Lately I have been working a lot on myself, and it has been challenging at times. At the end of 2020 I found out I have some serious stomach issues; I’ve known for the majority of my adult life that my digestive system wasn’t the best and never gave it a lot of attention, who has the perfect digestive system anyways; and because of that mentality “the everyone has problems so I should have them too” I have let things go a lot farther than I should have. 

And now I am dealing with life style changing decisions…

My initial goal for this season in life was “loose the extra weight and become as strong as I need to be in order to keep up with my child” and I was on the way of succeeding when things went south. Because of family history I had to have a colonoscopy done last year and because of my “symptoms” (I put quotation marks because I though that was just my body not a symptom) I end up having an endoscopy as well, where they found out that I have pre cancerous cells in my stomach. And even though everyone has cells that could turn cancerous; knowing there is something wrong with my body stoped all my plans and forced me to concentrate on my stomach. 

I changed the way I was eating cause it was making it worse, ended up gaining 10 lbs that I now have to be ok with having, and 8 months later I still don’t know what is happening or what is causing this. And it took about 6 months of me studying to become an Integrative Nutritionist Health Coach to realize a few things: 

• I would not be able to fix myself without knowing the cause of my issues;
• I need support from a doctor to know the why (took me 6 months to find one I liked);
• I need support from a coach to process all this information;
• I need support from a therapist to work on my trauma and my triggers ;
• I need support from my friends/family not to fall apart while doing this;
• I need support from my partner not to succumb to the “you are fat and ugly” thoughts after gaining weight. 

And even though I do not feel 100% comfortable sharing all of this in social media, all of my work has me thinking about all the people out there working on their on problems that do not have the tools to work on this things or the availability to have as much support as I have and I’m writing this in hopes someone would read it and realize I am not alone in my struggles. 

Right now I am navigating my journey of diagnosing my problem; in the past my doctors told me I have gastritis and therefore too much acid in my stomach and prescribed me anti-acids (I never took) and a regimen for GERD … that didn’t work. And now 8 months later into my lifestyle change to reduce my acidity, I came to find a doctor that thinks I may have a low acidity stomach, that is having problems digesting the food and therefore needs to create more acid to hopefully break down food, not GERD, and possible have Small Intestine Bacteria Overgrow, that is where you literally have too much bacteria (you are suppose to have a little of the good ones to digest) and that is the reason for my symptoms. Another set of issues… We don’t know if the SIBO created the stomach problem or the other way around, and I am about to take the test on Thursday to know if I really have SIBO or not. I’ll keep you posted

I sat down today to write about setting goals in my current season and somehow I ended up writing this, so I will be posting this instead since clearly is in my mind and I want to share it with all of you. I don’t know if I have SIBO or not, I am taking a set of test in the next couple weeks, but I do know the following:

• My regimen will be similar to those with IBS and that scares me;
• I will continue to need support;
• I will have to make lifestyle changes;
• I do not know what that looks like;
• I don’t know if is going to be forever or until my SIBO is under control;
• I will need more than eastern medicine to help me with this;
• I will be ok.

And one of the tools I will be using the most to keep my anxiety in check is identifying the stories I tell myself and separating those from the facts. I am very lucky, or it was suppose to be that I started studying to become an Integrative Nutritionist Health Coach and I am super grateful I listened to the universe and took the plunge. 

Studying in IIN has given me the tools to know when to ask for help, how to work on your mindset and how to self coach on the days that I feel like is too much. And what exists me the most, the knowledge to help others on their journey while I am in my own journey.

You are not alone in your struggles… 

Love,

Sole