’t work in an emergency room, so no one was going to die if I decided to do things differently.
Getting my adrenals tested is what empowered me to make the changes.
Cortisol dysregulation inhibits our ability to handle stress, thus making us feel more stressed and dysregulating cortisol even more. Yet, we feed off the artificial energy and adrenaline-like feeling that cortisol gives us. It’s addictive just like a drug and it can become a vicious cycle.
The long-term side effects of cortisol dysregulation can be very serious. It predisposes us to cardiovascular and autoimmune disease, alzheimer’s, diabetes and premature aging, just to name a few things.
In this day and age with all the stressful demands in our lives, I’m a firm believer that everyone should be getting their cortisol tested as a tool to improve their health. It was just the reality check that I needed to turn my life and health around.
It’s my personal mission to empower you, too, by giving you the tools and resources you need to take back control of your health, which is why I’m offering you a…
Discounted Adrenal Test!!!
For Just $459 You Get
One Comprehensive Cortisol & Hormone Panel Test
+ 90-Min. Results Review & Recommendations Session
(that’s a $200 savings!!!)
SPECIAL ENDS TODAY- CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE
The symptoms of adrenal dysfunction (fatigue, weight gain, wired energy, etc.) can be easily overlooked and most people don’t realize they’re in it until it’s really affecting their health.
I like to say “don’t guess, let’s test!” – then you can consciously do something about it. Become empowered in your health.
Is Adrenal Fatigue Really A Thing?
You might have heard of Adrenal Fatigue before and even suspect you have it, but is it really a thing?
It depends on who you ask.
Most traditional medical doctors don’t’ recognize Adrenal Fatigue as a medical condition, yet they will diagnose other adrenal related conditions such as Adrenal Insufficiency and Addison’s Disease.
As someone who personally suffered from Adrenal Fatigue I can tell you- it’s real.
I was a kid who rarely got sick. I always got a gold star and clean bill of health after every annual check up. I’ve always been physically active and grew up eating relatively healthy compared to most people.
From the outside my health looked great, but on the inside there was a storm brewing.
In my mid to late 20’s, weird things started happening.
All of a sudden I developed seasonal allergies that turned into debilitating ear infections and migraines. I felt constantly fatigued and was relying on coffee multiple times a day to keep me going. When I got home I could barely keep my eyes open, if I sat on the couch to watch TV, it was lights out for me.
I started to develop anxiety that I thought was just related to my high stress sales job. My menstrual cycle became non-existent and I was having a hard time keeping my emotions in check. I struggled to maintain my weight even though I was spending hours exercising and cutting calories. My joints ached all the time no matter how much recovery time, supplementing or stretching I did.
Then I got skin cancer. The scary kind.
It wasn’t hereditary which means it was a direct reflection of my poor internal health and environment.
I was devastated and scared of what a future with skin cancer might bring. I started questioning my health. How was this possible? I studied health in college, was a personal trainer and the healthiest person I knew….so I thought.
I started searching for answers.
What I found was that I had Adrenal Fatigue, a clogged liver, elevated free radicals (damaged cells) and an overgrowth of H. Pylori bacteria in my gut.
In this week’s video I talk more about how I found out I had adrenal fatigue and what I did to reverse it.
Everything happens for a reason, right? It was no coincidence that the Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Course (a program designed to address functional health issues such as adrenal fatigue) fell in my lap at the height of my adrenal fatigue.
I completed the course as fast as possible. With my new knowledge I was able to quickly start turning my health and life around.
This program gave me access to functional lab testing. I immediately ran an at-home saliva cortisol test on myself. The test results had SO many insights on how depleted my adrenals were, how this was causing other hormone imbalances, and even some clues about gut dysfunction.
Based on my symptoms and test results, I created a personalized plan to rebuild my health that included:
- A diet that was right for MY body
- A sleep schedule to help my body recover
- A healing workout routine
- Stress reducing tools
- Specific supplements to support my body in the way it needed it most
Within a matter of days my energy had already increased! In the coming weeks and months I lost weight, my allergies and ear infections went away completely, my joints stopped aching, the anxiety was gone and my mood was stable.
Now as an FDN Practitioner, I support people in taking back control of their health in the same way- by giving them access to tools and resources (such as at-home lab tests), and guiding them on how to restore balance based on what their body needs.
In my upcoming FREE webinar “Why Am I in Adrenal Fatigue and What Can I Do About It?” with Molly Hamill we’ll be going into more detail about:
- What causes adrenal fatigue and how to identify it
- The best testing options and how you can get your hands on them
- How to reverse adrenal fatigue using diet, rest, exercise and stress reduction
Join us on August 16th to learn more how this might be affecting you and WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT!
REGISTER HERE
Are You “Accumulating” Thyroid Symptoms? (FREE Symptom Checker Inside!)
For the past few weeks I’ve been talking a lot about the thyroid – how it’s affected by food, lifestyle factors, and commonly misdiagnosed or overlooked because of improper testing.
But I just realized that you may not even be aware that something isn’t right with your thyroid in the first place so everything I’ve been saying might feel like it has nothing to do with you at all (which totally isn’t true!).
Let me ask you this, have you been accumulating random “symptoms”?
If you’re not sure, let me explain.
It’s assumed that over time our body just ages and naturally starts to breakdown. One indicator of accumulating symptoms might be some of the things you’re starting to tell yourself about your health as you age, such as…
I’m just getting older
It runs in my family
I’m just not as young as I used to be
I’m out of shape
My hormones are changing because I’m over ____ (fill in the blank with an age)
Any of those sound familiar? Here’s other examples of what accumulating symptoms might be that are NOT necessarily related to aging…
- Unexplained weight gain/loss or weight that won’t budge
- Swelling or water retention
- Lapses in memory
- Brittle, coarse, dry or loss of hair
- Fatigue that lingers all day
- Onset of indigestion or an increase in frequency of it
- Allergies that start “all of a sudden” or get worse over time
- More joint/muscle pain than before or longer periods of soreness post workout
These are “not necessarily related to aging” because they are also symptoms of a thyroid condition.
Here’s a real life example how accumulating thyroid symptoms related can be misread…
“Jenn – As you know traditional medicine set me on the path of a Hashimoto’s “diagnosis” and journey. When my period went all wonky (I’d skip months sometimes), traditional doctors tried telling me I was peri-menopausal. What?! Now a new issue? That didn’t sound right, and I wasn’t just in denial. I used to be regular, every 24 days on the dot, for 32 years until I started taking DHEA and pregnenolone as recommended by my doctor. In fact before the “remedies” to fix the “Hashimoto’s,” you could set your watch by it. It seemed like these problems were being compounded, not solved.
As soon as I started working with you, I was back to a regular cycle. That very first month, and ever since.
I feel more empowered than ever about my health and see changes and improvements that thrill me! I feel better, I have more energy, I wake up alive and ready to go – excited at the day ahead. Plus, I’ve lost weight.
I believe now, I will be healthier more than ever. Thanks for the gift!” ~ Tanya T.
Tanya’s story is a perfect example of how symptoms can accumulate from overall imbalance in the body as a result of a thyroid condition, or any other condition, and how they can be misread.
In this week’s video and blog I talk about the most commonly overlooked thyroid symptoms, how these are connected to other symptoms and systems of the body, and what to do about it.
To help you better understand how accumulated symptoms can be connected I’ve include a FREE Thyroid Symptoms Checker that you can download below.
CLICK HERE FOR THE THYROID Symptom Checker
Using this Symptom Checker you can evaluate:
- The most commonly overlooked symptoms that you are experiencing
- How impacted your thyroid might be
- What other systems of the body are being affected
- How your symptoms have become worse or have possibly improved over time if you’ve been making healthier lifestyle changes.
If you score the highest in the “Endocrine” system category, this is what regulates your thyroid, so chances are you have some degree of a thyroid imbalance and it’s impacting your overall health and wellbeing.
The American Thyroid Association (ATA) estimates that 12% of the U.S. population will develop a thyroid problem in their lifetime, and particularly it will affect one in eight women.
If you have reason to believe (based on the free symptom checker or otherwise!) that you might have a thyroid issue, then I want to invite you to take advantage of my SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY THYROID TEST OFFER-
For just $297 you get:
One Comprehensive Thyroid Panel Test + 90-Min. Results Review & Recommendations Session
(that’s a $200 savings!!!)
Offer ends August 11th and is limited to 10 people – SIGN UP HERE
There are still a few spot available. This is your chance to become your own Health Boss, to take a deep dive look at your health and find the missing pieces so you can actually fix what’s going wrong and start feeling like yourself again.
P.S. To learn more about all things thyroid you can still catch the webinar replay of Naturally Heal Your Thyroid here. And if you’re not sure if you should test your thyroid, then schedule a complimentary Ideal Health and Weight Discovery Session with me so we can talk about what’s going on with your health and if this would be a good idea for you! Schedule here.
The Thyroid Epidemic – Is It Affecting You?
I want to talk to you about something serious this week- the growing epidemic of thyroid conditions. The American Thyroid Association (ATA) estimates that 12% of the U.S. population will develop a thyroid problem in their lifetime, and particularly it will affect one in eight women.
Just about every client that I’ve worked with has either been diagnosed with a thyroid condition, has a family history of it or suspects that they have one.
If you see a doctor or Google reasons as to why you might be feeling tired all the time, struggling with weight loss, losing your hair, feeling cold when others don’t or have menstrual irregularities, chances are the information that you find will point to a thyroid condition.
These are the three most commonly diagnosed thyroid conditions…
Hyperthyroid – common symptoms can include; weight loss, anxiety, intolerance to heat, hair loss, excessive urination and panic attacks
Hypothyroid – common symptoms can include; weight gain, fatigue, intolerance to cold, constipation, depression and thinning hair
Hashimoto’s – this is a more severe case of hypothyroidism with a genetic component making it an actual autoimmune disease, meaning the body is attacking its own thyroid gland
However, in most cases thyroid conditions are a symptom of something else.
The body does not work as singular systems or organs all minding their own business. Each system of the body greatly impacts how all of the others are able to function.
To understand what’s happening with the thyroid, we have to start asking “WHY”?
Why is this thyroid epidemic happening? Why are people’s thyroids all of a sudden “just not working”? – as most of my clients are told
In this week’s video and blog I talk more the things you might be doing that are making you a victim of this thyroid epidemic and what to do to reverse it, or prevent it from happening to you.
We need to start looking at our body as the complex system that it is. Remember that song in pre-school…”the foot bone is connected to the ankle bone, the ankle bone is connected to the leg bone, la la la la…” – everything is connected!
Like I said earlier, in most cases thyroid conditions are a symptom of something else because it’s all connected.
If you have been diagnosed, know someone who has, or suspect that you have a thyroid condition here are the Top 4 Things Throwing Your Thyroid Off.
#1 – Low Calorie Diet
Calorie restrictions for as little as a few days can drop thyroid production by 38 percent! That’s just over a “few” days, imagine if you’ve been dieting for weeks, months or years even if it’s been on-and-off. Even if you lost some weight from calorie restriction, the long-term side effects are a slower metabolism from a famished thyroid.
#2- Clogged Liver
Your liver is responsible for converting 60 percent of your thyroid hormone. If your liver is clogged from chronic exposure to toxins, medication use, processed foods and other things then of course you wouldn’t be converting thyroid as you should and this could look like a thyroid condition.
#3- Adrenal Fatigue
One of main control centers of the body is the HPA-axis – the Hypothalamus, Pituitary, Adrenal Gland Axis. Consider this the conductor of the train or orchestra. The Hypothalamus links the nervous and endocrine system via the Pituitary gland, and your thyroid is part of the endocrine system. If you have Adrenal Fatigue/Dysfunction, guess what? There’s a domino effect causing imbalance in the thyroid.
#4- Amino Acid Deficiency
For the body to produce thyroid hormone, particularly one called free T4, it needs an adequate supply of amino acids obtained from proteins. If you are not eating enough protein or absorbing it optimally then your body is NOT getting enough amino acids to create thyroid hormones in the first place. With Hashimoto’s it is critical to support digestion and to consume plenty of protein for free T4-it will help manage the disease better. Alternately those without Hashimoto’s but with impaired digestion or lacking amino acids in their diet could be showing low free T4 counts and be misdiagnosed with a thyroid condition.
Chances are high that one of these four things pertains to you in some way. It’s rare to see someone who has never dieted, has optimal digestion and protein intake, doesn’t have a clogged liver or suffers from some degree of adrenal fatigue.
I want to help you NOT become a victim of this thyroid epidemic!
Join me Wednesday, July 27th at 6pm PDT for a freebie webinar on all things thyroid!
In this webinar my co-host Molly Hamill Ferguson (meditation master and Hashimoto’s survivor) and I will be discussing:
- What exactly is hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s?
- The most overlooked and tell-tale signs of thyroid imbalance.
- How to use food, mindset and more to naturally heal your thyroid!
A recording will be available if you can’t attend live but you must register to receive it 🙂
P.S. We’ve got some secret bonus giveaways and gifts lined up for the webinar so be there or be square!
Are You Running Yourself Into The Ground (literally)?
I’m curious, are you running yourself into the ground by pushing yourself to work out harder and for longer amounts of time?
I’ll be the first to admit that I totally found myself doing this recently, and it wasn’t the first time. I completely got caught up in my old mindset about having to work out harder to get results.
Doh {face palm} !!!
I was beating myself up about not being able to lose weight like I should. I used the guilt to fuel my motivation to work out harder, more intensely and for longer periods of time. I tried changing up my workout, lifting heavier and running longer.
As a result, what I got was…more fatigue, burnt out and I didn’t lose a pound.
I had what I call a mini-relapse. I eventually snapped out of it and realized I was doing my body more damage than good.
I see people running themselves into the ground like this all the time, making themselves fat, sick and tired (especially people who do CrossFit or running) and not even realizing that exercise is one of the contributing factors.
Typically exercise is good for us. When we work out, our body responds to the demands building stronger muscles and bones.
BUUUTTT, exercise could be making you fat, sick and tired.
This probably sounds crazy and backwards to you, but it’s the truth. When your body is already under a lot of stress then the wrong kind of exercise can add more stress. Accumulation of chronic stress over time creates a high demand for cortisol, which is directly linked to weight gain (particularly around the midsection).
In this week’s video and blog I talk more about exercise as a stress, how it was affecting my body, and what type of exercise is best to keep cortisol and other hormones in balance.
They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. This is exactly what I was doing during my mini-relapse. I had to take a step back, look at the big picture of what was going on with me and remind myself that my body needs rest.
You see, my body was already under a lot of stress from detoxing the toxic mold I had found in our house, and my body was giving me all kinds of signs…
Feeling tired even after a full night’s rest
Acne for the first time in my life
Weight that wouldn’t budge
Abnormal lack of motivation and drive
Feeling emotional and anxious
I tested my hormones and, sure enough, they weren’t happy. My Human Growth Hormone (HGH) was in the tank, my progesterone was low, and estrogen was relatively high. Coincidentally, the mold in our house is a species that specifically impacts HGH in women.
Ultimately, my body needed rest, not more exercise, in order to lose weight.
By pushing myself to work out harder, I was creating more strain and imbalance in my hormones. Like I said earlier, exercise is good unless your body is already under too much stress.
To eliminate the added stress from exercise, I altered my workouts to be more interval focused. I’m now running a block then walking a block (instead of continuously running) and only doing one long run a week for a max of 4 miles. I’m giving myself at least 60 seconds of rest between weight circuits and lifting for a max of 30 minutes.
I have SO much more energy, stamina and feel like myself again!
More and more studies are showing how detrimental long duration exercise or overtraining is for the body. Spending hours at the gym isn’t necessary.
Not to knock CrossFit, but I see this all the time in this community and with runners- pushing to their limits and wondering why they aren’t losing weight or why they feel fatigued all the time even though they are the “healthiest” person they know.
Stress can be everywhere. On the inside there is digestive upset, food sensitivities and toxic overload creating internal stress that can’t always be seen or felt. On the outside there is work and relationship stress, exposure to environmental chemicals and long duration exercise or overtraining.
As a Health Boss, you learn to recognize when your body is under too much stress and you have the power to control how you feel by becoming mindful of the variables and making adjustments as needed.
I had to (and still occasionally do) give myself permission to relax and let my body heal. It isn’t something that will happen overnight. If I’m as persistent about giving it space and time to heal as I was about working out, then the results will come when balance is restored.
If you’re finding yourself feeling fat, sick and tired all the time regardless of how “healthy” you are, then you might want to consider laying off the exercise a bit or changing it up. Focus on interval training for shorter bursts of time and incorporating restorative modalities such as yoga, pilates and tai chi. Your body and hormones will thank you for it!
P.S. Need help evaluating your stress load and workout routine? Schedule a complimentary Ideal Health & Weight Discovery Session here so I can help you look at the big picture and find the missing piece so you can get back to feeling like yourself again.
P.P.S. If you want to read more about the science of using exercise to balance hormones, then you should check out these articles from one of my favorite mentors, Dr. Sara Gottfried.
Mind Your H.E.A.D. And Hydrate
I want to talk to you today about two things…
- My new favorite acronym to monitor your health- H.E.A.D.
- Hydration
A few weeks ago I was sitting on a group discussion call with other Functional Health Practitioners discussing the key foundational elements that we focus on with our clients to help them restore balance to the body.
As a functional health coach, I can go really deep with a client, investigating all the ins and outs of their body to find all the missing pieces so that they can fix the problem and feel good again.
But the foundations never change.
If any of the foundations are not in place, then we fix that first before moving on to any deeper work. Once the foundations are in place, though, if their health still isn’t up to par then we investigate further.
Back to my story…someone in the group discussion mentioned this clever little acronym to outline the foundations. I run through this checklist when I work with clients. You can do the same for yourself and be your own Health Boss!
H= Hydration – every cell in your body needs water to function
E= Elimination – getting rid of waste products regularly via stool and urine
A= Absorption or Assimilation – of nutrients from food to support the body
D= Detoxification – moving toxins out of the body that can cause disruption
Hydration is the starting point. If you’re not hydrating properly, the rest of the cells in your body can’t do their job. You need water to eliminate, to assimilate and to detoxify too.
I have clients tell me all the time that they are “drinking plenty of water” but the reality is, they’re not. Plus, water isn’t the only way to hydrate.
At a minimum you should be drinking half of your body weight in ounces of water per day.
In this week’s video and blog I talk more about what hydration really means, how you can hydrate better and monitor yourself using the acronym H.E.A.D.
If you weigh 200 pounds you should be drinking at least 100 ounces of water a day. For every 30 minutes of exercise, cup of coffee, caffeinated or alcoholic drink, you should add another 8 ounces of water to that total.
When you actually begin to feel thirsty, that means it’s too late- you’ve already crossed the line into dehydration. Dehydration starts 24 hours before you feel it. This is why it is SO important to hydrate daily, especially during summer months.
Here’s how I hydrate daily to give you an example of how you can fit it all in:
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I drink one glass of water with lemon first thing when I get up
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I have a smoothie with breakfast and use water as the liquid base
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I carry around a 27 oz water bottle and aim to refill it 3 times daily
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Sometimes I even add in a cup of cold or hot herbal tea
Like I said earlier, though, drinking water is just one aspect of hydration. Making sure that your electrolytes are in balance and hydrating by eating fruits and vegetables are the other two components to making sure your body is fully hydrated.
Electrolytes is just a fancy word for the group of nutrients calcium, potassium, magnesium, sodium and chloride. You can easily get these nutrients from fruits, vegetables and in my favorite, sea salt. Coconut water also has the perfect balance of electrolytes, it is far better for you than any sports drink such as gatorade or powerade, which contain all kinds of artificial junk.
Without electrolytes your body can’t properly use the water you put in it. Here is how I maintain a proper balance of electrolytes and hydrate with fruits and veggies:
I have coconut water almost daily, especially after a hot yoga class or sauna session
I aim to eat 4-6 cups of fruits/veggies per day (get lots in my breakfast smoothie!)
I use sea salt to season just about everything
I occasionally do an epsom salt scrub or use mineral infused lotion
When your hydration is on point you should be eliminating regularly, meaning at least 1 bowel movement (1-3 is ideal) per day and you should urinate somewhat frequently. This is an easy one to track yourself.
Here are some signs that would let you know if you are NOT assimilating nutrients and detoxifying toxins as you should be:
You feel tired, even after a good night’s sleep
You have have weight you can’t get rid of
You get bloated frequently after eating or for no reason
You’ve been diagnosed with or suspect a thyroid problem
You have joint aches, pains or muscle cramps
As Ice Cube would say “you better check yourself before you wreck yourself” – be mindful of your H.E.A.D. When the foundations are out of place, the rest of the body’s systems will come toppling down.
P.S. Think your H.E.A.D. isn’t screwed on right? Schedule a complimentary Ideal Health & Weight Discovery Session here so we can check your foundations. One conversation could change your life.
Why I Do What I Do
When you get a physical, acute injury such as a cut what do you do? You usually disinfect it and slap a bandage on it right?
What do you do when you’re not feeling well on the inside or you have a chronic health issue that just won’t go away?
Typically, you would go to the doctor and they would slap one of their band-aids on it such as a medication, antibiotic or surgical procedure.
Do you ever stop to think why? How did this health situation come to be in the first place? Why is my body faltering in this way?
Think of it this way…if a part of your car just stopped working, wouldn’t you want to know why? If a perfectly good car battery is failing, a good mechanic would look at the alternator and all the different connectors to find where the missing link is, to find what is causing the car not to start. They wouldn’t just put a new battery in it and send you on your way.
We need to start looking at doctors like we do hiring other service-based professionals. They are supposed to serve you and your needs.
Case in point…
When I was experiencing some hormonal and weight gain issues, I went to three different doctors looking for answers and this is what they said…
I’ve never seen anything like that before, let’s just wait on it
Are you sure you haven’t gained 10 pounds of muscle in the past 18 months?
You should use progesterone cream
I’m sorry but expect your PMS to get really bad when you get off the pill
I was not having any of that! Talk about being a Debbie-downer, not a single resourceful or positive solution from any of them!
I initially felt discouraged and a little bit hopeless, until I turned within and decided I wasn’t going to settle for these helpless answers and feeling crappy.
More often than not, I have personally experienced or seen others experience more pain, discomfort and disappointment from the solutions that their doctor provided. We’ve put doctors on a pedestal and put our own intuition about our bodies to the wayside.
It’s time to STOP SETTLING FOR ANYTHING LESS THAN YOU DESERVE WHEN IT COMES TO YOUR HEALTH AND HAPPINESS!!!
In this week’s video and blog I talk more about how I refused to settle and kept searching for the right doctor that truly had my best interest at heart, and how I help others do the same so they can find real solutions and get back to feeling like themselves!
First of all, I wasn’t about to “wait” on what could be a potential, real health hazard just because my doctor had never seen it before. That was absolutely absurd to me.
Second of all, if you’ve ever tried to gain muscle you know how hard it is-especially for women. If I had truly gained 10 pounds of muscle on a 5’ 5” frame I would look like a bodybuilder, and I don’t.
Third of all, progesterone cream is the same thing as a Band-Aid. How about let’s figure out the reason for low progesterone and fix it so that I don’t have to use cream forever.
And finally, WTH lady, thanks for the encouragement about getting off the pill and supporting me in my decision.
My story is just one of many that I’ve heard…
(Note: I’m not using real names to maintain privacy in the following stories)
Take my client Jane. A mid-forties women who used to be full of energy and loved running. For some reason her energy began to tank- so much so that she couldn’t even pick herself up to run anymore. Her doctor told her that her thyroid “stopped working”, that she’s in menopause and prescribed her medication. And the result was… she felt worse! More tired and fatigued than ever.
Menopause can be predicted based upon family history, her mother is about 60 and just started it. Why didn’t her doctor put those pieces together? In my eyes, Janet has a classic case of adrenal exhaustion from chronic stress that is robbing her estrogen and progesterone balance and a sluggish liver that can’t convert her thyroid hormone properly.
Then there was Cindy. A mid-thirties women suffering from chronic constipation, bouts of diarrhea and stomach pain. She’d been to the doctor over and over again with complaints, but was never diagnosed with anything or presented any real solutions. After running a stool sample test with me, we found a plethora of goodies in her gut. A parasite called Giardia, bacteria and yeast overgrowth. After just a few weeks of supporting her digestion and eating the right foods for her body, she was pain free with regular bowel movements!
One more to paint the picture- Sara. She was just feeling “off”, suspecting something with her hormones. The doctor ran a thyroid panel, found nothing and sent her on her way. She came to me, we ran a stool test and uncovered a nasty parasite that requires an antibiotic treatment. She took the results to her doctor and he said he doesn’t think she has it because she hasn’t been out of the country in the past 5 years and doesn’t have diarrhea.
Anyone who googled this parasite (E. Histo) would find common knowledge on the internet that 9 out of 10 people don’t present symptoms of having it and you can contract if from animals, food and feces among other things inside our own country. Needless to say, I am helping her find a doctor who will work with us and prescribe the antibiotics.
These stories are disgraceful and absurd. Don’t get me wrong, doctors definitely have value but we as patients/consumers need to be our own health advocates (aka BOSSES!) and stop settling for poor solutions.
If YOU know something isn’t right with your body chance are you ARE RIGHT about it.
This is why I do what I do. My mission is to empower people in their health by giving them easy access to the RIGHT information, tools and resources they need to resolve their biggest health issues, to tap into their body’s information and heal their body naturally.
Do you have a story like this, or are you feeling disappointed by the traditional medical approach? Hit reply and let me know or share it on my Facebook Page so that together we can start the change for you and many others to come!
P.S. I’m here to advocate for you and teach you how to be your own Health Boss! Schedule a complimentary Ideal Health & Weight Discovery Session here so we can get to the bottom of what’s bothering you in your health. One conversation could change your life.
It’s Finally Happening!
This past year has been one with a LOT of change for me. It all began a while back when I finally decided to stop letting life and work run me and my health into the ground. I quit my full-time “corporate” gig, set my sights on taking care of myself and empowering others to take back control of their health too.
I jumped out of the entrepreneur gates relying on my personal training skills and knowing that I wanted to do more than just help people be active. There is SO much more to know about health than just eating right and working out.
My biggest struggle this past year was giving myself permission to go against the grain and create something that I really stood for. Not just personal training. Not just health coaching. Something with a bigger, stronger, bolder message.
Today I’m officially taking a stand as the (W)holistic Health Boss!
Let me properly introduce myself…
Hi, I’m Jenn Malecha, and I help busy, health-minded professionals take back control of their health by looking at it on a deeper level-to find the missing pieces so they can actually fix what’s wrong and feel like themselves again.
Using my decade of personal training experience, training in Functional Diagnostic Nutrition and mastery of Transformational Coaching, I create personalized health-rebuilding programs for clients that are realistic, sustainable and give them long-lasting results.
If you’re ready to look at the “big picture” of your health (not just one disconnected piece at a time), to embrace healthy as a way of being, and to stop settling for anything less than you deserve when it comes to your health and happiness, then I’m your gal!
In this week’s video I talk about my personal transformation into becoming the (W)holistic Health Boss and what that means for you and the thousands of others I hope to empower in the future.
As I started working as a health coach, there were a lot of similar struggles, frustrations and wants that I started to notice with my clients. All of which I could completely relate to…
- Career-driven but sacrificed health to achieve success
- Just want to feel like yourself again; energetic, motivated, healthy
- Value life and health but don’t prioritize it like you want or should
- Know something isn’t right but you can’t exactly put a finger on it
- Not sure who can help- doctor, trainer, nutritionist, acupuncturist, chiropractor, etc.
- Tried MANY diets, exercise routines, therapies and health remedies but none of them completely fix the problem
Any or all of these ring a bell for you or someone you know?
Here’s the problem…
Life and work took over. One health concern was ignored and others continue to pop up until one day you look in the mirror- you barely recognize yourself and you surely don’t feel like the energetic, fit, motivated and youthful person you used to be.
Somewhere along the lines you became dis-empowered in your health. The traditional medical system has disappointed you. You’ve been led astray by the media, the food and drug industry with so many fad diets, medications and quick fixes that don’t work. Again disappointment sets in paired with a feeling of “who can I trust” and “I don’t even know who to contact or where to go from here to get help.”
Then fear arises- “am I doomed to feel like this forever?” – the answer is NO!
Here’s my solution…
I want to empower you and thousands of others to…
- Take back control of your health
- To feel like yourself again – as one of my clients recently said 50 is the new 30!
- To embrace healthy as a way of being, not doing
- To heal your body naturally using holistic and functional medicine approaches
- To NOT settle for anything less than you deserve when it comes to your health and happiness
Through tackling my own health issues I know how frustrating it can be to find the right info and get access to the right tools, and that is just wrong! My master plan is to give you easy access to the information, tools and resources that you need in order to take charge of your health.
I have an AWESOME new website where you can get easier access to become more empowered in your health. Here’s just a few of the things you’ll find there…
- My favorite health products on Amazon that I’ve personally tasted and tested
- My latest newsletters with cutting edge info, now logged on my blog
- Stay up to date on any of my webinars, challenges, and other event offerings
- See the success that my clients have had and what they say about our work together
To get the ball rolling, I’d love it if you could fill out a quick survey to let me know how I can empower you more in your health, life and happiness!
Complete the survey by June 30th for a chance to win either 3 FREE HEALTH COACHING OR TRAINING SESSIONS with me – FILL OUT THE SURVEY HERE
P.S. If this really resonates with you as exactly what you’ve been looking for to help you get back to feeling like yourself again then schedule a COMPLIMENTARY ideal Health & Weight Discovery Session here.
