Thriving with Chronic Illness: My Journey to Health and Self-Compassion

In this episode, Kim shares her personal health journey, focusing on finding balance and well-being without adhering to societal norms around weight and health.

Mentioned in this Episode:

Join us for our FREE upcoming Workshop April 18th, 2024 at 7pm EST

“What the Health”?!?  - A workshop to help you identify your health goals and create your individualized action plan to achieve them.

During this 90 minute workshop you will:

• Create a definition of health that makes sense to you and feels simple to attain so you can stop wasting your time with things that don’t matter
• Identify your top 4 health goals, and how you’ll measure your progress, so you’ll know if your efforts are successful
• Learn a revolutionary way to set goals that actually sticks, so you don’t get overwhelmed and give up.
• Create your action plan so you know the exact steps you need to take to feel your very best

Register for free here: www.radiantvitality.ca/health

About the Host

Kim Hagle (she/her)  is a Body Image Coach, Certified Personal Trainer, Registered Holistic Nutritionist, and founder of Radiant Vitality Wellness. 

Through mindset and movement coaching she helps women develop a kinder relationship with their body so they can consistently fuel and move it in a way that supports their health without restricting food, doing tortuous exercise or constantly worrying about the number on the scale

New Here? Join our exclusive email community: Embrace Your Radiance is our weekly email series that helps women overcome feeling limited by their body. Each week you'll receive exclusive coaching tips to help you feel healthy, happy and confident no matter what the scale says. As a subscriber, you'll be notified when new podcast episodes drop and will also be the first to hear about all of my free and paid offers. Emails come out every Sunday at 7 pm.  

Want to feel good in your body without focusing on weight?  Register for our FREE mini course. Learn simple, sustainable habits and mindset shifts so you can feel healthy, energetic and confident without rules, deprivation or willpower

Ready to take the next step?  Book a free consultation call to discuss how coaching can help you reach your goals.

Let’s stay in touch! Kim is on Instagram and Facebook @radiantvitalitywellness.  

Disclaimer.  The information contained in this podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice.  Always consult a health care professional about your unique needs.

Transcript

Yeti Nano: 0:47

Well, hello, hello, hello. We are back. It has been a minute, my friends. I have missed you. Welcome back to the Power in Motion podcast, the show for women who want to feel great in and about their body, regardless of size, so they can live their fullest life. I'm your host, Kim Hagel, certified body image coach, size inclusive, personal trainer, and non diet nutritionist on a mission to help women like you develop a kinder relationship with your body so you can consistently fuel in a health supporting way without restricting food, doing torturous exercise, or constantly worrying about the number on the scale. It podcast for you again. And when I last dropped an episode. It was just before Christmas holidays, and I shared with you that I needed a little bit of time off to look after some personal stuff. And at the time, I really thought I'd be back early in the year and here it is end of March. I did not intend to be away from podcasting this long, but my body had other plans and it seems like I needed a longer rest than I expected. And I'm going to catch you up on what's been going on with me later in this episode. But before we get into that story, I just want to take a moment and let you know that I'm hosting a free workshop coming up on April 18th at 7 p. m. Eastern time that you are going to want to get in. registered for. It's called What the Health and it's a workshop to help you identify your health goals and create your individualized action plan to achieve them. So during our time together, I'm going to help you create a definition of health that really makes sense and works for you and feels simple to attain so you can stop wasting your time with things that don't matter. I'll help you identify your top four health goals and how you are going to measure your own progress so that you'll know when your efforts are working. And I'm going to teach you my revolutionary way to set goals that actually stick so you don't get overwhelmed and give up and become one of the statistics, the 91 percent of people who don't achieve their goals. And then we're going to work together to create your own individualized action plan so that you know exactly the steps you need to take to get feeling your very best in your body. It's going to be very hands on and practical, not a slideshow and me talking at you and telling you what to do. I'm going to be taking you through my coaching process to help you create your own goals and game plan. And there's also going to be lots of time for discussion, questions, and individual coaching too. So go ahead and sign up for that. The link is in the show notes, or you can visit my website, www. radiantvitality. ca slash health. Okay. Now here's the why behind this workshop. Since I talked to you last, I have been working through some health stuff of my own, and I'll share the details of that in just a second. But what really helped me through that time was knowing what mattered to me. how I wanted to feel in my body and staying focused on the things that I can control and the lifestyle factors that would best support my body to heal and stay well. A previous version of me totally would have zeroed in on the number on the scale and been perfectionistic about food and exercise, even if that meant ignoring my hunger and pushing through when I was tired to work out, to lose weight at all costs. Because that's how we're taught to manage our health. That's what I thought I had to do. And I know that's what lots of people are still doing. Whether or not it actually helps you feel better. We just do that because it's all we know. But there is another way and I'm practicing it in my day to day life. It's simple. It's a whole lot less stressful and it actually works. I'm happy to report that I am feeling a whole lot better, thousand percent better. Better than I have in a really long time, actually. I feel stronger, more rested, less pain in my body, more energy. My lab results and vitals are all improved, and overall I'm just a whole lot more connected with myself in a deeper way. And I haven't lost a single pound. Not that there would be anything wrong with that. It's just not what I focused on. I focused on the habits that would really help me feel my best. And I let my weight land where it lands. And it just so happened that my weight didn't want to change. So this is the approach that I'm going to be talking about in What the Health. And again, that's happening on April the 18th at 7pm. And you can register at radiantfidelity. ca slash health. Okay, so let me bring you up to speed on what I've been going through. Last fall, I found myself feeling really unwell, to put it mildly. I had frequent headaches and widespread intense pain all over my body that couldn't be explained by an injury or by working out too hard. In fact, that was a struggle for the last couple of years. Any workouts I did with impact or a certain level of intensity, Would leave me feeling so sore and exhausted for days and that should have been my first clue that something was up. And this has been going on for a long time. But I just kind of kept trying to work through it. I would still show up and modify my workouts and and do what I could. Lower intensity workouts, but I noticed that my fitness just kept going down. And down and down. And when I would try to push myself even a little bit and be more consistent, I only felt worse. So by the time that last fall rolled around, it had gotten to the point where I could actually no longer teach fitness classes. I was just in so much pain all the time. And I was beyond exhausted. Like I, even first trimester pregnancy, I was not so exhausted as I was. So I finally booked a doctor's appointment. In November, suspecting that I might have fibromyalgia, and if you're wondering why I waited so long to get checked out, it's because I became aware of how many negative beliefs I have and society has about this particular disease. There is a lot of stigma and stereotypes around fibromyalgia, and I was terrified of being diagnosed with what I thought was a recipe for a life of pain. disability, being misunderstood, and feeling isolated. Now, I no longer think that way, but I realized that that way of thinking kept me from seeking help until I couldn't avoid it any longer. So, just a little bit about fibromyalgia. It is a diagnosis of exclusion. So that means everything else has to be ruled out first and then they can give you the diagnosis of fibromyalgia. There's no blood test or imaging at this point that can clearly state, yes, you have this. So, I had all of the blood work done, and when I followed up with my doctor, everything came back normal except my hemoglobin A1c, which is a measure of your blood glucose levels like an average over the last three months. And I'll talk about that more in just a minute. But other than that, on paper, I looked like a perfectly healthy person. So I was then given the diagnosis of fibromyalgia. And of course I had a million questions about fibro and what this would mean for my life. My doctor wrote me a prescription and said that he has lots of patients who have it and most end up managing it quite well. And that was really the end of the fibromyalgia conversation. No kidding. There was a lot more I wanted to know, but my doctor then circled back to this A1C number and told me that I have prediabetes, which honestly just shocked me. I couldn't believe it. I, I eat a reasonably balanced diet, and as you know, I practice intuitive eating. I take good care of my body with regular movement, although admittedly not as intense. Which I said to him, you know, my lifestyle is what people would describe as healthy. So I asked, like, why would this be? And that's when everything kind of went for a shit. My doctor asked me to get on the scale and noted that I've gained a lot of weight since the last time I was weighed at his office, which, by the way, was at the height of my disordered eating and exercise days. And that because of all of this weight gain, I have insulin resistance, and I would go on diabetes for sure. And that's not something any of us want to hear. So I'm telling you, I went into a freeze response. I've coached so many women through medical conversations about weight. But in that moment, I was just so blindsided. I couldn't believe what was happening. And I didn't have the capacity to handle this conversation well. But I did say something like, but I don't know what to do. I don't believe in dieting. And I can't go back to what I was doing before when I was at that lighter weight. It was so extreme. And he said, I agree. But if your lifestyle isn't sufficient to control your weight, then we need to look at other options. At which time he recommended Ozempic. And I was like, Holy shit, like this just keeps getting worse. Like, I can't believe this is happening. Like, I'm telling you, it was like deer in the headlights moment. So I collected myself enough to say that I'm not interested in that. I don't, I don't want to do that. I tried to articulate why I'm against these drugs, which he had arguments for. I knew I wasn't getting anywhere with that conversation that day. So I just eventually said, I need some time. I'm not making this decision today. I need to absorb everything that's happened here just now. And so he agreed to let me have three months and then retest my blood at that time. And we would decide from there. So that's what was happening when I recorded my last podcast episode and said that I needed a little bit of time off to handle some personal stuff. It was a lot. I'm not going to lie. First of all, finding out that I have a chronic illness that I'm going to have to manage for life with fibromyalgia. And then this surprise diagnosis of prediabetes. It all just really threw me for a loop. So that's what I've been doing the last three months. I've really turned inward and let go of all non essential activities so that I could really focus on myself and learn about my conditions and most importantly, rest. Like I, I felt like I fully embodied the feel of winter and I gave myself permission and grace to just hibernate. So that I could heal and then be ready to, to bloom again when spring came. So one of the things I learned, one of the biggest learnings I had about fibromyalgia is that it's a nervous system disorder where as a result of past trauma, your brain is constantly in this fight or flight mode. So anything that feels like a threat to your nervous system, and for me, those things seem to be stress, not getting enough sleep and, and working my body too hard. Those will exacerbate your symptoms. So, I have slowed down my pace significantly. I've got laser focused on prioritizing what matters to me and letting everything else go. And practicing really, really good sleep hygiene, although that is still a work in progress. And that, combined with medication, has made a big difference to how I feel. And during this time, I did a lot of research about both fibromyalgia and prediabetes, and I learned so much about both that really helped me figure out what I could do to feel better without extreme diets and exercise or weight loss drugs. And it turns out there was actually a lot that was within my control that was simple to do and could really move the needle and make a big difference to how I felt. So I'm not going to get into all of the details of that today. It's, there's a lot, but I will share more on upcoming episodes. Actually my coach, Stephanie wants me to come on her podcast and share about this whole experience with, medical weight stigma and being, being told that I had to lose weight for health reasons and how I improved my health without the use of weight loss drugs or losing weight. So when that happens, I'm going to ask Stephanie to share the audio with me so that I can put it on this podcast as well. And you can hear that whole story in great detail. But long and short of it is I did get better. I had my blood retested and I am back in the normal range, no longer pre diabetic. My pain is well controlled and my energy is coming back. I'm working out at a level that I haven't in a really long time. And I feel good. I feel like myself again, which just fills me with so much gratitude. Because, man, health is a gift, my friend. Like, at some point, all of us are going to face health challenges, and not all of them can be solved. Like, I'm not going to say, like, do this and do that, and you can solve all your health problems. That's a whole other conversation, but even if we do everything right, perfect health is never promised. It's not guaranteed. But I do know that it's something I'll never take for granted ever again, that's for sure. This whole journey has been a deep learning experience. I've learned so much more about myself, about what health means to me, and about health care and advocating for myself through all of this. I've grown in self compassion and in relationship with my body. I'm listening to my body more and I'm prioritizing my own well being first, even if that means I have to do less in business and life. So as a result, some things have changed in my business to allow me to continue to do this work that I am so passionate about, while allowing time for me to take care of myself. So I'm still offering one to one personal fitness training and body acceptance coaching, but I only have very few spots reserved for one to one clients. But I don't want anyone to go without getting the support they need, so I've brought back my group coaching program, Right Body For Me. so that you can still do the work of healing your relationship with food, body, and movement with all the tools and support that go with that in a group setting. So you can learn more about what I'm currently offering on my website. I always keep radiantvitality. ca up to date. And the Power in Motion podcast I'm so happy to say is here to stay because this is my favorite way to connect with you guys and create Free educational content for my audience. So podcast is remaining a priority and I've got some really, really great episodes coming up for you. This whole experience that I've been through has given me lots of content ideas. I've connected with a slew of amazing health experts that are going to be coming on the show over the coming weeks and months. And we'll be talking about things like weight neutral health, weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy, chronic illness and being respectful to your body through all of that. insulin resistance, sleep, and its role in our health. And I've also found experts on fertility and money and budgeting, parenting, eating disorders. So there's just so much good stuff coming your way. So make sure that you subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen so that you never miss a new episode. And if you have never left us a review before, it would be greatly appreciated. And please, please share if you listen to an episode and you love it. We would Please share it with your friends, because I really believe that what we're doing here on this show needs to be heard by more people. Okay, so that is all for today. It feels so good to be back here with you. Remember to go sign up for my free workshop, What the Health, on April 18th. Take good care of yourself, and I'll see you on the next episode.