Are you struggling to manage your Hypothyroidism or Hashimoto’s? Are you wondering how you can start reversing your thyroid imbalance and improve all those dreaded symptoms… weight gain, fatigue, mood swings and so on?
Below are my Top 3 Tips to Start Reversing your Thyroid Condition… for good.
1. Know your Type of Thyroid Imbalance
There are 3 different types of thyroid imbalances. It is common to have little bits and parts of all of them but typically there is one that is dominant.
- Insulin resistance
Insulin resistance can be caused by high carb or moderate carb diets. After years of eating high carbs foods, when your body makes insulin your cells begin to resist it. This leads to sugar being stored as FAT (instead of using it as energy) and this ultimately leads to weight gain, fatigue and feeling hungry all the time.
This is also when you’ll begin to notice low calorie diets aren’t working anymore. For this reason, The Keto Girl Method does not focus on calories and eating less and instead, WHAT you’re eating and finding your carb tolerance.
- Inflammation
Inflammation can show up as food intolerances and/or gut issues. All of sudden you may not be able to tolerate gluten or dairy, etc. Are you bloated, puffy in the face, have swollen hands and feet, or seeing an increase in acne? This can all be due to inflammation.
There are two ways this happens. Insulin resistance leads to excess fat storage and weight gain OR you can be resistance to leptin (tells us when we’re full), so you’re always hungry, leading to weight gain.
- High cortisol (adrenal fatigue)
Do you feel wired at night but can’t seem to get up in the morning? Normally, you should have a jump start of cortisol in the morning and a decrease at night. With thyroid conditions, people typically see the opposite. This is due to constant life stress and inflammation.
This is the longest to reverse and I recommend to be gentle and kind to your body by swapping out those high intensity workouts to lower intensity ones like walking, yoga or Pilates.
Figure out which one sounds most like you?
Good news is… they can ALL be reversed.
You may be wondering how this all affects the thyroid…
Our body is responsible for converting T4 to T3 which happens in the liver and gut. When we have inflammation, insulin resistance and adrenal fatigue, the process is inhibited.
2. Go gluten, dairy and egg free while limiting sugar
Gluten impairs absorption of fat soluble vitamins (DAKE) and fatty acids (essential for reproductive and adrenal hormones). It also causes leaky gut which increases cortisol (stress hormones).
Dairy contains IGF-1 (insulin growth factor) which spikes insulin and increases testosterone and estrogen which can lead to weight gain.
Eggs have shown to be inflammatory for autoimmune disorders. Hypothyroid clients have seen the benefit of being egg-free.
Now before you worry about what you’ll eat and never being able to enjoy your favorite meal again… as you start to reverse your condition and your body starts to heal, you’ll be able to re-introduce some of these foods while maintaining results!
3. Growth mindset
Your mindset is everything! Be kind, gentle and forgiving. Eat some dairy or gluten? Fall off the meal prep for a week? It’s okay and it’s important to move on!!
I encourage my Keto Girls to honor their goals. Keep them written down and keep in mind what your life would look like if you were able to reverse your hormone imbalance. Having both long-term and short-term goals and finding non-food rewards to motivate you is a great way to keep a positive mindset!
Are you still wondering how to put it all together? Looking for accountability and support? Want meal ideas and personalized coaching?