249 Hashimoto’s, business & faith with Annabel Bateman

SJ: Have you heard of Hashimoto’s or underactive thyroid? If you have or you haven’t, you might find this podcast very interesting because I know personally in my journey over the past year, I’ve had some pretty funky things happen with my body, and I’ve been wondering what the heck has been going on.
And then a friend mentioned Hashimoto’s to me, and by changing my diet and lifestyle, my body has completely changed. So, today’s podcast, I’ve invited a lady that’s actually attended a couple of our conferences and that’s how we’ve got connected. And I’m going to ask her some specific questions about how she found us in the first place in a little bit.

But her biggest mission through her business is to help women develop their unique thyroid friendly lifestyle. And I love that you’ve written unique in there by providing positive and practical thyroid information and offering them hope that they can feel better. Her favourite thing to do on a weekend is early Sunday morning chats at the organic markets with a friend and then going to church.

So welcome to the podcast, Annabelle from Let’s Talk Thyroid.

Annabel: Oh, thank you. SJ. I’m really, yeah, look, I’m excited to be here talking about thyroid health and faith. That’s kind of like my two favourite topics. So yeah, it’s like perfect kind of goes hand in hand, perfectly perfect. Yeah. So, thank you. Thank you for the invitation.

I’m looking forward to hopefully giving, offering some hope and a bit of help to anybody else. That’s. You know, maybe suffering with a thyroid condition because lots of people do suffer with.

SJ: it. So, yeah, it’s from the little bit of reading that I’ve done. I’ve seen it’s quite cause it’s autoimmune, right?
So, it’s quite a common thing for people to have and not even realize that they maybe have it.

Annabel: Oh, absolutely. So, they say, look, the statistics are really. A bit fluid. Partly because there’s a lot of people that don’t know, you know, that they’ve, if they’ve got a problem, but the statistic seems most common is that one in eight women have a thyroid condition.

And so, one in eight women, that’s a lot of women. It’s a lot of women. It’s a lot of women. So, oh, were you going to say something? 

Annabel: No, I was just going to say, well, I was going to say that of that one in eight, there would be a certain number that would not know that they’ve got a problem. So that they’re probably suffering needlessly or perhaps being misdiagnosed with something else. So, so yeah, that one in eight is just extraordinary.

SJ: Yeah, so, like you’ve already said, helping people with thyroid and then talking about faith are two of your favourite things. So, can you please share with us a little bit about your story what’s kind of happened in your thyroid life, and also your faith life, but then also your business life, because You’re a business owner too.

We’re kind of like, we’ve got three big whammies here today. But obviously we want to share about business and managing business with thyroid, but we also want to talk about God and faith and business too, because that’s our jam. So, if you wouldn’t mind sharing with us first a little bit about, I guess your thyroid story and then like including the bits of business and everything else in between that.

Annabel: Sure. I will do that. And if I go on for too long, you just cut me off because it’s a long story. And I’ve got to say really everyone with a thyroid story Has a long story. When I often say to people, you know, tell me your thyroid story, it’s usually long. And so, my thyroid story, and probably if I think about it, my faith story probably started similar times, just, I don’t know if that’s, maybe that’s a God thing.

I don’t know. I certainly wasn’t aware. I became a Christian when I was 14. I discovered that I had Hashimoto’s when I was 22, but if I look back, I think it was, it kicked off about puberty. So that’s sort of, you know, 12, 13. If I look back, I can look back at photos and just, you know, reflecting on that season and I can see all the signs from about that sort of 12 ish age.

So, I feel like really, I don’t know what life is like without a thyroid problem. Not really. I mean, I guess you remember those few childhood things, but all of my life I have lived with a thyroid condition. And so that’s changed over time. But it was picked up when I was 22. I was at the end of my uni.

I was You know, like a lot, and I might come to this in the tips a bit later on, but a lot of us with particularly autoimmune thyroid problems are the sort of people that just push through. You just keep going. And so, you know, I was tired, I was exhausted, but I didn’t know any different. I’d been tired and exhausted.

You know, for probably 10 years, and I just didn’t know any differently. So but really it got to the point where, when I couldn’t hold my arms up to wash my hair, because my muscles were so fatigued, I thought, I don’t think that’s normal for a 22 year old not to be able to kind of hold your arms up to wash your hair.

So that was probably the final straw. To go get checked out. And so, at that point, my mom is a nurse and she had said, Oh, maybe it’s your thyroid. And so really, I didn’t have any trouble being diagnosed. I went to the doctor, my TSH, which is your thyroid stimulating hormone, and we can go into some of the tests later if you want.
But. It’s meant to be below four, optimally about two. Well, mine was 185. And so, it was just ridiculous. Ridiculous. And so, my GPs are like, right, you need to go after the endocrinologist pretty much tomorrow or, you know, urgently. How are you even still alive? And so. Contrary to a lot of people’s experience, the diagnosis part for me was really simple.

I think it was so out of control that it was, you know, it was, it was simple to diagnose. And so, I went to the endocrinologist who said, oh, you’ll be fine. You just got to take this pill for the rest of your life. You know, off you go. And I remember sitting in the car after that appointment just crying, thinking I’m 22, like I don’t want to be on vacation for the rest of my life and, and he was so kind of glib about it, you know, oh yeah, it’s kind of like it’s nothing, it’s fine, you know, it’s just a problem, just a pill.

You know, don’t worry about it, off you go. And yeah, so that’s unfortunately, that’s not, that’s, it’s terrible advice that is still given, but it’s not the full story.

So, at that point I just did what I was told, you know, I went, and I took thyroid medication. I’m still on thyroid medication. I’m certainly an advocate. Like if you need thyroid medication, you need it. But. It took me a long time to really learn and work out and really accept that diet and lifestyle changes.

Really needed to go hand in hand with medication that, you know, the medication was keeping me alive, but you know, when I added in the diet and lifestyle changes, that’s when I really felt so much better. So, I often say like, you just need both. Well, you may not need medication, but you know, you may not need medication, but if you do, you need it, but you also need the diet and lifestyle part.

We’re a whole person. We know that. So, you need that full, you know, full picture. So, for the last 10 years or so, maybe a little bit longer now, like I’ve really kind of gone into that diet and lifestyle aspect. It’s start the business side, I suppose, started when I wrote a cookbook and I had a blog, I had a food blog really for a while called what Annabelle cooks.

And I was just cooking. It was really just what I was cooking. Instead of writing it in an exercise book, I just started recording it on a blog. And then I wrote a cookbook and then I was like, oh, now I’ve got to actually work out how to sell a cookbook. Oh, maybe this is like a little business. I don’t know.

It’s like, now I’ve got a thousand copies in my garage. I’ve got to work out how to sell them. So, I think I just sort of organically fell into this sort of tiny micro business around health. That sort of morphed and changed really as a consequence of the Christian women in business conference. So, let’s give that a plug.

The first, I’ve been to a couple, three maybe, but the first one, I mean, I already had the cookbook. That was in Sydney. That was in Sydney.

SJ:  So that was 2020.

Annabel: Yes. 2020.

SJ: Yeah. I think. Yeah. Cause 2018 Gold Coast, 2019 was first Sydney, 2020 was second Sydney, and then we were back up in Queensland again. Okay. So that was 2019. So, it was 2019.

SJ: So, you’ve done two Sydney conferences? 

Annabel: I’ve done two Sydney conferences. 

SJ: Oh, that’s so exciting. Yeah. Then you’ve been to Sydney.

Annabel: So anyway, so I’m sure Yeah. Oh, anyway, it doesn’t matter, but I’m pretty sure it’s right. So went along and said, well, I was, I guess I was trying to think, well, how do I, I’m kind of passionate about thyroid health.

And I understood at that point that it was more than even just the food side. Like the, the food was really the first big well obviously diet, but lifestyle intervention that made. But I started to understand that there was much more than that, that more than just the food. And so, I was trying to work out, well, how do I tie all this in together?

And so, I think at that first conference, it was like, right, well, what do I feel like, felt like God really revealed through some conversations with people and, you know, just the way he works on those weekends this idea of writing another book. And so that, I mean, that all sort of morphed and changed and ended up doing a few other things along the way, but.

SJ: That helped me to really own the thyroid space, because I think I was like, all the food stuff, but I didn’t want to call myself a thyroid person, because I didn’t feel qualified to do that. So, I think that syndrome.

Annabel: Yeah, totally. I still kind of battle with that sometimes. But I think that was really pivotal in going, no, actually. I am. I do know what I’m talking about and I’m not a medical expert, but I am a thyroid expert. I’ve been a thyroid patient for all my life. That kind of, and I’ve heavily invested in my personal health, but also in my knowledge and, you know, causes and books and blah, blah, blah, blah. I feel now quite confident to say that I am a thyroid expert.

SJ: Totally. Totally.

Annabel: Yeah. So, I don’t know that that’s more my thyroid story, but that’s how the business sort of side wove into that. And, and I guess just the faith journey has been alongside all of that as well in, in many different ways. Yeah, yeah. So I know that, obviously, like you said, you’ve been to conferences a couple of times, and I kind of knew what it is that you kind of did, but I, I actually, and we might get back to basics a little bit for our listeners too, just in case they don’t know, because I didn’t know this, my mom, so we’ve got thyroid history in our family, my granddad was overactive, and then my mom and auntie were underactive, and maybe for like, I don’t know.

The first from teenage years, I did actually go get tested because mum was like, just go and check it, just go and check it because on my whole life, quite a summer thing, always tired, like, from the age of, I don’t know, I don’t think I’ve ever grown out of afternoon naps, like, afternoon naps are part of our family.

Like, we all, my mom, my auntie, like, we just have afternoon naps, like she was like, go get tested, go get tested. So, every three and four years I’d go get tested, but nothing would ever show. But mom had never called it Hashimoto. She’d always called it underactive thyroid. So, I actually, Like, I didn’t quite know that the two were absolutely related and the same thing and well, not the same thing because other things can cause underactive thyroids, but I didn’t realize that this was what would cause underactive thyroid.

And so, a friend, I like, so I’ll share a little bit about me. Just so you get a picture and then we’ll go into the basics. So last year I was doing weightlifting and I was very much focused on macro counting. And for some, whatever reason, my body was just putting on weight. Like I was doing all the right things.

I was being so strict, and my body just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And my tiredness was just like, off the charts. And I’d been through burnout a bit myself, like a couple of years back, but it didn’t matter how much I slept or how heavy I slept. I just couldn’t get any energy. I’d wake up feeling exhausted.

And then I was just chatting to a friend, and it was actually when we were on our way back. There are so many relevant conversations that come out of conference. I was driving back from last year, because we had to do it online, and I was just chatting with a friend, and she has Hashimoto’s, and she was like, do you have Hashimoto’s?
I’m like, what’s Hashimoto’s? She’s like, it’s like underactive thyroid. I was like, I haven’t thought about this for years. And so, I, like, we were driving back from Queensland, I had, like, 12 hours to spare. So, I started researching all this Hashimoto stuff. And I was like, oh my gosh, that’s underactive thyroid.

That’s what mum and my auntie had. And I haven’t been tested for it now for a good few years, probably 10 years. Like, maybe there’s something into this. And so, I started looking and doing research. She was like, why don’t you just try dropping gluten and dairy? Out of your diet and just see how you go.

Like, just start there. And so, I did that, and what I couldn’t believe, and like you’re saying, you live with things, and you don’t even realize you’re living with them, is how much my joints hurt. Because then when I dropped gluten and dairy, suddenly my joints began to feel amazing. Like, even my hands.

I couldn’t believe how… Like, tight or painful my joints must have been for them to feel so good once I changed my diet. Knees, hips, everything. I was like, oh my gosh. And then suddenly, all this weight started to flood off as well. I was like, oh my gosh, like, a few simple changes in my diet and my body have completely, like more energy.
I was still weightlifting. I love weightlifting. I don’t think I’d ever give that up. I’ve done it for like nearly all my life now. Still walk, but nothing like, and I still have to be really careful with walking too, that I don’t do too much walking because I can also feel that that inflames my body, but like just the difference it’s made from just doing.

Like taking two simple things out of my diet. And I’m not saying that everyone should go and do this. This is just. My experience, but it’s just been unbelievable. And like I’ve shared with Annabelle, like I haven’t actually gone and got tested again. This past six months has been absolutely crazy. I’m like, I just want to get conference out the way.
And then like, let’s go and really sort this body thing out. But yeah, just the difference it’s made for me personally, just even changing my diet without bringing in any. Pills or anything like that. Yeah, it’s been incredible. So, can you please explain to the listeners like what Hashimoto’s and underactive thyroid is just in case people don’t know?
Annabel: Yeah, absolutely. And I think lots of people don’t know because it’s not really something that we’re clued into it, be educated about. So, I’ll go back to the very basic. So, your thyroid, which sits in your neck is a butterfly shaped gland that really, it’s, it’s known as the master gland because essentially you need thyroid hormone for every single cell in your body to operate optimally.

So that’s every single cell in your body. So thyroid, whilst it sits in your neck and you think it’s, maybe it’s a neck thing, it’s a whole body thing. And so. Two main things that can go wrong with your thyroid is it can underproduce thyroid hormone. That’s called underactive, hyper, hypoactive, slow thyroid.

They’re all the kind of common names. Just think anything slow when your body’s not producing enough thyroid hormone to function properly. You can also have Overactive, where your body’s producing too much thyroid hormone, and that’s called hyperthyroid or overactive thyroid. So that’s two main things that can go wrong, and then what causes those things to go wrong, the main…

Cause, not the only cause, but the main cause is autoimmune thyroid disease. So, your underactive autoimmune thyroid disease is called Hashimoto’s and your overactive is called Graves’ disease. So, Hashimoto’s is actually the number one autoimmune condition in the world. So, it’s very common. Like I said before, one in eight women have a thyroid condition and most like they estimate about 90% of those is caused by Hashimoto’s.

So, you know, that’s a lot. And so when we’re dealing with autoimmune conditions you know, So when we’re talking about the diet and lifestyle aspect, they do kind of have a lot of broad similarity, whether you’ve got overactive, underactive, or really any autoimmune condition, the diet and lifestyle factors you know, generally broadly, you know, apply because it’s all about reducing inflammation.

Like you said before, you know, your joints were inflamed. So, the diet and lifestyle. Things that we talk about are all about reducing inflammation. And so that then slows down the attack on your thyroid. Basically, the autoimmune component is that your body is attacking itself. So, it’s attacking in the thyroid space, it’s attacking your thyroid gland.

And so mostly what you’ll hear is. From, you know, from your mainstream medical is well, there’s nothing you can really do about the autoimmune component. You’ve just got to wait until your thyroid is destroyed enough that we then put you on thyroid hormone replacement, which you will then be on for the rest of your life.

And so, a lot of doctors won’t even test the antibodies, which is what will indicate whether you have the autoimmune component or not, because they don’t believe there’s anything you can do about it. But it’s just. It’s a whole other conversation, but it’s not true. There is stuff you can do about it.

So the sooner you can find out whether you’ve got an auto, the autoimmune component, just like you’ve just done SJ, like if you can change your diet and lifestyle before, I mean, you don’t know what your thyroid hormones are doing, but if you can do that before there’s sufficient damage to your thyroid gland, you may be able to prevent that destruction and therefore needing medication.

So, there’s so much. I think hope and positivity in this space, particularly if you, you know, but you’ve got to know, you’ve got to have the information, you’ve got to be tested. You’ve got to have the full thought, you know, thyroid panel plus the antibodies, and then you know what you’re dealing with and then you can take the appropriate actions.

So yeah, there’s lots of good stuff that can be done.

SJ: Yeah. Yeah. And I always think prevention’s always cheaper than the cure, right? Like even when we. Like whatever I do now is going to affect my body in 10 or 20 years’ time. So, what am I doing now anyway to look after my body? Like, how am I going to keep my bones strong?

And that’s like one of the other reasons why personally I love weightlifting is because it helps women with their bone density as well as you being able to lift your washing up without making a grunting noise and you can carry your shopping in and hopefully one run.

Annabel: Well, and it’s very good form of exercise for someone with Hashimoto’s actually, strength training. Yeah. Low impact, right? I can remember, like, in my twenties I would do, like, a HIIT class or, like body attack and my muscles and joints would ache for days and I just thought I was just really unfit. And like, I just could not oversee this amount of exercise, but actually, you know, I’m doing opposite to my body of what I should have been doing.

Annabel: Yeah, I think we’ve all done that SJ, I’ve done, I’ve spent years doing that too. So, if I’m not like nearly dying and vomiting, then I’m not exercising hard enough. You know, and I think, oh my gosh, Annabelle, you just did so much. Bad stuff to your body. Yeah. I think, I think actually that’s. Hey, come on. So maybe for the listeners that don’t, you know, think, well, okay, you’ve just explained a little bit about what thyroid is, but how would I know other than having a blood test?

How would I know if I’ve got a problem with my thyroid? I think. Some of the most common, look there’s a gazillion symptoms of a, we’ll just focus on, on underactive thyroid, a gazillion symptoms, but the most common ones are things that we’ve talked about, fatigue, weight gain, like unexplained weight gain, or really like inability to lose weight.

Yeah. Brain fog joint pain, there’s a lot of things like your hair falling out. Sex drive. Yes. Sex drive, infertility, thin hair, dry skin, brittle nails. Brittle nails, the outside third of your eyebrows, you know, just not being there. That’s another common sign. Cold extremities. Even I’m sitting here, my fingers are cold, cold toes, depression and anxiety are both the anxiety is sometimes more associated with hyperthyroidism, but it can equally be a symptom of hypo and that general sense that something’s not quite right. Like, you know, I, I know I’mnot feeling how I either did before or. Something’s not quite right. I can’t quite work out what it is.

That’s also a sign. And so all of those things you think, oh, yeah, I think when I battle off those symptoms, most people go, oh, I must have underactive thyroid. But because they can overlap. And I think that’s why often it is under, or misdiagnosed is, you know, those symptoms can overlap with other things, you know.

SJ: Yeah. Adrenaline fatigue as well. Like, I know that that’s another kind of linked thing and just general burnout. I mean, as business owners and women who are, Enthusiastic about achieving things, we often will push ourselves like you did before to, you know, you’re just going to push through and you’re just going to get this thing done or whatever it is.

And often we’re just doing ourselves more harm than good. But yeah, I mean, I didn’t even know there was such things as nightshade vegetables. And so that was another thing. That I began to learn about and how does that cause inflammatory because a lot of people think, oh, you know, it’s gluten and dairy and then I’m like, well, actually, I’ve taken out tomatoes, capsicum, spices, white potato, and I actually feel like they’ve done just as much good as taking out gluten and dairy, like Tomatoes, I didn’t realize how much they affected my body.
So, I took them out and then I…

Annabel: The eggs in particular? Yeah. Do you think it’s The nitrates are often associated with the joints. Yeah. In particular.

SJ: Yeah. Yeah. And then I, I like… So last year when I started, like, just feeling not so great, I was having tomato sauce with nearly every meal and like, there was tomatoes in so many meals that I was making and then Yeah, I took them out.

I was like, like, that’s like another level of feeling good, too. You just don’t realize, I think you just, because you’re living with it so much, until you start swapping things around a bit and just trying, you don’t realize how much pain you were in until you’re out of the pain, and you’re just like, It’s kind of like when you come to Jesus, you didn’t realize how much pain you were in until he comes and he takes it away.

And then you’re like, Oh, I’m like, I think too. Yeah. You just don’t know what normal is. Like if you’ve been putting up with feeling subpar for decades, you don’t even know what feeling good can feel like until you give it a try. And I think that’s like what you just said. I mean, even just from the diet perspective.

There’s so many different, I mean there’s common culprits, gluten, grains, dairy, sugar are the common ones. And then, yeah, then it’s like becomes that unique. You’ve got to work out our nightshades a problem, our eggs are so a problem. Our nuts and seeds a problem, you know? So, you end up with your own little unique kind of way.
Your body responds best, but you don’t know that until you give it a go. And so, there’s a lot of trial and error involved, but. Yeah. So much self-discovery and feeling good, you know, I think just know that if you’re not feeling good, there is hope you can feel better. I’m a firm believer in that and I can heal in all sorts of different ways.
Like I think for years and years and years and years, I think I spent praying that God would heal me of my food issues and food addiction and help me to lose weight. And it wasn’t until me. About six months after I’d given up gluten that I realized that my food cravings were not cravings, but my food addiction had gone like I wasn’t clawing at the Pantry and in the fridge kind of just looking for food in the ways that I had been and you know, I think For me at least removing gluten it has some of those addictive actually is Physiologically addictive so actually sends sets off some of those Pleasure centres in the brain like sugar can do and when I understood that later, I was like, oh Wow, well that makes sense.

So now I haven’t had that for a good length of time I felt like that, you know God used that to bring about that healing in my the way I my relationship with food and like this Yes There’s other things that went along with that But just that food addiction that I felt like I’d been praying like praying and praying and praying and praying for like that really that Healing came in a way that I was not expecting.

That’s so good. Yeah, that’s cool. It is cool. That’s really cool. I think, yeah, God heals in different ways.
SJ: Yeah. So good. So good. So, getting back to your business. So, you went to conference. You’ve got the book, you’re now wondering what the hell do I do and how do I incorporate all this? So just so our listeners understand a little bit about your business, what is your business and what do you do and how do you help people and what was your shift in that moment?

Annabel: Well, look, I think my business has changed from, from back then. I think back then I really didn’t know what my business was. I was like trying to sell a cookbook. I was into essential oils. I was selling those. I’m like, I don’t even know how this all fits together. What am I even really doing? Am I even really a business woman you know? And so, I think I was all over the place, and so I couldn’t even really explain what I did. And so, the, so the whole process of the last few years, and each of the conferences were sort of brought more and more clarity, I think. And so now I would say, well, I have an online business that supports women with thyroid health conditions.

And so, I mean, that looks like different, you know, books and podcasts and courses, but really what I’m trying to do is help people help women with thyroid conditions, implement diet and lifestyle changes so that they can feel amazing and get on with doing all of the, the Mission that got us, you know, equipped them for so that’s really my business now, but that’s not what it was when I first came.

SJ: That’s so interesting. It was only a couple of podcasts ago that I did about how businesses change, like where God originally put you or might have put you and then where you’re at now will probably have changed. Or if you feel like you’re in a pivotal moment in your business where it’s starting to literally pivot into a different direction, that that’s okay.

And pivots do happen. And it’s just building on the foundation from foundation. You know, to the next step, the next move, the next season, whatever that is for you. And it’s, it’s totally okay. I just love hearing your story, Annabelle, and you know, how God has, is working through your life. So do you do, so you’ve got your courses, you’ve got your podcast, you do one on one coaching as well.
Annabel: I do, I do, I’ve got, I do offer strategy sessions. So, people that just want to kind of, I just, I don’t even need a whole program. I just need. It’s pointing in the right direction. So, I do that. But I also offer my, my big new cause at which is really all about implementing the book, you know, the full lifestyle I offer that as a one on one program as which is really one on one coaching in that context as well.

SJ: Yeah. That’s awesome. And it’s that book behind you. Is that your new one? Yeah, it is.

Annabel: It’s called Let’s Talk Thyroid. Yay. So, yeah. So that was that the vision for that book came about at that first conference was, wow, imagine if I could write another book that just included you know, mindset and low tox living and the stress management.

Dress management, which I call unwinding and the food. And, and I think I had a vision back then that it was all going to be beautiful and pretty and bright things on each page and like recipes and okay, it’s scaled to a different kind of the reality setting of so it’s not quite. All of what I had imagined, but just it, it, it is that holistic approach to thyroid health.

And so that just the beginnings of that came from the conference. And then I started the podcast first and then did the book later, you know after the podcast. So, it’s been a really interesting journey, really. It’s been lots of fun. And despite thyroid health being such a big problem, there’s not a lot.

And a lot more help than was available 25 years ago, but even so, given the volume, like as far as I’m aware, my podcast is the only thought Australian thyroid podcast. Like there are other thyroid podcasts out there, some great ones around the world, but it’s to the best of my knowledge, there’s no other Australian one.

And so, I think, how is that even possible? In a country of 25 million where one in eight women have a thyroid problem, how is there only one thyroid podcast? So, I think there’s still a lot of help needed out there.
SJ: Yeah, yeah, there is. There is. So are you able to share with us now then five tips for I guess managing thyroid, thyroid and business, all those kind of things that you could share with us today.

So, listeners, if you do know that you’ve got it, let’s all work together and get ourselves sorted.

Annabel: Yeah, absolutely. So, here’s my five tips. Number one, if you are a Christian woman in business with a thyroid problem, you, you probably have what I call a thyroid personality which is that driven overachieving high, what are you put it in a really nice way before SJ, but that I don’t remember what I said, but you know, you know, that kind of type a personality.

And so, if that is you, which it probably is then. I think the number one tip is to be aware that that personality has lots of amazing, incredible, God given qualities. And that’s why you are where you are, but there are also some weaknesses in that personality. And we can tend to be the types of people that give, give, give, give, give maybe don’t take the time out to look after yourself.

So you just. Just be aware that you’ve got to want to use that personality for, in all the good ways to look after yourself and run your business, but be aware that some of those downsides to that driven personality can actually have some negative consequences on your health if you’re not aware of them and take action on them.

So, so that’s number one, be aware of your thyroid personality and make it work for you, not against you. Number two is initiative-taking with your health. So, you do need to take your thyroid health seriously. Every single cell in your body requires best thyroid hormone to function properly. And so, if you want to have all the energy and brain power and capacity to put into your business and your life, then you need to be initiative-taking with your health.
You need to get tests we were talking about before. SJ go get your test. Yeah. And I’m a big advocate for regular testing, like, you know, three to four times a year, depending on how stable your thyroid health is, because then you can actually see what impact the changes that you’re making are having on your thyroid test.

So, it’d be really. Like it would have been really interesting, SJ, if you had have had the test before you gave up gluten and dairy, particularly the antibodies. It would have been really interesting to see what that was then. And then, you know, repeated in three, four, five, six months and see, cause I, I think when you’re that personality that likes to be in control of things, it’s nice to see the changes and the impact that that actually has in an objective test.
And so that being initiative-taking with your health enables that as well. And so, it just. Yeah. So, I think let’s just make sure you take your health seriously and it doesn’t get shoved to the bottom of the pile and not dealt with. I think that’s actually really important. Yeah. And number three is set boundaries which kind of goes with that thyroid personality and, and being a you’re having your own business and like often, you know, we’re like USA, I work from home, you know, it’s having boundaries so that you don’t completely burn out because, you know, if your thyroid health isn’t in a good place, you may well need to step back from your business for a bit, you might, or your job, you know, you, you know, if you, Not in a business, but you’re working.

You may actually need to reduce your hours. Take a break. Like I’ve spoken to lots of people that I just had to take six months off, you know or take a really big break. And then so you can heal. And then, but you don’t want to end up in a cycle where you heal. Yeah, yourself out, need to take a break, you know, you want to get to a point where you, you know, even more evenly balanced and having solid boundaries will help you with that.

It’s funny you say that. I’m just going to pop in your little momentum that you’ve got going at the minute, because one of the things that my husband’s always said to me is you don’t actually deal with stress very well. And I’ve gone, well, I just, it’s stress, just stresses me out. Like, I can’t help that stress is stressing me.
It is what it is. And he was like, you know, I’m pretty sure your mum’s the same way. She doesn’t deal with stress very well either. And I’m like, well, maybe it’s just us. Like, it’s just who we are. We just don’t deal with stress very well. But then having looked into some of the effects and… Like you say in our personalities, it’s not necessarily actually a personality trait.

It’s actually our bodies can’t deal with the stress and that then whether we subconsciously or consciously know it or not, has the, has the impact ripple effect of everything else of how we deal with that stress. So, when I went through major burnout, I was putting my body through an immense amount of stress.

I was commuting to work three hours a day. I was working four days in a job. We just launched Christian Women in Business, so I had all that happening on the side. We were housing, so… you know, your basics of food, shelter, water, which was completely like unknown all the time. Like I put myself and my body through an enormous amount of stress and I didn’t deal with it very well.

And I did end up being in bed and I couldn’t move. And I had the same things, depression, everything else. And like, once you realize, and then you start looking back on your life, you’re well, I could have. Dealt with that season a lot better if I’d have known. And now, like you said, setting those boundaries, like, we have people in our lives that might be putting pressure on us, but I just flat out, done right, say no.

These days, because I’ve been there now. I’ve done that. I’m beginning to understand my body. I’m beginning to understand that stress. And it’s so important for me just to fly out, right? So no, because they don’t have to live in this body of me dealing with that stress. And, you know, again, you tight joints, like your body aching all that other stuff.

And then that you think you’re depressed. You’re not, it’s just how your body’s going right now. It’s massive. So, like, I’m like setting boundaries. I feel like. It’s like the biggest one because you set boundaries with your health your food, what you’re going to eat, your lifestyle, and then just what you’re saying yes and no to is like, it just, yeah, so important.

Thank you for bringing tip number three for setting boundaries.

Annabel: That’s all right. That is massive. And I’ve got to say pretty much whenever I’m talking to someone on my podcast, stress, stress is up there. Stress is probably more important than food. You know, because if you, well, if you’re stressed, you can’t digest your food properly anyway.

So, I think you’re right. I mean, stress and thyroid are such an incredibly massive topic. So, I mean, I think if, yeah, if you’re listening, just know that it is. Massive. I mean, I look back at when my kids, my kids are all teenagers now, but when they were little, I had three little boys and you know, little boys are busy, right?

And so, but I wasn’t managing, I was on medication, but I wasn’t managing my health in the same way that I am now. And I was irritable, snappy. I didn’t enjoy those years. I look back and like, I think partly I’m not one of these women that loves, loves, loves little kids. Some women do, and that’s fine. And so.

Yeah. That’s not me. But by the same token, I was grumpy. I was, I would yell at that. Like I was not a particularly nice mum a lot of the time. And I think a lot of that was, A, I wasn’t managing my stress. I was still eating gluten and grains. And so, my gut brain connection is really strong, you know, so poor gut health, poor brain health and mental health.

I just, I didn’t know about the impact of stress on thyroid and all of what I know now. I didn’t know 15 years ago when my kids were little, and I like to think that if I did know then what I know now that I’d be a slightly nicer mom, . But I’m definitely not as irritable now, and I’m not as snappy.

I’m not as agitated. I’m not as, like, I’m a calmer driver. I’m just calmer. I’m not a zenned out person because it’s not my personality, but I’m much calmer than I was. But in yourself, right? Yep. Just in yourself. Much, much calmer. Yep. Yeah. And I have learned that even I think with stress, I can feel like, Oh, I’m not really that stressed or there’s nothing really going on that’s sort of stressful, but my body will tell me I can think, Oh my gosh, I should be able to cope with that but my body just says, Ah, no.

SJ: Not coping. Yeah. Not today.

Annabel: Not today. Not today. So, I think that’s been a really interesting learning for someone who intellectually thinks, you know, I should be able to cope with that. My body says no, so yeah, so much awareness and so much listening to yourself. It’s just so important.

So important. Yeah, cool. All right, so, number four. Okay, but I feel like it’s really enough, really. We’ve got
Annabel: another time to de stress it. It is enough, really, isn’t it? I mean, I think, I think number, number four is… It’s probably, it’s that whole idea of seeking God first. And so, I know it can sound really glib and really Christian, but I think I’ve only really, I’ve been a Christian since I was 14.

I feel like I’m only really just grasping that now, which sounds ridiculous. You know, I’ve been a Christian for however long that is for 35 years. And just be grasping now, just how important it is to seek God first, and to seek his face, seek what he wants for me, seek what he has for me, seek what his plans are for me, and I think actually like a lot of the parents, Exercises and questions and things that we’ve done at the conference have been really helpful in, in that process across the last few years, just really developing that intimacy with God.

So, I think SJ, you do a great job of that. So, so thank you. Oh, thank you. I think that’s I think that deep relationship with God and the questions and the waiting for answers and things like that is probably a I’m going to call it a skill, but probably a skill that I wasn’t taught really as overtly like as a young Christian.

And so, I think that has been really important. I think in the seasons of change and twisting and turning and, and I feel like sometimes I don’t always hear right, or seasons things haven’t worked out in my business, how I thought they would. So, you know, there’s all of that, but really starting to get, well, actually the only thing that really matters is that I’m seeking God first.

So that is number four. And number five is just keep it super simple in everything. That’s probably my I talk a lot about KISS that keep it super simple. But yeah, so, and I think when things are complicated and I tend to make things complicated and thyroid health is complicated, business is complicated, faith sometimes can be complicated.
And that’s all true. So, it’s not denying any of that. It’s that holding intention, the complexity, but coming back to keeping it super simple. Okay. Well, what’s one thing I can do? What’s one. Dietary change. What’s one thing God’s asking me to do? You know, just keeping it really Simple, that helps you to make progress because otherwise you get lost in the complexity and it all is too overwhelming and you end up doing nothing, getting overwhelmed, getting lost.

But if you can keep it super simple, and I say this to myself all the time because I’m think that message is as much for me as it is for anyone else is just, okay, well, what’s parent back? What’s one thing? What’s the next thing? Just one thing at a time. That’s so good. And you’ll get there. You’ll spin there.

There’s been a theme of simplicity in the tips from the past few guest speakers before you. I’m like, there’s a theme. Keep your marketing simple, keep your health simple, like, yeah, totally, that’s awesome. And it is like, it’s as simple as, okay, so my choice today and has been for a few months now to keep.

Like, Food Simple, because sometimes I don’t know how you go. You say, you know, you’ve done a cookbook and everything. So, you’re quite a foodie. But for me, sometimes with everything else going on, I just don’t have the brain power for food. Like I just, it gets to six o’clock and I’m like, oh, what are we going to eat for dinner tonight?
And I know for me, it’s important to have. Protein, good protein some good fats and some carbs, like I need carbs and I think like the type of carb is important but making sure I’ve got carbs in there is very important for me personally. And so, like over these past couple of months. To make sure that I’m set up where I don’t need to have that brain space.

I’ve been put in, in our slow cooker, two massive chickens and I just cook the chickens. I don’t put anything on them. They just, you know, cook in their own fat and bone broth and everything else that’s in there. And it’s the most delicious tasting non dry chicken ever. And I’ve got one on, on the pot now, like, well, two big one, two big birds on the stove.

In the crockpot, whatever it is you want to call it now, and then I know that And I just, like, I strip them once they’re done, just put it in a container and shove it in the fridge. And then I know I’ve always got a good source of protein that tastes delicious to me, but I know I can then put a salad with or put some veggies with.

And it just keeps it super simple. I mean, we’re in the countdown to conference now. My brain is just like, meh. And then having learned everything about, my stress and making sure that I’m, like, keeping calm and, you know, keeping as stress free as possible, like, what can I do just to make even that element of my life simpler?
Putting two chickens in a crock pot and just letting them cook is simple for me. That’s fantastic. That’s a great idea. I just know then, there’s always chicken in the fridge that I can just grab and just do whatever I want. And then yeah, like, I guess it’s just, it is key because then when you do keep things simple as well, you can then be consistent at it too, which is like, you know, the main thing is that you, you might make a choice one day, but okay, well, I need to keep these.

choices going. So how do I set myself up for success and keep things simple so you can be consistent? Because lifestyle changes are hard. Like, I’m not going to beat around the bush. It’s creating those daily habits and yeah. You know, keeping them with them, which is probably the most difficult out of it all.

Once you’ve learned it, once you’ve done all this and you’ve done that, yeah, totally. And that’s why it has, but it has, and really to have any benefit, it has to be a lifestyle because otherwise what you do it for 30 days and it’s like, yeah, great. I feel great. And then. Two months later, you feel crap again because you’re like, why is my tummy out here?
And my digestion’s all over the place. And yeah, why am I bloated? And why have I got reflux? And I was like, well, you know, did you keep it up? No. And it’s the same. Yeah, it totally, it has to become part of a lifestyle. Just the same as prayer and reading our Bible and talking with God has become part of a lifestyle.

And that’s really what God cares about. Our daily heart and what happens on our daily, he cares about our daily bread, but better off not bread, but daily bread, daily bread of Jesus. But yeah, I love that SJ it’s completely right. Cause if it’s not sustainable, then Really, it’s not much point.

SJ: It’s too hard. It’s too hard. So, you’ve mentioned it a little bit and you’ve taken us on your journey of how, you know, now 35 years into your walk, you get in there with JC and the intimacy is starting to really grow.
How do you incorporate God into your business? Oh, that, well, it’s interesting, actually, because having a… I mean, my business is not overtly Christian, like it’s not, I’m not it’s not a Christian thyroid health coaching business, you know, it’s just me as a Christian in my business. So I think on a, I mean, on a practical level, You know, I suppose what I’m wanting to do in the way I, you know, in all of what I do is, I want to bring heaven to earth for those that are around me.

Like, so I want to bring those, you know, the hope and all the I guess I, I want to obviously reflect God’s love and care and compassion and desire for healing. But I guess I just do it in a way that is, you know, not overtly Christian. And so that’s a fine, it’s a weird one sometimes. So, I’d say it underpins everything I do, but it’s not as obvious on the outside necessarily, unless you know what you’re looking for.

I mean, every now and again you know, obviously I’ll say things about my faith. But, you know, that it’s not overt it’s so I suppose, and that’s, you know, it’s a bit of a struggle sometimes like, well, God, what, you know, do you want me to be more overtly, you know, Christian in what I do, like, you know, and so I think it’s just that constant praying for wisdom and discernment and what, you know, what am I doing here?

And yeah, like, is the, is this my ministry is that, you know, I don’t know that that’s sort of an ongoing discussion between me and God, I think. So yeah, but that’s it though. That’s it. No, it is. Yeah, you’re incorporating him in every day. I think like hang on. I just need to go and let my puppy out. She’s crying at me at the door. Hang on. Okay,
like the, so for me, the automation girl. Like, that was not Christian at all in the way that I presented, not that I was not being Christian in it but I was able to meet so many amazing people and different businesses from it not being Christian like Christian women in businesses, and I was able to have that impact on people’s lives and you know, every so often you’d be prompted to go, okay, ask If you can pray for that person, or I might be doing a coaching session or mentoring session, I’d be like, okay, God, give me some ideas of what this person needs to do in their business next, because even though they’re not Christian, that doesn’t mean that God doesn’t not love them or know about them or anything like that or know anything about their business.

So how is it that Like, what do they need to do next? What’s their next move? And I’m what’s the word when you’re intercessing for them and they don’t even know it. Like, there’s so many valuable things and I think we shouldn’t be afraid as Christians to be bold. With that, like, I think it’s okay for us to be boldly, not Christian, but Christian in our businesses, if you get what I mean by that, and it’s okay to have that boldness.

Yeah.

Annabel: Because I think in the end, this is what I’ve noticed, because I mean, that is something that I’ve, I think I probably just struggle with that generally in my life. Am I being bold enough? Am I really, you know, all of that generally about my faith. And I think, you know, just anyway But I’ve learned from getting feedback from people that, you know, come into my space that, I mean, they say the things.

That I want, you know, like, ah, you offer so much hope and positivity. I was feeling really alone. And then I discovered your, it’s usually the podcast, discovered the podcast. Now I don’t, now I don’t feel alone anymore. You’ve given me hope, like all of those. And I think, ah, wow, this is cool. God, thanks God.

Like you really are using that in ways. Yeah, it’s to really build life and I think that’s what I want to do. And I think in that it is easy in the thyroid space when you can feel the realities, you can feel pretty terrible. It can be easy to get into a negative spiral and some of the stuff that is available online, look, there’s some great stuff, but there’s a few, I’ve been in groups and things before and they have a big negative spin, you know?

And I think, no, I don’t want that. I want to be a voice of hope and life. And into this space. And so, I think that, you know, when I’ve had feedback, I shouldn’t be surprised, but I get surprised, you know, I’m like, Oh yeah, that’s cool. That’s great. Sometimes we need that surprise. Sometimes we need that encouragement.

We totally do. Cause you do, you go day in, day out and you know, you’re recording your podcast and you know, it’s got giving you a big high five on your back and going, well done. You know, you’re doing good. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, look, I’ve got a message, lovely message from this lady recently, and she’s just sort of signed it off, you know, blessings from, and I just said to her, you were Christian.

And she said, yeah, you know, and then we sort of got, you know, chatting about that. And she said, oh, I love the way in your book, you, you know, you like you’re positive with this. And like, and I talk about it a little bit, you know, I’ve prayed for this and my prayer for that. And, you know and. And she said, oh, like you are such an answer to prayer.

Like, you know, for, and so I was like, oh, oh God, thank you. Like for that, like that encouragement and it’s, yeah, you don’t have to have a boldly. I am a Christian, you know, business. Well, that’s being light in a dark world, isn’t it? I think. Yeah. It’s dark. The light. That’s so beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. So, can you share with us next what’s your Bible verse for this season and why?

Annabel: Oh, gosh. Well, my Bible verse for the season right now is I can’t even tell you what it is, which is terrible. But, you know, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. I’ve got three teenage boys that, you know, let’s just say on their own faith journey. And yeah. And so, you know, but I really want to believe, you know, that all three of them are going to, we, we as a family are going to be serving the Lord as a household, you know, as a household, as a family that, you know, he’s going to, you know, work in their lives, see them come to Christ and, you know, that together as a family, like we’re going to have this big impact that we’ll be serving the Lord together.
SJ: Joshua, 24, 2, or 15.

Annabel: Thank you. It’s okay. Or 15.

SJ: It’s in the summer. It hasn’t. It’s giving me 2. I just quickly Googled it for you to, I think it’s 15. Yeah, we’ll pop it in the show notes. I’ll make sure that… Thank you. I have a good look after and make sure we get it in there. I

Annabel: can have a look and let you know too.

SJ: It’s all good.
Annabel: That’s actually one of the things I’m supposed to be working on. It’s like memory, memory burses.

SJ: Oh gosh, I’m like… 

Annabel: You just called me out. 

SJ: I am not there. I have them written down in the journal and you know, they stay there. They don’t stay here. We’ll blame that on the hashis.

Annabel: Yeah, that’s true. Let’s do that.

SJ: Cool. So where can our listeners find you, my love, if they want to get in contact with you? Obviously, we’ll put all the links in the show notes, but where can they contact you and where do you hang out online?

Annabel: So probably the simplest is just to go to letstalkthyroid. com. And then from there, you’ll find everything.
That’s probably the easiest thing. I’m probably most active on Instagram and Facebook, and I’ve got a great Facebook group actually. And again, you’ll just find it all by the website. That’s probably the simplest thing.

SJ: That’s impressive. And yes, we will put them in the show notes. So, if you forget that while you’re driving, head to the podcast episode and we’ll pop everything in there for Annabelle.

Well, it’s been an absolute pleasure to have you on the show today. I think we’ve covered so much and I think there’s probably going to be a lot of women out there that Can relate to a lot of the things that we’ve said, and if that is you, like Annabelle said, please go and seek medical advice, go get tested.

You might find other things, it might not necessarily be hashes, but the main thing is that you look after your body, you listen to it, no matter. Who you are, where you are, you respect your body, God’s given it to you as a temple and it’s our job to look after it. And often it can get left behind in business.

We do put ourselves last, but I think it’s really important to set that boundary and make sure that you are looking after yourself and your health. So please go make time for that. Is there anything else that you’d like to share today with our listeners?

Annabel: No, it’s a shame. I think, look, I think there’s lots of this conversation could have gone in like a zillion different directions.

Cause I think, you know, we both like to talk about all these things, but no, I think you, I think we’ve covered a lot of really great ground. So yeah, just have hope. That’s my last message is just have hope. Have hope, have hope, and go and check out all of Annabelle’s resources if you did want to explore more.

Well, I’m SJ, you’re listening to the Christian Women in Business podcast. We are two weeks out from conference. So, if you are coming, I’m so excited to see you there this year. I can’t wait to see. What God has got an offer and how he’s going to embrace the emerging that the theme of the conference is all about.

If you come in, give me a big hug. If you’re not, give me a big virtual hug. And I hope that we can continue to serve you through this channel. All right, we’ll catch you next time.