Hey friends,
What an fun summer it’s been! Riding bikes to the beach, kayaking and paddle-boarding, and lots of pool time. We’ve gone to farmer’s markets and juice bars and gluten-free donut shops, too…
It’s been a lot of memory-making fun with these boysies. I’m a happy momma.
I think I appreciate it so much because there was a time when I couldn’t do any of these things. When I was so sick with an undiagnosed health condition that completely changed my life almost 20 years ago. I gained more than 100 lbs in a year’s time and ended up 270 lbs, in pain all day long and in such distress — emotionally, physically and mentally.
In light of no good answers, I researched like crazy, bought books, traveled to conferences, saw gobs and gobs of doctors, health professionals and healers. I took a scrillion expensive tests, and went on a huge mind/body/soul journey to discover what was going on — all while I felt like I was dying.
I was determined though. Something was calling from deep within to keep going.
Eventually a diagnosis appeared: Hashimoto’s.
Armed with a diagnosis, I traveled more, researched more, and queried more…
And over time a pathway appeared that included health remedies, traditional medications, healing practices and powerful ways of seeing life.
I didn’t know then, that my journey would eventually lead to supporting other women in their healing process through Hashimoto’s as well.
Writing my book, “You’re Not Crazy and You’re Not Alone: Losing the Victim, Finding Your Sense of Humor and Learning to Love Yourself Through Hashimoto’s” was one of the most gratifying experiences.
To be able to pull together years of inner exploration, experience, and empowering ideas that helped me to process this dis-ease and share them with women, has been amazing. Traveling through the maze of doctors, lawyers and Indian Chiefs, allowed me to share short-cuts through the process.
It lined up with a vision I had when I was about 14 or so: There was a thick brush and I hacked through for a long while and cleared a path — there were cuts and scrapes on my arms but after a lot of time, I turned around and my family was standing far behind me on the path I had cleared. It made me sigh and see the purpose in the hard work. I’m reminded of that vision when I receive e-mails from women who feel comforted, relieved, encouraged and empowered and get to the answers more quickly because of the work I’ve shared. It touches me in such a deep place.
One of the passions I have had for years is to short-cut women on the journey. I took the long, hard way and tried so many things along the way. I realized, at some point that it was all going to be useful. My girlfriend asked me a few weeks ago, “How much money did you spend going through all the Hashimoto’s stuff?” I sat down with the numbers.
$300,000. Give or take a few thousand.
We were invested.
Deeply.
And my husband Rock and I are both passionate and have invested that information into other women so that their journey can be shorter to health and happiness than mine was.
Through my travels, I got the privilege to know Dr. Izabella Wentz — Thyroid Pharmacist and author of “Hashimoto’s: Root Causes”.
She wrote the foreword on my book and became a trusted colleague and friend. She has taken the functional medicine aspect of Hashimoto’s and put it together in what I call “The Bible for Hashimoto’s Healing.” As I read her book, I saw my journey and what I had learned that took me years and years of trial, error and research to acquire. She put it all together in such a clear format. I wish that both her book and mine were available 20 years ago!
I asked Izabella to take our mutual desire for a conference/retreat experience and put one together for you.
I’m so excited to share this with you and we are both looking forward to taking our experience and expertise to make your journey to health and happiness a shorter one.
To be notified when the next conference is happening go to www.HashimotosRetreat.com and enter your email address in the form. We’ll keep you posted will all the details.