Let's Talk Wellness Now

Gin talks about her journey to heal thyroid disease with nutrition. Can thyroid disease be healed with nutrition? The simple answer is sometimes. It depends on the damage that has affected the thyroid. But nutrition can make a big difference in thyroid function. Gin shares what worked for her and provides hope to others with thyroid disease. 

Do not miss these highlights:

02:29 Not every person can get off thyroid medication, 

12:48 How Gin got on this journey of a clean eating diet and linked it to hypothyroidism.

17:47 Why doesn’t the same diet work for other women?

22:34 Accountability needs to come in when it comes to losing weight

26:14 With every single decade, your body’s changing,  your body shape is changing. But it doesn’t mean that you cannot be in your best shape. 

31:22 Whatever comes in the box (processed food), put it back! 

32:53 Well cooked over raw for leafy vegetables.

34:42 Whatever it takes,  your health is your number one priority. 

38:59 A lot of people that have been diagnosed with hypothyroidism have questions that need to be answered, but nobody has time for that.

43:32 If you don’t like the answers you’re getting, seek the care of someone else. You don’t have to stay, find somebody else.
47:53  If you don’t want to take medications, that means you have to follow a strict diet and really work on your diet, because it’s going to be nutritional support versus medication support. 

Resources Mentioned

Whether you are recovering from an illness or just looking to maintain your current overall health, schedule a consult with us at Serenity Health Care  by calling  (262)522-8640 or visit https://www.serenityhealthcarecenter.com 

About our Guest:

I’m Gintare and I’m Certified Ketogenic Wellness and nutrition coach. All my life I was interested in nutrition and always have been a healthy eater. I’m that type of person who never orders take away or buys precooked meals. As I moved to another country to live in my early 20s. I discovered different cultures with different types of cuisines. Also I started to notice that by tasting and trying new food I started to gain weight.This was something new to me and I started to go deeper into the nutrition side. This is where my true passion was born and I end up focusing on. I need it to understand what I need to do to stop my weight gain. And in the last few years my world was shaken when I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism and as a side effect I started to gain weight, it was hard for me to control it considering I am a nutritionist coach. It took a while to figure out what was working and how I maintained it. So now I’m on the mission to help women with their weight loss who’ve been affected by hypothyroidism.

https://www.ketogenic-wellness.com

https://www.instagram.com/gintare.keto/

Transcript of Episode 181

Debra Muth 0:02
Welcome to Let’s Talk Wellness Now, I’m your host, Dr. Deb. This is where we talk about everything wellness, and learn to defy aging, and live our lives on our own terms. Welcome back to Let’s Talk wellness. Now, I’m your host, Dr. Deb and today we’re going to talk about how diet can overcome hypothyroidism. You know, thyroid is such a big problem for many women, men more or sorry, women more than men. And as we age, that problem tends to get worse and worse. And so many of us are looking for a solution to getting off medication. Now, I have been a proponent for many years with my clients to say, if you’ve been on medication for 20, 30, 40 years, unfortunately, the likelihood of you getting off medication is very slim. Does that mean that it can’t happen? It depends really, you know, I after our last episode on thyroid, I had some clients get upset with me that I’ve told them, there’s no way to get off of medication. And here’s the reality. For some people, there’s been so much damage done to the thyroid, that the thyroid just no longer functions. And you’ll know that because you’re coming down on the medication and your TSH starts to rise. And you start to have symptoms, weight gain, water retention, bloating, fatigue, brain fog, things like that. When that occurs, it really does not matter how much diet nutrition supplementation you do, you will always need some amount of thyroid, it may not be as much as you’re used to. Because with a clean diet, we typically need less thyroid. And that’s always a good thing, the smaller amount of any medication that we can get away with the better. But what I want listeners to understand is that when we’re talking about nutrition and lifestyle changes, to heal the thyroid, you still should do these things, whether you’re taking medication or not. I understand the goal is to get off medication, I would love to see everyone be able to do that if possible. But in all honesty, the reality is not every person can get off thyroid medication, again, because there’s just too much damage done to that thyroid, and it doesn’t work anymore. So I may sound kind of crabby about this. But I want people to truly understand what it is we’re talking about. And I don’t want people to be misled, to think that all of these wonderful topics that we’re talking about are going to fix their thyroid problem 100% Because it may not, but it will make the communication from the brain to the thyroid work that much better. You will have better weight loss, you will have better sleep, you will have better cognitive function, you will have better mood. All of these things are things that we want to have in our life, whether we’re on thyroid medication or not, probably the biggest concern that I hear from people is I’m on thyroid medication, but I still don’t feel any better. That is because of all these other things that need to happen along with being on the thyroid medication. Now, one of the other complaints that I’ve heard from my clients about doing these podcasts is why don’t you teach us these things when we’re in with you in an exam room?

Debra Muth 3:54
Well, here’s the reality. Ladies and gentlemen, this is why I do these podcasts. If you listen to an hour of this podcast, and us talking about all the lifestyle changes, all the dietary changes all the supplementation that we’re doing, I could talk about that in the exam room with a client and I can share all of that with you. However, in doing that, we don’t get to address your individualized needs and purposes for being in my office, unless you have a two or three hour visit, which most people don’t have time to do. That is why we created let’s talk wellness now, so that we could share this information in a different fashion. Without you having to pay my time to teach you that you get this information for free. You get to consume it multiple times. You get to hear it over and over again as often as you need it. You get to hear other people’s opinions. You get to hear my opinion. You get to hear what we’ve seen work what other people have seen work, and I think it’s a better utilization. for education, yes, we will teach you the main things in your appointment with us. But I can’t spend hours like I get to spend here and serve you the way you want to be served first. So for those of you who are upset with me, that you’re hearing information like this for the first time, again, I apologize. However, there is a reason to the information we discussed with you in your exam. And there’s a reason we put this information out today, for you to consume and hear. And for those of you who are not upset, I appreciate that. And I appreciate all the support you’ve given me, and the encouragement you’ve given me to go forward with creating, let’s talk wellness now and this platform to share knowledge and ideas with you. Because it’s so important for us to be able to share all the different pieces of what we’re doing in health and wellness education. So again, thank you for all your support. Thank you for being there for me. And I hope everyone understands why it is we produce what it is and how we produce that. So without any further delay, I would like to talk to our guests today with Gintare, I think I said her name wrong. And she’ll correct me for sure. But we’re gonna talk about hypothyroidism and how to overcome this. And she is a certified ketogenic wellness and nutrition coach. And her entire life, she’s been interested in nutrition in ways to be healthier, and eating a better diet. And she’s also the type of person that never orders take away or buys pre cooked meals. So this will be an interesting conversation. She has currently moved to another country to live in in her early 20s and discover different cultures, different types of cuisine, and also started to notice that by tasting and trying new foods, she started to have weight gain, does that sound so familiar to so many of us, and she had never suffered from weight issues before. So she started to dig deeper into nutrition and find what was causing the problem for her. And this is where her true passion was born. To focus on healthy eating, and to stop her weight gain. And so many of us can relate to that so many of us are in that pattern of it doesn’t matter what we eat, it doesn’t matter how we exercise, it doesn’t matter what we take, the scale just continues to either go up or not budge at all. And then we get frustrated, we give in, we eat the things that we shouldn’t eat, which creates a lot of inflammation for us. And that inflammatory weight gain can be just as bad as any other weight gain. And I’m here to tell you, I’m right there with you. I’m in the same boat. I’ve never had a weight problem in my life.

Debra Muth 8:13
Until I went through menopause, just like so many of you. And I do all the things that I teach you guys to do. But I will be honest and say my diet is not 100%. And I get just as frustrated as you guys do. Eating right exercising, doing everything and seeing the scale go up and up and up. So always looking to control that and modify that and get the right exercise, get the right amount of sleep. That is something that all of us work to do every single day. And we’re not perfect at it. I’m not perfect, you’re not perfect. None of us are perfect. But we’re all working towards that. betterness, right that that ability to do it better the ability to do it with better wisdom with more control with more excitement without feeling deprived. And looking for that result that will keep us able to maintain our weight or lose the weight that we’re looking for. And unfortunately, when thyroid is involved, it’s just that much harder. Some of you have heard me say before I went off to a place called Navarro last year in February for a business retreat that ultimately ended up being more than a business retreat. It’s a weight loss camp, and we learned how to eat we learned how to exercise. We worked out eight hours a day and then did business things for seven hours a day. So very little sleep. But I walked away from that literally losing one pound controlled eating tons of exercise. And when I went to my coach and said What am I doing wrong? Her response to me was your metabolism is broken, which most of us are from diets and exercise over the lifespan that were not good for us. We’ve damaged You’re our metabolism, you have a thyroid problem that damages your metabolism. You’re over 50, you’re in menopause. Hallelujah, that’s damaging your metabolism. And I kind of went, Okay, do you have any good news for me. And the only good news she could give me was you need to do cardio for three hours a day, for three weeks, every single day. And that will reset your metabolism. And since that time, I’ve talked to lots of coaches, lots of people. And that’s not the only way. Thank God because I don’t have three hours a day to do cardio. I suppose I could make it a priority. But I run multiple businesses, I care for a lot of people, I’m trying to spend time with my family. I just don’t have three hours a day like most of you do not have three hours a day to do cardio. I don’t care if you break it up or not, it’s still three hours out of our day. And I’m still looking for that solution. I’m still working towards my success so that I’m not a skinny fat person. And I’m sure that many of you can relate to that and feel very similar. So without further ado, I am going to bring our guest in. Have you seen 20 Plus medical doctors only to be told your symptoms are in your head, or you need an antidepressant? We understand your frustrations? Are you tired of feeling sick and tired? Tired of not getting the answers you need to regain your health, tired of not feeling listened to by your doctor at Serenity Health Care Center, we understand and we will help you find the cause of your symptoms. Together we will create a path to health. We specialize in combining the best of conventional and natural medicine to get you back to doing what you love. We have worked with the most complex chronic diseases such as chronic Lyme COVID, long haulers, autoimmune disease, mold, toxicity, and hormonal imbalances. But if you’re not sick, that’s fantastic. We will work with you to maintain your health so that you can prevent illness. give our office a call to see how we can help you regain your health and vitality at 262-522-8640. Or check us out at our website at Serenity health care. center.com. Welcome back, everybody. I have Gintare with us. And I did pronounce her name wrong in the beginning of the episode, which I said I would. So we’re going to talk thyroid and diet. So welcome to the show.

Gintare Balseviciute 12:45
Hi, thank you very much for having me. It’s a pleasure.

Debra Muth 12:48
So tell us how you got on this journey of clean eating diet and linked it to hypothyroidism.

Gintare Balseviciute 12:58
Oh, wow.

Debra Muth 13:00
Loaded question. Right.

Gintare Balseviciute 13:03
That’s a broad question. Well, I was always interesting in nutrition. And the reason I started kind of in my early 20s when I was and the reason was when originally I’m from Lithuania, and I moved to London. And when my kind of diet if I per se changed, I started to gain weight. And this is for me, it was very unusual because this never happened to me before. And I’m kind of foodie and I like to try different foods in our different cuisines, obviously a new country. And I didn’t understand what’s happening, why I was gaining weight, like and at the time there was you know, Facebook just started to exist. Nobody was talking about nutrition as they do today. And there’s not much information I could get it, you know, there was just kind of like a diets more or less, but as well, it wasn’t very kind of open kind of subject. And I kind of started looking for information from the magazines, newspapers, and I wanted to kind of dig deeper into it. And then I qualified as a nutritionist coach, and I was working with women in general weight loss until I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. And the reason obviously it’s kind of genetic as in my my mother had it my grandmother had it. So I got it and I kind of triggered it very early stage. I knew there was something wrong when I didn’t have a full symptoms. But I started to gain weight and it was a little bit kind of uncontrollable and it was a little bit scary. And it was is difficult to just kind of to control now, as a nutritionist, I started asking myself that kind of question like, I’m a nutritionist, and I cannot lose weight, what I knew was, something’s not right with me. And this is where kind of my conversations with my doctor started happening. And I was like, we need to look into it because something’s not right. And when obviously, results came back, I had hypothyroidism and I needed to figure it out how, you know, to start losing weight, you know, cuz it was just keep adding on pounds. And, you know, it was like, I do everything what I can, but it’s clearly it’s not working, it’s some, it’s more to it. So there’s, again, more, you know, new searches more another quality, you know, kind of studies needs to be like, you know, to be done, to go deeper into that, so, and finally, kind of cracked the code. Myself, like, it took a time, it took, you know, quite some time. And there was a days where I was ready, you know, kind of throw in the towel is like I had enough going on, but I’m not, you know, you throw in the towel, like for a week. And then it was like, okay, I can have this like, you know, let’s get back on it. Let’s work again. So yeah, it took a time, I managed to lose weight. And when I was like start, you know, are joined lots of different communities like, you know, people would other women suffering hypothyroidism, and never kind of occurred to me to kind of help them until I saw that there was, they were going through the same problems, as I did, but they obviously weren’t going on there, like stress levels, everything was affected, they go on on another level, that kind of reminded my mother’s story, because my mother was affected by hypothyroidism really bad. And obviously, back in the day, there was medication different resource was different. And you kind of like everyone a woman is like, so frustrated, and all the problems is basically just keeps repeating a single woman with the same symptoms, you know, is the weight is the stress is the fatigue, the pressure, and I was just like, I need to kind of narrow down and start shifting my sort of services to towards to serve, those women actually suffer as I’m one of them. And I managed to work to, you know, to help myself. And now actually, I can help other women.

Debra Muth 17:47
So do you find in this process of women that one size does not fit all, like the same diet that you might use that I might use might work for you might not work for me, because I hear a lot of women, you know, they try keto they tried HCG, they try AIP they try this. And for some women, it’s amazing. It’s like, like you said, You cracked the code, and it worked beautifully. And for other women, they’re still struggling. So what’s happening with that?

Gintare Balseviciute 18:13
So that this, the thing is a lot of it’s a lot of women think that give me a recipe, and all of my problems is gonna go away. It’s everything, I’m gonna start losing weight, and I’m gonna feel amazing. And the reason is not happening, it doesn’t work that way to begin with. And they don’t like to hear that. And I understand that, because a lot of people like, you know, most of the people live kind of in that denial, they just stick to that kind of vision, that is my diet. And that said, Give me a recipe, and I’m done. And so they forget, that is a stress involved, they like frustration, depression, that has a huge impact on their weight gain and weight loss. And they, they kind of not thinking about that they need to deal with that first. And that’s kind of being left aside, as their focus that they think is that we’ll do you know, given the recipe is answer to everything.

Debra Muth 19:25
Yeah, if I eat right, and I exercise, I should see results. Yeah, but we’re not these days.

Gintare Balseviciute 19:31
No. Absolutely not. And, and there’s a thing and it’s like, I’m trying to explain it to women in the kind of they start like, okay, it didn’t look that way. It’s like I tried as you say, I’ve tried this. I’ve tried that and then nothing works. And this stress, frustration, even rising even higher. It’s like I had even this week, your members on a phone call The frustration is so hard that they almost shouting at me like I tried everything and it’s nothing watching. Yeah, like they kind of shaken because obviously it affects everyone, it’s not just affects them, entire family, the people that they around, more likely easy to snap out, or there’s a children’s going to be affected, there was a husband, you know, the spouse is going to be affected, you know, lash out and you know, all of that is becoming out of control. And then before you know it, you kind of hit depression, and they’re going to be put on medication. And I’m like, Oh, my God, no,

Debra Muth 20:39
yeah, that just makes the whole weight loss thing even harder when we’re on medication for depression.

Gintare Balseviciute 20:46
Yeah, and that to be honest, that depression medication for depression doesn’t do anything and you guide, it doesn’t really get all your makes you just drowsy and to sleep, you know, constantly, but it doesn’t solve the problem that is around you. And I know I thank God, I never hit depression. Because I was I was very aware of that my mother had depression, and my mom had depression really bad. So I was always aware of that. I knew the consequences. So I kind of tried to do everything in my power to reach that point, which is kind of it’s not easy thing to do. And especially as you know, how, you know, consequences. And you know, you try not to get there, but I’m imagining women who never grew up in the kind of that kind of environment. They don’t know what kind of consequences and to control their emotions, their mental health. It’s really hard. It’s very hard, is really hard. And like this disease is like, it’s very close to my heart. And this is why I chose to help these women. And obviously, if I had view, I have a huge satisfaction. And when I do help it when I like, you know, when I hop on the call, and she’s happy, fine. There’s no first grade and she’s not shouting. Finally, he’s like, you know, that I can see the light, you know, and it’s, it’s very rewarding for me, it’s very rewarding for me for sure. That’s awesome.

Debra Muth 22:34
Have you found certain things that seem to work a little bit more across the board for women with hypothyroidism compared to somebody who’s dealing with weight loss, but maybe doesn’t have a thyroid issue?

Gintare Balseviciute 22:49
So this is kind of, again, it’s kind of like it’s a lot to do with the accountability. It’s easy for women like the ones who like healthy, it doesn’t make any you know, even whether you aren’t healthy, you know, it doesn’t make your journey, easy to lose weight. It’s still a journey. And a lot of women like very anxious and we want to like quick and fast results. I want to lose 20 pounds in four, six weeks. Yeah. Just like that. And I’m like, did you gain 20 pounds? Or six weeks? Like, why do you think it’s, you know, easier to lose weight than to gain weight? And so some of them, some of them could do very quickly, I think is what is more to do with them. mindset. Obviously, everything starts with the mindset. And some women like one day see the results. They get that motivation. They get that grip, and they want a more they see that this is work, they it’s cracking, they’ve cracked the code. And they feel good about that. And it’s like, Yes, I know what I’m doing. I know what it works. So they just keep going in and get inspired to get motivation from that. And they kind of do it and some women a healthy woman obviously, they need accountability. Everyone’s got like different, you know, characters personalities. And some of them it does work for some of them takes longer to do it. And they need more accountability. Gotcha. And this is where it’s gone. I found that is the secret. Everyone is like, Oh, it doesn’t work. I was doing everything like three days for five days. It doesn’t work anymore. Dislike it’s only five days. This is nothing. Yeah, have that mentality that it doesn’t work. And this is where they kind of get discouraged. And the stars kind of go down a hill. And this and this is where kind of accountability needs to come in. And like put a back on the track.

Debra Muth 25:01
We’ve definitely gotten to a society where instant gratification right instant results and, and weight loss is no different, right? We want to see at least two to five pounds lost in that first week. That keeps us motivated. But if we don’t see anything in that first week, we get unmotivated, we, like you said, we throw in the towel, we say, forget it, it’s not working, I don’t care, I’m gonna go back to doing what I want, because at least that makes me feel good. And then the next week, by the end of the week, you don’t feel good again, because you’ve now put on another counter to and you’re more frustrated, like you said, and so you’ve got your frustration with your diet, you’ve got your frustration with your weight, you’ve got your frustration with life, in general. And if we don’t deal with all of those things, and like you said, Stay the course for a little longer give it a little more time to see some results. You could get results. What do you say for the people who have always been able to lose weight with a particular program? And now they get hypothyroidism or now they’re postmenopausal and hypothyroidism, and now nothing that they’ve done before works. How do you help navigate a woman like that, because that’s really hard for them. And

Gintare Balseviciute 26:14
I, had actually a few clients like that woman in the early 50s. And all her life, she was skinny. And she had the two pregnancies in the 20s, early 30s. And she’s bounced back and she was skinny. And then she had one pregnancy in mid late kind of 40s. And that triggered her. And she kind of she she went up two sizes or sizes. And it was really hard for her and she would not she would refuse to admit that she’s gaining weight and needs to lose. And she she was doing everything in anything. But the one thing is, I know you’re trying everything in anything, but at the same time you need to know what you’re doing. Because if you like that’s why there’s dieticians, that’s why they exist, nutritionist, you know, they know what to do. People think that is a diet, this kind of, you know, everybody knows about that. No. Like, they don’t they think they know, but they don’t actually. Right. And it’s, again, it’s a mindset, like she wanted to lose every one pound every single day. Every single day, she expected to lose weight, because it’s just her mind like that she was gaining weight, she just beside herself would just stand, right. But she still thought that she could go back to it. And considering like, you know, obviously, you know, your last pregnancy, you know, trigger your hormones. You may you may be you know, in menopause or perimenopause, you know, so, it all those things adds up. And it was a work, work. And it’s a mindset and even, you know, what it’s like, again, it’s we managed? Obviously, it wasn’t one pound every single day. It wasn’t, but we managed. But yes, it is a mindset. And he’s, it’s, as I say reality check. And a lot of women have that at the back of their mind. Every single one of them. They remember how they looked when they were in their 20s. Yes. And they still believe that they can have that body. Like how they looked in their 20s. And I always say like, with every single decade, your body’s changing your body shape is changing whether you had babies or whether you’re not changing. But it doesn’t mean that you cannot be at your best shape. Just because you get it because you’re just because your body is getting you know, there’s a lot of women they are in a better shape in the 40s. And they weren’t 20s Yes. But it’s again, it’s the mindset.

Debra Muth 29:30
It’s very different. You’re absolutely right. We all want to be like we did before we had babies. And it doesn’t happen. That’s not the reality. If we want to live in that world, that’s fine. But unless you’re going to do surgery, that’s not going to happen. Let’s just be real. We’re not going back unless you’re doing something extreme. But like you’ve said I’ve seen beautiful bodies in their 40s and 50s Woman We bodies not young girl bodies, not in pre pregnancy bodies, but women Lee bodies, and in their beautiful and we have to accept that and we have to embrace our woman hood, instead of trying to still look like a young girl. That’s the reality of this.

Gintare Balseviciute 30:18
In the early 20s. Your body is still like a teenager’s body.

Debra Muth 30:22
exactly.

Gintare Balseviciute 30:25
And you know, you cannot compare that to when you in the 40s or mid 30s. Early 30s. Yeah, that’s the reality. Yes. I mean, he’s like, it’s, you know, it’s, it’s a bad thing.

Debra Muth 30:40
Part of it’s our marketing, I think these days, you know, we’re using models that are very young to attract a more mature women to look at that and say, I want to be like that, I want to look like that. But that’s not reality. And I think most of us know that in our heart. It’s our head that attracts us to want to be that way. And makes us think that that’s possible still. But it’s not healthy for us to try to do that either. And I think that’s the other thing we have to recognize is what’s healthy to look good is important.

Gintare Balseviciute 31:19
Yeah, yeah.

Debra Muth 31:22
So tell us some tips. If people are listening, they have some thyroid issues. What kind of tips do you have for them to start looking at their diet, and maybe find some ways that they could improve it or find some things that are causing their downfall? How do they start assessing their diet? I guess is the question.

Gintare Balseviciute 31:43
Well, whether his you have hypothyroidism or No, number one is processed foods. Yeah. Whatever. As I say, Whatever comes in the box, put it back. Mm hmm. Simple as that, like, you know, what is the processed food, whatever you see comes in the box, pre packed, put it back. You cannot have as a process is the non enormous amount of sugars, trigger your hormones. And this is where your problem is to begin with. Another thing is gluten, especially for hypothyroidism and especially for Hashim maltose. Because like a high percentage of hypothyroidism are Hashimoto as well, yeah. Nash moeten doesn’t do well with gluten. So the bad carbs has to be eliminated to kind of a minimum. So in watch, basically, what you eat is obviously the vegetables like all leafy vegetables, it’s a good, good for you, but it has to be kind of well cooked. Okay.

Debra Muth 32:53
Why do you say that? Why well cooked over raw for leafy vegetables.

Gintare Balseviciute 32:58
So what it is, so leafy vegetables, kind of, kind of it clogs, your thyroid, tobacco, some water understand. So it kind of overloads the tires for me to work harder. So that is for the raw vegetable, okay? Like a cauliflower, broccoli, like spinach, stuff like that. Brussel sprouts, stuff like that. So it makes labor harder to work. Gotcha. So why was it cooked, especially well done, easy to digest, it’s easier to you know, go your for your thyroid. That’s what kind of but obviously in a small amounts, it’s okay.

Debra Muth 33:47
So if somebody is doing a spring mix salad every day for dinner and for lunch, and they think they’re doing a great thing, so they’re doing a nice spring mix, maybe they’re doing some protein on there, some cucumber, some other vegetables, that may not be the best for them with their thyroid, because that spinach is going to be raw and they’re doing it two times a day. And sometimes we think salads good. So we make a big salad. And so that that could be causing some disruption in their thyroid.

Gintare Balseviciute 34:17
Yeah, it can be but at the same time, I always say listen to your body. Because obviously the you know, the how bad the the state of the thyroid and some of them like could have like they still the numbers not in the balance. So you’re trying to do everything to you know, to get in those numbers in balance. So as I say you do whatever it takes or health is your number one your priority. So obviously needs to be made adjustments and I know sometimes, you know for women come is very inconvenient. Because especially if you have a family. Yeah it’s kind of Like sometimes the point where you kind of have to do your own meal. And this is where kind of like gets in the way. And I completely understand, I completely understand that he’s like, you don’t want to make two separate meals. Mm hmm. But the end of the day, so he’s always kind of more maneuvering. Like, you know, I’m sure, like, you know, something like, you know, your, your husband needs chicken, your husband needs like, you know, steak or something. He’s just like, what you have it on the side. Mm hmm. Instead of like having a, I don’t know, some potatoes or something that our pastor, skip it, leave it to husband. Then and, you know, you stick to your side a little bit, because the end of the day, it’s, it’s your health. Your spouse is not your children’s, you know, a lot of people doesn’t really take seriously that side of it, as I always say, every limb matters. And a holistic side should be, you know, embraced a lot. Because then you and you know, your spouse doesn’t understand you how you feel. Right? You know, and this is a is a lot of another big problem is when I speak with women is my husband cooks and my husband has liked to eat healthy. What does your husband like to see you? You know, ill and happy and all those things, though. It’s a big adjustment and balance in the family. Yeah, well, and you know,

Debra Muth 36:37
the other thing is that our husbands love us for who we are and what we look like, they don’t see us the same way we see ourselves. So they don’t oftentimes understand what’s playing over in our head. We can say I feel fat. I don’t like the way I look. And they’re looking at us going, I don’t know what’s wrong with you, I think you’re beautiful. I love the way you look, because they don’t see us the way we see us. And I know people have a hard time understanding that. But if you talk to men, and really get into that question, there’ll be like, we don’t see your cellulite, we don’t see the roll in your belly. That’s not what we see, we see a gorgeous woman, they don’t look at those details like we do, we look in the mirror, and we analyze every single piece of our body, every single wrinkle, every single thing, everything. They they don’t do that to us. So we have to understand that when they say they love us for how we are, that’s fine, but we have to love ourselves for how we are to. And that that has to take a priority.

Gintare Balseviciute 37:33
Yeah, but at the same time is like when women they start not loving themselves when they start frustration when the the looking at the scales and every single day. Like, you know those numbers going up and up and they get you know, stressed and they start to lash out at their houses and choose children and obviously now is affecting you know them well. So this is like it’s another problem arising basically in the family. And then is being kind of pointed out by one of my clients and like my husband says like, What is wrong with you? Why are you like, lashing out on our kids? Like, you know, they didn’t do nothing wrong, but you just kind of like you just and she goes I know that but it’s just I’m trying to control myself and it’s really hard. So it’s so a lot to do with it is like you think you have one only hypothyroidism anything like what is it? You know, the side effects and when you start naming it because Oh wow. It’s all of that. It’s like one, you know, big package comes in and it just keeps giving?

Debra Muth 38:43
Absolutely. That hormone is so powerful. And unfortunately, we don’t give it enough credit for what it can and cannot do. And so many practitioners downplay it, well, it’s just thyroid, just take a little medication, you’ll be fine.

Gintare Balseviciute 38:59
That’s the problem. And it’s Yeah, again, I blame doctors a lot. The reason is, like a lot of women a lot of not just women and men as well. They kind of you know, if you’ve been healthy all your life, us there is women that they never heard about the thyroid. Now, let alone they’ve been diagnosed with hypothyroidism. And they’ve been put on medication for the rest of their lives. Yes. And they that’s all they’ve been told. It’s like next patient and that woman is you know, her life just changed upside down. And she needs information. She has many questions like some questions like she doesn’t even know what what to ask but she hear what’s going on. What would you occasion for the rest of my life? I’m the healthiest person and now I depend on medication. So it’s a lot of luck. I have a question that needs to be answered, but nobody kind of has a time for that.

Debra Muth 40:05
Right? And some, some practitioners don’t have the answers, because unfortunately, that’s all they were taught in medical school was your thyroid numbers are off, we’re gonna give you this medication, you’re gonna take it, it’s going to fix it, see you later, have a nice day, we’ll see you and whatever, six months or a year, we’ll recheck it again. And when you still don’t feel good, we’ll just give you an antidepressant. That’s what they’re taught, unfortunately. So unless you work with a holistic practitioner, or functional medicine, or an integrative doctor, whatever we want to call it these days, they they really don’t know. That’s all they know. And that’s the sad part. So working with someone like yourself, or someone like myself, that can teach them more about thyroid and tell them what to expect. There, they’re unfortunately going to have a disservice.

Gintare Balseviciute 40:53
Yeah, and this is a fingertip and I was the same, I was one woman. And luckily, in my situation, I knew about the thyroid, before I had a thyroid, because of my experience with my mother and all that, you know, but when I see like, this happening to other people, and the story repeats, and I feel I have a massive compassion when this happening to young children. Yes. And especially, I had numerous clients where nobody had it in the family, but the children got it. And one of the girls, she got it when she was nine. And she was she turned 14, she gained about 30 kg in four months. How and father reached out to me, he was beside himself, the whole family waiting for dietician on national health. In the queue for six months. It goes my daughter’s obese, overweight, it goes here, she’s obese, actually, it goes, this weight is coming on, like, we don’t know what to do. And considering they know, God, they don’t know what is this, they never had experience, then. And now you have a child, that’s depending on medication. And all this happening. It’s kind of they feel so overwhelmed. And everything is for them feels like it’s out of control. Yeah. So it’s, it’s sad. It’s really, really sad.

Debra Muth 42:31
I had a child once she was 10. And had a thyroid problem. Her TSH was six and a half, seven. So the normal here in the US is about five. And the endocrinologist said, Well, I’m not going to treat her tiller, TSH is 10 or higher. But she had gained 100 pounds in a year. And she was 10. And I just looked at that, and I thought that that should a be child abuse. And second, it should be malpractice. Why are we waiting for this number to be double the normal range, just because it’s a child. And we’re letting this child put on all this weights. And we’re not doing anything about it. And we all know listening to this, how hard it’s going to be for someone to take off 100 pounds period, let alone a 10 year old child with thyroid issues. And it was just horrible. But this is some of the things that young people deal with in the traditional medical system. And so as we’re talking about this, if people are experiencing that and you don’t like the answers you’re getting, seek the care of someone else. You don’t have to stay with that person find somebody else.

Gintare Balseviciute 43:41
Yes, absolutely. You know, we live in a free world, you know, exactly. Even myself. So, now I am in the, in the, in the on a journey of we down medication, it’s only third week. Third week, I always was on a 50 thing. And now I’m on 25 So for two months, and this is my fifth practitioner in not even two years. Okay. Hmm. And it was because I obviously, like other practitioners like I tried to kind of obviously we don’t want to stay on medication. Yes, we have a terrorism they say like you know, you cannot reverse it, but I believe there is a root cause for that. And if I want to try to come off the medication, maybe it’s gonna work I don’t know, I want I’m willing to try and whereas previous bhakti practitioners, they would not even go and have a conversation about what is your problem why use you know, you don’t want to take a medication. What is the problem my system takes, you know, tablets in the morning and she’s fine. Like what I don’t want to be dependent on on medication, I’m the healthiest, but I’ve never attended a hospital before now. And, you know, so for them to understand, like, you know, mental health, you know, they kind of they’re not really aligned in. And, but that’s why I’m saying like, for me, it’s my fifth practitioner. It’s not even two years. And now finally petitioner, like, even himself, I didn’t even mention him that I’m willing to come, I would like to come off the medication. I was just going for ultrasound checkups, and I was like how my neck looks. And even like, the woman who did ultrasound straightaway, ask her she goes to me looks Everything okay? It’s nothing wrong there. I found my doctor, she goes, Yeah, everything is fine. There’s nothing in there. You know? Nothing. No nodules? No, no, you know, no, no lumps. Nothing in there it goes, everything is perfect. My bloods is perfect. And it goes matter of fact, I don’t think you should stay on medication. I was like, Excuse me? Like, what did you just say? Like, Doctor like, normal? I had four before, once it comes No, you telling me that in that room fact. So it goes less right, you know, willing down, like, you know, let’s put you on a 25. And in the meantime, we’re gonna reach out for the endocrinologist and all the resource to get their approval. Those I don’t think I don’t see why we shouldn’t get because everything is good. And we take it from there. So I’m now it’s very early, obviously journey, like so far for you, right? Obviously, after two months is going to be another blood test done to see whether my levels are okay or not, is it coming up or same? And if the same, the same, I will try to completely stop it. And then obviously more tests to be done?

Debra Muth 46:58
Yeah, you definitely want to be following that closely. So for those of you who are listening to us, don’t stop this on your own work with someone and you can’t just pick a day and stop it, you have to do like Jen did and you have to do a lot of work to heal your thyroid before you can just stop the medication or you’re going to have more complications. This is not an easy process. It takes a lot of work, a lot of dedication to try to heal that thyroid before you come off that medication.

Gintare Balseviciute 47:27
Absolutely. And even like during the journey of wheeling down. Like what the hell’s the literally the foods what you eat and what you consume the least excited your, your diet. It’s vital. It’s huge, huge. This is you know, it’s all down to you. What do you want? That you want right?

Debra Muth 47:53
If you don’t want to be out make medications, that means you’re going to have to follow a pretty strict diet, and really work on your diet, because it’s going to be nutritional support versus medication support. And I think that’s one of the things that people forget is they think that I’ll just do this diet for a while I’ll lose some weight, I’ll heal my thyroid, I can stop my thyroid, and then life will be good. It is not like that. It will take time and you will continue to be tracking and working with your diet because it’s actually diet and nutrition that’s now controlling your thyroid, not the medication.

Gintare Balseviciute 48:28
Yeah, absolutely. So I’m very excited. And it’s a possibility and that actually Absolutely. Doctor you know, himself came up it was like, oh my god there was like I was before you know you you unique.

Debra Muth 48:43
Right? Exactly. Yes. Because you did the work right? Because you did the work.

Gintare Balseviciute 48:49
Yes, I did. And and there’s a lot of women like it’s I’m not you know, trying to you know, shove other people’s throats if I could say so. Yes, you know, oh, this is how this is my so but this is my story. People maybe kind of feel especially women who had for years this problem and like never but I did have women like they had like for 10 for 15 years this and it’s kind of carry on they felt that way and it’s kind of reminds my mother’s story and they in the mind frame like whether I ever feel normal again or is the normal? Yes. Yeah, this is new normal for me. And and they made me feel exhausted of trying different things and nothing working and they just kind of like yeah, you know, she just talking but she doesn’t know what she’s doing that it was sure. You can’t come across women like that because just purely like you know of the Hulk like losing type and, you know, to embrace new normal for them. And I really feel like I really feel sorry. And I understand how, what it feels like not to feel okay. We haven’t a fatigue day in, day out. And you kind of feel like you wake up in the morning and you being like, you know, whether I ever feel normal again. Yes, exactly why, you know, day in day out? How I feel? Yeah, I do feel for it for sure.

Debra Muth 50:27
Yeah, that’s wonderful. So Jen, tell people how they can get in touch with you. If what you’re talking about resonates with them and they want to work on this. How can they get in touch with you and learn more from you.

Gintare Balseviciute 50:41
So I do have a website, which is WW dot ketogenic underscore wellness.com. Or just could email me directly, which is hello at ketogenic underscore wellness.com. Awesome.

Debra Muth 50:55
For those of you who are driving or working out while you’re listening to this, we will have that in the show notes so you will be able to reach her. You’ll also find her information, we will connect her on our social pages so you can reach out to her and learn more from her. So Jen, thank you so much. This was such a great conversation.

Gintare Balseviciute 51:12
Thank you for having me. It was amazing.

Debra Muth 51:14
Thank you. Hey, it has been really great sharing this time with you guys on the let’s talk wellness now podcast. If this episode has helped you or you feel as though this episode would help someone else we’d love for you to leave us a review, share this podcast. And if you don’t want to miss the most exciting episodes we have coming. We’d love for you to subscribe to our podcast on iTunes or Google Play. Until next time, live every day to the fullest