What a week it’s been! If you have visited Thyroid Loving Care before, you know we’re all about balance and self-care over here but some weeks are just plain hard to manage.
Actually, the past several weeks have been tough to juggle with the release of The Thyroid Fix in 6 Cookbook in the final design process. And, I’ll admit it – I’ve been skipping my regularly scheduled self-care days.
Usually, my self-care days are sacrosanct. No one gets on the schedule during those slots. In our hectic world, I have to treat my self-care as a to-do item as important as all the rest and it goes on the schedule no ifs, ands, or buts…BUT for the past few weeks when I lost sight of how it was more important than ever to hold my self-care sacred and to honor those times with my presence and not shove them to the side.
I’ve felt the effects too. All of a sudden, I started waking up from anxiety dreams or and had to rely on Coffea Cruda to help me quell thoughts racing through my mind so I could actually fall asleep. I haven’t struggled with insomnia for a long time so I asking myself, “what is different?” I’ll tell you what is different – I AM NOT GIVING MYSELF A BREAK!
I really don’t know what happened but starting at the New Year, Thyroid Loving Care has seen some serious action. As part of my mission to educate and empower people that they can reverse thyroid & autoimmune disease with natural support through nutrition, lifestyle and self-care, I accepted many requests for articles, interviews, radio spots and blog posts the past few months and I went a little overboard. I’m just so passionate about your health care and wanted to do all I could to get the information out there that I often wished I’d had when I was reversing Hashimoto’s, that I jumped at every chance to spread the word….but I paid a price. Anxiety was taking over – my body’s usual first signal that I’m out whack.
So, today, I had a little recommitment ceremony for me and myself. I started by honoring my promise to take a day off from the to-dos and just focus on my to-bes. And today, I be’s a beach bumb. I made a picnic for me and the fams (see recipes below), I took off for the beach and I started to breathe. The anxiety melted away as I watched each wave crash to shore. I further committed to myself by going back through my schedule and setting self-care alarms for myself again. I used to do this at the beginning of my healing journey but then self-care became a habit and I didn’t need to anymore. Somewhere, I got off the path so I took a page from The Thyroid Fix in 6 and set those reminders again. They will keep me in the present and gently nudge me to do the right thing for my health and body.
As you know, journaling is my drug of choice for writing out the crazies er, anxiety I mean, so I took sometime to do that after the beach. As its family day, I didn’t want to stray far so I created a little nook for myself off our side patio, poured a refreshing glass of water with jeweled frozen berries and put pen to paper. This was the best way I could honor myself, show the care I always extend to others to myself and work through the anxiety I’ve allowed to creep in.
A PLEASANT DAY FOR A PALEO PICNIC AT THE BEACH
Much like Chris Kresser, my secret (no-so-secret) health care nerd crush and author of Your Personal Paleo Code, I’m a big advocate for using the Paleo/Primal diet as a platform for supporting health and healing. For me that means eating a nourishing whole foods diet mainly comprising organic vegetables, pastured/wild-caught meats, and high quality fats but I have found is that I can tolerate grains well on occasion so this meal is not strictly Paleo…however it can be made to be.
On The Menu
Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato, Avocado Sandwiches (gluten-free)
Fig & Prosciutto Salad with Basil Oil
Crisp Cucumbers
This picnic is easy-peasy and filling enough for a day of hard playing at the beach. The sandwich is toasted Udi Gluten-free Bread with fresh basil, lettuce, tomato, bacon and avocado. Don’t like bacon? Sub in some turkey. Want to make it totally Paleo? Throw it on salad greens instead of the bread. Click on the links for the Fig & Prosciutto Salad and Peppermint Patty recipes. The crisp cucumbers are just that – sliced cucumber. Simple.
Special Notes:
- For the salad recipe, omit the warm tomato dressing. Instead, I minced a handful of basil and infused it into 1/4 of biodynamic olive oil in a small mason jar. I kept the basil oil in the jar until it was time to serve the salad.
- I put the peppermint patties in the freezer the night before and put everything in a small cooler. 20 mins before we were ready for dessert, I let the patties warm up in the sun. They were refreshing and divine!
If you liked these tips and recipes I provide many more resources on healing your thyroid naturally, including:
- Our totally free Thyroid Healing Type Assessment, Report and Coaching Sessions
- Right here on my blog, where I talk about what’s worked best for me and my clients, as well as the latest research and resources I come across. You can subscribe to get new blog posts delivered right to your email by signing up on the righthand side of the page.
- My book, Healing Hashimoto’s Naturally — part memoir, part instruction manual for how I personally healed my Hashimoto’s disease.
- My exclusive free 6 Thyroid Myths That Can Keep You From Healing workshop — with info on the comprehensive Thyroid Fix in 6 program, which walks you through, step-by-step, the exact actions you need to take to heal your thyroid and get your life back! We’ve seen hundreds of participants in the Thyroid Fix in 6 avoid, decrease, or even eliminate the need need for thyroid medications.
- The incredible Your Best Thyroid Life Video Bundle, in which I personally invited 27 of the world’s top health experts to share their best tips for living with and healing thyroid disease.
Remember, in our hectic world, self-care is just as important as all the rest! Honor those times with presence and you will enjoy the benefits.
Jen Wittman is a Certified Holistic Health Expert, Chef, Author & Vitality Coach, who teaches women how to reverse thyroid and autoimmune conditions naturally. She’s helped hundreds of women decrease (or even eliminate) their thyroid medications and has helped others stay off thyroid medication entirely.
Through her free Thyroid Healing Type Assessment, Jen teaches easy and simple steps to thyroid healing that can fit into your busy day. She also provides print outs to bring to your next doctor’s appointment so you can get the support and respect you deserve.