54. It's Time to Step Out of The Body Struggle / Missy Beavers
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Have you ever tried the "Eat Less, Diet More" approach? Only to leave you feeling more depleted? Oh yes! We can relate! Missy Beavers tells her story of how she struggled to lose weight and how she dealt with Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism disorder. Missy shares how she lost the weight and the tools that got her her health back. Missy now helps high achieving women end the exhausting body struggle and thyroid battle, so they can get back to changing the world.
EPISODE TOPICS
Weight Loss
Soul Connection
Internal Condition and External Circumstances
Dis-ease in the body
Body Dysmorphia
Increase Your Own Dopamine with High-Fives
Katie Graham
Missy, thank you so much for being on body breaking free podcast today.
Missy Beavers
Thank you so much. I'm excited to be here Katie and hello to everyone listening.
Katie Graham
Yeah, there's gonna be so fun. I was just telling Missy before we headed on popped on to this interview that I just recently heard back from a lot of listeners on the feedback form I sent out and I think Missy story is just going to be so relatable, so relatable in the way that we see our bodies and especially if we're dealing with illnesses or body weight changes, or just our you know, how we relate to how we look like even just that. And so Missy story is amazing. So I'd love to just dive into that part. Missy, can you start with when you were diagnosed with let's see if I pronounced this right hush Ooh, Moto has Hashimotos very much in moto. Okay, great. And Hashimoto, can you tell us when you were diagnosed with that disease and how that evolution happened?
Missy Beavers
Absolutely. And like you said, this story is relatable. So for those of you as you're listening, if you're nodding your head with me, I see you, we are on this path together. Because my story begins in the same place, nearly everyone's story begins and that's at the doctor's office, you know, you don't feel good things are going wrong. For me, I'd gained 50 pounds in a year. And it was despite eating, well exercising, I was doing everything right, I was having migraine headaches, I was constipated, I had anxiety that was through the roof. So I'm sitting there on the doctors table in that really uncomfortable pink, crinkly paper gown, the one that just immediately makes you feel bad about yourself. I'm wearing that my fat rolls are poking out. And here's the kicker. I'm only eight years old. So all of this has happened to my sweet eight year old body within the last year, which 50 pounds for an eight year old is like basically I gained a second child, right. So during that year, the doctors had been searching for solutions. And all of the crazy places. So you know, maybe it's a brain tumor, we should do MRIs and CAT scans. They thought it was genetic. It could be diabetes, maybe it's all these things, right? So all those were negative, thank goodness. And that's a blessing that they did their work. But one year into it. I'm sitting there on the table, the doctor comes in, and he says in his super nasally voice that I'll never forget. He says to my mom, Julie, your daughter has Hashimotos disease. And my mom gassed, and she touched her neck because she herself has a scar from collarbone the collarbone where they took her thyroid out because of the same disease. So she knew as an adult, what that meant for her eight year old child. And, of course, as a child, I couldn't process that I understand it now. But it was a moment full of fear for me seeing my mom afraid. So the doctor said, Now, this is not curable, she'll never get rid of it. diet doesn't do anything. And here's here's a pill, she will take one a day for the rest of her life. So many, many women continue to hear this message today. And it gets me really flared up because that was 30 years ago, 31 years ago, but the exact same message is still being shared for women today, you have a disease, there's nothing you can do about it. Have a nice life, here's a pill. And then of course, the message is always and you'll never get off the pill. So here's the solution, we have no other, nothing's gonna work for you. So I did take one pill a day. For the rest of my life. We left the office, I started taking the medication, the headaches went away, but the weight gain did not. So I continued to pile on pound after pound after pound. And they kept raising the dose and raising the dose raising it until I was a senior in high school and I weighed 275 pounds. And I remember this so clearly, because my dose of thyroid meds was also 275 micrograms. And the doctor at that point said, your dose shouldn't match your weight. That's a problem. You need to eat less. exercise more. Right? We've all heard that message heard that? Yep. We've all heard it. And I had been doing that. And I had been doing every diet they wanted. I think at that point. I mean, this is like the 90s. I did, I think over two dozen diets that they would just throw at me every single month. So despite doing all the right things, it wasn't working. So at that point, I was 18 graduating from high school. And I was like you know what, they don't have the answer. So I'm gonna go find the answer. So I went to college to become a dietitian. And I learned the food pyramid Katie, remember that? Yo yo. Oh, such a treasure. Treasure so for the first time in my life, I was like, wait, what? I can eat six to 12 slices abroad. Because the old Fair Food Pyramid if you guys remember it, it's like you must eat all the grains. And then you could think about Protein and maybe some vegetables. But let's eat all the grains. So, yeah, I was all excited about it. And I also learned about calories at the same time. So I became obsessed with eating as little calories as possible and exercising as much as possible, because that's what they told me right? Eat less exercise more. So they're I'm in college, I'm running six miles a day, I'm drinking lemon water and eating carrot sticks. And what do you know, Katie, I lost 80 pounds.
And you know, before we were recording, we were talking about body dysmorphia. And I want to add this part of the story. And because I've been there, I've dealt with it and many of us do, we work really, really hard to improve the way our body looks. And sometimes we do it because we want to, but a lot of times, we do it out of shame. And that's the motivating factor. We don't like our bodies, we don't like the way they look, somebody else doesn't like the way they look. In my case, my doctors were unhappy with the shape of my body. So we punish ourselves into making it a different shape. So I had done that. And it had taken about six months to lose 80 pounds, it was rapid weight loss. So here I am. I'm in school, and a lot of my dietitian, education crossed over with Exercise Sports Science, right? So we were like, you know, companions. And we did a lot of things with the Exercise Sports Science Group. So they had a new system for assessing body fat. And they reached out to the dietetics. department, they said, Hey, we want to test this, are you guys willing to test this on your students. So of course, they were like, hey, you'll get extra credit. All you got to do is go over here, they're going to do this. The thing where you hold we all know this, you like hold the little rods and you stand on the scale. And it sends an electric charge through your body. And then it tells you how much body fat you have. So this was when I shouldn't even date myself. But this was new technology. Now everyone can buy this SkeleT target. You can go buy a body fat scale, but this was brand new. And so I was like, Yes, I am going to do this because I have just lost 80 pounds. I look so good. I'm wearing a size 12 When I was wearing a size women's 28 before, like I am so tiny. And by the way that was smaller than I had been when I was eight years old. So like I'm smaller than I've been my entire life, I want to go get my body fat checked. So I go to this department. I walk in the girl that is going to take my body fat is the classic Exercise Sports Science body shape. And that is not an attack. She just had a very beautiful athletic body. Mine clearly. To me, it was gorgeous, because I'd worked so hard, but it was not an athletic Exercise Sports Science body. So we walk in, we do the things I get on the scale. I'm so excited. It said 172 pounds. I'd lost over 100 pounds at that point because I quit weighing at 275. I don't even know what I weighed at the highest. But I remember seeing that number and having this joy in my soul of like, you work so hard for this. This is amazing. And I am feeling so good about my body and that number and she does all the things she pushes the buttons, it prints out a literal receipt. Like here's your receipt of purchase. And it says on there, you weigh 170 pounds and you're 30% body fat. I was elated, like elated because in dietetics we learned that women are usually 20 to 30% body fat, you know, we store more fat in our hips and our breasts and that's okay. So I was like, oh my goodness, I am at the top end of normal. What is this like? So I'm having this amazing experience on my body. And the girl says to me, you've got a lot of excess fat on your body, you should really consider doing a weight loss program. And my soul was crushed because she did the elevator eyes where she looked me up and down. And she said, I can see that you've got extra fat stores. And I just was crushed. And I said to her I've just lost 100 pounds. I've been working really hard to lose all this weight. And then she said essentially try harder.
Oh, so I left. I left that place and I sobbed. Actually, I remember this clearly. Speaking of dysmorphia and unhealthy relationships with my body. I left that was on the University of Utah campus. I left that place and it was up high on the campus. I had had to climb a bunch of stairs to get up to it. And I ran up and down those stairs like I don't know 100 times to be like, work harder, work harder. So that was the message I took from that moment. You are still a mess. Your body does not look the way I want it to look. So we've got a problem. Now in the mess of all of that my thyroid was also not better. So I was having issues with skipping periods now, like, hadn't had a period in six months, I was bruising, I was having the headaches again, things were really bad, but I just kept running and not eating. So finally I'm like, Okay, I know intuitively in my soul that what I'm doing is not healthy. I'm gonna go see the doctor. So I went to I had a new doctor with at this point who I had a lot of faith in. And I had seen her, you know, I'd seen her for like two years. So she had seen me heavier, and she hadn't seen me lighter. So I go into the appointment, and I sit down, I'm telling her, you know, my hair's falling out, I'm bruising, all the things I just stated, I don't feel good. My anxiety is so bad. I am obsessed with food. I'm having issues with orthorexia, right? So I'm telling her all the things and then she's like, just staring at me with her eyes wide open. And she just her mouth is hanging open. But it's not like shocked. She is like in awe. And after I share all of that, she says to me, whatever you're doing, just keep doing it because you look amazing. And I was like, but I don't feel good. I'm telling you all these things. I can't function and she's like, but you look so good. And then she will do chair closer. And she was like, tell me again, what you're doing. So I want to try it. And again, my soul was crushed because my thyroid labs were a mess. And that's what I said, Well, what's what does my thyroid look like, oh, things are messy, we'll just change your dose. But you look so good. So again, left that appointment, there was nowhere to run at this one. So I just got my car and I just sobbed. And that was a turning point for me with my body because I knew that what I was doing was wrong. And I realized in that moment that I don't need anyone outside of me to tell me how to manage my body, my soul, my inner knowing is all I need. And I had tuned her out, because of all of these different ideas of what people wanted for me. So I started eating again. And as many of you can relate, I'm sure
you do a really restrictive diet, you add foods back in and you immediately gain weight back, which happened and again back about 50 pounds just really quickly, which was terrifying and upsetting. And, you know, just the brain space of that is really hard, and tried to get a healthier relationship with exercise. But my thyroid still wasn't working. So that's where I got more into, can we uncover what the real cause of this is because I've done all the things you've told me to do, and they didn't help and they've actually made me more body dysmorphic and I hate my body even more now than if I would have just stayed that that was kind of where I was at. And that's what led me deep into the rabbit holes of all the thyroid research. And fast forward many, many years later. I was now helping clients with their thyroid. I had discovered some really good things to help nutritionally I had a master's degree in nutrition at this point. So I was helping them with nutrition with yoga. Katie, you do yoga, right? Yeah, yep. A lot of breath work. I'm a certified yoga instructor too. So we were incorporating that and gentle movement and joyful body. And my clients were getting better. Yeah, they were losing weight. They were feeling good. They were getting off by road meds. I was so happy for them. But it wasn't happening for me. And I was frustrated by that. So I by this point, I had a naturopath I was working with and I had been working with her at that point for like 10 years. And I love her. She is just like a soul sister like Katie, we were saying you and I are cut from the same fabric. She's one of those sisters. So I went to see her and I was like, I am so frustrated. Because I'm doing all the right things. I've got all the education. I don't understand why other people are getting better. That's not me. And it was embarrassing to admit that. But I think that that's just human nature. We all have moments of that. How come she's losing weight on that diet? How come she's having these great life events happening? And I'm doing the same amount of work. So I shared that with her. And she, this moment changed my life. She looked me across the table and she put her pen down and she said Missy, we've been working together for about 10 years, right? And I was like, Yes, it has been a decade of trying to fix me air quotes fix. And she said, Well, I'm just wondering how you think you're ever going to get off thyroid medication, if you don't even believe it's possible. Oh my gosh, yeah. And I was like, How dare you? How dare you tell me about me. Now I just had this moment where it was like a slap in the face. I felt so stunned. And I describe it as a moment in the movies. When the camera zooms out and you like the person becomes a tiny ant and you see how insignificant they are. Like it was like I saw my whole life and I saw that I I had been living for 30 years. Well, at that point had been 28 years, under this belief that the doctor gave to me the belief that I'll never get better, I'll never get off medication, there's no cure for this, this is just how it's going to be for you. So I needed that from her, I needed that massive slap in the face, because I didn't even understand that that was programming. Everything I did, it was programming every cell in my body, every action I was taking. So I really started working on that belief. And doing a lot of thought work with that I became a life coach in this process, because I'm like, I need more skills and training, like somebody needs to teach me how to do this. And I did a bunch of cranial sacral work as well, I highly recommend that. But in that process, I was able to realize the thoughts that were governing all of my daily actions and the thoughts that were governing more, you'll never get better, you're always gonna be fat. This is just how your life is, there's no solution, it doesn't matter what you eat, you're gonna have to go on a starvation diet again, if you want to be thin, right? All the nasty things that society tells us. I had internalized those as truth. And then I was telling myself to behave that way. So once I addressed that it was the final piece of the puzzle. And it was incredible, because all the things I'd been doing started working. And within four months, I was off thyroid meds. And I haven't needed them. It's been almost three years now that I haven't needed them.
Katie Graham
See, this is like, the most amazing, it's just so relatable. I mean, I just love you so much. And I'm sure the listeners are listening and just your personality, mouth, and personality is just magnetic. And your story, like I said, is just so relatable. It's just so like, clear, it's just like, so it makes so much sense. I mean, just what you're talking about, it's like, we've all been there, it's exercise more, and eat less. And oh my gosh, how many times have each of us heard that, and then incorporating how much that you were dealing with, with your body with the thyroid issue. And I just think like, we all have been there, in the way that it's like, we all just deal with our body struggle. And like me, it's like, I didn't have a disease. But I was living in dis ease. And I was creating this negative cycle of the exercise more exercise more, you know, eat less, like, do more, do more improve, and then always trying to improve on that. Like, I think about the journal I had an I wrote down every day. Oh, yeah, I was eating. And then it was like, okay, what can I take out tomorrow? Oh, yeah, I had a few peanuts. Like, I can take that out, you know, yep. And at some point, I probably would have created my own disease in my body. And I was I was sick, I was getting UTIs, not from great sex, but from literally dehydrating my body. And yeah, and I just, I just think like, this is the cultural matrix that we live in. And they're just like, there's a few things I really want to highlight in your story that I noticed. And I wrote down. You were talking about that moment that you were feeling joy in your soul, when you were like, I lost this weight. I look amazing. Like, this is the joy. And that's when we notice that we're attaching our internal condition completely and fully on our external condition. external circumstances. From your story, it's very apparent how that happened. Because one minute you were like, full of joy and like my soul, and then the next minute, like literally in that same meeting, you were totally crushed. I was fat. You were fat. Again, you were fat. And you were totally worthless. Yeah. And I just think that that's a beautiful example of how we need to heal within and, and I always love to look at our body issues, struggles diseases, as an opportunity for our spirit to heal. And actually, when we have that struggle on the outside, we tend to look towards the external life and our ego wants to put more fear and more improvement and, and actually, what we really need to do is come within and heal the spiritual, the soul the self worth, and what you're talking about the believing right at the end there, you're talking about believing it's possible believing in yourself, right? That's an internal condition. And I just like the way that your story moves and shifts in that way is just so powerful. And it just gives me a lot of hope and possibility and expansion to know, oh my gosh, like, what is really going on here? What can we see from this disease. And in this moment, I can actually feel more self worth and myself and that is going to be part of the healing process.
Missy Beavers
I love that. And thank you for all that, Katie, I feel like we could talk for a week. So we'll have to limit this. But um, so something you said many things you said I want to comment on, but specifically with the DIS ease in the body, right. In my case, there was actual physical disease, there was hormonal issues going on that we needed to uncover the root cause of there was spiritual dis ease, there was emotional dis ease, that things just weren't ease II. Right and, and I kept perpetuating that. So one of the things that I really focus on now is gut health. Because for my own case, that's where I discovered the root cause of my problems were from imbalances in the gut, and UTIs. As you said, Katie, that's a very common problem with the gut because of yeast overgrowth, and that often will contribute to bacteria and or yeast related UTIs. But the gut is inseparably connected to our emotions. That's all there is to it. So this is part of the place I love to nerd out. And with my clients, we start by doing some simple urine testing that will show me what's going on in your body, it will show me if there is yeast and bacteria and mold and all those things, which will impact your your thyroid function. But we also want to know how your brain and your thoughts are impacting that. And some of the stuff I love to nerd out on is the research on this. And there's not a lot yet. It's becoming a really interesting field. But one of the studies I love to talk about is these women, this was in the UK, they had women who are experiencing stress and discomfort in their body. And you know, just we all deal with stress, we all deal with that. But they had them come in for the study when they are in a relative state of ease. So things were good. They were they were fine. So they took their PIP and they looked at their poop and they quantitative, the bugs, well, then they stress these women out, they straight up, stressed him out. And the study didn't say how, but I really want to know. So anyway, they stressed him out. But they did it specifically with mental, like nothing physical happened to them. They stressed out their thoughts. They, you know, told them that their kid didn't get picked up for school when they're supposed to or told them that you know, their relationship, I don't know what they told. Anyway, simple things which you and I know we can do that really easy with a thought. Or, you know, my body, I'm fat, I am fat, I'll never lose weight on there. So anyway, they had these stressful thoughts. And then they took their stool samples again, and they found that within this is within 24 hours. They're good bacteria was dead. It's gone, just totally gone from the stool sample. So what we know now is that her thoughts massively impact our physical health in an actual tangible way. They can tangibly change our gut flora, they can change our hormones, they can change our nervous system, which of course is where yoga and breath work comes in is calming the nervous system. But something I wanted to talk about is what you said about your soul, because that is such a theme in my life. And even right now it's been a running theme. So I'd love to speak about this for a second. So I got to add this part of the story because it's important. I got off third months, I was feeling great. My physical body was doing great. And then my husband's physical body was not doing great. So he had leukemia. He was diagnosed with leukemia in 2012. And he bless his heart. He He's a bodybuilder, he's a weightlifter. So he had benchpress like 565 pounds and got to a state record. And then a month later he fell down and wasn't able to get back up and leukemia happens that fast. It is nuts. So we were at a life and death point where it's like he's going to be dead in three weeks. What do we do and he did the chemo got in remission, he's able to get a bone marrow transplant. Amazing. So my respect for the human body has been programmed by watching his it is incredible. So keep in mind his thought process about his body is based on how much he can benchpress right. I can do this massive amount of bench pressing. Now I got sick, and we always joke because when he left the hospital after his first round of chemo, he carried a TV out with him because we had taken it too deviant. So he carried a 30 pound TV out of the hospital. And we got in our car, we went home. And he, he held a little bit he went to the gym and he came home. And he was so devastated because he could only benchpress 220 pounds,
which is big in comparison, right. But I just remember that day saying to him, that would actually be like, if I could ever even consider doing that with my body. That would like give me an award. But this is like, bad for you. Right? So anyway, he went on to get a transplant and his his body is so amazing, like his muscle comes back the Second that he feels better, he's still functional. It's amazing. So we had years and years and years of him being well. And then he relapsed in 2018. And he relapsed in a form that is outside of the bone marrow, it's a tumor form. It's very rare. One in a million people have it. But we've been doing the thing again, where he's doing the treatments, and his body is so resilient. So as I watch his body, I'm like, this is incredible, I don't think my body would be this resilient. And a lot of that is because of the work he put in to build all that muscle. Because muscle is medicine, like muscle is where we metabolically make her energy. And we, we do all of our exchanges of all the things happen in the muscles, right? So he's worked to build that muscle and that muscle is taking care of him. And so I'm watching this with the body. And I'm just like, so in awe of the human body and how incredible it is. And you know, even childbirth didn't do this for me. Like everyone's like the body, your body made a baby. It's amazing. And I totally agree. But I'm like, How does this guy just keep beating it again and again and again. And it's because of the work that he put in for his muscle. So anyway, that's all happening, the relapse was happening in the same time that I was getting better, his body is getting better, but what I wasn't clearly seeing was the stress, the total soul stress of what is happening in my world, right. And, you know, you do all the things in the nutrition world to eat the foods that support the adrenals and you make your cocktails and you eat all I mean, I tell clients that you know, you got to make sure your magnesium stable and your vitamin C and your, your B vitamins, all the things the adrenals love, I'm doing it, I'm caring for my body. I'm taking the things, but I I had been skipping the soul piece in regards to my body. Right? So I'm totally fierce about like, my relationship with God is very important to me. So that's something that's prioritize. It's something I do, but only until recently. I was like, where's my relationship with me with my soul? Where's that happening? And that can obviously happen in your relationship with God, but it's something that I hadn't been giving myself the space to do. So anyway, most recently, this is such a funny conversation within my program in my group, we've been talking about this. My best friend gave me a hammock. And this is real time, Katie, welcome to my world. You get to hear the real time. So she gave me a hammock in February for my birthday. And she's been my best friend my whole life. Right? So she has known me i every weight and size and shape. She's know my struggle. We do all the things. And I'm like, doesn't she know I hate hammocks like are we do you not know me at all. But I was so grateful for the hammock because it's such a great gift right and she loves hammocks. So I put the hammock aside because the hammock for me represents fatness represents a childhood that I experienced with really bad experiences with hammocks because you never want to put a fat girl in a hammock. If you want to guess what happens it looks like a beached well, so this had been my experience, right? Like as a kid, the only hammocks I'd experienced were the ones that look like towels. You know the ones Katie that are flat, and then they like hang on a little hammock pole. And I have so many memories of like all my cousins being in a hammock and then they'd be like, don't let Miss yawn, because, you know, I would come and get on in the hammock with squirrel and tip and it's like being in a canoe. So horrible, fat focused memories with hammocks, and I'm like, I just can't do it. So my best friend keeps asking if I've hung it up. I don't have any trees that are close to each other to hang it up. So I was like, I'm gonna have to get a stand. Lottie doll, but really, it was the internal like, I don't want the shame of being in a hammock that's going to tell me I'm fat. So anyway, just last weekend, like I said, this is real time. I was in my backyard. And we have a fence that has the the poles that are in this meant. So I was like, I hadn't even looked in the backyard yet. For two trees. I just was looking around the front yard of the house. So I was like, Oh, well, I could probably hang it from that fence pulled that fence pole. So I'm showing my husband I'm like, I think I'm gonna hang it. You know, right here. Do you think that's gonna be okay for the polls? And he was like, why wouldn't you just hang it on the trees there next to the polls.
I laughed so hard because I'm like my brain is actually trying to not hang this hammock up. Like I didn't even see the trees. So I was like, oh, yeah, the trees. So I hung it up. I was so nervous. And this is like straight therapy that I'm working through in this moment. This is like three days ago, by the way, four days ago. And I'm like, I'm, you know, I'm, I'm not 172 pounds anymore. And this is not going to work. And I'm going to break the hammock and what's the weight limit on this hammock? And then right there on the straps, it says 1000 pound limit. So I'm like, yes. So I get into the hammock. And I lay back into the hammock. And it was the most glorious moment. I laid there. And I looked up at the sky and it was perfectly blue. And the hammock started to sway me a little bit. And I gotta tell you, it was this moment where my soul, I heard my soul sigh like I can't even explain what it was I just had this huge and massive sigh where I was like, Oh, this is what rest feels like. And I was in that thought process when I was at church on Sunday, and one of the speakers was talking about rest for your soul. And it hit me in that moment that I teach a lot about how to rest your adrenals how to rest your nervous system, how to take breaks on the physical level. But what are we doing to rest our souls, what actually brings rests to your soul. And I have skipped that portion. Very long time and my soul in that hammock. said to me, thank you. So I stayed in that hammock on Friday or Saturday for we stayed for three hours. We set it up we got in my five year old join me. We just rocked in that hammock we laughed we told stories he went in got a book we read an entire book. Like we just like rested our souls. my hammock and it was so amazing. And then Sunday came along and we spent three hours in the hammock. Anyway, this hammock has become we're joking, it's becoming part of it's a fourth member of our family. Because now all of us are like going out to the hammock and spending time but I was telling one of my clients this and she sent me a little clip, it was so good with some research on it. And you might know this, Katie, I didn't know this. So that swaying motion, you know, we rock babies to sleep, right? We love rocking chairs. That swaying motion triggers your vestibular system in your ear. And that actually triggers your central nervous system to calm down. And I was grateful for that research and that insight because we stopped caring for ourselves once we're too big to be rocked. You know, you're not kidding anymore. You're too big. I can't hold you. We've all heard those statements from our parents, right? You're gonna have to sit on your own. And I've been guilty of saying that to my son. You're getting too big now. And I was like, You know what that statement all by itself is soul crushing. You're too big to be comforted. No, here's a hammock. Come sit in this hammock with me. Come Come rest in the hammock. So yes, I'm like four days into my my hammock relationship. And it's going really well.
Katie Graham
I love that story. It's and I just feel like it's a perfect analogy for how we interact with our life. And we look at for the poles, instead of actually feeling worthy of looking for the trees a tree. And I think that's like just a great metaphor for being able to really step into unapologetically what we need for ourselves and our life or health. And just like your belief system, that you you know, prevented you from putting up your hammock in the best way possible. We do that over and over again. I mean, I'm just saying we as in our limiting beliefs. Yeah. And it's like the trees are there. The trees are there. They're right. Yeah, we're us. And also bringing in what you're talking about. It's like, there's so much ease and so much joy in the ease. And I think it's I noticed and my wellness and my practices. When I am working really hard and trying and grasping and controlling. That's when I need to step back. And probably that's when I'm reaching for the polls when I really should step back and be like, oh, there's such a better way. And it's full of ease and joy. And that's the trees you know, so I'm just like bringing it back to that analogy. And so and if it I guess it begs the question when I'm thinking about your story, and our listeners if they've dealt with any body dysmorphia. Yeah, or like my story, just, you know, trying to feel good in the body trying to look at myself in the mirror and be like, I'm beautiful. I love myself like, today, I'm worthy to do whatever I need to do. What is it for you and your daily practices? Like, how do you tap into that place that's like, I am this person. That's beautiful now, and I will now is in, I'm in my self worth. So you've always been beautiful, but you've tapped into that place within you that is of your true nature of your spirit. So how is because I know my day to day, I always have to remind myself I am on you know, I'm always going back, I have to do my practices, or else I'll wake up with a fear based story. And I'll hold on to it for the rest of my day.
Missy Beavers
Yeah, we're good at that.
Katie Graham
So can you share with us what you do on a daily basis?
Missy Beavers
Yes, I love this conversation. So the thing that I love to teach and something that I love to share with clients is, it's okay to have fear by stories, that so much of the things that we think are wrong or bad with us is because we're human. So the fear base story for a long time, I beat myself up about that, like, Why do you think that? Why are you such a catastrophists? Like, that would never even happen. But some of the stories that I can tell are amazing, like I can tell tells about the worst case scenarios, right? My mom calls it borrowing trouble, you know, you're borrowing trouble on that one. But the research on it, so my master's degree is in traditional nutrition. So it's actually looking at the way that we evolved traditionally, and how that worked in our bodies and our brains and what kept us alive. But the fear based thinking has kept us alive until this point, and specifically in terms of looking for things that could kill us. So when we were cave people, me and Katie were out gathering berries. And I was like, Katie, there might be a tiger we should we should look for tigers and bears. And if Katie was like, No, whatever, Katie would die. And Missy would see the tiger in the bear and she would live. So in that scenario, the fear based thinker is the victor. And through evolution, that's just the truth. The fear based thinkers are the victors. The optimists are the ones that just walk off cliffs. Right, like, so the brain in terms of evolution, the more fear based the better because you're you are predicting potential negative outcomes. So understanding that was key for me, because I was like, Oh, wow, I can stop beating myself up for being human. In fact, I'm very, very human. Like, I'm the humanist of the human because I just created a fear story about the silliest, whatever, right? The hammock.
Oh, it's, there's so much grace in that, first of all, saying to yourself, oh, I can see that's a human. But I would like to choose something different. And then reminding ourselves that there are systems in place now to protect us from the Tigers and the bears and the snapping hammocks. But those fear based things have actual things to address them. So number one, you're human. That's number one. Number two things that have been really helpful for me, has been understanding how my brain works. And for me specifically, again, the testing that I use is really helpful for this the urine testing, because it looks at your dopamine, your serotonin or norepinephrine, it helps us understand what's happening in your brain. And, you know, I specialize in thyroid disease. So for women with thyroid disease, we frequently have exceptionally low dopamine. And that's because dopamine is created from the same neurotransmitter that the thyroid hormone is created from. So if you're having a thyroid problem, really good potential that the root causes also depleting your dopamine. And if your dopamine is low, holy cow, like you can try all the things and it's like beating your head against a wall. So with low dopamine, dopamine is what is our motivator, right? We'll feel motivated will have willpower to actually stick to a diet, we can stop that sequence of negative thinking when dopamine is adequate when it's not. We just spin we just spin around low dopamine mimics the symptoms of ADHD. So you're you're be bopping around in your brain, you can't get hold of anything. And then you beat yourself up because you're like, why can I stop thinking these things? And how come I can't stick to one task, and I can't do a diet and I fell every time. And it's like, that's not anything you're doing wrong. That's actually the chemicals scenario in your brain. So understanding how your brain works is another big one. And of course, we hear about dopamine all the time now with like dopamine hacks. And dopamine, of course, is raised by sugar and white flour. That's one of the fastest ways you can raise dopamine. So then we often crave those foods, we eat those foods, we feel better. And then we beat ourselves up for eating the foods after the crash comes down. So a lot of us get stuck in that cycle. But there are amazing ways to address dopamine without any of those things. So to answer your question, And Katie, one of the things that I love to do is, this is actually from Mel Robbins. I adore her. She's amazing. The high five. Have you heard of this? Yep. Yep. Love it up. bucks. Great, great book, high five habits. So the research she's done shows that if you're giving someone a high five, you can't do it in an angry way. Like, it's impossible to give someone a high five and be like, that was the worst job ever. High five, right? That just doesn't exist. So within our cultures and societies, high fives mean you did something awesome. And that has trained our brains to produce dopamine, when we give or get a high five, and it's true, I mean, think about it right now think about the last high five you bought and think about how you felt like, so good. My dad gives the best high five, like his high five, when I get a high five for my dad, I could like scale Mount Everest, like, it's a good high five. But that's what's happening is my brain is like, I'm worthy. I'm amazing. I'm special, I can do anything. That's what happens when you get that dopamine rush from high five. So Mel Robbins in her book is like, you know, it'd be silly to go around and ask people for high fives all day. I don't actually think that's silly. I give high fives all the time. But if you don't have people to give you high fives, she proposes doing it in the mirror. So she says you wake up every morning, you give yourself a high five in the mirror, you just put your hand on the mirror. You don't even do any affirmations or anything, you just give yourself a high five. And it's a really fun practice. If you haven't done it in Katy, I'd love to hear if you've done it in your experience. But what's really fun is when you do it at first, all the negative comes up, all the garbage comes out. You're too fat, you look horrible, put some makeup on, why are you starting your day like this, this is so bad. So it becomes the most incredible therapy to stand there and touch your hand to your hand. And just listen to the garbage that you're telling you. It's ugly. So the thing that's beautiful, though, as all that's happening, your brain overrides the system and produces the dopamine. So you can have all this yuck going on. But then you also can get the hit of like, wait a second, this is this is good. I did something good. So I love that method. I also love the high five to your heart, that's when she teaches to this is for your soul. So every morning when I wake up, I High Five my heart, I put my hand on my heart. And I say Oh, good morning, this is wonderful. We're awake, hello, my soul. And that gets a dopamine flowing, I high five in the mirror. And I have a five year old which allows me to high five all day.
So the high five for me, It seriously is a really good trick because my dopamine is very low. And that's something that I learned through testing and something that I'm I'm always working on. But I have these hacks now that work for me. And I wanted to add on that, you know, the affirmations, we talked about those a lot. They were never a fit for me. And it was because they were someone else's thoughts that I was supposed to just incorporate, you know, you are good enough, you're smart enough, Gosh, darn it, people like you, you know, like the we know, affirmations are the things like I'm I'm reaching my ideal body weight, I'm, they're good. They're good. But if they're not your thoughts, and they're not something that feels intuitive to you or an aid to you. They're just someone else's idea of how you should look, feel and act, which is exactly the problem I started with. Right. So now I take time every single day to choose three things, three thoughts that I want to keep. And I do that every morning, I read my scriptures, I pray I High Five my heart. And then I choose three things that are going to navigate my day. And they're based on what's happening and their actions. So I speak with kindness. I see the light and Katie, I wrote that down today. Things that I'm searching for. And if they have an action in it, your brain goes in and tries to find it. It is the coolest little thing that I love. So some people call these F formations. They work for you. But basically they're stating the action that you intend to do that day. So I speak with kindness to my son, I see the light and Katie, I choose foods that nourish my body. And as you're teaching yourself these things, understanding that innately we as humans are not programmed this way. That's where the grace comes in. That's where the soul begins to guide the body because I truly believe our souls. Our souls know this stuff. Our souls are programmed this way. It's the dang human part that just wants to survive the tiger.
Katie Graham
I love the practices. I think that also you're giving us permission not to have to be perfect, which we just love. Bingo. And when we wake up in the morning, it's not expected that we're going to feel perfect and amazing and we've put in the work to have our thoughts perfectly aligned. And especially with like body dysmorphia, or just sell Fidel in general, I think that that is a great example of you wake up and you give yourself permission for not having all the perfect thoughts, but then you can choose a little practice. And I've heard this from other guests on the podcast like, Denise Drew's talked about waking up. And just having a mantra for the day, just picking some sort of mantra, or like, Tracy was talking about affirmations. And so for some people, you know, affirmations really resonate. And I think just having more tools in our toolbox. For me, I love waking up and reading a few lines and one of my favorite books like a return to love by Marianne Williamson, or Gabby Bernstein. Like, I'll grab something that aligns me back to my true true nature, whose brains are stupid, right? They're just gonna go on repeat, they're gonna give us whatever thoughts are just gonna be human, and probably going to be fear based. So yeah, aligning, and I just love those practices. I'll have to reread that book, because it's been a few years, actually, you know, I probably won't read it. I'll just take what you've told us
Missy Beavers
as well, Audible, I audible that because let's be real with low dopamine, you can't read a book on Audible. But one of the things I wanted to say about that is yeah, the grace of understanding that I'm a human, you know, I wake up the fear base comes in, and my thinking used to be, you're so weak, you work so hard for this, why can't you just get your thoughts aligned? We're now my thoughts are, I'm still a human. This is you wonderful. I woke up human again. Oh,
Katie Graham
oh, that's beautiful. I love that. So Missy, before we leave, because I know you need to head out in a few minutes. Can you tell us about about your coaching program, and, and how people can contact you and reach out. And if they're, you know, if somebody and we're saying is resonating and they want to learn more?
Missy Beavers
Absolutely. And thank you. So I have a 16 week coaching program. It's called the healthy thyroid system. It is geared towards women who have thyroid issues. But I want to clarify because I know some of your audience may not have a diagnosis, and that's fine. You don't have to have a diagnosis. Basically, if you're uncomfortable in your body, and you're having a hard time finding solutions with your doctor, I want to work with you, because we can find out what's going on. So like I said, everyone on the program gets testing done. We do urine testing that shows all those things, I was talking about how your brains working how your guts working your liver, it's astounding how much information we can get from your bathroom, and you never have to leave your house, you just pee in a cup, you freeze it, you send it to the company. And then about three weeks later, I get results. And I put together a three month protocol that has specific diet, supplement recommendations, we even have emotional pieces of it, which are fun to deal with specific things that might be holding you back. So we get you a protocol that is for you. Like it's all the soul body everything. So then we have a weekly coaching calls. And that's what I was referring to with my clients, we get together every Monday and we talk about anything. So wherever you're stuck struggling, if you want to vent, that's it's the space to show up and get coaching. And that's where the life coach hat really goes on. And we just work through roadblocks. And then of course, we talk about questions that come up and like we talked about estrogen this week? Because that's a big question. So whatever, any question, bring it to the call, we'll talk about it there. And then also, I have an app that goes with it where you can message and get support for me and my team anytime of the day. Because that for me, when I was going through my my health struggles, having access to someone who had knowledge, it's impossible. Like your doctor puts you on meds and if you have a response to that med Good luck getting a hold of your doctor like and just ask simple questions like should I be gaining 10 pounds on this prescription? Like, should I felt this way? So that was really important to me is to have the access to me and the team so that you can get the coaching and the answers right now and continue to move forward with success. So anyway, that's the program. You can learn more at www dot missie beavers coaching.com. On that page, you will see my fast track class and I highly recommend everyone watched that if you have a thyroid problem or not, it just talks more about the gut and how it impacts the thyroid, all the things so you can start there and then there's also a link on that page to book a call with me or my team to get started to chat about programs and testing and get your rollin so we would love to have you head to messy beavers coaching.com
Katie Graham
Awesome. Awesome and I just want to invite the listeners if this is I always want to invite them to listen to their intuition and if this is resonating on some level, I mean it's there for you right I don't want that self worth to block you like what we were talking about with the pole in the tree like the trees there the ease is there like talk to Missy she's here to help you. And and that's all you really need right how have that self worth to take the next step because if you're struggling and if this is sounding like oh it might work and you know you're not sure like take that step for yourself because your health is the most important thing and I just want to remind you that you're totally worthy of feeling better of connecting to that place within you that is that joy we talked about that joy that ease that what you want to feel so Missy is here and she obviously she's amazing. And yeah, so thank you so much Missy for being here today.
Missy Beavers
I love this and you're amazing too. Thank you for the work you're doing and to everyone listening. I know you're amazing because you're here doing the work with us. And that's we're all doing the work together. We're all humans. Putting aside our doubt in our fear, doing the work together. Way to go.
Katie Graham
Awesome, great anymore. It's K listeners. Thank you like Missy said thank you for showing up for yourself, your body, your health. I will see you all next week.
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