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After a 6-week-long hiatus, I’m excited to be back with my cousin and long-time health coach, Claire Cook, to talk about healing my Hashimoto’s and my relationship to food.

I get a lot of questions about healing my thyroid: 

• How do you get off of your thyroid medication?
• What does that healing look like?
• Why are you doing it?
• Why does it matter?

This has been such a long process for me, and I didn’t do it alone. I did it with a lot of support, and I’m still in it.

Here’s the truth: Women are suffering. Whether it’s brain fog, infertility, thyroid issues, or hormonal imbalance, we’re all looking for answers. And people like Claire really lead the way in grounding us back into the basics. 

We’ll be touching on nutrition, of course. But it’s also about mindset! When we can take the time to truly celebrate every small win, we can integrate the changes more sustainably.

I’ll be honest, the past year has been incredibly hard. From divorce to job changes to personal tragedies, I’ve never been so grateful to have built up healthy habits with Claire. 

I’ve been navigating weight fluctuations publicly, and it has been nothing short of traumatic. But I’ve had the support of people like Claire and my healthy habits to keep my head above water.

I’m constantly hearing from people who say they’ve tried everything: the fad diets, the workout routines, the mindset hacks, and still, it doesn’t feel like it’s enough. That’s why incremental change is so important. 

This past year, I had a hard time getting myself to go on walks routinely. But I didn’t take that as a failure! Instead, I did a few squats every hour. With a personalized approach, you can make your wellness routine work for you and leave the all-or-nothing ideas at the door.

In today’s episode, we’re talking about:

• How I healed my Hashimoto’s
• Navigating weight fluctuations without feeling like a failure
• Tracking macro and micro nutrients
• The small-wins mindset that will change your life

My Hashimoto’s Story

I have had hypothyroidism most of my adult life. I learned that I had hypothyroidism when I was dealing with some infertility and experienced a miscarriage. I had a full thyroid panel to figure that out. 

I went undiagnosed for years because the majority of endocrinologists and doctors in this country will not volunteer to do a full thyroid panel. They’ll only check your Thyroid-Stimulating Hormone (TSH), and that is total BS. 

I dealt with my hypothyroidism for many years. I was taking medication, but the synthetic medication (Synthroid) made me sick. I gained so much weight and had a ton of inflammation. I finally landed on Armor Thyroid, which is a natural desiccated thyroid that worked great for me. 

My hypothyroidism was so bad that my thyroid basically didn’t work at all. I was taking what my doctor considered the highest amount of thyroid supplement that she had prescribed, but my thyroid gland did not work at all.

It wasn’t until years later that I learned I had Hashimoto’s. Most people (women more than men) who have hypothyroidism have an underlying Hashimoto’s disease, which is an autoimmune disease that impacts and attacks the thyroid.

I worked for many years to heal my Hashimoto’s. Around the time that I got my antibodies down and healed my Hashimoto’s, my doctor said it was time to start weaning off my medication.

What Happened When I Weaned Off Thyroid Medication

I started that process, and that’s when all the symptoms started coming back: weight gain, inflammation, etc. When you lower your medication, you’re purposely putting your body back into a hypothyroid state. It can trigger your body to say you need to make more of your own thyroid hormone.

When you’re on a ton of thyroid medication for a long period of time, there are long-term consequences. You’re also telling your thyroid gland not to make any more. When you start to see your thyroid-stimulating hormone go down, that’s when you know you’re taking too much and your thyroid needs to start working again on its own. 

Weight Gain

So I started titrating down little by little and started having symptoms, and it was emotionally traumatic for me to wake up after 10 days and be eight pounds heavier. And I’m only like 5’1”, so the weight gain was noticeable.

I had to change my mindset to get healthy again. I wanted to stop putting all of these things I don’t need into my body. I wanted to heal my thyroid gland, which would then help with so many other symptoms.

I needed to be okay with having some periods of time where I weighed more and still love myself and my body and think about the long term. I changed from “What’s happening this week?” to “Where do I want to be in three years?” 

Hiring Claire as My Coach

So I hired Claire to help me. I thought I knew how to be healthy, how to eat, and how to work out, but I learned so many different things that I think most people don’t realize. 

• I wasn’t eating enough protein.
• I was eating way too much fat and not the right fat. 
• I was either over-exercising or I was starving. 
• I was hitting maybe a thousand calories a day. 

So we worked together, and I got into incredible shape, but the biggest thing that came out of that was my mindset. I learned to maintain a long-term mindset and not let a scale or a bad day throw me into an emotional spin. 

Over the two years since we started working together, I’ve continued to bring my thyroid medication down and navigate the ups and downs that come with that. 

By the way, none of this is medical advice. This is me just sharing my own experiences, what I went through, and how I supported myself through it. 

Toxic Diet Culture

We have to talk about the elephant in the room, which is diet culture. For so many decades, women have been told that they have to be on a diet (no carbs, higher fat, keto, paleo, etc.), skinny is what’s popular, and that’s what you should do because you’ll get more attention. 

This message has just been running rampant. The goal through all of it is to be skinny, and it doesn’t matter how you get there. That mindset is so detrimental. 

New Nutrition Mindset

Through her own experiences, Claire learned about macronutrients and how important it was to get the right amount of nutrients throughout the day.

Claire started to shift her mindset. She actually has never eaten more in her entire life, and is still seeing results! 

More importantly, Claire dove into her own journey. She went through my own homeopathic doctor, who ran every lab under the sun for her to really understand how certain foods were affecting her hormones. It was fascinating for her to learn where she was deficient and why, what she could do to naturally combat that, and where she could use food instead of relying on a supplement. 

Everybody is so different. Claire had to think of her relationship to food completely differently, and she announced that she doesn’t have to take thyroid medication anymore! She addressed her deficiencies by understanding her hormonal makeup and eating the right foods for her body. It was a lot of work—she had to shift her mindset around food to focus on long-term vs. short-term goals. 

Weight Fluctuations are Normal!

When I first started working with Claire, I weighed myself every day, and it sucked. But when you realize how much your weight fluctuates from day to day, even just on a normal day, it starts to be less of a big deal.

Then, the number on the scale doesn’t bother me anymore because it’s not about that. Claire did such a good job of keeping me focused on my goals. I saw improvements in my health before the scale went down. By focusing on the things that matter, I felt better about myself. 

Life Shouldn’t Compromise Your Health

Even if you are experiencing a lot of chaos and stress, you need to take care of yourself.

I had one thing after another happen to me this year. 

• I had just gone through a terrible but absolutely necessary divorce.
• I had to move immediately.
• I had to make the decision to leave my job.
• I decided to work for myself and do this job full-time.
• My son’s girlfriend went through a personal tragedy that affected all of us.

I had told everyone that working for myself is all I’ve ever wanted to do, and it was. But when it happened, instead of being happy and grateful, I started to spiral emotionally. I was online all the time, and people were saying awful things to me every day. When that became my daily environment, it was really hard to wake up, go for a walk, spend time outside, make a homemade meal… Those stressors started to bleed out into my self-care, thought patterns, and food patterns.

Part of the reason why I’m talking about this is because I have people in my inbox telling me they don’t have time to take care of themselves. I know you’re in a stressful situation. Self-care isn’t black and white. You can do small things that make a really big difference in your home. 

You don’t have to go to a gym for an hour a day. You don’t have to home-cook every single meal. It’s not all or nothing.

Small Things Make a Big Difference

I want to talk about the small things that people can do to right their ship. With all of the emotional stress that I have been going through behind the scenes, Claire taught me important habits so I didn’t slide back to my old habits. 

There are a lot of small things you can adopt that make a huge difference in your overall health. It’s all about figuring out what you can do tomorrow that would be 1% better than what you did today.

These are some ideas:

• Sleep an extra 15 minutes
• Go for a 10-minute walk sometime in your day
• Eat a piece of fruit
• Think about 5 things you’re grateful for
• Spend time in the sunshine
• Reflect on 5 things you’re proud of yourself for doing

People feel like if they don’t do it all, they’re a failure. That’s just not true. Find little things where you can blend what you’re obligated to do every day and what you want to do. These tiny efforts are a massive deal. We can only do what we can control.

Healing Your Relationship to Food

We talked about a lot in this episode, but I really appreciate Claire’s support and advice throughout this whole year. 

Her final advice will stick with me: “A mind transformation is the best investment that you could ever make for yourself.”

FAQs About a Healthy Relationship to Food

How to change a relationship with food?

Changing your relationship to food is about shifting from control and guilt to awareness and trust. Progress comes from curiosity, not shame.

Why do I eat when I’m not hungry?

There are many reasons we eat beyond physical hunger. You might be emotionally eating, eating out of habit, feeling social pressure, or restricting yourself too much. Understanding why you eat creates awareness and space for new choices.

What are the different types of relationships with food?

Everyone’s relationship with food exists on a spectrum. A few common types are:

1. Emotional Eater – Uses food to soothe, celebrate, or manage feelings.
2. Restrictive Eater – Follows rigid rules, feels guilt after eating “off-limits” foods.
3. Chaotic Eater – Eats irregularly, often skips meals, and overeats later.
4. External Eater – Eats based on cues like time, environment, or social situations, not hunger.
5. Mindful or Intuitive Eater – Listens to their body’s signals, honors cravings without guilt, and stops when satisfied.

Connect with Claire

Through macro-nutrition counting and planning, you will find a lifestyle better than you ever imagined. When we look and feel our best, everything around us benefits. We can then be our happiest AND healthiest and never again have to choose between the two. With me supporting you, you get to have both. The road to healthier eating is challenging but with the right system, support, and accountability, success is inevitable! And that is where I come in. I want to help you be the best version of yourself. Life will always happen to you. Let’s find a way together to make life happen for you!

Visit her website.

Related Episodes:

Episode 6: Have you had a Full Thyroid Panel?

Episode 33: A Deep Dive into Macro Nutrition with Claire Cook

Episode 36: Can Red Light Therapy Actually Heal Your Thyroid?

Episode 73: 5 Things I Did to Heal my Hashimoto’s Naturally

Episode 81: From Diplomacy to Toxin-Free Advocacy: My Personal Journey Unpacked, by Unbranded with Suzy Dean

Episode 133: The 5 Holistic Wellness Rabbit Holes I’m Currently Obsessing Over