Thyroid Warrior Podcast

Today, I have no words...

100 EPISODES! You all have been with me through some amazing times and I just want to say thank you!

What a way to end our series about forming habits. To be able to stay consistent through 100 episodes is no small feat.

Thank you for going on this thyroid journey with me and here's to another 100 episodes!

I am so proud of you for taking the time to do this very very difficult work, it is not easy, and it is not fun. No one really likes to look inward and see the things that aren't so great about us. It sucks. It does. However, when you start the process of actually doing the work, you be surprised at how much you uncover, and how strong you really, truly are because I'm going to tell you something...when you're managing an autoimmune disease a thyroid disease, you just do not have the same amount of energy as the person sitting next to you. You have to try to hype yourself up constantly to get things done. So I want you to have some pride in the fact that you are doing it.

As you're making these changes, you are starting to implement things little by little. What are you saying to yourself? It goes back to our affirmations, I am healthy, I am healed. I am strong. I am intelligent, I am capable of doing hard things, and I am well, I'm productive.

Every time you remember something, celebrate it.

Every time you can take one more step, celebrate it.

Every time you recognize how amazing you are, celebrate it.

Big Announcement!

On Monday, I start a 14 day empowerment camp!

🎆14 Days of workouts

🎆Access to a Private Facebook Group

🎆Nutrition and Meal Prep Tips

🎆Fun Challenges

🎆Mindset Prompts

🎆Accountability and Support

Sign up at joyfulebony.com/empowercamp

On today's episode, I want to talk about your past, and typically this is not something that I am a fan of however, from a behavior change perspective, I want to take a look at that.

This will help to clarify some of the things that may have worked really well for you and things that didn't work well for you. I wanted to start off by asking you that very question:

What worked for you in the past?

What were some of those habits that you had. How did you get things done? Was it because you have more energy or was it because you had more help. Were you getting up earlier? What was your work life balance like at the time?

I realized that I needed to have the spirit of just being open. I also had to make sure that I have boundaries in place so that I can honor the things I need to get done, and the person that I'm trying to become.

So when you're looking at the things that worked for you in the past, I want you to ask yourself:

How can I start to implement the small changes that we talked about last week, so that I can begin the process of living a happier, healthier and more joyful life?

We just spent time understanding the basics of nutrition. Now, it's time to put the knowledge that we learned into practice. The way that we will do this is to establish healthy habits. Now we just hit the beginning of March, and this is typically when folks are like, "oh, okay, great. I made new year's resolutions, and I'm done". No. Don't do that. Don't give up, you totally got this.

I have started listening to the book called Atomic Habits by James clear, and he made a very good point in his book (well, a lot of good points), and that is this, our goals are just pillars, so to speak, but really the way that we get things done, are through systems and processes.

I used to hate processes, I did not like structure, until I realized that my wellness and my health journey was dependent upon me being a little bit more structure. So I had no choice.

I had to learn how to create an identity for myself, and this is oftentimes something that's very very challenging for us, particularly when you have an autoimmune disease because sometimes you can really become lost in that and I don't know about you, but for a long time. I just saw myself as having a thyroid disease. I didn't look at myself as someone that was healthy. I didn't look at myself as someone that was capable of lifting weights or running again or doing any of the things that I'm currently doing now. I had to take a moment because it's really emotional because for so long, I did not think that I would ever be where I am right now.

Here's the question that I want you to ponder today...

What does a healthy person look like to you?

Your kidneys are a powerhouse. They sit below your diaphragm near your back and they deserve so much love! They cleanse your blood, they help your body absorb key nutrients and they get rid of waste products.

I have had first hand experience of what happens when your kidneys don't function well and I wanted you to also understand that when you have issues with your heart, it can also impact your kidneys. Two key blood tests to determine kidney function: creatinine and BUN (blood urea nitrogen). If these values are too high or too low, it can indicate an issue with kidney function.

Love on yourself today and also stay hydrated! Give your kidneys a break.

We know of our blood pressure as being two numbers: Systolic and Diastolic. The first number or the systolic number is going to represent the pressure in your arteries as your blood goes from the heart. The bottom number or the systolic number that bottom number or the diastolic number. That is the pressure in your arteries when your heart rests between beats.

According to the American Heart Association:

• Normal is considered 120 over 80
• Anything above 140 over 90 is considered hypertension.
• If you have a value that's between the normal and high ranges it is considered pre hypertension.

Almost 78 million people or one out of three Americans that are currently living with high blood pressure.

Now, one of the things that you'll also hear is, you shouldn't have a lot of salt. Understand that salt is made up of two compounds, Sodium and Chloride. Sodium is a vital component that we need, but the other thing that you have to consider is that salt is actually made of about 40% sodium and 60% chloride. We can get much of the sodium that we need from the vegetables in our diet (if we consume the appropriate amount). The problem comes when you actually take in too much salt. It will cause you to retain water. Your body responds to that by saying, "Wait a minute, I'm getting too much water. Let me raise the blood pressure of my body so that I can get rid of that extra water retention and salt."

It then becomes a problem and creates a very vicious cycle. Fun fact: The recommended amount for us to get in terms of sodium is 1500 milligrams, or about three quarters of a teaspoon of salt. We take in an average of 3500 milligrams daily!

So, how do you actually step away from the salt shaker?

• I actually took away the salt shaker from my table.
• I stopped, adding salt to my food while I was cooking and opted to lightly add it at the very end of the cooking process
• We know that a lot of the processed foods and the junk food that we eat has a high level of sodium. So when you start the process of reducing the amount of processed foods that you consume, naturally your salt intake will go down.

Want another fun fact? Beets have a similar effect to what nitroglycerin would have when you experience chest pain. It works by creating nitric oxide, which relaxes your muscle fibers (particularly those in your heart) and allows for more blood flow. The nitrates found in foods such as beets get converted into nitric oxide and our bodies use it the same way (so cool)!

Eat your antioxidant rich foods, because, again, you want to make sure that you're supporting nitric oxide production in the body.

Foods that have nitrates:

• Rhubarb
• Cilantro
• Butter leaf lettuce.
• Mesclun greens
• Beet greens/Beets
• Swiss Chard

I wanted to really dive deep into the topic of diabetes because it runs in my family and I definitely want to have more of a conversation ace you've actually swallowed and the food has gone down your esophagus into your stomach, and then goes into your digestive tract. After you've swallowed and things have gone down your esophagus and they go into your digestive tract.

During the digestion process, your body breaks down the food that you eat through your saliva. As the food travels from your esophagus to your stomach/digestive system, all of the basic building blocks that our body needs to function are broken down. A by product is also sugar, which after traveling through our bloodstream, it is also stored in the muscles.

The key with sugar; however, is that it needs an invitation into the cells of your muscles and this is where insulin comes in. When insulin attaches to a blood sugar molecule, a chemical reaction occurs and through this process, the door is opened to allow sugar to enter into your cells. When your body has issues with this process, this is what leads to diabetes in some cases.

If you don't have insulin working properly. You can't really get that that sugar to enter your muscles in your system, effectively, and so you develop this abundance of blood sugar in your bloodstream, which ultimately what will happen is, with that buildup of blood sugar, it's going to start the process of actually damaging your internal organs.

Enter the types of diabetes…

Type One Diabetes is also considered an autoimmune disorder and during this process, the beta cells that are created by your pancreas that produce insulin, don't work...they're actually destroyed by your body. Because of this, your body doesn't have a way to invite the sugar into your cells and and a person would need to take insulin to help their body process the sugar.

With Type Two Diabetes, what can put people at a risk for developing it is when you're overweight or obese and inactive.

There are ranges to consider for diabetes as well:

No diabetes: 126 mg/dl

Hemoglobin A1C

Normal: 6.5%

There are also risk factors related to diabetes as well:

• When you are African American, Hispanic, Asian, Native American or Pacific Islander, you're also at a higher risk of developing diabetes
• If you're 45 years of age or older
• If you've had gestational diabetes or if you delivered a baby that was greater than nine pounds.
• If you're not active you're overweight or obese
• If you have high blood pressure

Always consult with your doctor about these risk factors and think about some of the common symptoms:

• Frequent urination and it's not a urinary tract infection
• When you're noticing that you're really thirsty or not really satisfied after eating
• If you have fatigue which I know it's going to be difficult, because you have that thyroid condition but also issues with your vision being blurry
• If you notice that your wounds are healing fast
• If you're getting frequent infections or severe weight loss and especially in type one diabetes, you're going to experience a lot of nausea and vomiting, and honestly sometimes you might not even have symptoms

Everyone talks about the need for fiber, but what exactly is it useful for?

In this episode, we will talk about that very thing.

The American Heart Association eating plan recommends that we have at least 25 grams of day of fiber, but on average, we get about half of that per day. I don't know about you, but because of my thyroid condition, one of the symptoms for me was constant constipation. I wasn't comfortable, and I was in pain, which I realized now that I'm more regular that this was something that also contributed to my brain fog, issues of irritability and anxiety because your body isn't doing what it was intended to do.

Important note: I will be putting together a guide for the topics that we've covered in the last series...you'll definitely want to head to joyfulebony.com/email to get on my email list because that's where I'll be sending out the guide.

Understanding our immune systems can be tough. I struggled for years to understand it.

In this episode, I talk about our immune system and provide you with a quick list of foods to help!

Now, many of us know about macronutrients and sometimes you'll hear them refer to as getting your "macros": carbs, proteins and fats. However, we also don't talk about calories in terms of energy and fuel. The question that I always ask myself if how will I use food as fuel?

This episode unpacked quite a few concepts, but the primary thing discussed was micronutrients.

Simply put, micronutrients are your vitamins and minerals: water soluble vitamins, fat soluble vitamins, minerals and water.

The good thing is that when you eat a well rounded diet, you will get many of these nutrients in the food that you consume!