Latest / Health with Hashimoto’s - Thyroid or Immune Education for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease / Which one first when everything needs attention ⎸ Ep. 217

Transcript

Which one first when everything needs attention ⎸ Ep. 217 · Health with Hashimoto’s - Thyroid or Immune Education for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease

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  You made the list. You listened to a bunch of episodes of Health with Hashimoto's
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  or other experts talking about Hashimoto's. You read some books.
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  You watched some YouTube videos.
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  You have the information and you made a list of the things that everybody said
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  that you needed to do. All of the shoulds.
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  And somehow that made it worse because you looked at this long list and everything looked urgent.
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  So you ended up doing nothing. Or you started like five different things,
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  and you lasted maybe three days.
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  That's not a discipline problem.
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  It is a structure problem. So that's what we're talking about today.
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  We're talking about what do you do first when everything needs attention?
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  Maybe you got a prescription and a follow-up appointment for six weeks later,
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  or maybe you got told that your numbers are fine for now and we're just gonna keep an eye on things.
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  Either way, your provider probably did not tell you that Hashimoto's is two things and not one.
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  It's a thyroid that can't keep up because it's also an immune system that's attacking the thyroid.
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  Medication can help handle the first, but the second one is all yours to work
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  on. You are the CEO of your own health.
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  You can start working on that immune system side before your labs say that you have to.
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  Hi, I'm Esther Yunkin. I am a registered nurse. I've been a nurse for 25 years,
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  and I am the host of the Health with Hashimoto's podcast.
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  I am the nurse who helps you sort your Hashimoto's into thyroid or immune. Let's sort.
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  I do my very best in all of the episodes and in Hashimoto's Decoded Thyroid
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  or immune, I do my very best to keep things simple and sustainable.
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  I never want you overwhelmed because an overwhelmed person freezes.
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  You just don't do anything or you try all of the things and then get more overwhelmed and you quit.
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  You just can't function and you can't move forward if you're in overwhelm.
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  So that has always been one of my goals with this podcast is to reduce your overwhelm.
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  But at the same time, I know this is episode 217.
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  Plus, I've got Hashimoto's Decoded, which is, you know, one hour and teaching
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  you thyroid or immune, teaching you the root causes so that you know exactly what to do next.
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  But all of that put together, it can lead to overwhelm. And I fully understand that.
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  There is somebody who recently joined the Health with Hashimoto's community
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  on the school platform, SKOOL. And.
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  And she specifically said, I can't listen to too many of your podcast episodes
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  in a row or I get overwhelmed.
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  I totally understand that. And I am so proud of her for recognizing that,
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  realizing that about herself. Like if she learns too much information,
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  then she can't do. You have to learn and do.
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  So that's what we're talking about today. Because a lot of this stuff does feel urgent.
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  Like you recognize my thyroid is struggling I need to support my thyroid and
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  these are the different things that I know I can do and if I'm not supporting
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  my thyroid then I don't have the energy to be able to function my brain doesn't have the capacity to
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  live life to the level that I want like my thyroid
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  needs support at the same time you also recognize the immune system needs support.
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  I need to address that. I need to do different things with the root causes,
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  with the triggers, because as long as your immune system is attacking your thyroid,
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  then things are going to continue to get worse, right?
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  So you recognize that there's all this stuff that legitimately needs addressing,
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  and it all feels important.
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  So what do you do first? And I have shared my story back in I think episode one or two.
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  It is up on the blog, by the way. I've been working through the blog posts,
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  getting them back up since I had to redo my entire website.
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  I have 30 podcast episodes converted to blogs and back up on the site.
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  That's down from over 200.
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  I'm working through them as fast as I can, even with AI's help of,
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  you know, fixing all of the code, it is taking me a while.
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  I thought I could get 20 done per week and is looking more like 10 per week.
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  All of the podcasts are still out there. So all of the information is still
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  out there. But if you're a reader instead of a listener, I apologize for this short interruption.
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  And this season of redoing my entire website, every single page,
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  every single, all of the footers, the menus, the pictures, everything has needed to be updated.
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  And I did have some help with it. I hired somebody, which was such a blessing.
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  But still, this has been a super, super busy season, because I knew that I could
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  devote 24 out of 24 hours to this website fix.
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  And I still wouldn't get it all done as evidenced by the fact that I only have
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  30 blog posts up out of 217.
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  So I knew that I needed to simplify and that really that's one of the reasons
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  I'm talking about this topic today is because I had to go back to basics.
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  I had to figure out when life is overwhelming, when I can only focus on a couple
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  of things, what comes first? So this is.
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  You know, I'm doing this with you all the time. I have Hashimoto's.
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  I'm always looking at what's going on.
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  If you've heard my story back in, I think, episode one or two,
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  you know that I, I think I said at that time, like I started out looking at stress and sleep.
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  Over the years, I have discovered that winter is actually one of my biggest triggers, the cold.
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  And so experimenting each winter, and you can't fix that quickly.
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  It takes another full 12 months until you're back in the same spot,
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  figuring out if what you implemented worked, if your trigger is one of the seasons.
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  That is kind of slow. Anyway, so when you are figuring out what to do first, this is my tip for you.
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  Rule number one, steady your thyroid bucket first.
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  When you can't think to get through a day, when your brain is not functioning
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  at the level that you need it to function to.
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  To do life, to do life to the level that you are used to doing it,
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  then that needs to come first.
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  So your thyroid bucket, the thyroid system, make sure that is,
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  you know, firing on all cylinders first. Focus on that first.
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  And for the thyroid side, there is medication. Talk to your provider.
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  Do you need a T4 medication? Do you need a T3 medication?
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  Do you need some liver support and gut support so that your T4 is converting to T3.
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  There are things that you can do on the thyroid side.
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  And that is primarily a doctor or provider conversation because you can't listen
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  to the podcast and change your medication dose.
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  If you are using medication for your thyroid, that is a conversation as far
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  as dosing and adding a T3 or whatever.
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  That's the conversation between you and your provider. So rule number one,
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  when you're looking at, I want to do everything, rule number one,
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  steady your thyroid side first.
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  Get a handle on the fatigue, the brain fog, the cold, the weight resistance.
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  Figure that out first. And those things are not going to resolve.
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  I'm not saying get on some Synthroid and all of a sudden you're going to feel
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  like a brand new person. For some people, they do.
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  But for a lot of other people, they still have to work through other things.
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  So studying that thyroid side helps you see other things more clearly.
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  Rule number two. So rule number one, study the thyroid bucket first.
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  Rule number two, pick the cheapest, most repeatable thing, not necessarily the most dramatic one.
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  An elimination diet, going on the AIP, or implementing a huge supplement protocol,
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  or going through a detox. Those are awesome.
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  And I highly recommend a lot of those things. We've talked about it on the podcast.
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  But it's not necessarily simple. When you are overwhelmed and looking at a list
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  of 20 things that you feel like you should be doing right now.
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  Pick something that is doable right now, that is simple, that is sustainable.
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  And for most people, we do need something that fits into our budget.
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  So if you can do something expensive right away, awesome.
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  More power to you. But a lot of the people who listen aren't in that same category.
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  So focus on something that can survive a bad week.
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  While I'm going through this website process of every single spare minute that
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  I have, I could be devoting to fixing things.
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  And I know that people are coming to my website and counting on the blogs being
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  up so that they can learn.
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  Like all of my Pinterest stuff, that's still up. That's still sending people to my website.
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  And then they're landing on, you know, 404 page not found, which is crushing to me.
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  I have information out there and it's just hidden right now because it's just
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  a wall of code. It's all broken.
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  So I knew that I needed to have things that are simple, that will last on the
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  crazy busy week or on a bad week.
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  So do that, whatever that is for you. Is it, you know, for me,
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  it's exercising, lightly, gentle exercise for at least 10 minutes after each meal.
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  And I have been sticking with that one throughout this whole website launch.
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  And it makes me feel really good because I set a small goal and I've been able to hit it.
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  So breakfast, I go out for a quick walk. Lunch, I hop on a rower or a bike or go for another walk.
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  Supper, same thing. A lot of times after supper, my husband can join me and
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  then I get that community and that bonding as well as we're on a quick walk.
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  During this season, I have not been doing really long workouts.
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  I have been doing short things that help balance my blood sugar.
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  Like I'm hitting a lot of the triggers all at once.
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  And I'm getting outside in the sunlight, which is also good,
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  especially that breakfast one, early morning sunlight.
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  I have an episode on that. You can't go read it on the blog,
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  but it's up on the podcast.
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  So pick something that will survive a hard week because when you are getting
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  started, it does feel hard.
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  So rule number one, study your thyroid bucket first. Rule number two,
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  pick a simple and sustainable thing, not the most dramatic thing.
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  And if you want to do a dramatic thing next, awesome.
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  But pick something simple first that can survive everything.
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  Then rule three, this is the final rule, one thing at a time, long enough to learn.
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  So I have a simple habits program and I have run it, I don't know, five or six times.
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  And the structure is that on Sunday, I give participants one simple habit. And I give you the theme.
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  For example, I think one of the first couple weeks, we usually do diaphragmatic
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  breathing. You've heard me talk about diaphragmatic breathing on the podcast before.
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  It's lowering your stress response. It's helping you through the day.
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  It gets your parasympathetic system, so not fight and flight,
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  but rest and digest. It's getting you into that.
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  So I recommend doing it before each meal so that you're in that digest mode, right?
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  And then also doing it before bed so you're in the rest mode.
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  And so we talk about that and I only have the space of a text message to give
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  a quick little information about our habit for this week.
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  And then each participant figures out what that will look like for them.
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  How can they make that category simple and sustainable.
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  So for breathing, like one person
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  will say, I am going to take 10 deep diaphragmatic breaths before I eat.
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  It's awesome. Somebody else might say, I am going to do diaphragmatic breathing before I go to bed.
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  And I do explain, I'm like, you know, pick a trigger, what's going to trigger it.
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  And I explain that habit, the habit building in the first week.
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  And so then on Sunday, you get the topic and you start to implement.
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  You figure out what that habit is going to look like for you.
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  On Wednesday, we re-evaluate how is this going? Do you need to make that habit easier?
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  A lot of people will start out by making it really big, which I understand.
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  But sometimes by Wednesday, you've already figured out, oh, I need to cut it
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  back a little bit so that I keep doing it. Remember, simple and sustainable.
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  And so then on Friday, we celebrate. What is there to celebrate?
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  There's always something to celebrate. Even if you fell off of doing that simple
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  habit just since Sunday, there's always something to celebrate.
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  Maybe it's that you are still standing come Friday.
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  You had a horrible rotten week, nothing went according to plan,
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  and you have made it through.
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  That is worth celebrating. There's always something worth celebrating.
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  So rule number three is to do one thing at a time long enough to learn something.
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  So for my Simple Habits program, it's, you know, one week. We do one week long
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  enough to learn something.
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  And then you keep doing that and we do something else the next week.
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  In doing this program a bunch of times, I have found that that really works
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  for women who I'm texting with in the program.
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  One week at a time, we're looking at a simple and sustainable.
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  Every week, we are looking at what can you do. And then we're celebrating.
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  And I have lots of success stories with the Simple Habits program because it's so simple.
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  The first time I ran it, I was like, is this too simple?
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  But no, it's not. We all have the information.
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  We all know that we should probably be drinking more water, getting more sleep,
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  but actually doing it and having a cheerleader in your corner,
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  that is way different than watching a YouTube video or reading a book and have
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  somebody shooting on you. So we do it together.
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  All right, so those are the three rules. When you are feeling overwhelmed,
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  when you have the list of a thousand shoulds, you're going to do three things.
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  You're going to look at your thyroid bucket first to make sure that your brain
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  and your body are functioning well enough to do everything else.
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  And of course, there are other things that need to happen in order that everything
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  is working, but we're going to look at the thyroid bucket first.
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  Rule number two, pick something that is simple and sustainable,
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  not necessarily dramatic.
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  And then rule number three, pick one thing at a time and stick with it long
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  enough to learn something.
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  If you, you know, if you would have joined the Simple Habits program,
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  and if you want like all 12 habits all at once, first of all, it's not set up that way.
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  I'm texting you, like I'm personally texting, but I'm not going to give you
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  12 habits in one day, because nobody can do that.
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  Maybe you can do it for one day, but for a week, two weeks, three weeks, probably not.
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  Doing one at a time, yes. But another thing, even if you did all 12 habits,
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  all from the very beginning, you know, people who do 75 hard,
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  that is, that's a whole lot of things all at once. That is the big and dramatic.
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  That is not something that I feel like is sustainable or doable even for a lot
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  of people with Hashimoto's because it's a lot of stress, mental stress,
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  physical stress. It's a lot.
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  But people who do 75 hard have really good results.
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  But the thing is, at the end of the 75 days.
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  There's not one thing that they can say, this really worked for me.
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  And this is what I'm going to continue to do. Like they're not going to continue
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  to do all of those things.
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  And if you don't know about 75 hard, it's huge dietary changes.
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  There's reading, there's education, there's two workouts a day,
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  one of them has to be outside.
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  There's so much stuff that is all built in.
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  So when you get to the end, and you've had this phenomenal change in your body
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  composition and in your mind and your stress and everything.
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  Maybe your stress went up from the 75 hard, but you can't look back and say,
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  okay, this really worked for me.
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  I'm going to keep doing it because most people don't have the capacity to do 75 hard for 365.
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  So that is why we pick one thing, one at a time, so you know what's working.
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  So I hope this has been helpful to help you figure out what to do first.
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  And if it helps even more, reframe it.
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  Not which one should I do first, but which one, if I start today,
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  I will still be doing three weeks from now.
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  Because our habits shape our days. I think it's something like 75 to 80% of
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  your day is based on or built upon routine and habit.
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  Like you don't even think about it. You just do it. We practice our way into
• 17:43
  habits and then we practice our way out of them as we build new habits.
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  So the Simple Habits program, if you have not guessed, it is opening the very
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  last time I'm going to be doing the Simple Habits.
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  I am going to be changing it in 2027. So this is the very last time I will be
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  running the Simple Habits program as a 12-week thing.
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  And I do it in September on purpose.
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  Because starting now, this Simple Habits program will take you through Thanksgiving
• 18:16
  and early December, the hardest times of the year to stick with health stuff.
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  And that is why we start in September. So check out the show notes.
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  I will have the link to the Simple Habits program down there.
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  And I will tell you, I can't add people late. So if you are hearing this and
• 18:36
  it is past September 26th of 2026, I'm sorry, but you won't be able to get into this 12-week cohort.
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  If you're listening in 2027, you can check out what is available now when you're listening.
• 18:52
  But if you're listening in real time, know that the cart will close on Saturday,
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  September 26th at 10 p.m. Central Time.
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  Because I have to manually put everybody in my texting system and I cannot add anybody late.
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  So it is a hard close. There's none of that, oh, I was going to close the cart,
• 19:12
  but I decided to give you one last chance. Nope.
• 19:15
  There is none of that because the program that I'm using to send out the Sunday
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  texts does not let me add people late.
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  So cart officially closes Saturday, September 26th at 10 p.m.
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  Central Time so I can get everybody added before I go to bed.
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  All right, I will see you next week. And for now, pick one simple thing.
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  Come over to our community on the school platform and tell us about it.
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  What is your simple and sustainable thing that you are going to do this week?
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  And that's it for this episode. If you want the whole framework in one place,
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  I made Hashimoto's decoded at $27, seven short chapters and a workbook under an hour start to finish.
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  You will sort your Hashimoto's into thyroid or immune. So you know what to do
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  first. The link is in the show notes.
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  And if you want to talk about this episode with other women who actually get
• 20:06
  it, the free community is on the school platform.
• 20:09
  The link is in the show notes for that too. I'll see you next week.