I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s (a thyroid autoimmune disease) about 7 years ago. Although, I have been on medication ever since, my body does not respond to medication alone. I have to get blood work done every 8 weeks and have to eat a pretty strict diet to keep my numbers in check. I mostly follow the Thyroid Healing diet laid out in this book–no dairy, gluten, grains, eggs, pork, soy, and I really try to stay away from processed sugars and meats.
But if you are in a similar situation, don’t think I cut it all out at once! When I was first diagnosed, my doctor advised me to cut out gluten immediately. And then 6 months later, I eliminated dairy. I’ve been grain free for about 2 years and the other things I have gradually cut out in an effort to optimize how I feel and function.
So what DO I eat in a typical day? A lot actually! Here’s how a typical day looks for me:
Post Workout Protein ShakeÂ
I have to workout, or very minimally move my body, every morning to keep my joints loose and fight the exhaustion that can come with Hashimoto’s. A blend of almond milk, Clean Simple Eats vegan protein and PB2 is my favorite recovery. It’s like a cold milkshake! If I want it a little thicker, I’ll blend in a frozen banana and some spinach.
Breakfast/Mid-morning
I miss eggs, a lot. Sometimes, on the weekends, Chris will make sweet potato hash, but on the daily, I just grab some celery juice (we’ve been getting it from Pressed lately after juicing my own for 3 years–it’s a nice break!), and a protein Larabar for a mid-morning snack. I noticed when I first started this diet, it was really hard for me to get protein in, so now I try to make sure almost everything I eat has some amount of protein. The Apple Cobbler Protein bar is magic!
Lunch
Eating out used to feel…not fun. But, I’ve gotten pretty good at finding something on almost any menu that I can modify. Our team chose Five Guys this day and I went for the burger bowl (instead of my usual lettuce wrapped burger) and I should have gone with the lettuce wrapped. I don’t know why I thought it would still come with lettuce. haha. It was still tasty with pickles, tomatoes, grilled mushrooms and onions.
Afternoon Snack
Get Back to Human has become one of my favorite treats. They make a lot of different snacks that are all free of all the junk. A few squares of this cashew butter chocolate and strawberries in the afternoon get me through the 2pm slump!
Dinner!
Burgers for lunch and nachos for dinner? This day was a party! Chris has become a master of restricted eating to the point where I often forget I am missing out on anything. Most of the recipes we share here on Chris Cooks Sunday are compliant with my diet, and these nachos were no exception. He piled on grain free tortilla chips (the siete brand), turkey sausage, zucchini squash, yellow onions, green onions, Daiya non-dairy shreds, avocado, cilantro, cumin, paprika, garlic powder, salt and pepper. I probably miss real cheese more than anything else, and I often skip vegan cheese because it’s just doesn’t live up to the real thing, but mixed in with all the other ingredients here–it was perfect.
Bedtime Snack
I’m not going to lie, I usually fall asleep before I can even think about a snack. But once the sun goes down, I’ll usually have some tea (i love this one) with a couple drops of stevia and drift off before 9:30pm.
Of course every day is a little bit different, but I hope anyone else is the same boat gets some new ideas from this post!
Thank you for sharing! I have hashimoto and graves disease. I refuse to take medication because it was not working at all. I follow these doctors on Instagram that have some great advice. Everyday is a struggle because no one around me can understand what I’m going through. The brain fog and fatigue are the worst. Thanks for sharing, I’m going to try some of your suggestions. Good luck to everyone going through an auto-immune disease!!
https://instagram.com/docs_sznajder_gandolfo?igshid=zthik35tt6lo
I love reading your Hashimoto’s updates, Julia! I too have Hashimoto’s and decided to finally make major diet changes this past fall under the supervision of my doctor. I am now dairy-, egg-, grain-, soy-, added sugar-, caffeine-, alcohol-, and mostly nightshade-free. Additionally I eat a low-glycemic (<15g fructose per day) diet and smaller meals at regular intervals (was previously doing intermittent fasting but plateaued and bloodwork markers suggested a different approach was needed) to better manage blood sugars. 80% vegetables, the rest healthy fats and animal protein. I cut it out all at once which was brutal the first few weeks but I saw results by week three- dramatic lifting of brain fog and fatigue, more even energy throughout the day, disappearance of joint pain and pleasantly, my chronic sinusitis and seasonal allergies greatly improved. After six months I may modify toward becoming more lenient but wanted to give this a good go to get a baseline for what was possible with diet mod alone. In my search for answers and reasons for answers I have found Dr. Datis Kharrazian’s books Why Isn’t My Brain Working and Why Do I Still Have Thyroid Symptoms to be great sources of insight in case anyone needs any prompts for troubleshooting their condition. As much as I like my endocrinologist, I feel she cares more about keeping my levels in check than also addressing the root cause of what set my immune system into overdrive in the first place and helping it calm the heck down so it can respond more appropriately and slow the attack on what’s left of my thyroid.
Is it all eggs? I only ask because I’ve heard of people substituting duck eggs in place of chicken eggs. Glad you have a diet that works for you!
I personally don’t eat any kind ofegg
How did you finally get diagnosed? Was it or did it feel like an uphill battle? Also what makes eggs so bad?! Those are my favorite!! It would be hard
To remove. Thanks so much for sharing this!!
I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism about 12 years ago. I have been chronically fatigued my whole life and finally went in about that and other issues to find out I needed to take medication. I have been on levothyroxine all these years and still feel fatigue and always want a nap. Curious what your symptoms were and how the diet helps. I went gluten free about 5 months ago just to see and have felt no difference. I tried to diet swap because my friends with hashimoto’s all say it helped them tons and since almost 80% of people with hypothyroid are really mis-diagnosed and really have hashi’s I though I would give diet a try. Still trying to find answers after all of these years.
Have you had your vitamin D level checked? It’s often low in people who have autoimmune issues and made a HUGE difference in my fatigue (I have hashimotos and other autoimmune conditions)