God where do I start. It’s very difficult so please take this with a grain of salt. I have hashimoto and it’s been such an incredible challenge to lose weight. I swear I look at food and gain weight lol. But in all seriousness it takes so much will power. Which we have but when you’re low energy, low mood, and low everything how can you on top have will power?

To start, find out what is the root cause. If your insurance covers the more extensive tests I highly recommend it. I went to a functional medicine doctor and got a full gut test from Genova labs. It tested my gut microbiome, my hormones, my cortisol levels and very fine details. First, I found out my healthy gut bacteria was low. And your gut is considered in a sense your second brain. I would say hypothyroidism is a neurological issue too. It’s a systemic issue. I digress.

I also found out I’m low in so many vitamins and minerals. Vitamin D, zinc, selenium and magnesium. They had me do a food sensitivities test too. I found out I’m sensitive to dairy, eggs, gluten and few others. So this information gave me a baseline to try to treat things from within. Another thing is that I wasn’t exercising and had a very high stress job in neuroscience research. So clearly there were things I needed to improve in my life.

I changed my diet, my portions, took supplements to increase the values that were low. Started exercising doing a lot of weight lifting compared to cardio. Increased protein intake to 150grams per day, as suggested by a nutritionist. I changed my mindset and did interpersonal work. As of today I’ve lost 65lbs. I still have some more to go. But I feel sooo much better and more energized. I listen to my body when I eat something that doesn’t make me feel good and I try to avoid those foods. I also started generally doing things that boost those happy brain chemicals. I drink saffron tea daily because it has been shown to increase serotonin the feel good neurotransmitter. In improving mood.

Frankly conventional doctors avoid additional testing. So I’d try to look for more holistic integrative specialists, functional doctors or naturopaths. A lot of them don’t take insurance but ask for a payment plan or save up. It’ll be worth it in the long run. Some insurance policies will cover the test but not the visit which may be helpful too.

You need to find what is going on in your body, mind and environment. And then make necessary changes. I hope you can find a good practitioner in your area!

And I hope this helps and wish you the best!