How it started this year and how it’s going! (My healing journey.)
I was pregnant with my girl on the left. I was also the biggest weight I have ever been. My pregnancy was the hardest physically I have ever had. My recovery from the c-section and the postpartum preeclampsia was also painful and difficult and I’m actually still in the thick of that recovery.
But the photo on the right we took last night and it was the first time I’ve SEEN my progress. I’ve felt it. I have celebrated all my small, unseen victories. But as my mom was turning the phone around to show me the photo I braced myself for the atrocity it was sure to be and was quite shocked instead.
I looked different.
And not just because I’m a proud Mama of a baby girl…but because everything I’m doing is WORKING. 🎉
The scale is quite slow to budge, I’ll be honest. I think I’m stuck fluctuating between 30-40 pounds lost. But I am so happy to SEE my hard work.
I’m not selling anything here so you can keep reading. Ha. I am not doing a diet. I’m not following a lose weight fast program. I am utilizing a holistic approach to healing. Aka: doing hard, hard, daily work. And it’s full of 5 steps forward and 8 steps back moments. But I keep pressing on. And I have a fantastic support team that I have created to help me on this journey!
• I see a counselor once a week because stress can compound and without that weekly “dumping” it’s liable to get stuffed up in my body and then I’m a mess physically.
• I go to church weekly, read my Bible as consistently as I can, I listen to worship music and feed my Spirit as much as I can. I also serve at church which I think is key. There’s a reason they say it is better to give than to receive.
• I have been doing physical therapy once a week (and am getting ready to add on another specific PT for another area I need support in). And I have a home version of that that I have been working on doing consistently. I’m not perfect. I miss days. But I get back on that horse as soon as I realize I’m off.
• I see a naturopathic doctor who watches out for my vitamin and mineral levels. I have extreme deficiencies that wreak havoc on my body. So we check in every few months to make sure things are going well with my supplements. We also know my body is carrying major inflammation and I don’t sleep so we are working on addressing those issues together utilizing natural approaches.
• I see a whole foods nutritionist about once a month. She helps me with all my sensory issues around food and gives me ideas on how to use other things. She teaches me how to eat to nourish. How to begin hearing my body’s cues. The other day my stomach growled for the first time in maybe years? I cried. She and I had a celebration when I finally got to tell her. And she teaches me how to put together a plate which is teaching me how to feed my kids. I’m not just healing myself…I’m breaking cycles.
• And of course I use my Zyto Insights scanning pretty much daily to check in with my body’s needs and use my supplements and oils accordingly.
Healing is not linear. It is not one size fits all. It doesn’t work the same for everyone. We are all so unique.
And through this process of healing myself, I finally discovered what I want to be when I grow up. It isn’t being done the way I want to do it so it doesn’t have a name. Haha. But I do know it looks like helping people heal holistically. And I cannot wait to see what 2022 brings for me! 😍
I hope this inspires you to begin approaching your own healing with curiosity. What isn’t working? Give yourself permission to put it down so you have room for what will work instead! You are worth this journey. You are worth knowing and loving. When I look at those two photos, I don’t love the smaller version of myself better. I love her differently. But I love the bigger version in an almost bittersweet way. I know what she was going through and I know she didn’t have all the tools I have now. So, I love her. And I wrap her in grace and I receive her as part of myself. She was worthy of love too.
And so are you. 💕
Blessings,
~Nikki
