Welcome to this week’s episode of Thyroid Strong where Maria Billis, a client of Thyroid Strong, joins me to share her journey with Hashimoto’s and how she found the missing piece in relieving her fatigue and boost her energy from incorporating the Thyroid Strong workouts into her daily routine.

Key Takeaways

Maria starts her journey the same way most of us do with Hashimoto’s, going back and forth with doctor after doctor trying to find the right answer. For Maria, though, her only symptom was fatigue and burnout in the early afternoon, not the typical weight gain and hair loss. Now, with Thyroid Strong she is optimizing her workouts to avoid burnout and she has more energy in the morning and throughout the day.

Hashimoto’s Before Finding Thyroid Strong

Maria suffered from waking up tired, and a 2pm burnout followed by an 8pm burnout. She lives a high intense lifestyle, both with stress and her workout routines. She did not pick up weights, instead, she delved into 45-minute to one-hour power yoga sessions. Each workout gave her more injuries, and tendonitis of the knees became the norm.

Working Out without Burning Out Leads to a Boost in your Overall Energy

Maria found Thyroid Strong and began incorporating weights in her workout routines, dialed it back to 20-30 minutes, and set aside her power yoga. She put a load on her tendons to heal them instead of trying to massage them out and with enough time for her body to fully recover, Maria became stronger. She feels energized, she moves better, and she now loves lifting weights.

In This Episode

Maria Bellis’ journey to her diagnosis with Hashimoto’s [2:44]

Maria’s Hashimoto’s symptom of fatigue and how it affected her [3:27]

Adrenal burnout [5:09]

What Maria’s workouts looked like before Thyroid Strong [5:42]

Tendonitis and how to work towards healing it [6:52]

Picking up weights for the first time [8:32]

For those hesitating about Thyroid Strong and taking the leap in the workouts [11:17]

The importance of living a healthy lifestyle for your body [15:39]

Quotes

“I just feel solid. I feel like I'm getting solid. That's so worth it to me.” [9:52]

“I see that people do your type of training, and they move better. They walk better, they feel better. They have better posture. I have more energy from it, too.” [11:57]

“I'm looking forward to just being as optimally healthy as I can.” [15:03]

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Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or on your favorite podcast platform. 

Topics Covered:

• Exhibiting only one common symptom of Hashimoto’s
• Boosting your energy by incorporating weights into your workouts
• Dialing your workouts back to 20-30 minutes, 3-4 days a week
• Incorporating Thyroid Strong into your daily routine to see a significant difference in your energy levels

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If you want more information on when the next round of Thyroid Strong workout program goes live, join the waitlist for all the early bird discounts, bonuses, and details.

If you’re looking to lose weight with Hashimoto’s: https://www.dremilykiberd.com/weight/

If you’re looking to beat the Hashimoto’s fatigue: https://www.dremilykiberd.com/fatigue/

If you want to learn more about 3 things NOT TO DO in your workout if you have Hashimoto’s and WHAT TO DO instead: https://www.dremilykiberd.com/strong

If you want to dive right into Thyroid Strong online workout program: https://www.dremilykiberd.com/thyroid-strong/

Do you want to be strong as you get older and I look at some people that are much older than me and I've seen they don't do weights and I see what their bodies look like. And it's not even the aesthetic part. It's just the moving part. Because I see that people that do rates and do your type of training, they move better. They walk better, they feel better, they have better posture. I have more energy from it too. I mean, I have energy anyway. But believe me, I have more energy now in this workout than any other workout

wanted to share one of the stories of a woman inside thyroid shrunk she is very much like me, you give her a plan and she executes health has always been the number one priority in her life and her symptoms with Hashimotos wasn't the weight gain wasn't the hair loss wasn't the brain fog. It was actually the fatigue. She very similar my in that 2pm crash. And she found that thyroid strong my online workout program for women with Hashimotos. To learn how to work out without the burnout was the missing link in her journey to feel her best with Hashimotos. She looks forward to her four workouts a week. Because you're more energy she feels so much stronger. And the goal for her isn't weight loss. It's to live a very long and vibrant life. So today we have on Maria Bellis if you are inspired by her story, go check out the Red Storm we are going to run another live group together end of September. So right around the corner. So if you're interested get on the waitlist, you get early action bonuses, early discounts, and is a really cool group of women. All was Hashimotos all have a similar struggles. So if you want the details, get on the waitlist, Dr. Emily hybrid.com forward slash waitlist. All right, let's kick it off with Maria. Maria, welcome to thyroid strong Podcast. I'm so excited to have you on. You are actually in my vision like such a leader for other women in the group, sharing your wins sharing your story. And obviously it's in a private Facebook group. And so you as a member of thyroid strong, I wanted you to come on to the podcast to share your story to an even broader audience because I think it needs to be heard. So I think when we first get our Hashimotos diagnosis, it can be very defeating and very confusing. So welcome to thyroid strong.

Thank you so much. And thank you for offering this program. It's just been life changing for me. I guess I'll just basically give you the short version that when I was diagnosed, I was very upgrade. I just didn't know who to turn to. And so I did seek out functional medicine doctors however the way I Found You was through Gabrielle Lyon email. Ah, yeah, just because I had found her I think in one of the interviews with Dr. Mark Hyman she was interviewed and I really liked her and I always I followed her on Instagram. So I found you through her. So I kept watching your videos and something told me I really need to work out with this woman. This is what I need.

Amazing Can you share when you were diagnosed how you came to that diagnosis, because everyone's journey is a little different. So I

think it was about I think approximately five years ago. So I was going to get typical bloodwork, I would go on business trips to Salt Lake City, Utah, and I would go and get these like intensive bloodwork done. And I think it was going through different stages of my life. I heard the word thyroid and I didn't really have a typical symptoms though I really didn't have weight game, I really didn't have my eyebrows missing and I really didn't have a change in boys and just typical symptoms. I didn't have that. But I did notice I was getting tired. And I'm very high energy person. And I noticed in the morning, I just didn't have that really get up and go. And so I felt that really strongly a really like debilitating fatigue. Like just couldn't get going in the morning. I mean, no, it wasn't so debilitating, but also I noticed also later in the day, so I'd wake up a little bit a bit tired and then later in the day, which to me was somewhat early would be eight o'clock I'd get tired. Did you have like an afternoon crash? Because sometimes women talk about like the like 2pm? Yes, around two three, I had that as well. Were you seeing like more of a conventional medicine like a GP or who are you working with at the time I was working with a doctor and I did a lot of hormone therapies. However, I did try different things that didn't really work for me. Nothing more. No type of medicine or anything helped me yeah, I'm not a big medicine person. And I'm very health conscious anyway, and I'm very disciplined as far as food and things like that and supplements. So maybe mentally also, I was like, I don't want to go on anything. Yeah.

Who did you seek out?

I live in upstate New York. So I was able to go to Massachusetts to the island center and I went to a doctor there. And it's been a couple years and I've learned a lot of things about public never thing like

that. Yeah, were there any root causes that kind of you had to dig a little deeper into? So for example, like for me, it was like mold and parasites and not eating gluten. Yes.

So for me, I think really what was is my adrenals were so burned out, because I'm so high intense. And I went through life changes in the past that were so intense, and I was so stressed for so long. And I think that was it. I think maybe there was perhaps I have MTHFR, probably millions of people have that as well. So I don't know if that played a bit of a factor. I do believe that. I'm burnt out my adrenals. Somewhere along the line. Yeah.

Prior to doing the thyroid strong program. What did your workout look like for women who were like, I wonder how she worked out.

Okay, so before, there were many different types of workout that I've done. When COVID started, I'd started doing yoga at home power yoga, and tends to gotten very flexible, and I loved yoga, and it wasn't the sweating type of yoga, but it was a really intense yoga. So a good strong our yoga. Before that. I was doing Chi in a real intensity training. Before that, I was doing a lot of jump roping. And then also towards the end, I injured myself through all of that I always had injury, always and I wasn't really doing it like two hours or an hour over an hour. It was like 45 minutes to an hour workout. I was such as diehard workout person, but I always had tendinitis somewhere, it was always a tendonitis. And so prior to you, I've had this great online program where I did a great warm up a great cooldown. And then I have a rebounder, so I would jump off and on the rebounder. But it wasn't again, so intense. I injured myself. I injured my knee with a really bad tendinitis on my knee. So I diagnosed it because I could tell I sat and then it got stiff. And then I got up out to her and I could walk it would tighten up things like that. But your program got rid of that. Oh, I love it. It's unbelievable.

I think this is an interesting point. Because I think when we hear tendinitis, which is where the muscle inserts into the bone, the tendon, a lot of people think and even in the rehab world, they'll default to this where we will focus on stretching, foam, rolling, massaging, copy, and like all the release. But to actually heal a tendon, you have to load it. Like that's where you know, which is much harder than just laying there and having someone like massage it. So it's so amazing that you did the work right? You picked up a kettlebell was good for him. You did functional moves, right? Like a squat and a lunge. And your tendons feel better, which I think for some women can feel scary.

Yes, it was scary. And thank you for telling me about those rollers because I went nuts with the rollers. I was like, let me just keep rolling on Tom Brady. I think Tom Brady rolls, let me just roll this out. Before I start, when I finished maybe even during I'll do the roller I was intensely I'm gonna roll it out. I'm gonna roll out my muscles. I'll get into the myofascial or whatever it is. Yeah, and get massage and then you know, do everything I can to like pound it out and whatever. Yeah, yeah. It didn't work.

It didn't work. Yeah. Did you find any parts? Because I think a lot of women thyroid strong is a kettlebell based program. You can use a dumbbell at first, did you find any parts or moves particularly tricky at first, right? Because picking up a weight going from a intense yoga routine to like slow controlled movements? It's a different beast. Did you find any moves, particularly challenging at first, especially with different injuries that are moving around the body?

For me, the whole thing was challenging because I'm not a weight person. I don't like Wait, excuse me. I didn't like wait. We even when I went to this little boutique gym, everybody would laugh at me nicely, because I would only pick up like five pounds. And I was like, this is good enough. You know, I'm mentally strengthening my muscles when I came upon your workout. I thought lots kettle ball. I don't really like kettlebells. And about all this way. I knew I just felt like I could listen to you. And I thought she knows what she's talking about. I can see it. I do have some regular weight overhead that I use. Yes. But I I'm loving the kind of hall and I love the squats. And I love the swings. And I love it. I love it. I actually look forward to my workout. I love it.

That's amazing. What do you love about it? Like I know you went into it because I think a lot of women you can start a workout program. But like staying consistent is the number one thing women say like, Oh, it's so hard to stay consistent with like workouts no matter what the workout is. First of

all, as I said, I am very disciplined and it's more important than anything like when I wake up I am discipline. So I know Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, that's what I do. So I wake up in the morning and that's the worst thing I do because I want to get it done and I need to be strong and when I wake up and get out of bed now. I feel my body is strong. Like when I walked I feel stronger who I like it. I just feel solid. I feel like I'm getting solid. That's so worth it to me. No, it's working out.

So for someone men who are more energy, right? They're just they run it a lot of energy. Was it challenging to dial back the workout? So like some women are like, I'm gonna work out six days a week, but thyroid strong and then the membership after stay strong is actually so that you don't burn out so that you don't tax your adrenals to the point where you're exhausted in the morning and crushing it too. Did you find it hard to dial it back a little bit?

Well, that's interesting. You asked me that because I could not do the rebounder anymore because my tendinitis was that bad that I could jump? Yeah, where I started you I realized I had to digest the bat bat I had to slow down. Okay, it's okay to not be like So jump up and down for so long. It's okay to not do that. And now I need continue saying you were Wait a minute. She was a runner. And now she's doing swing. All right. I need to get to that point. Like I need to get to swing. Yeah. And now I'm getting out of breath while I'm doing the swing. Oh, good. Good. I love it. Yeah.

Is there anything you would want to share with women who are hesitant because starting a new workout program, picking out this black wall that has a handle can be intimate? There's so many aspects of weight training, like when did we ever learn to really pick up a weight on high school college or random trainer? Is there anything you want to share with women around any hesitations? You might have that that red strong? Yeah, well, I

would say don't have a hesitation, because this is the thing. All I'm seeing now. And all I'm hearing about now is metabolic strength. And really, as we get older, because we have so long to live, I believe that we have to be strong enough to lift weight, you have to lift weights to be strong, there is no other way to do it, you have to have that resistance training. So if you want to be strong and do the things in your life, like you say, to lift your bag in the air to lift your grocery list your kids, you want to be strong as you get older, and I look at some people that are much older than me. And I've seen they don't do weights, and I see what their bodies look like. And it's not even the aesthetic part. It's just the moving part. Because I see that people that do rates and do your type of training, they move better. They walk better, they feel better. They have better posture. I have more energy from it, too. I mean, I have energy anyway. But believe me, I have more energy now in this workout than any other workout.

That's amazing. That's amazing. I

love it. Yeah, and it's not a long workout. For me. I feel like wow, this is so doable. I mean, it's it's doable. I mean, people do so many stupid things for 30 minutes, you have to do your workout, we waste time in 30 minutes doing stupid things. So do something that's gonna make you live longer and feel better and have the energy and the strength in your arms and your legs. And I feel like also my legs are much more toned now and I feel just toned. I feel I can

feel it. That's amazing. Do you wake up tired? Or do you get like a 2pm slump?

I don't get it 2pm slump. I don't wake up tired. Sometimes I'm a little bit tired with the end of the day, nine o'clock at night, I guess. But I like to wake up at like five, six in the morning. But no, I'm not tired.

It's probably the natural time where your body's like, it's time to go to bed. Time to recover.

I know. But I learned to play it because I like to be on all the time. That's my natural.

I love it. Can you share what weights you're playing with because I know you just invested in some more kettlebells because I know, in the beginning women will invest in the program. And then you got to find something heavy to pick up. And so sometimes they'll start with I say one weight to press and then a second way that you could deadlift, right and then as you go through the program and then into the membership, like we collect more kettlebells like if you saw my gym when it's fully set up if there's 40 Or what kind of weights are you play with now in terms of what you're squatting and what you're pressing or deadlifting

press up like 25 pounds, not the lot for me because five pounds was like a big deal for me all the time before. Yeah, so I squat like I can do 30 pounds. Great. And then I also have 35 pounds, which I'm still working on that doing the press lifting up, squatting down and lifting up that oh yeah, I mean these are my weapons solid them and he was cracking I'll be like, I can't believe you're lifting that heavy weight now because I was so wimpy before. But you know, like I said something like you have to return them because they come shipped because I've been dealing with it's a local store. But long story short, I love the kind of authentic cool and I still use some free weights but I'm getting freakin so tall. So

going back if you think back to the days of when you were picking up five pound weights at that boutique gym and people were like laughing kindly. Yeah. Was there a narrative that you told yourself that you were like, I'm only going to do five pounds? Like Was there a reason? No,

I would just go to let that and and be like to laugh at you and I would have been worried and I felt like I'm too dainty for them. I can't live this big honkin thing. And now I feel like I really the breath and exhale breathing out when it gets heavy. And I listened to Gabrielle Lyon and I understand she always says you know the power is in the exhale or the power. Or you know, you say that's where the power is and the exhale

is there something that you You're looking forward to in the future, it could really be anything.

So I'm looking forward to just being as optimally healthy as I can. And I look forward every day to new workouts from you, because I just love the workout. Like I said, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, there is no other thing that stands in the way because I know I'm getting healthier from it. Unless I talked to my functional medicine doctor, I told him that that's what I'm doing. And I'm better. So that's the whole point because nothing is more important than hell. Nothing matters more than that. Nothing zero, nothing is more worth

100% Did you always have that mindset? Or Did did you have to get to that place? Because some people like, Oh, I gotta like, make the money and like the job and all the things?

No, I always had that mindset. Because growing up, I would always read things about help and understand the need, you don't have that you have nothing, you know, you just have everything else. But if you don't have your help, you have nothing. And I know what it feels like to not feel good. It's the worst thing. So I would say make it priority and do this workout because thyroid strong works and stay strong. I'm gonna stay strong now. And it's so good. And I it's more, there's more value in it than you even say because I feel that with all the interviews and all the other things that come with it. It's just unbelievable. It's there's so much value in it like it's unbelievable. I love love, love it.

I love it. And I appreciate everything you've done. It's like so cool and so good and amazing. If you were going to summarize your now workouts, in one word, what would they do? Exhilarating. I love it. I love it. Marina, thank you so much. You're so welcome. Thank you for sharing your story, right? Because sometimes with an autoimmune condition, we can be very introverted, right like we don't want it because you don't feel understood. I think women hearing your energy and your enthusiasm is so inspiring even for me. So thank you so much for being on thyroid. I saw reach you and I can't wait to work out tomorrow. Thank you. Bye bye. If you enjoyed this episode, or even learned just one new piece of information to help you on your Hashimotos journey. Would you do me a huge favor, rate and review thyroid strong podcast on iTunes, Spotify or whatever platform you used to listen to this podcast and share what you liked. maybe learn something new. And if you did like it, well shoot me a DM on Instagram Dr. Emily hybird I read and respond to every single DM I truly believe all feedback is good feedback. Even the ugly comments if you're interested in joining the thyroid strong course a home workout program using kettlebells and weights where I teach you how to work out without the burnout. Go to Dr. Emily clyburn.com forward slash T 's waitlist. You'll get all the most up to date information on when the course launches and goes live special deals in Early Access bonuses for myself and my functional medicine doctor friends again Dr. Emily khyber.com forward slash T s weightless hope to see you on the inside ladies