Heidi’s Hashimoto’s Overhaul (H20)

16 November 2018

Week Thirty Two, Thirty Three & Thirty Four

Heidi Strickland-Clark Heidi's Hashimoto's Overhaul (H20) autoimmunity, Hashimotos Thyroiditis

*** This blog is not to be prescriptive nor give you advice, merely to show you my way of navigating true health in a jungle of advice and pharmaceutical pressure. Please do your own research, ask your own specialists or contact those I have used if you wish to find out more about your personal condition and symptoms. To your very best health. ***

Another couple of weeks where I thought I’d not have too much to say. And to some extent that’s true.

We’ve had a week away where we were self catering, so food wise it wasn’t too much trouble at all. We ate out twice on the way up (seeing daughter and my dad) and both those meals I accepted as doing the best I could. Then whilst away we ate out once. The menu choices were fine but there was nothing that was on plan at all, in any way, shape of form. So I chose the best version and enjoyed it as a meal that was off plan. Gammon, egg and chips if you’re wondering!

Well being wise I’ve been much the same. Nothing changed or new.

Since coming back I’ve had an appointment with a NAET kinesiologist who was recommended to me by Janie back in August as someone who may be able to help me with my sluggish digestion. The work Janie had done with me had got me regular but not on my own and I think she’d thought I’d be further forward by this point. So I made the appointment then and have waited until now to see this new therapist.

I am aware that I have seen a lot of people this year. However I regard it as constant progress and learning, much like if you were studying and reading book after book. Annette was recommended by Janie and so I felt it would be a good complement to the work I have already done. I had no real expectations of what was going to come out of it, but I was excited by the prospect of finding a new nugget of information that may help me.

Annette uses a combination of therapies to get the answers she’s looking for. Kinesiology is a muscle testing therapy that can, at times, leave you wondering how on earth she figures stuff out.

After an initial consultation where I ran through a brief health overview of what I’d been doing I lay on the couch and she started to lift and move my arms or legs with instructions to resist or push against her. All these actions provided her with answers as to what was going on in my body. All along she’s not telling you what she’s doing or what she’s testing for, so there is no auto-suggestion along the way.

It was truly fascinating. In no particular order she’s identified that:

My bowel is ‘broken’ (I don’t take this to mean permanently, it’s something that can and will be fixed)
My liver (a major detoxification organ) is struggling with it’s phase 1 of detoxification.
My body isn’t able to properly use both glucose and insulin. This was very clear to me, the muscle test was very wobbly.
My medication isn’t quite doing it’s job (I long suspected this).
My body really isn’t happy with dairy (as we already know from both blood testing and food intolerance testing)
My body also isn’t happy with gliadin (one of the proteins found in gluten grains and oats that comes under the general heading of ‘gluten’) and the cause of a leaky gut. I’ve never had a gluten test done but have self diagnosed, this was useful and confirmed why I find that can’t eat oats either without bloating and heaviness in my stomach.
I need vitamin D but mustn’t take it yet as my magnesium levels are too low and you need magnesium for the proper absorption of vitamin D. My magnesium is low because I have the leaky gut and I am not absorbing my minerals well.
My Krebbs Cycle is ‘broken’, or compromised, call it what you like. Explaining the Krebbs cycle is tricky, but it’s a process of essential reactions within every cell that generates energy through aerobic respiration. It’s kind of essential! It was at this point I did shed a little tear. It was like I’d finally been given the answer to a lot of unanswered questions. I don’t feel ill, infact I feel pretty good 95% of the time, however there is always a thought that I am not at my best and so, knowing that this energy process is challenged made me realise that when it’s fixed I can feel so much better. Like – amazing! It was a bit of a shock really, I did wonder how I’ve managed to do what I’ve done for so long and I really credit my mindset and bigger health goal for that.
She tested a bunch of my supplements and left me with only two that I needed right now, that were going to benefit me and then tested me for two new ones to address my blood sugar and liver.
The really weird bit was when, without her telling me what she was doing, she went through a series of wrist squeezing and holding exercises. After a while she said she’d been asking my body what caused the Hashimoto’s in the first place. She asked it if it was food intolerances, an injection, stress, an infection or emotional issues. The answer came back as an infection. When we looked back I did have suspected glandular fever when I was 13 and had some time off school. Epstein Barr Virus as it’s called can lay dormant in the body for years before being triggered again and is a trigger for Hashimoto’s and thyroid conditions. As we discussed it I was taken right back to having that illness and sitting in bed knitting a scarf for my Dad for Christmas. This was recently after he and my mum had separated and it’s well accepted that EBV can be triggered by stress too. So, there we go. Maybe I’ve had the set up for this since I was 13 and the big stressors in my life have aggravated and triggered it. It’s a fascinating this jigsaw puzzle of mine 🙂

So I’ve left with some new supplements, some reduced dosages and an appointment in January.

I have also decided to write out my health and wellness timeline – to write down what happened when, which vaccinations I had, the stresses in my life, the operations, the pregnancies, the illnesses, the antibiotics, the job changes, house moves, emotional stress, physical stress and create a better picture of what this looks like so working a way to unpick it becomes a bit easier. It also saves me having to remember it.

I’ve also seen Niki the neuro lady since, but will save that for another post.

If you’re still reading, thank you.

I know that some people don’t understand why I don’t just take the pills and get on with life. But it doesn’t work like that for me. I need to know I’ve done the best I can, to reduce the antibodies and improve my chances against further autoimmune conditions. So I will, whilst getting on with life!

I am also pleased to report that since seeing her I’ve slept through each night, not waking once and needing my alarm to wake me. Now that IS progress!

Until next time 🙂

29 October 2018

Week Thirty One: A few little gems this week

Heidi Strickland-Clark Heidi's Hashimoto's Overhaul (H20) Auto immunity, dairy free, Hashimotos Thyroiditis

I wasn’t expecting to have much to write this week and was expecting a fortnight to go past before letting you know I was still here.

However this week I’ve been spitting into tubes, been driven to chocolate and had another ‘ah-ha moment’ that I probably could have considered before now.

Generally all things have been fairly constant this week.

I found a huge level of dynamism though from having more time in the office and really getting stuff done for the business. It’s been tangible and was a healthy reminder as how if I managed my diary better I’d feel like that more often. We’re heading off for a few days away later this week and so that’s a good a time as any to get that resolved.

I have been preoccupied by chocolate this week. It’s not normally something that bothers me, but I’ve found myself making versions of a healthy’ish cocoa or searching out high density chocolates. I then found a company online selling a dairy free, gluten free, soy free, low sugar version which I bought to taste test. (It was alright, but didn’t melt like ordinary choc).

It’s been an odd behaviour for me and I wasn’t sure if it was because I’ve been tired, am subconsciously wanting to spread my food boundaries wider or some other unknown factor. Anyway I pretty much went with it and let myself off.

I’ve been more bloated and puffy than usual and I wondered too if this was a sign of an autoimmune flare up.

No, nothing like it. Just the return of my period which I’ve not had since June. No wonder there was some chocolate cravings going on! Once that became clear why, I was pleased that something has changed enough for my body to want to do this again!

On Thursday I spent a lot of the day spitting into tubes. I am doing an adrenal test as requested by Janie to establish my stress levels from the presence of cortisol in my spit at various times throughout the day. It’s quite a palaver in terms of timings and when you can eat, when you spit and then freezing it all. But the job is done and I’ll send that off this week for it to be analysed. I think it will be a miracle if my levels are normal. I don’t think I am stressed, but I think my body is. Will keep you posted on that result.

I’ve felt very positive and upbeat this week.

Getting lots of work done has helped.

Being outside each day has really helped and I’ve made sure that I am either exercising by walking or rebounding each morning. Surprisingly on Sunday I felt the overwhelming urge to go for a run! I’d not done that for about 16 months, but managed a nice little 5km route without wondering why I was doing it. I don’t expect that thought will come to me again in a hurry. My Rev5 workout was stonking this week, I felt good and strong all through the sets.

One revelation came to me this week as a result of reading a book I won for being Client of the Month at the chiropractors. It was lovely of Kelly to choose me and the book gift was a double treat!

Not only was the book, written by a chiropractor, fascinating, but in there was a paragraph on the appendix. It was when I read that that I realised that I was probably doomed for some kind of autoimmune condition from the day that was removed in 1990. Not that long after I got pregnant with Laura (another challenging time for a body), started getting outbreaks of the gluten rash dermatitis herpetiformis and started struggling with hair loss and weight gain until I started teaching fitness for a living when I was able to manage my weight a little easier. It’s amazing what doing 24 hours of exercise a week can do for you!

I am a big believer in leaving as much in the body, where it’s supposed to be, as possible. However a flaky appendix is better out than in and perhaps my immunity issues are linked to that.

Finally I’ve felt pretty chipper all week. Life has been great, jobs have been done, the weather has been kind and I’ve felt like things were all rolling along smoothly for a while.

A nice place to be!

It was UK Thyroid Awareness Week and I posted daily on our FastTrack Website each day.

You can them find here:

Saturday:

Thyroid Awareness Week 2018: What are the symptoms of a low thyroid condition?

Sunday:

Thyroid Awareness Week 2018: What are the symptoms of hyper (high) thyroid condition?

Monday:

Thyroid Awareness Week 2018: How can I get my thyroid tested?

Tuesday:

Thyroid Awareness Week 2018 | Autoimmune Thyroiditis and what it means…

Wednesday:

Thyroid Awareness Week 2018 | What happens to an untreated thyroid condition?

Thursday:

Thyroid Awareness Week 2018 | How do I fix my thyroid?

Friday:

Thyroid Awareness Week 2018 | An emotional and spiritual connection to thyroid disease

23 October 2018

Week Twenty Nine & Thirty: What next…?

Heidi Strickland-Clark Heidi's Hashimoto's Overhaul (H20) autoimmunity diet, gluten free, Hashimotos Thyroiditis

Since the initial shock of my antibody readings increasing over the last year, I’ve had time to think about it all and mull a bit.

It would be a bit of a tall order to tell you that I carried on that day merrily without giving a thought to it again. I did spend a lot of time ignoring the chatter in my head, even though it was there, and pondering on the next phase.

A couple of realisations.

I am glad I did the test now. I had originally planned to do it next year, I would have been even more miffed if I’d waited and they were still no different.
I have to consider whether my medication is having an impact on the readings. There’s a chance that I’m not tolerating the buffering ingredients and may need a change.
I also need to consider that it takes up to 6 months for antibodies to come down after an attack and so possibly the lactose buffered meds I was on before are still lingering.
But mostly I need to accept that I need to look at more than just my food if I am to reach my goal. And that’s the sticky bit. It’s easy for me to do food. It’s my area of interest, I get it and I have a good ‘get-on-with-it’ approach that means I don’t wander off course. However the alternative is now to look at my adrenal glands and stress levels, my leaky gut, the toxic load on my body from environmental toxins (that I can’t do much about) to the stuff I ingest through things like toothpaste, using plastic water bottles, skin products and washing detergents. And finally look at my overall lifestyle and address the long days I do and my erratic sleeping.

And quite frankly that’s the scary bit.

That’s the equivalent of my clients coming to me to sort their diet out.

It’s a big deal, it means a looking at changes I can make to keep doing what I’m doing, without it doing me in. Because I love what I do and there’s a bit of me, a pretty big bit of me, that doesn’t want to change that.

More on this later as I decide what to do.

Since we last chatted I have been away with some FastTrack Fit Camp ladies for a Weekend event in Wales. I did the catering and I was conscious that if we ate only what I could eat, it would be a bit limiting, so I lifted the rules and did the best I could without eating a completely different meal each time. I really noticed it though.

Bloating and wodge around the middle, digestive issues, sleep all over the place and a lot of yawning and itchy skin.

In this time too I decided to have a coffee. I just wanted to see what it would do for me.

I didn’t like it much! The taste was not as I remembered it and I reconciled myself to the fact that if I do ever drink coffee again it’s because I’ve made myself have another one, not because I’ve missed the taste.

There’s a turn up! Weak green tea is my new bev of choice. Long may that be acceptable!

Have decided to reign my food back in again. Not that it was wildly out, but I’ve noticed a distinct difference since adding in some nuts, eggs and seeds.

It’s a damn fine job I like green leaves. I’ve been pleased to find that I am back to really loving my meals again, just like a was at the beginning of this.

It’s Thyroid Awareness Week this week 20-26 October and I have been blogging about it on the FastTrack Fit Camp site if you’re interested in a more general view on thyroid disease.

To next time…

11 October 2018

Week Twenty Seven & Twenty Eight: Results…

Heidi Strickland-Clark Heidi's Hashimoto's Overhaul (H20) autoimmunity diet, gluten free, Hashimotos Thyroiditis

What an interesting few weeks.

Much has stayed the same in many ways.

My tell tale symptoms remain. I’ve had such cold extremities recently it’s been like having numb feet.

I am still rebounding most days (probably 5 out of 7), doing my Chiro-Kelly exercises each day and my Neuro-Niki exercises each day. This process is quite lengthy each morning, but this week I was reminded why I am doing it each day.

I had an appointment with Kelly in the week that even I, in my ignorance of all things chiropractic, could see was a massive improvement.. The adjustments were gentle and easy and my body was quite happy to move without much coaxing.

I also had a follow on appointment with Neuro-Niki to see how I’d been getting on with her daily exercises. There was no retesting yet as I am still in the throes of the daily routine, but there was a progression from passive exercises that I’d had to get Mr Strickers to do each day to now me doing them as active exercises. She said that she could see the difference in how my body felt when she did the feet-wobbling exercise on me.

This was good to hear. It’s so nice to know that what you’re doing is making a difference even if you don’t think it is. What I also found interesting was that when I first sat down and she asked me how things were I said that I felt that I was more focused and getting more done each day. After a bit more chat she reminded me, from looking at her original sheet that my first comments to her 9 weeks ago were that I felt unfocused and lacking direction. I’d forgotten I’d said that, so an interesting use of words to chose on both occasions. It was something that was really bothering me this year and maybe this is helping me to overcome it.

As I headed into week twenty eight I decided to redo my blood test for the antibodies retesting. I made sure that I did it immediately after a bounce on my rebounder so that blood was flowing nicely. It still took a while to collect but I was confident this sample would be OK.

You pop it in the post and wait for 7-10 days for an email with your results.

Very surprisingly I had an email back two days later with my results. This was going to be interesting, I could now see what impact I’d had on the antibodies over the last 10 months or so.

The acceptable range is between 0-34. Last November mine were at 251. This month…284. Bugger! That wasn’t what I was expecting at all.

I was quite surprised they’d not even reduced a bit but before I could get pi**sed off about it I thought about what was different.

Last time I was eating dairy and gluten-free replacement foods like oat cakes and crackers. I wasn’t on any thyroid medication.

In that time I’ve had the blood test to show what does raise my antibodies which was dairy, tapioca and buckwheat and I’ve removed them rigidly from my diet. However, I have also started taking medication for the thyroid which over the past few months I’ve changed because of the dairy component. My meds now are buffered with maize. Could this be the cause?

However it’s not just food that can cause these antibodies. The root cause of Hashimoto’s can be from environmental sources, leaky gut, stress and nutrient deficiencies. So I am going to address these now too in my quest (because it is a damn quest) to get them lowered and to a more healthy level to protect my thyroid from the autoimmune attack.

Am I upset? No, but I am frustrated. Dealing with my diet is the easy approach for me, I can do it, I have good control over it. Dealing with stress levels is a whole other matter and I have a nagging voice in the back of my head which I am, even as I type this, trying to shush.

Let’s see what happens when I let it speak up.

Off to spend a few days with a bunch of lovely ladies in Monmouth for a Fit Camp weekend. I am sure that will give me a new perspective.

29 September 2018

Week Twenty Six: 6 months, 12 weeks, 500 kilos…

Heidi Strickland-Clark Heidi's Hashimoto's Overhaul (H20) autoimmunity diet, dairy free, gluten free, hashimoto's, Hypo thyroid

I’ve had a brilliantly mixed week.

And I mean both brilliant and mixed.

At one end, the health industry lost a very influential player on Thursday. Charles Poliquin has revolutionised strength and conditioning training for the fitness industry. He trained Olympians, carved out new training methods and was influential in developing the personal training gym approach to health.The cause of death has been confirmed as a heart attack. He was 57. I never met or did training courses with him, but read his blogs, followed his strident posts and recognised his influence in a very heavily opinionated industry. It’s a stark reminder that despite all best intentions to keep healthy, when it’s our time to go, we go.

At the other end I met a personal fitness goal of my own this week. I was aiming for the end of the year and I nailed it today (29 September) so I am over the moon. It won’t mean much to you if you don’t lift weights, but over in my little oasis that is my weekly Rev5 sessions, I’ve been aiming to be able to leg press the whole weight stack by the end of the year. The whole stack is 500KG (78.73 stone, or half a tonne).

I did it!

Rev5 is about time under load and I pressed that beauty for just shy of 3 minutes.

Apparently Debbie told me that not many people do that (in fact even Mr Strickers can’t do it just yet) so now you know why I could walk Three Peaks without a hill training session under my belt. I do have strong legs, that much is true.

In between all this I’ve been told that I am ‘glowing‘, ‘wasting away‘ and have a ‘5* back‘ – you can see why I feel like it’s been brilliantly mixed!

This week marks 6 months since I started the Auto Immune Protocol (AIP)

It marks 12 weeks on the AIP with blood group diet food plan.

And 7 months post coffee.

Something has shifted this week and I suddenly feel as though I can start to broaden my foods again. I don’t know why, it may have something to do with the Access Consciousness session I had in the week (more on this in another blog later), or it could be that my body has moved on a bit. But I feel less concerned about being quite so anal with regards to sticking to it.

I’ve decided to broaden my spectrum of foods by going back to my blood group diet plan from Dr P D’Adamo in his Live Right For Your Type book. It adds in things like some nuts and seeds, eggs and different fruits and veg. It will be a slow process, but thought I’d see how, and if, it makes any difference.

I know that things have shifted. I am definitely chirpier than I was earlier in the year. I am more active and stronger. My mood is improved with more positive internal chatter than the relentless darkness from January onwards. I also feel calmer and more in control which means I am approaching my work better and making decisions more happily. I really wasn’t making decisions at all earlier this year.

So on that basis let’s see if adding in the odd pumpkin seed or two is going to mess that all up 🙂

Other musings

I can’t eat dried fruit and not expect it to affect me. Ate prunes on Thursday and they had the completely opposite effect to the one that most people get , and bunged me up. Not doing that again.
Mr Strickers and I went out for a meal on Friday. We’ve put this off for months as it’s been too tricky for me to find something vaguely on-plan on the menu. But we decided on Eliane in Sunningdale as the quality of food there is fabulous and you know that you’re getting a very high quality, clean combination of foods. I made the decision to have what I wanted and enjoy it rather than trying to fit into a regime. It was fabulous. If you love really fresh, healthy food. I highly recommend it. So worth the visit.
Previously mentioned symptoms of hair loss, cold extremities, poor sleep, scalloped tongue and dry skin still stay. But that’s OK, it’s not got worse.
Following on from last week, I’ve still not redone my blood test for the autoimmunity antibodies.
Had an email from Janie who thought getting my adrenal gland and stress levels check might be a good idea. She’s probably right., but part of me doesn’t want to know if it’s a factor as it will mean changes again and I feel like I am just getting back into a rhythm. Ah well, let’s see.
Finally, I spoke at an event this week where we all had a positive message postcard at our place. I saw this one and took it. Because you are, we all are and don’t you forget it.

I am going to celebrate my 6 months, 12 week, 500KG successes with a pile of salad, another avocado and some protein of choice. If I go completely mad I may have some coconut chunks too. I know, the excitement is palpable isn’t it?!

25 September 2018

Week Twenty Five: Mini update

Heidi Strickland-Clark Heidi's Hashimoto's Overhaul (H20) Auto immunity, gluten free, Hashimotos diet, Hashimotos Thyroiditis, Hypo thyroid

Following on from the whirlwind of last week I went into this week behind with stuff.

I had lots to catch up on and all week I felt like I was up against time. Interestingly when I went in for my weekly chiro check chiro-Kelly said that she wanted me in twice next week. My lower back wasn’t responding how she’d like (I felt fine) and she wanted to capture any problems before they became a thing. I offered that it had been a challenging week and she said the difference was palpable (note to self: take action on my to notes to self)

Just when I think that my sleep is getting better, it’s not and this week was no exception. I had some really disturbed nights, some early starts and restlessness. This symptom of thyroid dysfunction is one I could do with sorting sooner rather than later.

I decided this week that I was going to send off my blood test to measure my antibodies again. I know I wrote before that I was going to wait but I decided that I wanted to know now how things have changed. If they haven’t then I need to revisit my plan, if they have then I can see how well they’ve moved.

So I did the medichecks home kit as I did before and whilst my blood wasn’t gushing, it was flowing fairly well I thought. I sent it off. Too bad that next day I had an email from them to advise me that the sample was damaged and not able to be tested. They suggested that it had clotted in being collected too slowly, so I need to do that again and haven’t done it yet – it’s a bit of a faff really.

In the week I won an appointment for a flower essence treatment. I had this on Thursday. It was a very interesting and illuminating session that I won’t bore you with as it’s only relevant to the person being treated. It was very timely as it was an opportunity to take stock and make some decisions around the overwhelm I had created in the previous few weeks. It’s quite amazing what the body will tell you when you listen.

Finally, my pinnacle of the week was my Rev5 strength session on Saturday. I had a great session, worked well, improved my strength and times and left on a high that stayed with me for the rest of the day. It always sets up my weekend and I love it!

I had hoped / thought that my temperature control was improving slightly, but this week it’s been cooler and more autumnal and I am already wearing more clothes than others. It will be hats out soon 🙂

Finally this week I listened to a podcast on Hashimoto’s with Dr Datis Kharrizan who has written two books that I use as bibles for healing. It was a good listen but he reminded me AGAIN that I can’t burn the candle at both ends and expect to get better. This is such a tough lesson for me to learn. Beat it into me, it’s not going in with the gently, gently approach.

With that I bid you goodnight.

18 September 2018

Week Twenty Four: The week after the Three Peaks Challenge…

Heidi Strickland-Clark Heidi's Hashimoto's Overhaul (H20) Auto immunity, gluten free, Hashimotos diet

If you’re ever going to do something ridiculous like the Three Peaks Challenge, let me offer you some advice. Make sure your following week is calm and quiet and gives you time to ease back into a normality that is comfortable.

Because I didn’t.

Part of me sees this as a sign that I am feeling better in some ways. There is no way I would have even considered cramming my diary with events like this earlier in the year. So on one hand things have changed. That’s good, it’s great to know that my efforts are being rewarded in some way.

However, and it’s a BIG however. I also recognise that my ability to cram a week full isn’t good. It’s almost certainly part of the reason why my body has decided to reject itself with autoimmunity because I just don’t have an off switch when I am firing on more cylinders.

This week became an epic juggling exercise and I didn’t have time to reflect on the mountains because I was always thinking about what was next.

By the time I got to Friday night I was glad the week was over and I haven’t felt like that in a long time. So sort of, kind of, maybe considered that I need a better time management approach if I want to really get better.

My morning routine still stands with rebounding, neck exercises, retained reflex exercises and the wedge. It sets me up for the day and if I don’t do them first thing I find them really hard to put into my day.

My meals have gone back to plan. Abundant greenery, meat and fish a plenty and coconut oil in daubs. It’s working, I am not knocking it.

Sleep = poor.
Mood = slightly overwhelmed.
Temperature = cold feet.
Digestion = mixed this week with the slightly stressy feel about it.

So there we have it. A week where my food diary is mainly empty, I’ve not made notes for my blog and it went by in a blur. Note to self: slow down, take stock and sleep more.

10 September 2018

Week Twenty Three: The Week of the Three Peaks Challenge

Heidi Strickland-Clark Heidi's Hashimoto's Overhaul (H20) climbing food, gluten free, Hashimotos Thyroiditis

Following on from my week of, what felt like, progress. I hurled into this week knowing it was a short week work wise as I was headed up to Scotland on Thursday to get ready for the Three Peaks Challenge.

It was planned over a year ago. Before I had my Hashimoto’s diagnosis and before my dark days at the start of the year. And now here it was ominously close and whilst I wasn’t concerned, I did wonder quite where the last year had gone.

Before I get to the challenge I had another big progress this week.

If you’ve been reading for a while you’ll know that one of the exercises that I have to do for my neck alignment is use a wedge each day. It’s not been a pleasant experience and I’ve been slowly building up the time spent on it each day (I need to get to 10 minutes).

Whilst setting myself up to lie on it on Tuesday morning I found myself getting agitated that I wasn’t in the right place. When I was first shown what to do, chiro-Kelly told me that my head wouldn’t touch the floor and would be suspended. That had been fine until now, but on this day I couldn’t get it right. I eventually realised that my neck had shifted position so significantly that even when I was lying on the wedge properly my head now touched the floor. This was quite amazing to me! It had been so painful and uncomfortable in the weeks previously that to suddenly, overnight make this adjustment between being suspended and being grounded was huge! I felt really pleased that my neck function, and therefore my nerve function was going to be much improved by this progress. The ongoing impact of this can have a favourable effect on my thyroid gland too.

My mood and focus on work has been good this week. Sleep not so but quite frankly this could be now due to the looming challenge 🙂

My account of the Three Peaks is here. However one of my concerns going into it was how I was going to fuel myself. Even though Janie had said that I would be best to go into it without any restrictions, I did feel that I wanted to stick to as much as I could given how much better I’ve felt recently.

I managed the challenge on:

Tinned mackerel
Avocados
Rice cakes
Coconut oil (on the rice cakes)
Bananas
Coconut chunks ( I am addicted to these)
A couple of Nakd bars
A Kind bar
A bag of mixed salad leaves
Almond butter
Apples
Figs
Cashews
Boiled eggs
70% chocolate, 1 x mini bar

So in terms of sticking to plan it was 85% there. I didn’t have any qualms about it and I expect I lost quite a lot of body fat whilst I was walking as the first thing Mr Strickers said to me when he picked me up from the station was “you’ve lost weight”. So there you have it. Want to lose weight? Stay awake for 36 hours, walk 3 mountains and eat the above!

4 September 2018

Week Twenty Two: Progress…

Heidi Strickland-Clark Heidi's Hashimoto's Overhaul (H20) autoimmunity. Hashimotos, Hashimotos Thyroiditis, thyroid

This week there has been progress.

Progress that was short lived and progress that feels a little more long lasting. I don’t care how it’s delivered, that I am now finally seeing some changes is really pleasing, it’s felt like a long time (although it isn’t really) for an impatient person.

After starting my daily rebounding my sleep was ay-may-zing for two nights and I thought I had this sorted. It wasn’t to be. It’s still very intermittent with lots of being awake between 02.00-05.00. However I am making sure I take time out each day to get a break from the desk or work so that I can get some recovery time in, as Nick Littlehales refers to it.

One day, whilst driving around to see clients and run errands I suddenly realised how damn good I felt. It was so pronounced because I’d not felt like this for a very long time. I felt more than happy, I felt really hopeful and joyful (if that doesn’t sound too cheesy?). It was a very nice place to be and reminded me how long since I felt that optimistic.

What caused this? Who knows?

It could be the gradual daily input of all that I am doing.
It could be the exercises from Niki to rewire my neural pathways.
It could be the work that chiro-Kelly has been doing.
It could be my daily rebounding, the effect of the good food or a compound effect of all of it.

It certainly wasn’t down to a good night’s sleep the night before, but I did start some new supplements the previous morning. However I really think that one dose isn’t going to have that type of visceral, immediate effect that I felt.

It wasn’t quite as pronounced on Friday, and on Saturday I was knackered so it was fleeting, but I am so pleased to feel that progress has been made, and that alone has made me feel better 🙂

When I was at chiro-Kelly on Friday she was quite surprised by the feel of how things were on my normal adjustments. She knows the work I am doing with Niki too and said that she felt it was very likely that the neural work that I was doing with her was having a profound impact. How cool is that?

In 4 weeks I’ve done a few simple arm waving and leg moving exercises and this is having an effect on how my body responds, holds itself and maybe even how I think and feel… bloody fabulous.

Finally I read a book at the weekend by Michael Heppel called ‘The Edge’. It’s a great book, I really like Michael’s style, and he talks about what successful people do to give them ‘the edge’. Towards the end he talks about health and what they do with health issues. He wrote that ‘Edgers’ don’t do health kicks, they do health. They’re in it for the long haul because they know it’s an investment in them, their business and their family.

I stopped reading when I read that. There may be 30 ways to have ‘The Edge’ in his book. This is the one that I believe fully in, what I hope for my clients and how I live my life.

I am not doing a health-kick. I am doing health.

Perhaps that’s why I am so happy?

28 August 2018

Week Twenty One: Intuition …

Heidi Strickland-Clark Heidi's Hashimoto's Overhaul (H20) autoimmunity. Hashimotos, dairy free, gluten free, Hashimotos Thyroiditis

It’s been a week of discovery, intuition and remembering.

I am not expecting there to be massive leaps in improvements week on week, but this week was definitely one that has seen me bring pieces together to complete my picture a bit more.

If this was a jigsaw (and we know you always find the straight edges and do the border first, right?!) then I feel my border is nearly complete.

The week was already one of some self-decided excitement. I had a follow up call with Janie booked and I’d placed some weight of importance on this. I couldn’t tell you exactly why, but it was probably something to do with the huge list of questions I had for her that I’d been saving up. I was probably secretly hoping she’d say I could soften the eating plan a little, but following our conversation she said to keep at it for another 2 months or so.

I’m fine with that. It’s not a surprise. My digestion and bowel health is definitely improved from where it was when I first met her in May, but it’s nowhere near sorted. The improvement is from the use of natural herb supplements to keep peristalsis going, and the ultimate goal is to get back to the body managing on it’s own. I am not there yet.

We spoke about what foods I can take the Three Peaks challenge next month. And whilst I know that fuelling myself for 24 hours is more important than what I am eating, I am keen to see how I can manage as much as possible without too much deviation.

So far I am planning on using the pre-cooked pouches of rice or quinoa that I can add some protein to. Coconut based bars or chunks. Cold baked sweet potatoes, fruit and coconut oil.

Things that are currently off-plan that I will be taking along are medjool dates (for my celebration at each peak), some nuts or nut based bars and maybe some rice cakes. Get me and my extravagant ways!

Janie mentioned a couple of other ways to see some improvements in how I’m feeling. She referred me to a lady who specialises in kinesiology. She is very busy and I am not seeing her until November and also a new tranche of supplements to support both the gut and the thyroid over the next few months. I ordered those today.

I started to re-read a book I read a few months ago this week. ‘Why Do I Still Have Thyroid Symptoms? When My Lab Tests Are Normal‘ by Dr Datis Karrazian. It’s such a fabulous book. So well researched and coming from a different approach to normal GPs.

He talks a lot about Hashimoto’s in there and I’ve seen case studies in the book that I missed or skimmed over before that have given me a few more straight pieces for my jigsaw border.

He refers to the fact that many women are diagnosed with thyroid issues during or after pregnancy as their immune system is already challenged and this is when things can flare up. Even though I knew this it wasn’t until I read a case study about a woman losing her hair in clumps after her baby was born that I suddenly remembered that after Laura was born (baby 1) my hair fell out a lot too. I had longer hair then and it became really rather thin. I of course didn’t think much of it, but I do remember being a bit concerned about it at the time.

It was also whilst I was pregnant with Laura that I had my first signs of dermatitis herpitiformis (wildly itchy rash on buttocks, elbows and knees). The GP had no idea what it was, and I’ve mentioned already in the blog, that I didn’t figure it out until about 5 years ago when Laura was 20, that it was gluten causing it. This memory was a revelation this week. I am quite sure that I switched my auto-immunity gene on in 1993 when Laura was born. I also think that what’s kept any main symptoms at bay for most of this time is my diet.

I went gluten free in about 2002 and have been mainly GF ever since. Dr Kharrazian talks so much about giving up gluten in his book for Hashimoto’s sufferers that I am sure this kept me healthy’ish without noticing I had Hashimoto’s.

Before I went gluten free I did have other thyroidy symtoms like digestive problems, hair loss and extreme tiredness. I remember feeling so tired at work after Sophie was born that I could barely keep my eyes open. I was only 25 so it was out of character. But I put it down to being a young mum with two under 2 years and plodded on.

I feel quite excited that I got this in place this week. I’ve been hoping to find some answers to where this all started and I think this is as good a place as any.

I also invoked my witchy powers this week and summoned out of the blue a thought that has led to a great find.

I was driving between camps on Thursday just musing on the neurodevelopment exercises I am doing for Niki. Some of them are done passively and so Mr Strickers has to rock me by pushing my feet for 30 seconds each day. I was musing on the rocking and repetitiveness of it and I suddenly thought of rebounding. You know, the little mini-trampolines? I thought ‘they’re pretty rhythmic and repetitive, I wonder if that’s something to look into‘.

Later that evening I randomly Googled ‘benefits of rebounding’ and came up with this article. It was all very positive and then as I read through the 20 points, I was stopped in my tracks by point 12. “12: Tones the endocrine system, especially the thyroid, to increase output“.

I immediately searched for benefits of rebounding and thyroid and came up with this article. That also made my heart skip a beat as she mentioned improved eye-sight, “the rebounding motion stimulates all internal organs, moves the cerebral-spinal fluid and the aqueous fluid within the eyes (many people claim improved eyesight), and does wonders for the intestines.” All along I’ve been sure that my blurry eyes aren’t age related. This could be the answer!

So suffice to say we now have a new toy in the house 🙂

Meet my little rebounder! I’ve used it three mornings so far and have built up from 15 minutes to 20 minutes first thing in the morning. I am excited that this may help me to see some difference. That’s what I am after at the mo. Something that makes me feel all this ‘stuff’, the food, the supplements, the reading, the consultations are working. Let’s see!

This week in summary

Sleep has been terrible at night time, but I am getting enough by having naps in the day. If I can manage 4-5 cycles (see Nick Littlehales book) this is good enough for now.
Last week’s exposure to barley grass left me with not just an itchy face bur full dermatitis herpetiformis outbreak. I am so over these now! I must, must, must read the damn labels.
Digestion has been unreliable but looking at ways to improve gut health now all the prep work with Janie has been done.
Mood has been fair to middling. Overwhelm has been high this week, but I’ve taken it in my stride and done what I can and been happy with that. I’ve also noticed that I have been a bit more productive each day so that’s a small change which is very welcomed.
The temperature has dropped this week and I am c.o.l.d! Started to have warmer meals than my piled high leaves.
Been bouncing and added it into the morning routine, dropping the walk in favour of the springs.

Will report in next week with next instalment!

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