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 Shake 

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!