Personal Spotlight: Meet Christy

(originally published in 2020)

I had the pleasure of growing up with Christy in a small town, but never really knowing anything about her. We’ve recently bonded over our shared passion for healing. Since then, I’ve gotten to not only learn about who Christy is, but also hear her story and how her journey to healing began. Check it out below:

When Chelsea asked me if I would share my health journey and how I changed my life through nutrition, mindset, and lifestyle shifts, I was so excited, but also overwhelmed because this quite literally could be a book. So bear with me as I try to sum it up in one article!

Background 

My journey dates back to freshman year of high school. Growing up I was involved in everything and anything: dance, baton, track, volleyball, tennis, soccer, competitive cheerleading…you name it, I probably tried it. I also ate everything: Pop-Tarts, mac and cheese, spaghetti and meatballs, hot dogs… I never really thought about the way I looked, I was just enjoying life, until high school hit.​

​High school can be a rough place, especially for girls. The pressure to be popular and liked is one thing, but girls are also mean! As my activity level slowed down, I gained weight and with that came a lot of insecurity and comments from others. 

I can remember being so jealous of some of my skinnier girlfriends and feeling so inadequate. While all of my friends were gorgeous and getting boyfriends, I didn’t feel worthy enough and my self-esteem took a huge hit.

People always talk about childhood memories that shape our beliefs and stick with us through adulthood and this was for sure one of them. I remember going to take a pyramid picture with my friends and as I went to get on the middle layer someone yelled “Christy, you need to be on the bottom!” From that moment, everything really shifted in me and I was so determined never to feel that way again.

I decided I had to lose weight and that was the only way to feel loved and worthy. So I went on the Special K diet. I was so determined so I ignored the intense hunger. I counted every single calorie, sometimes only eating as little as 700 calories a day. And guess what? I lost weight! Roughly 20 pounds in 3 months to be exact.

The more weight I lost, the more I got noticed at school. My friends would say I looked pretty, parents would comment on how good I was looking. My self esteem skyrocketed and I couldn’t stop. I was fueled off of being called “skinny” and wearing size 00 jeans.

The Start of My Health Concerns

I got down to a weight that was classified as “underweight”; I was really confident in my appearance, but my health was horrible. I can remember always being cold, I had no energy, my period disappeared, I developed a horrible anxiety disorder, I felt depressed, I was constantly starving and light headed, and my digestion was terrible at best. Some of my friends became worried about me saying I was “too skinny” and I would get defensive thinking they were just jealous.

I got my first wake up call one day when I passed out in the shower. I remember waking up on my bedroom floor soaking wet and shaking. I called my mom freaking out and she took me to the hospital.

The hospital told me I passed out due to dehydration and that I needed to gain at least 5-10 lbs to get to a healthy weight. I can remember hearing that and thinking “that’s not happening- I can’t gain weight!” I couldn’t lose the “love” I felt that I received from being small. After that hospital visit, we went to Applebee’s and I devoured a grilled cheese with french fries – “doctors orders” –  but felt so guilty afterwards. I knew something desperately needed to change.

With a lot of mindset work, I slowly let my fears of gaining weight go and I got back to a normal weight, but I still struggled with orthorexia and obsessing about food. I was always trying a new diet and constantly taking “progress photos”. The biggest wake up call really came from my anxiety. 

Anxiety & Depression

I had my first panic attack and was diagnosed with a generalized anxiety disorder sophomore year of high school. I got put on medication to help and was on that until my junior year of college. It wasn’t your typical worry – my anxiety showed itself in physical symptoms. Once I conquered one symptom another one would pop up. From feeling like I was off balance all the time, rapid heart rate, and chest pressure to shortness of breath, feeling tingly, and weird vision problems – I experienced it all.

I tried so hard to diagnose myself with an actual disease – there had to be a reason I was feeling like this. I couldn’t believe it was all in my head. I can remember trying to explain these feelings to my parents and they just didn’t understand. I saw therapist after therapist and just got frustrated. My anxiety kept me in a constant state of fear. Nobody knew I was feeling like this and you couldn’t tell from the outside. 

My anxiety kept getting worse and the only solution seemed to be going on more medication, which I didn’t want to do. I didn’t want to even be on medication and clearly it wasn’t working. One day after an intense panic attack, I hit my breaking point and I quit my medicine cold turkey (bad idea) but with feeling so horrible, I was so motivated to find answers. The research began and I came across functional medicine.

​Turning Things Around With Nutrition, Mindset, & Lifestyle 

Functional medicine focuses on identifying and addressing the root cause of disease instead of just putting a bandaid on symptoms. It focuses on a holistic approach to healing including changing your nutrition, environment, lifestyle, and mindset.

As I educated myself, I started to change my diet and incorporate in more healthy fats, high quality proteins, and nutrient dense foods. This naturally crowded out the low-calorie/low-fat processed foods I was consuming full of chemicals and preservatives. I made the switch from caring about calories to caring about nutrients. I started to experiment with herbs, essential oils, and supplements and I got blood tests to see what I was deficient in. 

When it came to my anxiety, nutrition was huge, but I also read dozens of books on the topic, watched YouTube videos, saw therapists, and listened to podcasts. I journaled, meditated, and found activities that grounded me by developing morning and nighttime routines. I learned about the power of my thoughts and how to control them. 

I worked a lot on self love and realized that body image has nothing to do with what we physically look like, but everything to do with our perception. I began to recognize my worth, stepped into my confidence, and grew in my faith.

Within weeks, I was noticing changes from these lifestyle shifts. I was so happy but so frustrated that I hadn’t figured this out earlier. My own transformation fueled a fire within me to keep other people from suffering, so I decided to go to school for nutrition and keep learning about holistic health. I am now a certified integrative nutrition health coach and have been helping women overcome these exact issues for over 2 years. 

To anyone who needs this message…feeling good is so much better than looking good. Whatever you are struggling with does have a solution and does not have to be your forever. Your body is amazing if you give it the right tools it needs to thrive. Believe you can heal and you will. 

I now live without the anxiety that burdened a huge period of my life, my digestion is 100% better, I have a normal cycle, and I feel healthier, stronger, and HAPPIER than ever. I have learned to love all of my flaws and realize that my weight and appearance do not define my worth. I am not perfect, no one is. We are all constantly working on ourselves and that’s why there is no ultimate destination for health and wellness. It’s a journey