My Plan ~ Be The Tortoise

                                

Am I right, or am I right?!  From trying to lose weight, to improving diet due to a medical diagnoses, I think I sit with the majority when I say, making the necessary changes is by far the most overwhelming task ever! Giving up bad habits, going on an elimination diet, committing to intermittent fasting, while giving up coffee, sugar and alcohol, gluten, and dairy all at once is not my gig! Kudos to you, if it's yours, but if I'm going to succeed, I need to take it slow, letting new habits form and solidify before moving on to the next.

Yesterday at the grocery store, the checker was trying to find the code for turmeric root. It wouldn't ring up no matter what she did, and she finally just rang it up under ginger. It was only $.08 so I didn't mind. Seeing the belt full of organic veggies, sprouts, fruits, grass fed beef, cage free eggs, and kombucha, she declared, "I need to lose weight! I tried and actually lost 10 pounds in a week, but I fell off and gained it all back." That was me about 15 years ago. Vegetables were mostly gross, I hated cooking (still so), and everything thing I ate was from a box, bag, can, or a fast food joint. I didn't change over night. I have been slowly  evolving for the last 15 years, many times taking one step forward, and 5 steps back, but never giving up. My grocery belt has been consistently healthy for years, no longer adorned with boxed mac-n-cheese and breakfast cereals.

When I decided to eat healthier, I took it one meal at a time.  I started with breakfasts. My love affair with cereal was replaced with eggs, avocado, and veggies. I chopped  veggies for the week to put in my eggs and got up earlier to make my breakfast, instead of pouring it into a bowl.  I waited for this to become almost second nature (a few weeks) before I would choose another meal to transform. This method works for me. I have developed all of my self  efficacy this way, and  strongly believe, I am the Tortoise. My goal is to approach Hashimoto's Thyroiditis in the same fashion the Tortoise raced the hare and I established a more healthy, whole food approach with my nutrition.

Step one is to learn as much as I can. As a fitness instructor I get asked about the latest diet all of the time. I give people the same advice I use myself. Research! Read, listen to podcasts, Youtube, and audio books. Learn everything you can. Be a defensive reader, never taking all the information presented as gospel, rather look for consistencies between all of the resources you find, and research  diversely so you find the controversy in different claims. Dr. Mark Hyman, Pedram Shojai, Dr. Sarah Gottfried, Dr. Josh Axe, Dave Asprey, are Dr. John Bergman, are a few of the people I have been following for the last few years via podcasts, Youtube, and social media, so I feel I have a good base knowledge already set up.  I recently finished the book, Hashimoto's Protocol by Izabella Wentz and I am now reading (audio of course) Hypothyroidism and Hashimoto's Thyroiditis by Sarfraz Zaidi, MD. Using my research will help determine my step 2 .

I hope you stay tuned. Please subscribe to my blog and leave comments below! Let's talk!