The Tea with Tina
The Tea with Tina is going to be your new favorite weekly chit-chat that will feel like a good, juicy sit-down with your BFF. This podcast isn't your average (and boring) radio talk show-styled podcast. We dig deep, get personal, and have lots of fun along the way. Hear some relatable stories and a different perspective on various topics from health and fitness to pop culture. I am Tina Wieland, a certified fitness trainer and nutrition coach. Grab your caffeinated drink of choice, get comfortable, and be ready to hear the TEA.
The Tea with Tina
249 | Autoimmune Flare Ups and Fitness
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What if managing an autoimmune disorder meant redefining your entire approach to fitness? Join me on the Tea with Tina podcast as I share my personal journey through the ups and downs of living with Hashimoto's. As a fitness trainer, every day presents new challenges—like the battle for a proper diagnosis and the frustration of feeling misunderstood. I open up about the stigma of looking well while feeling far from it, revealing the complexities of navigating life with an autoimmune disorder.
In this episode, I shed light on how my fitness journey has evolved drastically—from intensive workouts to embracing yoga and Pilates. I discuss finding peace in gentler movements amidst dealing with fatigue, discomfort, and the impact of birth control on my condition. Discover how yoga became my sanctuary, providing both vigorous and restorative practices that align with my new physical limits. As a group instructor, balancing energy levels and moderating workouts has become essential, ensuring I maintain the necessary stamina for both myself and my clients.
This episode is a heartfelt narrative that aims to support others on similar journeys. I discuss working with trainers who misunderstood the need for workout adjustments and stress the importance of listening to your body. Sometimes, doing less can mean feeling more balanced and energized. Through sharing my story, I hope to offer encouragement and remind you that you're not alone in seeking a fitness routine that accommodates your unique needs.
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Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Tea with Tina podcast. Today I want to talk about flare-ups, so anybody who has an autoimmune disorder. Maybe you know someone who has an autoimmune disorder. They're getting pretty common in the United States, particularly in women, but that's not a good thing. But uh, that that's a whole another podcast topic for another day, but I wanted to chat about it and kind of work through some thoughts. This is definitely gonna be a chit chat podcast today.
Speaker 1:Some of my just like raw thoughts and feelings and how having an autoimmune disorder works with, uh, being a trainer and some of the things that I felt as a fitness trainer and kind of my thoughts moving forward. Ok, so this idea stemmed from the idea that I took a two week break, essentially before Christmas, and I did not go into the gym. I did some minor home computer work, a lot of like weird projects I needed to get done that like I didn't have time for normally in my week. It was really really nice. I still did housework and stuff, like I was still up and moving, but it was definitely a lot more toned down on my body and I was getting a lot more sleep and um me.
Speaker 1:If you don't know, I have Hashimoto's um, which is an autoimmune disorder related to the thyroid. So there are these um cells in my body that are just like hey, the uh thyroid's's bad, let's attack it. Okay, it's the enemy. And they claim that there's these certain molecules that attach to your thyroid, that make it appear as an enemy, because I researched it a little bit, they're not 100% sure if this is the case, but that's why it randomly triggers and your body will start attacking your thyroid. Now the thing that's tricky is everybody is different, because they don't know enough about how or why this works. But some people, the onset of this autoimmune disorder can happen immediately, like you can just feel like garbage instantly and you, your health, can deteriorate very quickly. Sometimes you can have flare which we're going to talk about a little bit Again. Sometimes it's over months and years. Sometimes you almost go into remission, where your body stops attacking your thyroid. And let me say, for any of you out there who may be experiencing negative symptoms and maybe your doctor is not giving you any answers, definitely be your own advocate.
Speaker 1:I literally went through the wait and see, trial and error, because my levels were borderline high, normal Generally, you know, depending on what scale doctors use, I would say healthy thyroid range is 0.5 to 4 or 4.5. I was sitting between 5 and 6, sometimes 7, so slightly above. They actually don't start treating people until 10, which is ridiculous to me. There are some people who sit at like 100 on the scale or even in the thousands and they don't even really realize, like they're just used to feeling like garbage, and there's some people who feel absolutely awful at four. So it's very different person to person. And they weren't really testing me, uh, the way I should have been tested. They weren't testing my antibodies, which if there are a presence of antibodies, that means that you have Hashimoto's, because these antibodies are what's attacking your thyroid. And when I bought my own antibody test, both of the tests were high. The one was off the charts, the scale only went up to 999 and mine was 999. So I don't really know how many antibodies I had. And this was frustrating for me because they again they wanted to see a wait and see like, oh, maybe your thyroid is elevated a little bit, let's wait to see if it came down.
Speaker 1:And I was really determined to do things the quote unquote natural way I was like well, I'm managing my rest, I'm drinking water, I'm sleeping, I'm eating nutrient dense food. I'm trying to limit gluten and dairy. I did everything and I would. I would get a test done and it would be worse. Uh, so it's not necessarily. Sometimes you know what you can do in your environment. Sometimes you do just get things due to genetics, like it is a genetic thing, my mom had it, um, her mom had it. So there there is a, a genetic component. I think my lifestyle factors probably allow the symptoms to be easier to manage.
Speaker 1:But here's the tricky part and what I've been personally struggling with. And if you do not have an autoimmune disorder, please pay attention because it's hard to wrap your mind around. I have an autoimmune disorder and it's hard for me to wrap my mind around. I think people with autoimmune disorders get a bad rep. A lot of people call them lazy, and there's a variety of autoimmune disorders. A lot of people call them lazy, say they're just making stuff up, they're not trying hard enough, because on the outside you look normal, you look healthy, you there's nothing visibly wrong with you and it's it sucks because you know people are going to say that or think that and you, you try to keep up and and here's the tricky part with flare ups and a flare up would just be, you know, for some reason the symptoms are worse something you did or something your body did, uh caused excess inflammation, so that's extra stress on your body and your body's trying to use its resources to bring your body kind of back to a normal state. So the energy would you would normally have to do like your everyday things is gone right.
Speaker 1:Um, it'd be like if you're getting sick, like when you get sick, your body uses energy, extra energy, to fight things off right, and you feel like shit. You just want to like lay in bed, uh, do nothing. That's what a flare-up feels like, and flare-ups can feel different for everybody. I was actually reading a post about a girl who has um hashimoto's and she was sharing some of the symptoms and it can be migraines that you have. Um, fatigue is definitely a common one, I know. For me, I feel feverish. That's a telltale sign if it's bad, like a bad flare-up. There's definitely varying degrees, but yeah, that feeling of being feverish, like your body heats up. For a little bit you don't quite have a fever and then it goes back. Um, I always think I'm about to get sick or something, but then it never happens, and that actually happened to me this past weekend.
Speaker 1:But kind of going back to why it's frustrating with the flare-ups, is there's no rhyme or reason to them. Okay, sometimes it can be because you pushed a little bit too hard or you work too much or too much stress, and I think my flare-up was a result of. I rested for two weeks and I felt really good, so then I went back into my routine and I was very on it. I wouldn't say that I overdid, I just had the extra energy, so I used it. So we are in this really shitty balance because usually when we rest and we feel good, if you have an autoimmune disorder, you're like yes, I finally have energy, I finally feel good, I want to use this.
Speaker 1:And some of you may be able to relate from a fitness perspective too. Like maybe you haven't worked out for a while and you're like I feel fresh, I'm going to do heavy weights, I feel really good. And then you wake up the next day and you're like oh my God, I can't walk because you overdid it. And I really try to manage this in my clients. I'm like you almost want it to feel slightly easy if you're just starting out, until you build up some reps. And it's the same with autoimmune, with the exception that sometimes your body can knock you down for no rhyme or reason. I said I was doing things, I was running around, it's the new year, I was meeting a lot of new people, doing things I normally wouldn't do, but I felt great the whole time until the end of the week.
Speaker 1:Now, this is really strange. I don't know if this was related to the autoimmune component, but I was getting what would be called like a phantom smell. I woke up at about 10 at night. I went to bed around nine, so like just an hour later, but I was in a deep sleep and I felt like a cooling sensation in my throat, almost like menthol or mint, every time I breathed in. And it was so intense to the point that, like every time I was breathing, I was getting nauseous and I kind of panicked because I woke up because of that sensation and I didn't really know what was going on. So I tried to calm myself down.
Speaker 1:Um, but pretty much that was Thursday night. Um, all of Friday I felt that. So I was feeling nauseous, kind of had a headache from that feeling. Um, I was just feeling drained, starting to feel a little feverish. I thought I was coming down with something, because there's something coming around, um, and then then Saturday I woke up, still felt a little iffy. Um, I was waiting to get sick and uh, as of yesterday because I'm recording on a Monday uh, I felt pretty much back to normal. I definitely feel a little bit lower energy, but nothing crazy, and that's another thing too.
Speaker 1:If you have, if you have an autoimmune disorder or something equivalent, that kind of takes your energy. Uh, you learn to function at shittier levels, which is not good. And I talk about this with stress as well anybody who's really stressed. When you are in high stress situations maybe you're working long hours or you're dealing with you know, screaming children or just a fast paced life you adapt to it, which, in a way, is a good thing. Our bodies try to adapt to the scenarios we're in to stay alive. But then you forget what it feels like to feel normal, like that becomes your new normal and you think everything's fine until, like, maybe you take a vacation or you actually take a rest day and you're like, holy shit, I have been running and that's kind of what happened to me on that two-week break.
Speaker 1:Um, I think I kept up pretty well with what I've been doing and I've just realized, with an autoimmune disorder, this is kind of like a necessary evil for me, um, but like, when I was getting rest, I was like, oh my god, because I would struggle with brain fog to some extent and remembering things, and I believe it was from just being on so much and having to juggle so many things. When I finally got sleep and I finally got rest, I was like, oh, I have my witty self and I can think of fun things and say funny things and I I feel more present, I feel more me. I don't feel as much like a walking zombie, um, but I definitely have systems in place. Like, don't think I'm just like running myself into the ground. We've done that before in the past, when I was younger, uh, before I knew I had any of this stuff going on, I thought I was just broken and wasn't working hard enough, which many of you may think like, oh, I wasn't, I'm just not working hard enough or I'm just not like, I'm just weak. You know, that's the thought. If I just keep trying harder and harder, I will get better and, in a way, yes, you will.
Speaker 1:I do think it is important to kind of push your boundaries a little bit, just like with training, but there is definitely needed times of rest, right. But yeah, I definitely have some systems in place that I've been working on to refine it, and I think that's a natural part of at least being a business owner, and this could happen in life as well, depending on how much you focus on self growth. But it's like your lifestyle changes. You need to kind of refine your lifestyle to fit that. Some people don't, which is why their life is chaos, um. So if that feels like you, I would definitely do some introspection. But it got to the point where you know I was, uh.
Speaker 1:I finally am in business for myself, I, which I actually did this in an attempt to alleviate some autoimmune uh issues, because when you're in business for yourself, you have a little bit more flexibility. You don't have to show up to necessarily a nine to five. I have my online coaching, which I can kind of coach at a pace that feels good to me, unless I'm doing a virtual session, but I don't have to again show up at a certain time and rely on how I'm feeling right. That's another thing that's really frustrating. A month out you might try to say, yeah, I'm going to come to this event, I feel amazing, I'm going to be there, and then the day comes and you just feel like trash and you're like I do not want to go. That usually happens. But I definitely have been implementing different scheduling things, different systems for myself to just make things easier, try to take less brain power, kind of level up to the next level, take everything I'm doing, condense it, be more efficient. That is where I'm at there, and this last year my first real year in business by myself has been a lot of experimenting and figuring out what systems work and trying new things and playing around, and it's always going to be like that. But I definitely think it's gotten a lot more refined and that has been helpful. So I think I was kind of at my breaking point there, but then I leveled up to the next level and things feel a lot more manageable now.
Speaker 1:Now, the one thing I have struggled with since I've been diagnosed I'd say I have been diagnosed for a little over like a year and a half, almost two years, so it's still relatively new to me, and my symptoms, I would say, almost virtually came out of nowhere too, which is kind of creepy. But when I was getting diagnosed, it's like I this has to do with my working out. Okay, this is what I struggle with as a trainer. Right, you're a fitness trainer, you work out and you might say, tina, there's, you know, all kinds of body types and there's all kinds of workout methods, and I do preach that, but I'm trying to figure out how to fit it with my body right? So, you know, prior to me experiencing symptoms because it's like one day, all of a sudden, I just started feeling really run down, really bad brain fog, just all these symptoms, feeling really really cold all the time, like all this crazy stuff.
Speaker 1:And before that, though, I would. I would run for hours, not hours, but I would run, you know, almost every day. I'd sprint, I would push myself and try these fun challenges, I would lift heavy weights, and I loved it, I looked forward to it, it was my outlet, and that was becoming, it was starting to become somewhat resentful in my brain. I just didn't have the energy to push. That was something very distinct, is that? And again, I don't know if people who don't have never experienced autoimmune can grasp this or understand this. I don't think you can truly understand it unless you experience it Because, again, I still have trouble wrapping my head around it.
Speaker 1:But when something was hard, it was challenging in a good way. Like I, my muscles would burn and I'd be sweating, but I would enjoy it. Right like like I would love the challenge of sprinting. And when I first started out like I wasn't doing all this stuff, right like I never worked out before when I first started. So I gradually built up, I pushed whatever was right Like I never worked out before when I first started. So I gradually built up, I pushed whatever was challenging for me. I remember jogging for like 30 seconds and dying and like you got to make it to 30 seconds, you got to make it to 40 seconds and it was good. It was a good kind of pain. Same thing with lifting it would be hard, but it was a good kind of pain. And it seems like ever since I've been diagnosed, um, most of the time any of the discomfort I feel is more like not a good pain, it's, it's fatigue, it's you're feeling drained picture you got like a crappy night of sleep and maybe you didn't eat really well. Like picture a bad day of training for you and you trying to get through it. That's what all of my sessions feel like. Okay, so I've been on this path of figuring out what my intensity needs to be and what my combo of working out needs to be, and I think this is probably going to be different person to person.
Speaker 1:And I will also say, to throw on top of the mix, when I was getting diagnosed don't know if it was related or just coincidence, but I tore. I don't know if I tore something, but I strained kind of like an inner thigh muscle, a groin muscle, and the pain radiated all the way up to like my lower left abdomen, right. So bad to the point I would wake up in the middle of the night in pain. Advil wouldn't even really take it away. Higher doses. I could not work out, I could only walk, and even some days, if I walked a certain distance, like longer than 10 minutes, I'd be in pain. Sometimes I could do two miles and be fine. It was terrible.
Speaker 1:I always had a low level of pain, went to physical therapy, didn't really do anything. I always had a low level of pain, went to physical therapy didn't really do anything. Went to the doctor. He refused to get an MRI or do anything. Needless to say, this guy is not my doctor anymore. I need to find a new doctor. But I was also on a birth control pill that was giving me a lot of side effects and when I switched that, the symptoms significantly improved. So I was thinking the injury was not related to birth control, but I think the birth control was increasing inflammation to that area, making it not able to heal. Of course, there's not enough research on us to confirm that in science, but just from anecdotal experience that's my thoughts on that.
Speaker 1:But we were experiencing that for about a year and this was me leaving my job, my comfortable hourly job, to pursue my own business. I was just getting diagnosed with Hashimoto's and I just felt so freaking lost, like I'm a trainer and I can only walk. And then I got into yoga and I fell in love with yoga, which is a wonderful story, yoga. And I fell in love with yoga, which is a wonderful story, um, and it made me really respect yoga. For when you need yoga, um, you could truly appreciate the beauty of its movement, especially when it's done right, and there's so many methods of yoga. You can do really hard yoga, like. I taught a yoga class, um, which I'm newly certified, uh, my 200 hour certification, um. But when I taught a yoga class, I like woke up the next day. I was like my butt, cheeks are sore. That's weird why. And I was like, oh, my god, it was for me, uh, doing that yoga flow, you know, um, so it can be challenging in its own way. But there's also really gentle, restorative yoga, there's meditative yoga, so there's so many different kinds, uh, so don't knock it till you try it.
Speaker 1:I'm also exploring Pilates. I do have a Pilates certification I'm working on as well. You actually don't need to be, which is a little scary. You don't need to be certified in these things to teach them. There's not a lot of strict laws, at least in Pennsylvania, but I would prefer to be certified to at least know the foundational things, the terminology, the roots. That's why I kind of got certified in yoga to learn more about the terminology and the history and specific flows and the meanings behind it, and then you eventually kind of put your own little twist on things. Same thing with Pilates. I'd be interested to see, because I don't know a lot about Pilates, but it seems really interesting to me now, and I'm not going to lie before I had this autoimmune stuff.
Speaker 1:I kind of thought this stuff was for weaklings or people who don't like working out and in a way it could be good for them. But let me tell you, uh, in a world that I think we're living in, where it's so high stress, so fast paced, and we, we tend to burn out quicker and our stress is higher, I think we need this type of movement more than ever. There are some people out there who who are, uh, really high energy all the time. They're almost adrenaline junkies and they love, like the crossfit, the ice baths, the sprinting, the heavy lifting, the always killing themselves and you know what. They're fine, they never burn out. I've witnessed it. But then there's also the other end of the spectrum where people need more gentle movement because if they get too much they burn out. And again, that's that's where I'm at.
Speaker 1:So I'm kind of playing around now with the idea of movement because I've noticed, particularly on my two weeks off, I was doing some at-home workouts. I was following Heather Robertson on YouTube. If you don't follow Heather Robertson, she's wonderful, I love her stuff, but I was mainly picking like core, body weight, mobility, that kind of stuff, and let me tell you back in the day, like I said, before I got diagnosed, I would have done that stuff. I've been like this is too easy, this is too easy, and let me tell you, if this is you, you know, and you feel like you need to do more, that's fine. Then maybe you need to do more.
Speaker 1:I would encourage you, though, to do some sort of mobility, stretching, ab work, like on a rest day, active rest day, maybe in compliments with a workout or whatever, and that would be me, but my body must need it, because when I do these moves, it feels like enough, right, and I even slow down some of the moves or modify a little bit to the point where the movement feels good, like a good challenging. It's not like I'm dying through every move in a bad way, like my body's struggling, and that kind of flipped the switch for me, and I was like okay, and I felt energized after my workout instead of drained. And here's my thoughts on this. For anybody who's listening, that maybe feels like hopeless, and sometimes I feel that way too, like am I ever going to be able to do anything ever again.
Speaker 1:I will say that I think people with autoimmune disorders have the ability to progress, like move up in weight, you know all that fun stuff. But I think it's going to take longer than the average person. I think you have to stop before you're burned out, like almost keep working, like stop working even when you feel good, right, like I was reading the one girl who is an autoimmune coach and she was like if you want to get into running, walk and then run for two minutes and that's it. She's like don't push anymore. You're going to feel like you want to, but your body's going to be mad at you if you do anymore. And I could definitely agree with her on that. I've experienced that because I do love running and jogging. But I think you could progress towards it.
Speaker 1:It just takes a lot more time and patience and I've always said that is the number one skill. I don't care how easily you can do 100 burpees, I don't care how hard you can work till you throw up or till you're laying on the floor sweating. It's easy to go from zero to 100. It's easy to put your foot, you know, pedal all the way to the ground floor. That's easy. The hard part is learning when to pull back and to control and to moderate. That's the challenging part, because everybody's 0 to 100 and then they burn out. But to be able to keep and listen to your body and keep a pace and even do a little bit less, even though you want to do a little bit more to maintain, that's the hard game. Right, and this again can apply to people who don't have autoimmune disorders. But that's the balance I'm figuring out right now.
Speaker 1:As somebody who teaches classes, this is also a challenge Because I mean, I guess listen, my class people will love me. I like to do the workouts with them, but I have to leave my ego at the door and either learn to pace myself or not do the whole workout. Because, if you notice, being a group instructor is actually a very exhausting job for anybody Like people who teach seven, eight classes a day. Bless their hearts, they're working out that much. Usually Me, I only teach like one or two a day and a lot of them are easier. But for my total body classes those are pretty intense and I like to push myself because it feels good. But I might be cutting back on that, the intensity, taking some more time to walk around and check form versus actually getting into the workout, because I've just noticed it's like it drains the crap out of me, right.
Speaker 1:So, and it's sad because I was thinking back to, like, I ran a 5k, uh, back in May last year and I felt good doing it, but then I remember the rest of the day I was like done, exhausted, and normally I would not be, um, and this isn't a oh, you're getting older kind of thing. I mean, I'm 29, I'm gonna be 30. That's still pretty young and I take care of myself really well. I think it's just the inflammation of my body which sucks. But you know, this aligns with what I teach.
Speaker 1:I true, this is why I got into fitness in the first place, because I was somebody who I was never athletic. I, like you know, um, the people who were in sports and stuff were like either naturally gifted or they got into it super early, so they were kind of conditioned and and, like you know, when you learn stuff as a kid, it doesn't feel like you're really learning, like it just feels like a natural, like uh, skill right, because it almost feels like a game or or fun to you as you're learning it. So I never got to experience that really. Growing up I did a little bit but I was never in official sports and stuff. I'd play outside with my friends but I had periods where I was chubbier and more sitting, more inactive, and I had periods where I tried to be more fit and lose some weight.
Speaker 1:But I want to be that voice for the people who aren't athletic but they want to get into a realm of movement or maybe they feel guilty that they're not. You know running marathons and you know deadlifting 200 pounds like maybe they just want gentle movement and they don't want to be made fun of for that. Like what's wrong? What's wrong with that? You're moving your body in a way that feels good for you and it's going to be good for you and maybe one day you do choose to push a little bit more if it feels good. But and sometimes for my people with the autoimmune disorders or certain restrictions that don't allow them to train at that pace, there could be so many reasons that they can't do this and I I just want to be that. I want to be that person for them. I want to support you, I want to cheer you on and let you know that it's okay, because there's way too many coaches out there who shame people.
Speaker 1:If you don't fit into my box, I was a bodybuilder, you know? Not me, I was not a bodybuilder. But they'll just say that, oh, I was a bodybuilder and this is how you train. And if you don't train that way, you're weak. Or I run marathons, this is how you do it. If you don't do it this way, you're weak. Or I did football and this is what we learned. And if you don't do this, you're weak. And I see that a lot and it frustrates me. They don't adapt to the person. They don't look at their needs or their lifestyle.
Speaker 1:Um, I'm someone who I found I I've never been understood, especially as a female in fitness. It's like I also had hormonal imbalances and days that I'd feel in crippling pain. A lot of the trainers that I worked with, particularly males, like would just not understand. Like if I could not push, they just thought I was being weak. I'm like well, let's trade bodies and see if you could do it. So yeah, I have a lot of passion around that, but yeah, so that's just. I just wanted to kind of get that out of my system, about venting in regards to just modifying my routine to fit my body. So I feel energized and sometimes that requires doing less and I think I'm okay with that. It's just I need to figure out how I'm going to implement it. But thanks for tuning in. Hopefully someone found this helpful who's maybe going on a similar journey, but you're not alone and I will catch you in the next one, guys. Bye.
