The Seven Steps I Took To Get My Health Back And So Can You

If you have been around my website, you have more than likely read up on my journey to health. Hashimoto’s, H.Pylori, Vitamin D deficiency, I had it all. And although Hashimoto’s cannot be cured, there are many things you can do to put it into remission and reclaim your health. Friends have asked me in the past to talk about what and how I did it, so here I am, sharing 7 steps I took to get my health back with you today. 

I do have to say though, the only thing I didn’t have and I wish I did, was to have someone to talk to who understood what I was going through! It would have saved me a lot of heartache and bouts of depression!

Okay, so let’s get into it! 

The seven things I did to reclaim my health:

I took charge of the narrative

Conventional medicine will have you believe that there really is nothing one can do to reverse autoimmunity, at least that’s what the doctors I saw said. I exhausted all avenues, running from specialist to specialist in search for answers. Once I decided to take charge, I started doing my own research. It wasn’t long before I was overwhelmed and depressed. There was a plethora of information out there but sifting through it was a challenge. I don’t regret it though, it was because of my research that I came across experts such as Dr. Mark Hyman. And although I could not access any functional medicine practitioners due to residing overseas at the time, I found a wealth of action steps on his blog that I could apply to my daily life. His blog posts, and some others which I talk about in another point, empowered me to be my own health advocate and speak up and question what I didn’t understand. To seek out other therapies and treatments when conventional ones did not work.   

I started to eat healthy

This is a no brainer really. If I have learned anything from my experience it is that food really is medicine. Wholesome, healing foods are all that you really need to jump start your body towards optimal health. You can exercise and cut calories all you want, but if the food you are consuming is processed and full of sugar you are sabotaging all your hard work. Here’s what I did from the get go:

• I cut out gluten from my diet. There is ample evidence to suggest that gluten is inflammatory and can be especially problematic in people with thyroid issues. 
• I started drinking my greens in the form of juices and smoothies.
• I started the day with warm lemon water. 
• I incorporated broths and soups into my diet. If you are of South Asian decent then you may be familiar with yakhni 
• I started cooking with good oils like ghee, butter, olive and avocado oils and eliminated chemically processed oils like canola, corn and soybean oils. 
• I cut out sugar and artificial sweeteners. Think Diet Coke. Yes, I used to guzzle down glasses of it at restaurants. 
• I started fasting twice a week, Mondays and Thursdays. 
• The black seed, which is said to be the cure for all diseases, was a part of my morning routine. I would take 1/4 teaspoon with water every morning before breakfast.
• I scoped out the best honey vendor in town, often dishing out close to $60 for a small jar of Sedr honey from Yemen. I would eat at least a teaspoon of honey every day, sometimes mixed with the black seed. I also used it as my sweetener of choice when baking.

I educated myself

We are so lucky to be living in an age where information is literally at our finger tips. My research led me to inspirational accounts of regular people curing themselves and then sharing their stories. One such story belongs to Joe Cross. I remember coming across his movie, Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead on Netflix. In the movie Joe talks about his struggle with autoimmune disease, obesity and a host of other diseases and how he cured himself of them. I was so excited that I had my whole family watch it with me! I remember thinking that there was hope after all. 

I got moving

I started doing Jillian Michaels’ 30 Day Shred program right around the same time and that helped me sweat out the toxins from my body. For accountability’s sake, I joined a group of friends who motivated me to take out the time to exercise. This has been the best thing for me to do, as I update this post in 2022, I am part of another friends group and the accountability is like no other.

I cleaned up my skin care and beauty products

When we think about what we  put into our bodies we often neglect the fact that the stuff we put on it matters too. Our skin is the single largest organ of our body. It absorbs the carcinogens (formaldehyde, phthalates and parabens) present in our makeup, moisturizers and hair products into the blood stream and can lead to endocrine disruption.I started checking my makeup and personal care products for problematic ingredients and switched to natural alternatives such as coconut oil for moisturizing and henna based color to dye my hair.

I prayed

By far the most important ritual for me. Although I pray regularly, I took stock of the quality of my worship. I spoke to God like He was in front of me. I was desperate and I needed Him to heal me. 

I remember waking up pre dawn and just sitting on my prayer mat for what seemed like hours, speaking to Him. 

 I subscribed to different blogs and experts

This was instrumental in keeping me up to date on the latest research and news. I have these blogs and experts to thank for for always providing information that increased my knowledge, gave me hope and made me proactive rather than reactive when it came to my health:

• The Environmental Working Group 
• The Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep Cosmetics Database 
• Mind Body Green 
• Dr. Mark Hyman 
• Lee Holmes 

So there you have it, the seven things I did to get back to health. They are truly powerful and helped me when all hope was lost. 

Do you know of someone with similar health conditions? Or perhaps you have experienced your own health concerns. How have you dealt with the challenges? Let me know in comments and share this with a loved one so they can benefit too!