Melissa – Before I met Drs. Mark and Michele, I had three diagnosed autoimmune diseases, Lupus, Hashimoto’s, and psoriasis. So I had the traditional butterfly rash on my cheeks, and I had a rash covering the entirety of my chest and it would just come and go for years and years.
And then I started experiencing really bad immunity, getting sick constantly. My first year of teaching elementary music, I was exposed to about 500 kids, so I got sick every other week. I had to go to work sick all the time. Constantly throwing up and experiencing borderline pneumonia.
I’ve broken ribs in the past from how bad I had to cough. And then Dr. Mark is the one that found the Hashimoto’s antibodies. So we discovered that my thyroid was not quite functioning as normal, which made me exhausted all the time.
I wasn’t eating very well. We would try to eat well in the mornings and then lunch was either cafeteria food or Tobin would bring Chick-fil-A. Just a lot of processed junk food. Then dinner was almost always out to eat. I didn’t realize that my diet was causing all of my issues.
I was one of those people who thought you had to be born with all the issues I had. That you couldn’t get rid of it and it was a forever thing. So that’s what I was convinced of and I didn’t realize that I had done that to myself.
I decided that I wanted to lose weight and so I started getting into the gym, but I didn’t understand nutrition at all. So my idea was basically this… “As long as I don’t eat more than 1200 calories a day, I can eat cereal, chips, cookies, and all the other things I enjoy. As long as I don’t exceed 1200 calories.”
I would always end up gaining the weight back. I would be so hungry all the time which caused me to binge-eat. I remember telling my mom that I wanted to try Keto because I didn’t know what I was doing. So she ended up telling Dr. Michele about it.
I remember my mom bringing me home those Paleo bars. I still have a picture where I documented my very first day of dieting, and exercising. I snapped a picture of my veggie-straws and Paleo bars that they sent my mom with.
Around July 4th is the day that we decided to give it 100%. I decided I was, going to give Dr. Mark’s plan 100% for a month and if it worked, I’d stick to it forever. He didn’t steer us wrong, because it worked.
I was struggling with depression pretty bad and now it’s completely leveled out. I have a lot more highs than I do lows. Everybody has a bad day but it’s maybe once a week or once a month for me now. I also notice that I’m not nearly as tired. I don’t take naps at all anymore.
It’s hard for me to admit, but I used to drink three to five energy drinks a day. That’s how I would get through the day on top of the naps that I would take. I would drink an energy drink and then 10 minutes later take a nap. Now I’m down to one or two eight-ounce cups of coffee and maybe a little glass of tea per day.
I also got off of my medication for my Lupus stuff in August and I decided to stop taking it to experiment and see if I still felt better. But sure enough, none of the symptoms returned so it was all diet and exercise.
I function better cognitively. I learn a lot easier and I retain information better. I’m much more organized. It’s changed my spiritual life, as well. I’ve been actually reading and studying the Bible now. The Docs helped me build a solid foundation and all the blocks of my life kind of landed in place.
Tobin – Melissa has been killin’ it quite a bit in the gym. And she definitely inspires me to try to do more. Not that it’s about outperforming anybody at all, but I almost start to think that way whenever I see her do her thing. It’s kinda cool to see.
Melissa – So I didn’t realize that my diet had caused all of my issues. I was one of those people that thought you had to be born with them, and that you couldn’t get rid of them. That it was a forever thing. I didn’t realize that I had done that to myself.
I helped a friend to understand that there is a way to reverse it and back out of it, and after talking to her she seemed to be really interested in giving it a shot.
If your on the fence about coming in to see Mark and Michele, I would say to at least listen to the webinar. Then go to your first consultation and just talk to them and let them know what’s going on.
One thing I hear a lot is “I don’t know if I’m financially ready”, and I explain to those people how it’s a really good investment for your health and your life as a whole. When we got our health on track, our finances and everything else started getting better.
