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Could a Sluggish Thyroid Be the Culprit of Your Messed Up Metabolism? with Nicole Fennell RD/N · Nourished Fertility

0:00
Welcome friends to the Nourishing Women Podcast.
0:02
This is Victoria Myers, your host, peer recovery specialist,
0:05
and fertility dietician.
0:06
And as you can tell with the tone of my voice, I'm so excited for
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you to listen to this episode.
0:12
In today's episode, I'm joined by the brilliance, Nicole Fennel, a
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functional dietician who specializes in thyroid health and metabolism.
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And if you've ever been told your labs like estrogen, lh, FSH,
0:25
but especially thyroid levels.
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Like your TSH is normal, but you still feel like exhausted
0:33
all the time, cold all the time.
0:34
You're anxious around food, struggling with a missing period,
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have low basal body temperature.
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This episode is for you.
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We're diving into the real reason your metabolism might be struggling, why
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your thyroid function matters so much for fertility, and how undereating
0:51
and over exercising can sabotage your hormonal health, even if you're doing
0:54
everything quote unquote, right?
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So if you're trying to conceive without a cycle, this very conversation
1:00
might just be the light bulb moment that changes everything for you.
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A little bit more about Nicole, before we jump into today's episode.
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Nicole Fennel is a registered dietician nutritionist, a functional medicine
1:11
expert, and the founder of Choose Food Wisely, a private practice where she
1:16
and her team help women uncover the root causes of symptoms like fatigue,
1:20
bloating, hormonal imbalances, and thyroid dysfunction through a food first approach.
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With nearly 15 years of experience, nicole combines advanced functional lab testing
1:30
with real life nutrition strategies to create sustainable, personalized plans
1:35
that actually work in the day to day.
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She also serves as a professor of nutrition at the University of Texas at
1:41
Tyler, where she teaches future healthcare professionals to think differently
1:45
about food and practice emphasizing nourishment over deprivation, whether
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it's in the classroom or the clinic.
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Nicole's mission is to help women stop guessing, start healing, and
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feel empowered in their bodies again, with that shared, Liz, into
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today's episode with guest Nicole Ol.
2:03
Hello, Nicole.
2:04
Welcome to the Nourishing Women Podcast.
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I am so glad you're here with me today.
2:09
Hi, I'm so glad to be here.
2:10
Thanks for having me.
2:11
Of course.
2:11
For everyone who's listening, tell them who you are and the work you do.
2:15
Sure.
2:16
Well, I am Nicole Fennel.
2:17
I'm a registered dietician nutritionist.
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I. And I specialize in functional nutrition, and especially for those
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who are dealing with thyroid hormone imbalances, bloating, fatigue,
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and just overall feeling blah.
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I love blah, blah.
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We all know way to describe it.
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You know, I'm curious, hearing you say that, I immediately wonder, have
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you had your own thyroid issues?
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Why are you so passionate specifically about working with people with
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these, uh, these thyroid conditions?
2:45
I. Yeah, I mean, I would say that was probably the biggest spark and catalyst
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that got me specifically into this field.
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So, you know, as a classically trained dietician, I started my career working
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in hospitals and rehabs and that was so cool and fulfilling and I learned so
3:00
much, but I. You know, the deeper and deeper and deeper I got into working in
3:03
that style of field, I was simultaneously getting sicker and sicker and sicker.
3:08
And that doesn't mean that there's necessarily, um, causation, but I
3:11
was just noticing that the more and more I was following the conventional
3:15
advice that I had learned to become a dietician, the worse I started feeling.
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And I was like, okay, the math isn't math.
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What's going on here?
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Um, and so I really by chance, um, happened upon a doctor who.
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Was like, Hey, this sounds a little bit interesting given your symptoms.
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So I was just exhausted all the time.
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And this was in my early twenties, you know, I was 23, 24 doing what
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I thought was quote unquote, the right way to take care of my body
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based off of like what I had learned.
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So I was really tracking my food.
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I was running marathons, I was eating a vegan diet, like really focusing
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on, oh my gosh, all the things.
3:49
All the things, yes.
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But it was all in the name of health and I thought I was taking care of my body
3:54
and I was like very adamant about, um.
3:56
You know, waking up and working out right away and tracking my calories and
4:00
drinking diet cokes and all the things.
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And so for me, I was like, man, my effort is not really yielding the results that
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I was looking for, and the results of just like, feeling good, having energy,
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not having acne, having better periods.
4:13
And so I went to the doctor and she ran labs on me, so, you know, a
4:17
basic, um, you know, complete blood count and comprehensive metabolic
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panel and, and looked at my vitamin D and then also did a thyroid panel.
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And that's when she told me, Hey, you have thyroid antibodies.
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Um, have you ever been diagnosed with Hashimoto's?
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And I was like, Hashi, what?
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No, I have no idea what that even means.
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Um, and so, you know, as somebody who was trained in understanding,
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you know, medical conditions and how to nutritionally manage them.
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To not have any idea how to take care of myself, like, left
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me feeling really paralyzed.
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And I remember going to the grocery store after getting that diagnosis
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and she was like, Hey, you know, you may wanna consider, um, making some
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dietary adjustments, like maybe bring protein animal proteins back into your
5:00
diet and just feeling like, oh, no way.
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What?
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Um, and so through that journey, fast forward, kind of like.
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Trying to figure out how to advocate for myself, trying to figure out
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like what I can do for myself to help me to feel better, because I
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did not wanna settle for just like, oh, you know, you have antibodies,
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but um, you don't need medication.
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And I didn't like feeling like I was in that limbo.
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And so I did what a lot of type A people do is I dove into the
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research and said, I kind of figure out how to take care of myself.
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And so through my own journey of feeling kind of stuck and kind of like
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in the middle of the ocean without a life preserver, like what do I do?
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I realized like this is such a common diagnosis and um, a
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very underserved population.
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And I think because thyroid issues are so common, we've sort of normalized
5:48
them and we know so many people with thyroid issues that it kind of
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gets put off into the background.
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But I realized through my own journey and then working with clients that
5:57
we really need to bring the thyroid to the forefront and understand that
6:01
when there is thyroid dysfunction.
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That's a symptom of deeper things that are going on.
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And so I think that it's a helpful invitation to really go deep into
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how we can better support our bodies and thus support our thyroid.
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So yes, my own journey I. What a powerful story you have though, and I, I could
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immediately visualize you, Nicole, as this vegan drinking diet Coke, running
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the marathons, counting the calories.
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And I'll be honest, the one of the reasons I can visualize that so clearly
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is because a lot of that, not that running the marathons part, but uh, a lot of
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that is my own personal journey too.
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I was also a fanatical diet Coke.
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Drinker and counting my calories and doing two a day exercises and
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wondering why I felt so crappy.
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Um, also in my mid twenties and while I personally did not have a history or a
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diagnosis of Hashimoto's, what I can say now looking back is all those things I
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was doing that I. Thought was helping my health was actually hindering my health.
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And what I'd love for you to speak to before we get into like the depth of
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the conversation on Metabolism today, which is gonna be our focus, I'd
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love for you just to help the person who's listening, who is there right
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now, who's like, oh my God, I'm like.
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Eating vegan, low calorie diet coke, running marathons.
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Can you help them understand how dieting and undereating, and
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even disordered eating, how that could be potentially impacting
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their own thyroid and metabolism?
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You know, whether or not it is actually a Hashimoto's diagnosis
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or just that they're under eating is impacting their thyroid too.
7:30
Yeah.
7:30
So, you know, one of the hills that I will die on is that I'm
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a big believer, and this is not just my opinion, but fact is that.
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Thyroid dysfunction is a metabolic adaptation to some
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sort of stressor on the body.
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And if I could teach everybody, one thing is that your body is on your side.
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And so when thyroid dysfunction happens, it's happening for a reason.
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Your body's not out to get you.
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Your body's actually trying to protect you.
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The thyroid does a lot of things.
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Um, the thyroid produces thyroid hormones, and so I should say the thyroid hormones
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do a lot of things inside the body.
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And one of the big things that those hormones do is regulation
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of your metabolism and your digestion and things like that.
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And so when there's not enough energy coming in to support the amount of energy
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it takes to run bodily processes, your body has no other choice than to try
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to become as efficient as possible with how it's using those energy resources.
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And what better way to get efficient than to induce?
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Low thyroid hormone output or hypothyroidism, where it's really
8:33
gonna turn down the metabolic rate in an effort to conserve energy.
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And so a lot of times we envision that our body is kind of like a calculator
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where you can plug in calories and burn a certain amount of calories
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and X plus Y equals Z. And you know.
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That doesn't happen.
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Our body being metabolically adaptive, which can be a good thing or a bad
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thing, is more like a thermostat.
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Our bodies and our brains are gonna constantly be scanning
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for potential threats.
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Whether it's a literal threat, whether it's a perceived threat, maybe that
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threat is undereating and overexertion.
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When there's a threat to safety and survival, which would be food,
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water, shelter, at the base level, the body will adjust to that.
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Um, and so hypothyroidism, in many, many, many cases is a metabolic adaptation
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to some sort of stressor on the body.
9:22
I. Okay.
9:24
That is so powerful, and I love that you went ahead and brought into the
9:27
conversation metabolism because you know, in the health and wellness space,
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we do talk a lot about this idea of quote unquote fixing your metabolism.
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But let's really break it down much further for the person listening.
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Like, what?
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What is your metabolism?
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I. And like what factors help or hinder your metabolism?
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Yeah, so when I'm teaching, um, so I teach a college class
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and it's an intro to nutrition.
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So these are, you know, teenagers, early 20 year olds who are learning
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about nutrition maybe for the first time and learning about it, um, from
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a more science backed perspective.
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And one of the ways that I try to simplify it as best as possible is
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metabolism, is energy production.
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So think of it almost like this energy currency inside the body.
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And, um, you know, thinking about it, sort of like a business and business, it
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takes money to make money and inside the body in order to produce energy going out.
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Energy, not just in how you're showing up for the day, but energy to, um,
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have digestion and have hormones, and have hair growth, and have muscle
10:23
growth and be able to make memories.
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All of those things that requires energy output.
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But in order to support that energy output, we have to have energy.
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Input.
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And so a fancy term for energy is the word calories, and so calories
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can be a really loaded word for a lot of people, myself included,
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with a history of eating disorders.
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I know that that word can be super loaded, but I really like to reframe it that it's
10:48
a measurement of energy, and so that's how I explain it, is that metabolism is
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your body's way of taking food and turning it into energy so that your body has the
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energy to function as best as possible.
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I feel like one of the things people think about their metabolism is that
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it's like a fixed state, that if they maybe dieted for a long period of
11:10
time, that they've destroyed their metabolism for forever or on the reverse.
11:14
People think that they can't do anything to adjust their metabolism and that it.
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Um, you know, doesn't matter what you do, how much you eat,
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it doesn't control metabolism.
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And I, I'd love your take on that and how our metabolism can adapt based off of
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these stressors that you're talking about.
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Yeah.
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As humans we're designed for adaptation, um, and that can be a great thing or it
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could be a not so great thing, but I think that food is such a powerful way that
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we can support a positive adaptation.
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And so because we are equipped for adaptation, we just have to make
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sure that our body has the tools necessary to adapt in a positive way.
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So our bodies can feel broken, but even broken things can be fixed.
11:53
And not that the metabolism is something that is always this ongoing
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thing that we need to focus on fixing.
11:59
A lot of times this can become natural and intuitive, um, and even
12:03
enjoyable when we start to shift into.
12:06
Kind of approaching our body with compassion and curiosity, and
12:09
understanding what certain symptoms mean, why they're happening, and
12:13
then how we can really support our bodies using more of a nourishment
12:17
approach as a deprivation approach.
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So the metabolism is resilient and it is adaptive.
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It just needs the tools to do that, and a lot of those tools
12:26
come from the food that we eat.
12:28
Yeah, let's dig into that.
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What are those specific tools?
12:32
Yeah, so when you think about, without getting too nitty gritty, 'cause trust
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me, I, I teach this biochemistry, um.
12:38
And I could get really in the weeds, but when you think about how
12:42
cellular metabolism works, we have to first and foremost make sure
12:47
that we're getting plenty of energy.
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And energy comes in the form of calories.
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We get those calories from a breakdown of proteins and fats and carbs, and then
12:54
those proteins and fats and carbs for vitamin vitamins and minerals, amino
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acids, fatty acids and things like that.
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So.
13:00
Those really, really tiny building blocks are what helped to fuel
13:04
this entire metabolic process.
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So I like to think of metabolism, sort of like gears working together.
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And in order to fuel all of those gears, we need to have those little
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tiny building blocks that we get from the food that we're eating.
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One of those building blocks is minerals, and that's a newer
13:20
concept we've introduced to the podcast recently as we have started
13:23
ordering HME tests for our clients.
13:26
And I'd love for you to help someone who's listening understand that one of those
13:30
building blocks is minerals, and how do minerals then support your metabolism?
13:35
Yeah.
13:35
And so minerals are unique in that we don't make them inside the body.
13:39
Whereas with vitamins, there are several that we can make inside the body.
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And minerals are things that largely we get from.
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Food and in some cases what we're drinking.
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Um, and so you can think of minerals like little helpers to your metabolism.
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In order for our metabolism to take the energy, the calories that we're
13:58
getting from food and to break them down and actually use that food as fuel.
14:04
There has to be almost like a, a currency exchange.
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And so how I teach it is if you, you know, travel to Europe and you have dollar
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bills, but you need to pay in euros, there needs to be a currency exchange to
14:16
allow your body to take that raw material and turn it into the energy currency
14:21
that your body can actually utilize.
14:23
And minerals are a way that allows for that transaction to happen for our body to
14:28
be able to use that food, break it down.
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And turn it into the energy currency that our body uses to give us energy
14:35
to fuel those different processes.
14:38
And so there are a lot of different things that impact minerals.
14:40
And so that can be, um, you know, a discrepancy between supply and demand,
14:44
meaning that perhaps there aren't enough minerals coming in via the diet
14:48
and there's a high demand or a high turnover of minerals, whether that's
14:51
related to high energy expenditure.
14:54
Um, whether it's related to high amounts of stress, um, sometimes
14:57
there can be some absorption issues.
14:59
So there are different factors that go into mineral levels.
15:01
Um, but knowing what your mineral status is allows you to know where to place more,
15:07
um, emphasis in terms of diet and what therapeutic foods to add in, and also the
15:12
deeper conversation of why they may be depleted or imbalanced in the first place.
15:16
Um, so again, minerals are gonna play a really big role in allowing
15:19
your body to actually get.
15:21
And extract and use the energy from food that you're eating.
15:25
That makes me think.
15:25
One of the things we've been really trying to instill in the audience lately is
15:29
not only does disordered eating impact your relationship with food, your mental
15:33
emotional state, your physical health, obviously, and just that your body's
15:37
not getting its energy demands met.
15:39
We often see that in the case of hypothermic Amen Radio
15:42
and the body's shutting down.
15:43
Population, therefore their cycle.
15:46
Um, but we also see that in minerals, right?
15:48
That they're gonna be mineral depleted as they are not eating adequate
15:52
fuel because they're just simply not giving their body that the currency
15:56
exchange or what it needs on the cellular level to function properly.
15:59
Could you speak a little bit more to that?
16:02
Absolutely.
16:03
So again, if you're thinking about just, um, you know, the supply and demand
16:07
discrepancy, if there's not enough supply coming through the diet, you
16:10
know, at a baseline, our body needs a baseline amount of food coming in.
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So if even if you're laying in bed all day long, you need a
16:17
certain amount of food coming in.
16:19
But then when there's exertion and that exertion can be exercise,
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the exertion could also be.
16:24
You know, working and having mental exertion, that's gonna
16:27
increase the energy requirement.
16:29
Um, and you know, we're not just getting energy AKA calories from food.
16:33
We're also getting those nutrients and micronutrients.
16:36
And so when there's a demand on the body and maybe an increased demand because
16:41
of exertion or stress or things like that, and the supply isn't enough.
16:45
That's gonna create this really, really big gap in supply and demand.
16:48
And when there's that big gap, the body has no choice than to
16:52
turn down that metabolic rate.
16:54
And that's a protective adaptation.
16:56
And so a lot of times that's where hypothyroidism comes in.
16:59
Those low thyroid hormone output, um, will come in.
17:03
An effort to protect your body from burning through those energy
17:06
resources and burning through those minerals, especially because we don't
17:09
make those minerals in the body.
17:11
We have to get them from diet.
17:12
If it's not being supplied through the diet, the body has no choice
17:15
then to turn down how much it needs to use those minerals.
17:20
Love it so much.
17:21
It's so interesting just to think of how important it is to
17:24
truly nourish your body properly.
17:26
I'm curious if you could share, like how do you know if you have a healthy
17:29
metabolism versus how might you know if your metabolism needs repair?
17:35
Yeah, so you know, I would say that there are objective
17:37
and subjective ways and both.
17:39
Carry a lot of value.
17:41
Um, and so in speaking subjectively, some signs of a healthy metabolism
17:45
would be, you know, having hunger at periodic points during the day.
17:48
Now, I'm not saying you're hungry all day long, 'cause that's not,
17:51
you know, um, nobody gets an award for being hungry all day long.
17:55
But, um, more than anything, recognizing that your body is sending
17:58
you hunger and fullness cues, um, you have energy to show up for the
18:03
day, you are able to focus, um, you.
18:06
You know, are satisfied with the strength of your nails and the lusciousness
18:11
of your hair and the way that your skin looks, and so those subjective
18:15
markers are really, really valuable.
18:17
You can also assess things like your menstrual cycle and your digestion
18:21
and how you're recovering from.
18:23
Um, any sort of exertion, how well you're sleeping.
18:25
So those subjective markers are really, really invaluable.
18:29
And those are things that we can tap into on a daily basis.
18:32
Um, other things that would be considered more objective.
18:35
Um, I love looking at body temperature as a way to assess metabolism
18:40
without needing lab testing.
18:42
Um, so body temperature, pulse rate, um, are really, really helpful.
18:47
Um, and then labs.
18:49
Um, and so, you know, I think looking at.
18:51
Vitamin and mineral levels.
18:53
So something like an HTMA test, um, assessing your thyroid status would
18:57
be a really good marker of what's going on with your metabolism.
19:00
And then things like your blood sugar, um, your inflammation levels.
19:05
So really being able to combine like lab testing and temperature
19:08
and pulse rate alongside the body, clue body cues that are giving you
19:13
clues into what can be going on, um, is, is such a valuable pairing.
19:18
Okay.
19:18
And that was just such a great, like I feel like there was such clear examples
19:21
of what the person listening can do if they feel like, yeah, you know, things
19:25
are thriving with me, metabolism.
19:27
Or more likely in the case of maybe my metabolism needs
19:30
repair or here's what I can do.
19:32
Let's shift gears, but keep the conversation on the thyroid.
19:35
Can you share a little bit more about the role, the thyroid, and specifically
19:38
the thyroid hormones play in our menstrual cycle as well as our fertility?
19:43
Yeah, so you know, I. I can't remember if I used this example already, so excuse
19:48
me if I'm being redundant, but I like to think of the body, sort of like a table
19:50
with four legs and each one of those legs represents a different area in the
19:55
body or a different communication access.
19:57
And so if you think about that table, one of the legs would be the ovaries.
20:00
One of the legs would be the adrenal glands or your stress hormone glands.
20:03
One leg would be the thyroid and the other leg would be the brain.
20:06
And so those are constantly communicating all day long on a big communication
20:09
access, like a big game of telephone when one of those legs is short or wobbly
20:14
or broken, or maybe not there at all, that whole system gets a bit wobbly.
20:19
And so when you think about, um, menstrual cycles and how that influences
20:24
the thyroid and vice versa, you know, you have to think about that table
20:27
example and get a deeper understanding into, well, why are the thyroid
20:31
hormones off in the first place?
20:32
Is it related to stress?
20:34
And if so, like, that's gonna make the table even more wobbly.
20:37
Um, and so when there's low thyroid hormones, that can oftentimes
20:42
increase something called prolactin, which can interfere with ovulation.
20:46
And when there's not ovulation, there's not going to be a menstrual cycle.
20:50
Um, and then there you're gonna be dealing with sex hormone imbalances,
20:53
like typically low progesterone.
20:54
So it's very much like a chicken or an egg situation, and
20:57
everybody's a little bit different.
20:59
Um, very often low thyroid hormones will lead to.
21:03
Um, period irregularity, but it also happens that period irregularity
21:07
can also lead to thyroid problems.
21:08
And so I think what's really important is to take a personalized approach
21:11
and peeling back the layers and not just assessing what's currently
21:15
going on right now in this moment of time, but also taking a step back and
21:19
really understanding what your body and what you have gone through for.
21:22
You know, your whole life and understanding how certain events can
21:26
sometimes snowball, um, and really taking that big bird's eye perspective
21:31
of your body and your life, um, so that we can really appreciate that.
21:36
Um, it's important to have a big understanding of how that communication
21:39
access is communicating, and then what we could do to add in to help
21:43
to improve that communication access.
21:46
Okay.
21:46
Speaking to that communication access and therefore supporting
21:49
their thyroid, a lot of the people listening are actively trying to
21:52
get pregnant, boost their fertility.
21:54
What can the, the listeners do to actively support their thyroid,
21:58
therefore support their fertility?
22:00
Right.
22:01
So I would say the first thing is knowing.
22:04
Knowing if you're dealing with a thyroid issue, um, thyroid dysfunction is one
22:08
of the leading causes of subfertility that a lot of times doesn't always
22:12
get caught right outta the gate.
22:14
Oh, yeah.
22:14
And it doesn't necessarily mean that it's this overt, you know, your labs
22:18
are crazy off the charts, but like even having suboptimal levels, not just
22:22
in the overall production of thyroid hormones, but how your body is able
22:25
to absorb and utilize those thyroid hormones, knowing those numbers is.
22:31
So, so, so important.
22:33
And so I would say advocating for doing testing and understanding what
22:38
your thyroid numbers are and how your body is using those thyroid hormones
22:42
would be my biggest recommendation.
22:43
Awareness is definitely key.
22:45
I.
22:47
Uh, anything else as far as, let's say like maybe more from like a food,
22:52
nutrition, lifestyle exercise perspective that they can do to support their thyroid?
22:56
Yeah, so I love to kind of work in order of operations and really
23:00
meet people where they're at.
23:01
And so I would say that the big thing that we help a lot of clients
23:04
with is, Hey, are you making sure that you're stopping to eat?
23:08
At, you know, specific times in the day.
23:10
Not necessarily specific to the time on the clock, but like are you
23:13
stopping to refuel your body and getting an energy influx from food?
23:17
Um, and then from there, making sure that they're getting the
23:20
necessary, what are called essential macro macronutrient groups.
23:24
Essential meaning we have to have them, so we have to have carbs, we have to
23:27
have proteins, and we have to have fats.
23:29
And then from there, really focusing on nutrient dense food.
23:32
So can you get as much color on your plate as possible?
23:35
Being realistic, of course.
23:36
But like, can you have colorful carbohydrates?
23:38
Can you have good quality proteins that provide plenty
23:42
of bioavailable amino acids?
23:43
So animal proteins and fish and eggs and things like that.
23:46
Can you have healthy fats like nuts and seeds and avocado?
23:50
Um, and so, you know, yes, there are some.
23:53
Shining stars when it comes to thyroid health.
23:56
Um, but I would say the biggest and most influential, um, recommendation would
24:00
be, you gotta stop to eat and how can we make sure that you're getting the right
24:04
food groups on your plate, the proteins and fats and carbs, and then how can we
24:07
make them as nutrient dense as possible?
24:09
Really trying to emphasize as many whole foods as possible.
24:12
What I love so much about that advice, Nicole, is that correlates so much with
24:16
our HA recovery advice and the way that people need to be eating consistently
24:20
and regularly throughout the day.
24:21
Eating enough of all the macros, the nutrient dense foods, is exactly what
24:25
they need to do if they have peer loss, but I love too that it's obviously gonna
24:29
be supportive for their thyroid health.
24:31
Two.
24:31
Mm-hmm.
24:32
Um, so one thing I like to ask every guest that comes on the
24:35
show, we have a philosophy here of wellness without obsession.
24:38
Now, you mentioned earlier an eating disorder history, so I'm
24:40
sure you can relate to this.
24:42
And as far as you know, sometimes we get a bit obsessive, a bit
24:45
dogmatic about our wellness.
24:46
Mm-hmm.
24:47
The philosophy is, you know, it is so fun to take care of ourselves and our
24:50
bodies deserve to be taken care of.
24:52
Like you said, our bodies are on our side, but we wanna do
24:55
it without obsession, right?
24:57
Mm-hmm.
24:57
So I love to ask every guest that comes on the show, how do you personally practice
25:01
and live wellness, but without obsession?
25:05
Yeah.
25:05
You know, this has taken time and I, I can honestly say that one of the
25:09
reasons I got into nutrition probably isn't from the healthiest place I
25:12
got into it because I wanted to learn how to micromanage my body even more,
25:15
even though I didn't realize it.
25:17
And so, same, same, same.
25:18
It's, yeah.
25:19
Yeah.
25:20
And so it's taken a lot of years of.
25:22
Self-reflection and awareness and just really learning to grow in compassion
25:27
and curiosity with my body as opposed to frustration and like micromanaging.
25:32
Um, and so I think just coming to the realization that like in so many
25:36
situations when I've really abused my body, it's still been there and
25:39
it's still supported me and it's.
25:40
Still shown up even if I was really angry at it for whatever reason.
25:44
And so I think also recognizing that like my body is gonna be with me for the rest
25:48
of my life and if I treated my body or if I treated other relationships in my life,
25:53
like I treat my body and talk about my body, how would those relationships be?
25:57
Probably not so great.
25:58
And so I think just doing a lot of self work, um, and growing and appreciation
26:04
for my body, not focusing on the things that it's not doing well,
26:06
but the things that it is doing well and having a big perspective shift.
26:09
Um, and then honestly, my Hashimoto's diagnosis was a big wake up call for me.
26:15
You know, 'cause with Hashimoto's it's autoimmune and it's your immune
26:18
system attacking your own body.
26:20
For me, that was like, wow, that was a huge wake up call, um, to shift into
26:24
like, I need to make sure that I am taking care of my body and being gentle
26:28
with myself because going a million miles an hour and undereating and over
26:31
exercising clearly isn't the solution.
26:33
So.
26:34
You know, it's, it's taken time and awareness and dedication, but being
26:41
able to approach my body with awe and wonder versus frustration, um,
26:46
has been a really, really big shift.
26:47
So, um, to answer that question, um, 'cause I kind of have skirted around it, I
26:52
like to just find ways to show appreciate appreciation for my body on a daily basis.
26:57
And maybe that's going for a walk.
26:59
Maybe that's just, um, you know, speaking gently to myself.
27:03
Um.
27:04
And just finding little opportunities that really add up over the course of
27:08
the day and weeks and years, um, to continue to shift into this gratitude
27:13
and appreciation for my body that is always taking care of me, even when
27:16
I haven't always taken care of it.
27:19
That was such a beautiful answer, Nicole.
27:20
Thank you so much.
27:21
I'm more than positive.
27:23
Everyone who's listening can really relate to that, so I appreciate the
27:26
vulnerability and sharing a bit of your own personal journey there.
27:29
Um, and that will be so empowering for everyone here.
27:31
Tell us, this has been such an incredible, informative episode.
27:35
Tell us where they can.
27:36
Uh, learn more from you where they can potentially work with you?
27:38
Tell us all the places.
27:40
Yeah, so I like to share a lot of information on Instagram.
27:44
Um, I, I like to, you know, be the person I wish I had when I was
27:47
first diagnosed with thyroid issues.
27:49
Um, and my Instagram is choose food wisely.
27:51
Um, C-H-E-W-S food wisely.com.
27:55
Um, and then my website is, choose food wise.
27:57
I messed that up at Choose Food Wisely is Instagram and then my
28:00
website is choose food wisely.com.
28:02
Wonderful.
28:02
I'll put all those links in the show notes.
28:04
Nicole, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today.
28:07
I appreciate it.
28:08
Thank you.
28:08
I.
28:09
Nicole, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today.
28:12
Thank you, my incredible community for listening to today's episode.
28:16
And I want you to know that if this episode hit home, especially if you've
28:21
been told, you know your thyroid is fine, but your body is obviously
28:24
screaming at you, something is up.
28:27
I want you to know that your metabolism's been broken.
28:30
You are not broken.
28:31
Your body just needs more nourishment and more rest.
28:34
It truly is just trying to protect you, especially if you're currently
28:38
without a period or have a really irregular period or messed up period
28:41
and it's affecting your fertility.
28:43
So I'll link in the show notes to Nicole's information from her Instagram to her
28:48
website so you can learn more about her.
28:50
Highly recommend following her.
28:51
She's really funny in her Instagram reels and content,
28:54
but also so, so, so informative
28:57
And finally, if you're ready to restore your cycle so that you can finally
29:01
support your fertility instead of fighting your body, I invite you to
29:04
apply to see if you get invited to join with the limited spots inside the
29:08
Premier Period Recovery for Fertility.
29:11
This is my high-touch coaching program designed to help women just
29:13
like you get their periods back so they can get pregnant naturally.
29:17
That link will also be included in a show notes.
29:19
Thank you so much for listening to this episode.
29:21
Please don't forget to rate, review, and share this episode with
29:23
a friend who needs to hear it and know that like, Hey, your symptoms
29:26
are valid and healing is possible.
29:29
As always, we'll be back for another episode.
29:31
Next week until then, know that a nourish body is a powerful one.